Clearing My Name: Michael Elgin's Redemption

16/09/2024 17:07

At the age of 14, Michael Elgin, born Aaron Frobel, began his training as a gargantuan teenager built for the wacky world of professional wrestling. Establishing himself on the independent scenes in the U.S. and Canada, he would go on to make a name for himself in Ring of Honor, becoming a regular with a promotion that was renowned for booking the most talented of wrestlers.

By the summer of 2014, Elgin defeated Adam Cole to capture the ROH world title at their Best in the World pay-per-view. It was a special moment he’d predicted twelve years prior.

“This is the one thing I told my friend,” Frobel exclusively told Wrestling Headlines. “I’m going to win that (ROH) championship. In 2002 I told them that.”

Considering everything he’d given to the business and the glittering lineage of ROH’s premier belt holders, his crowning as champion was immediate vindication for all his efforts and sacrifices. But, things quickly turned sour.

“It was a whole mess,” he said of his time before and after the championship victory.

“They kind of lied to me in negotiations for my contract before the title win,” he revealed. “And not only that, I was supposed to win the belt a year prior, and it was always pushed back.”

“Any time I would ask about angles and storylines, they just weren’t giving me anything.”

A communication error compounded his misery and escalated the rift with ROH management.

“They had given me permission to lose to Trevor Lee at Pro Wrestling Guerilla, and then I guess they didn’t tell Sinclair (Broadcasting), and Sinclair got pissed because Joe Koff heard about it. I had the ‘okay’ from Delirious and I guess he didn’t communicate it to them.”

They didn’t put an extension on his Visa as promised and he claims they used an angle he pitched to them for someone else.

“I just kind of fell out of love with them.”

He dropped the world title to Jay Briscoe three months after winning it, and wrestled for the final time in an ROH ring in 2016. In the subsequent years, his life outside the ropes was to gain more public attention than anything inside the squared circle.

In December 2017, whilst enjoying sustained success in New Japan Pro Wrestling, a female fan accused a former wrestling student of Frobel’s of sexual assault, which he was then accused of covering up. She messaged Frobel saying one of his students made a move on her, but she didn’t want to reciprocate and left.

He explained to the accuser that he teaches them to wrestle and their private life is not under his jurisdiction. She then escalated it to being a sexual assault claim and he immediately told her to “go to the cops.” She then tried to blackmail him when he booked the wrestler in question for a show.

“It was bogus,” he explained to me, “but unfortunately if you have something mean to say, it’s going to catch more ears than if you have something positive to say.”

He won the lawsuit against the female in question, but a black mark had already been painted against his name, despite no wrongdoing. This was not the last time his name would be dragged through the mud.

“Even though New Japan stuck by me and knew it was false, I didn’t feel like they were going to put me near the top of the card. They knew they could count on me in big matches; they did multiple times, whether a tag or singles for the Intercontinental title or the G1. I was main event many times, but I didn’t feel they were going to give me an opportunity to carry the company.”

He turned down a contract extension with New Japan and joined Impact Wrestling in 2019, primed for the main event, confronting the world champion, Brian Cage, on his debut. He wrestled for the brand until another allegation arose in the summer of 2020.

During the Speaking Out movement, a story of Elgin sharing a bed with a female in 2011 surfaced. He was said to have made a move which she rebuffed. Nothing else took place, yet she accused Frobel of sexual assault because she had been intimidated by him and his hulking physique.

Impact Wrestling investigated and decided to suspend Elgin. Regrettably, it was announced in the same statement in which they fired Joey Ryan and Dave Crist for much more serious allegations. Don Callis called him and said the company would stick by him, but they were ultimately scared of negative feedback and took Michael off TV.

“They were afraid of the social media backlash and told me ‘we’re just going to pay the remaining two years on your contract and sit you at home.'”

“Not only am I not that personality or that person, then saying anything about (me causing) assault or abuse, it’s just so silly to me. The hardest thing is there are so many men out there who do those things that it’s easy to convince people that somebody else could do them too.”

“Because anybody could be guilty of it, doesn’t mean that everybody is guilty of it.”

His career had been critically damaged by accusations without any hard evidence of actual wrongdoing. Promoters became hesitant of booking him due to any potential social media backlash – commonplace in today’s world.

In June 2021, Frobel was arrested for violation of a protective order when his ex-fiancé left home for her own safety. But, yet again, he was cleared of the charges.

He told me he’d evicted his ex-fiancé from his house after he caught her cheating. They tried to work things out and she subsequently left for Florida, supposedly getting drunk with her sister and deciding to message derogatory comments to Frobel. She returned and filed for a restraining order that lawyers agreed to leave in place for six months. Midway through she realised Frobel was dating a girl they each knew previously. She thusly decided to inform the police he had broken the order of protection.

The cops arrived at his home to take him to the station. He informed them of his innocence and ability to show them credit card receipts proving he was in a different state at the time of the alleged crime. They wouldn’t allow him to get to his phone and he panicked, the stress causing him to be sent to the hospital for several days.

“After, I got home and got my phone, e-mailed it (the evidence) to the detective… nothing. Never heard from the cops again.”

She attempted to get another restraining order months later and he fought it this time, not allowing the continuation of mind games.

“Went to court, she no-showed that one.”

“If I’m such a danger,” he said, “why didn’t you show up to court and try to get the restraining order?”

“I feel nuts explaining it to people because they think it’s a movie plot.”

Frobel admits he’s not a perfect human being, but he is absolutely not the person he’s been painted to be in public.

“People lie,” Frobel says with disappointment in his voice. “I’m not saying everthing during these movements were a lie, not at all. Some people admitted what they did. That’s good, admit it. I just can’t admit something I didn’t do.”

I asked if anything during his trials and tribulations outside the ring had ever been proven to be true.

“It’s the exact opposite,” he said with an ironic laugh. “I’ve had to spend my money and fight to prove it didn’t happen.”

“People want to spread hate so much.”

Nobody listened and promptly tarnished Frobel in the same manner as those who did do awful things and were proven guilty of it. Wrestling websites were quick to publish stories about allegations, but there seems to have been very little posted about him since.

“Nobody wants to give that story because they’re afraid of the social media backlash.”

“People would rather rag on them for giving me the platform rather than reading what I’m saying. Anything I’m willing to say – I can back up with proof.”

Blackballed by major promotions, Frobel returned to Championship International Wrestling, who run shows in Michigan, Toledo, Ohio and Indiana. After 16 years away from said promotion, he came back to help book shows and even wrestled a 60-minute iron man match against Malice in June 2024.

At the conclusion of our chat, I found a humble man, father and husband, content with life and forgiving of those who labeled him as a terrible human, despite the irreparable harm that it has caused to his career. He loves to nurture talent and his knowledge of the business is going to waste.

Once upon a time, Mike Tyson, a convicted rapist, returned to boxing after his incarceration and made millions upon millions of dollars from his chosen sport. Imagine being simply accused of much lesser crimes and having your career ruined with not a single conviction to your name. Imagine that, and you imagine Michael Elgin.

The post Clearing My Name: Michael Elgin’s Redemption appeared first on Wrestling Headlines.