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Patrick Clark, aka former WWE NXT star The Velveteen Dream, took to his Instagram to release a video apology to his family, friends, WWE, Paul Levesque, Shawn Michaels and more for the actions that led to his WWE career careening to a stop, culminating in his release several years ago. The transcript of his apology is below:
"As you've probably seen or have heard over the course of the last few years, I want to apologize for my behavior, both professionally and personally. I always preach to those closest to me about the power of accountability and responsibility, and I take full accountability for my behavior over the last three years of my life. When narratives were written about me it doesn't matter. It didn't matter what was written about me.
It doesn't matter what was said about me. It doesn't matter what's on the Internet about me. I was wrong. Okay. And because of that, I need to apologize to a few people. First, I want to apologize to the WWE organization. I want to apologize to the WWE organization for any unwanted attention and negative press that I brought to your brand and your product.
I want to apologize to the WWE Fans and the Velveteen Dream fans because when you hear the name Velveteen Dream, it should have only been spoken about in a productive and a positive light. Not the name Patrick Clark. as another statistic of what happens when talent and opportunity meet immaturity. That's not what you spend your hard earned money on. It's not what you invest your time and your money in. When you look on the TV and you come to the shows, you should escape reality, not have to deal with mine. I want to apologize to the WWE and the fans.
I want to apologize to Paul Levesque. Paul, you are such an understanding and patient man and leader and getting the opportunity to work with you and to learn from you. I get the sense of what makes you who you are and how you've been able to handle the responsibility of being in the public light for such a long time. I want to apologize to you Paul.
I'm sorry. I also want to say I'm sorry to Shawn Michaels. Shawn, it's still beyond me that I've been having the opportunity in this lifetime to learn from you, to have your mentorship and your guidance. And I apologize if you feel like you've wasted your time and your energy investing into me. You have not. I'm still a work in progress, I'm still learning, and I remember all the lessons that you've taught me. Shawn, I'm sorry.
My best friend, Tehuti Miles. I want to apologize to you because before you were tied to me publicly for the support you've given me and you continue to give me your resume was impeccable and I apologize for any smudges that I may have put on that resume because of my behavior. You're the last person that should have to deal with anything like that, and I'm sorry, man.
I want to apologize to my family, my mom, my dad, my brother, my sister, my nieces and my nephews, because you may read things you may hear about things, you may be confronted by people you don't know, and you might feel the need to explain things on my behalf. I just want you to know that you do not have to do that ever. No one should have to explain anything for Patrick Clark. No one should have to trend because of Patrick Clark. No one should have to ask, answer the questions. Where's Patrick now? What did Patrick do? What happened with Patrick? That's not your responsibility. I don't want you to feel burdened with that responsibility. That's my responsibility and I apologize to you all for any energy negative energy that has had to come your way because of me.
Again, I want to apologize to the fans and those in my professional and personal life that I've affected by my behavior. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I recognize that I was losing myself and I apologize to anyone that I lost along the way. anyone that I've upset or offended because of my behavior. Man, I'm sorry and I hope you all forgive me. Thank you."
Patrick Clark, 27, was signed to the company after being eliminated from the 2015 Tough Enough season where he obviously showed the most passion for pro wrestling out of any of the contestants but was still voted off the show. After a big push from WWE Hall of Famer Lita at the time, WWE hired Clark for the developmental system, sending him to WWE NXT later that year.
Clark eventually debuted as The Velveteen Dream in 2017, a character obviously inspired in part by the late, great musician Prince and went to great lengths to remain in character as much as possible when in the public eye. He quickly rose to prominence in NXT with a tremendous series of performances, looking every bit like a future Wrestlemania main event player. His work in the ring, nor his flair for performing, was never in question.
That momentum sputtered, stalled and died after online allegations of Clark allegedly sending indecent images to underage boys through social media, a story that lit up after a Reddit user began posting screenshots and audio. Clark responded at the time, "Be assured I did not communicate inappropriately with anyone. A private photo of mine was shared without my consent or knowledge and I am working with a third party to look into this matter."
In speaking about the situation in August 2020 to CBS Sports, WWE's Paul Levesque commented, "You know, in this day today, accusations are made and you take them all very seriously. You look into them the best you can, and you find out what is there and what isn’t. In this situation, [Clark] was also involved in a car accident. That’s what took him off TV. In the moment, all this other stuff happens and you look into it and you find that there is a situation that people bring to everyone’s attention, you look into it and find that it is what it is and there’s nothing there. Everything that we have done, we are comfortable with him continuing to do what he does and everything else. But he had a car accident. It stemmed down to people thought we removed him from TV for different reasons. We didn’t. He was in a car accident. Once he was medically cleared to be able to return to the ring from his car accident, we continued forward the way we did. We looked into what was there and we didn’t find anything.”
While WWE looked into the allegations but found no cause for action, the situation never went away. Levesque was asked about the situation numerous times during NXT media calls to the point he made it clear he would no longer address the issue. At the same time, anti-Velveteen Dream trends exploded on social media, especially Twitter, whenever Clark did appear on television.
Clark last wrestled for WWE NXT in December 2020 and had not been seen at the WWE Performance Center for some time p,rior to his release in 2021. He had been arrested at least once since then. PWInsider.com is told that Clark has done a lot since that arrest to address his personal issues and that he's been working towards making amends to a lot of people in his life.
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