2011 World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) Hall of Fame inductee Tamara Sytch (Sunny) has drawn a wave of critique on social media regarding her comments while discussing the murder of George Floyd, joining Dave Hollenbeck as those with ties to the community that are being held accountable for their statements.
Since her 2011 induction into the WWE Hall of Fame as Sunny, Tamara has made numerous statements online that have earned her critique from the wrestling community. Earlier in the year, she made an unfounded accusation against Ashley Massaro, while making light of her passing.
The anti-sex work snark of the post is interesting when taking into account Tamara regularly promotes her OnlyFans account and has appeared in adult film in the past.
Earlier this week, a wrestling fan reached out with a variety of screenshots Sunny made during a discussion about police and justice reform protests that launched after the murder of George Floyd while at the hands of police in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
It’s unclear whether or not the user Tamara was referencing in the above image is a person of color; such references are often used as bigoted tropes against numerous non-white communities.
In the above image, WWE Hall of Fame inductee Tamara Sytch used ‘#whitepower’ to retort a Black woman. Sunny eventually deleted the tweet before switching her Twitter to private. The following screenshot shows Tamara making what could be taken as a pro-Ku Klux Klan sentiment, suggesting that she ‘maybe’ should burn crosses. It’s impossible to know if she was being sarcastic in a desire to do so, but the comment comes at a time of demonstrations regarding racial equality in the United States raises questions.
While Tamara did not spell out the pejorative towards the individual in the next screen capture, the target was a Black woman who was upset with some of the remarks Tamara was making throughout the discussion regarding the ongoing situation in the United States.
Tamara Sytch was employed by the WWE from 1995-1998, and later earned recognition from the company as being the first ‘Diva.’ After her 2011 induction into the WWE Hall of Fame, she went through a period of legal troubles.
After her most recent comments on Twitter fans and those within the wrestling business called for Sunny to be removed from the WWE Hall of Fame. However, 2005 WWE Hall of Famer Hulk Hogan was reinstated to the WWE Hall of Fame despite his multiple bigoted tirades against Black individuals. In fact, the company began working with Hogan again in July 2018, before reintroducing him as a member when the New World Order (NWO) was enshrined in 2019.
The Ultimate Warrior was inducted in the WWE Hall of Fame in 2014 after his slew of bigoted comments directed at the Black and LGBTQ communities, along with harsh remarks towards Bobby Heenan while diminishing the work of Martin Luther King Jr.
Tamara Sytch nor WWE responded to an inquiry to comment.
