Shelly Martinez Talks Her Issues With Joey Ryan, The #SpeakingOut Movement

Former WWE star Shelly Martinez gave her thoughts on the #SpeakingOut movement on her podcast Shelly Live on VOC Nation. She opened up about why she never named names when she spoke up in the past.

"It's not about the who, it's about the what," Martinez said. "That this is what's going on. Was that wrong of me to do? Should I have always said these name? I don't know. What I do know is my truth, and things that happened personally to me, I shouldn't have to feel guilty talking about."

Martinez then gave her overall thoughts on the #SpeakingOut movement. She said she's happy that survivors are speaking out and how scary that can be for someone.

"It makes me so happy to see so many people coming forward and speaking their truth. Because it's hard," Martinez explained. "It's hard to speak your truth because (a) you have to relive it now; (b) once it's out there it's out there so you gotta be okay that it's out there. It's scary.

"No matter what you believe in life, energy is energy so if you're talking about a situation with somebody that's a predator and then they're reading it, they're gonna throw you those vibes. And then now all of the sudden I'm sure there's a lot of people that have been speaking out that have been feeling very sick through all of this because they're getting those vibes."

Martinez spoke on the effects of abuse on mental health. She talks about the empathy she feels for the survivors that are speaking out.

"I count my blessings I was never raped," Martinez expressed. "I've been in some weird situations. I've been able to stop certain situations, and I know what that did to me and my mental health.

"So for all those people out there that are speaking out, and they were so violated, or felt like they had to do whatever, that freaking sucks and my heart breaks for them. When somebody violates your body, sometimes it's hard to get that piece of you back."

Martinez addressed the lack of accountability by the defenders. She noted David Starr, who independent promotions have severed ties from, and the apology letter that follows a similar pattern as other abusers.

"These predators don't even realize how when they're said and done and they're not even thinking about who they've hurt, people are out there living life and sometimes their life is completely different now because of what happened," Martinez stated. "Now their all messed up trying to figure their life out, not even realizing that it really stemmed from these situations.

"And when these [predators] find out, a lot of times it seems like they don't even care. I could not believe when I read David Starr's apology letter that he made himself out to be the victim. That seems to be the pattern of what people do."

Martinez then gave her thoughts on Joey Ryan, who Martinez knew since Ryan had asked her sister out on a date. Ryan has deleted his Twitter account along with the Bar Wrestling Twitter account after his sexual abuse and sexual assault allegations.

"There was a time that I was cool with Joey Ryan," Martinez admitted. "There was a time that he asked my sister out on a date. I think they went out once, and then there was this rumor that he slept with her. I was like, 'dude, what the hell is wrong with Joey; he did not sleep with her, why is he saying that?' Then when I confronted him, he denied it.

"So fast forward, I had some friends that had been involved with Joey, and they shared with me some things. There have been times that I've told Joey to his face why I didn't like him. Even though the things he did to the people I knew that were involved with him, it was never forcing himself on them kind of thing.

"It was just some other things that truly told me something about his character, or lack thereof. But the common denominator I saw was when he would try to apologize for his actions, his excuses, in particular his divorce, you can't be using your divorce as an excuse to treat women that way. That's just not how it works. That's how I knew immediately what people were saying was 1000% true."

Finally, Martinez gave advice for survivors of Ryan's sexual abuse and assault. She hopes that they can move forward with their lives and not be affected by Ryan.

"I really hope that people who have been hurt by him, his lies and deceit but held on because they felt like they had some kind of special connection with him, I hope they can now see that that's just part of his schtick," Martinez said. "And it wasn't that deep, so that they can let go of that and move forward and not be affected by his energy anymore."