IWA Mid-South returned to action on Friday night with a live show in Indianapolis, Indiana.
IWA MS was the first major Independent company to run a live show with fans since the COVID-19 pandemic, which would seem to be a good milestone. Unfortunately, the promotion didn't exactly follow the necessary guidelines when it came to social distancing seeing as the pandemic is not over.
The promotion posted a photo showing plenty of fans in the building with all of them less than six feet apart and only a handful wear a mask.
Though the photo was deleted, nothing dies on the Internet and other promoters and wrestlers called out IWA MS for their lack of safety.
Following the photo appearing online and others calling out the organization, Ian Rotten took to Facebook to respond.
He wrote, "Yes, folks. The rumors are true. Last night, I took a club and beat 226 people over the head like they were baby seals and then took $20 out of each one of their pockets and made them sit there for 4 hours. I forced them to enjoy the hell out of themselves.
"Seriously though, thank you to everyone whom came out and showed their support last night. I would say that I hoped you enjoyed yourself and that we entertained you, but then I would just be fishing for compliments because 90% of you told me on the way out the door what a great time you had. Thank you Indy.
"We will see you in September."
When asked if IWA MS would require facemasks next time or would do a better job with distancing, he responded, "I had 300 masks available free of charge to anyone. Whether people chose to wear them or not was up to them. There are ridiculous reports saying that no one was wearing masks and I would definitely say the ratio was about 60:40 of people wearing vs not wearing.
"I'm not going to require someone with respiratory problems, trauma triggers, asthma, severe anxiety, sensory disorders, etc., all of which I could never see with my naked eye, to wear a mask.
"I believe the right thing to do was to provide fans with the masks and if they wanted to wear them, it was available and up to them. Knowing that, coming into the show itself is also up to those individuals.
"To answer your question fully, no I won't require someone to wear a mask but for those whom do want to, I will supply them. I believe that is as fair as I can be to each and every persons individual rights."
Game Changer Wrestling held an Independent show on Saturday night with protocols put in place to help ensure fan safety. You can view those protocols by clicking here and find results from the show by clicking here.