![Patrick Clark [The Velveteen Dream] Responds To Allegations](https://cdn.itrwrestling.com/app/uploads/content/1706026087135291919/patrick-clark.jpg)
Patrick Clark, formerly known as The Velveteen Dream in WWE, released a video on January 2nd to apologise for his behaviour, adding personal apologies to Triple H and Shawn Michaels.
In 2020, as part of the Speaking Out movement, Clark was accused of sexual misconduct involving minors, which included sending inappropriate images. Over 3 years later, the former WWE wrestler spoke with Chris Van Vliet to discuss a number of topics including the allegations, life after wrestling and if he is interested in making a return to wrestling.
When asked about the apology video itself, Clark said the following:
“Well, the need to apologize is there because so many different people have been affected by this. Those who have said disparaging, negative nasty comments about me in the public forum, they don’t realise that other people are affected just through the power of word of mouth. I apologized to the WWE.
WWE is a company, it’s an organization put together, as the tagline goes, to put smiles onto other people’s faces, to take them away from their reality and their day-to-day struggles and negativities. And as The Velveteen Dream, my character, I took that mantle, I took that responsibility to help the WWE in doing that for people. And because of the accusations and allegations levied against me, WWE was no doubt affected.
They had to change storylines, they had to figure out a way to fit me in 14 months after the initial allegations. My co-workers, fellow talent, from the ring announcers to the men and women who don their capes and their tights and the costumes to come out here and perform. The WWE organization was affected as a whole, and by part that affects the WWE fan base, the people who are tuning in, as I said in my apology, to escape their reality and not to have to deal with Patrick Clark’s reality and the BS that comes together when you bring immaturity, opportunity and throwing a little high praise in there.”
The first allegation took place in 2020 when Patrick Clark was accused by Jacob Schmidt of sending inappropriate messages. Schmidt was 16 years old at the time. Clark confirmed that he had previously been in contact with Schmidt, stating that he publicly announced that his Instagram messages were open in April 2020:
“Speaking in the third person as Velveteen Dream, Dream’s DMs are now open. I put that in my Instagram story. Like you say COVID just started. Kobe [Bryant] had been in the helicopter crash earlier that year, and they just shut down schools. Now this first allegation came from someone from Canada. So I bring up schools because in my voice message, it was edited out.
A voice bite was taken from it where I asked, What school do you go to? Now again, I’m as Velveteen Dream, I’m asking this question, it has a bit of an undertone to it. Because of the voice that I’m using, I talk like this when I’m The Velveteen Dream. I drag things out. I’m very handsy and just grandiose when The Velveteen Dream is speaking. And as The Velveteen Dream, I said What school do you go to?
Now this is COVID. There’s nothing malicious about a question like that. When I asked someone what school they go to, it’s to help them pursue their next journey in wrestling. Professional wrestling is not like college sports. You can’t apply to a school to become a pro wrestler unless it’s a pro wrestling school. So depending on where you are in the country, I can kind of tell you, Okay, if you live in the northeast, you’re near Allentown, PA you can go visit Samu at The Wild Samoan Training Center.
If you’re in the southern eastern part of the United States, you can visit the other Wild Samoan Pops who runs his Wild Samoan Training Center in Clermont, Florida. Then if you’re over here, in California, you’ve got Rikishi that’s got KnokX Pro. You got Santino Bros., not to be confused with Santino Marella’s Battle Arts Academy up in Ontario where you’re from. And ironically, this first accuser was from Ontario.
When I asked you what school you go to and what grade you’re in, because depending on where you are in life, things seem so big to you. I mean, I turned 28 in October and I didn’t know anything that I thought I knew when I was 25. And when I was 25, I thought I was grasping the knowledge of the world and I had no clue. As I get older, I realised that this too shall pass.
A very, very strong message that I’ve kept close to my heart since the initial allegation, this too will pass. When you’re young, it doesn’t seem like anything’s gonna pass, it seems like you’re in the storm forever, because you don’t have enough quality experiences in life to compare the good and the bad. So when I’m asking you these questions, it’s not a job application, it’s almost a mini questionnaire to vet out who I want to help and who I don’t want to help.
Because at the time, I’m working for WWE, it might be COVID, but WWE was granted access to the talent as essential workers. So I’m still working on COVID. But schools are closed down, no one’s waiting outside in a van or an ice cream truck trying to meet people, trying to harass children and things like that. Again, I don’t even have a past of that, never had a past of that and I’ve never had a history of that. I have a history of wanting to help people. History is so strong and rooted in wanting to help people that if you look at the WWE video game, WWE 2K20, I believe. And that was released on October 22 2019.
I mentioned earlier, there was some funny timing to all of this. That was released in October 2019, WWE 2K20. Now in the storyline of WWE 2K 20, your character meets The Velveteen Dream and The Velveteen Dream takes your character under his wing. The video game wouldn’t use the word groom, they would use the word help, help your character become an NXT Superstar. I don’t find it to be any paradox that that’s kind of the same narrative that has been followed in these false accusations.”
The second allegation was from Josh Fuller, who was also 16 at the time. Fuller posted screenshots of his interactions with Clark, which included inappropriate pictures sent from the former WWE wrestler. Clark responded that the images of himself were found on similar websites to other wrestlers who have had pictures uploaded and denies sending inappropriate pictures:
“These are screenshots of the messages from Facebook. His three-note manifesto, images that he’s taken from God knows where, probably the same images where you can find other people that I’ve shown you on that list. I just can’t explain that. And me trying to wrap my head around that and why the story surrounding the pictures would be so malicious. That’s energy that I just don’t have time for anymore. I have to let that go on in the past.
There is no explaining it. This has been looked at by my former company, WWE. This has been looked at I’m sure by police, and whatever proper authorities need to handle this type of stuff. I can only be a man of my word, I can only tell you the truth, and not to be cliche, but my truth. And my truth is I’ve never, not to Josh not, to a Jacob, not to a Jingleheimer Schmidt. I haven’t sent anyone any nudes of me.”
Clark would recall Fuller’s accusation which included an inappropriate call over FaceTime. Detailing Fuller’s call, Clark responded as follows:
“Josh says my last interaction with him was a FaceTime call with him where he had insisted that I show off my body to him, saying he wanted to see my progress in the gym. I took my shirt off, but reluctantly and felt really uncomfortable about it. He then referenced wanting to see my lower body as well, to which I declined. Upon leaving that call, I had realised that I had still been on Discord with a few friends of mine, to which they immediately acknowledged that they heard everything of me being harassed.
So you have recorded evidence on Discord, right? Where did it go? You have messages from 2016 you’ve been holding on for a weird amount of time. And then you make claims that, you know, you’re on a streaming service with multiple people, and no one has any footage or tape recording, because I don’t have a history. I don’t have a history or past of this.
Josh then goes on to say, I’ve worn that shame for the past few months, and it felt very taken advantage of ever since. Upon hearing the recent claims on him, I was immediately heartbroken for the victims as many of the conversations I’d seen, or conversations that he had with myself, such as wanting to get them in shape, so he could help them get to WWE. Josh says, I would like to say that Patrick was never directly sexual to me.”
Clark continued, noting that Triple H confirmed on a conference call that an investigation took place and that no evidence was found. Clark would then once again deny the allegations from Fuller.
“And again, I go into common sense is not that common. This guy, first of all, timeline-wise, the first accusation came out. Triple H went on record during an NXT TakeOver conference call for TakeOver Vengeance Day. He goes on a conference call and makes a statement that I read earlier. That should have effectively cleared me of any crimes and wrongdoing that people wanted to believe was out there about me, but it didn’t.
Josh Fuller then gets on his Twitter and pushes this hashtag Fire Velveteen Dream, pushing this groomer, child predator narrative. And if people just took the time not to read the headline, not to read the big bold letters and read the fine print. Josh says it in his own little three-note manifesto. I would like to say that Patrick was never directly sexual to me. He also said earlier that there were no advances made toward him.
“Josh said that Patrick Clark is a predator and should not be succeeding in the wrestling business. And I think that again if you read the fine print, he reveals his scheme right then and there. Josh has a very simple story. I tried to help Josh, but Josh got injured and did not want to listen to reason. He was living his dream. I understand getting excited being up and close to a wrestling ring, touching a turnbuckle, and feeling the tape peeling off the rope. I get all that but health and safety come first and that comes with being mature.
Now I wasn’t the most mature but I had some common sense that I could lean on. You know, I didn’t want to do everything the hard way. Some things I just listened to and do the easy way and yeah, health is so important. Your body is what creates money for you in the wrestling business. You don’t have to look like Hulk Hogan and Ultimate Warrior, you don’t have to be a genetic anomaly like Andre the Giant or Big Show, and you don’t have to be the most athletic like you got Strickland and Ricochet out there.
But you must take care of your body. Because when the checks and the royalties dry up, when you’re too old to get out there in front of that crowd, when the only time you’re hearing that theme song is from YouTube, you’ll still have your body and you got to preserve that. Josh didn’t have any type of understanding for that at the time, and he lashed out. He lashed out here, and it says it in one of his last lines, he claims that I’m a groomer, a predator, and that I should not be succeeding in the wrestling business.
I don’t know anyone else out there who could relate to the speak to movement and the Me Too movements. I don’t know if having someone stripped of their profession, of their livelihood, is what a lot of people want out of speaking up and telling real stories, and really trying to be heard out there. Because there are a lot of deceitful and evil and nasty men and women out there who do prey on the naive, the unsuspecting, and those people get away just like these accusers, these false accusers these false narratives out there. These writers, these fake journalists, if you will, they just put out these nasty rumours. And they’re not held accountable.”
In the interview, Clark, who was released in 2021, stated that his WWE release was due to budget cuts. At the time of the release, it was reported that Patrick Clark’s release was not in relation to 2020 allegations.
The third allegation involved former wrestler EC3, who claims that Clark attempted to film sexually explicit videos of WWE stars. In response to this, Clark stated that himself, EC3 and two unnamed talents came back to his place and used cocaine. When Van Vliet responded that EC3 does not do drugs, Clark would deny this denied the allegations of filming others.
In response to being arrested after his release for unrelated charges, Clark confirmed that he was arrested for possession of cocaine in 2021 and was placed under probation for 12 months. In those 12 months, Clark assaulted a gym employee and was arrested a second time, which was filmed by TMZ. Clark spent 18 days in a correctional facility.
Towards the end of the interview, Clark was asked if he had any interest in returning to wrestling and if he would appear on a show if a promoter got in contact:
“Yes, because I need to know the answer to that I don’t know. I need to know if it’s worth it. And if it is worth it, do I have the self-control and the discipline to carry myself like a professional?”