AAW Faces Backlash Over Surprise Michael Elgin Booking, Danny Daniels Issues Apology (Photos & Video) UPDATED

The crowd at AAW‘s Showdown event in Chicago were treated to an infuriating surprise on Saturday night. Michael Elgin returned to the promotion, despite allegations of covering up sexual assault caused him to be pulled from shows in December. The show was advertised as a “mystery show” with no announced matches, and the crowd had no idea that Elgin would be on the card.

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Back in December, it was revealed that Michael Elgin attempted to cover up claims of sexual assault against his student Sean Orleans. This caused AAW to announce that they were “pulling Elgin from the shows until the situation can be resolved.”

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While the statement is vague on AAW’s actual stance on booking Elgin, it makes very clear that they “don’t condone people making others feel awkward or unsafe at [their] shows,” and Elgin’s surprise booking is in clear violation of that sentiment.

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Some crowd members turned their backs to Elgin’s match with Myron Reed.

At intermission, fans were encouraged to tweet about the show using the hashtag #AAWShowdown. Some used it as a platform to take the company to task for the revolting surprise.

According to John Gregory, AAW Promotor Danny Daniels used Elgin because he set up the promotion’s booking with Tetsuya Naito, who faced Sami Callihan in the main event. Gregory claims that Daniels said he won’t be using Elgin, but then later changed his answer to “If we use him, he’ll be advertised.”

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AAW, usually very active on social media during shows, was surprisingly silent during Elgin’s match. A look at their twitter timeline reveals that they tweeted out the results to every match except for the Michael Elgin/Myron Reed match. No mention at all of Elgin is made by the account.

Elgin has filed a lawsuit against the victim for defamation. He recently signed a new full-time contract with New Japan Pro Wrestling. Elgin faced Naito on a Pro Wrestling Revolver show the night before, was advertised, and still met the same hostile reaction from the crowd.

UPDATE: Danny Daniels has posted the following response to his twitter account. He apologized to fans that were upset.

He also told ProWrestling.com‘s Mike Killam that he based his decision off of Elgin’s response in IWA Mid South and Pro Wrestling Revolver.