Shocking moment wrestler urges young CHILDREN to yell homophobic slurs at rival during family show

A family wrestling show has been axed after a video emerged showing a muscular star urging at least 100 children in the audience to make homophobic comments at his rival in the ring.

Luke Douton, who managed the Al Snow Wrestling Academy (ASWA) Midlands, which licenses the WWE superstar’s namebegan an offensive chant of ‘fat p***’ in ‘support’ of the Queen – which was echoed in unison by more than 100 children.

After MailOnline informed managers at the Prince of Wales Theater in Cannock, Staffordshire of the wrestler’s homophobic tirade, it suspended further events with the company, which is ‘endorsed’ by Snow, whose US wrestling school OVW took up the subject was from Netflix docuseries Wrestlers. Snow is not believed to have attended the match.

The wrestling promotion was due to hold an event at the venue on Sunday, November 1, but outraged managers have canceled the show, which cost £12 for an adult ticket and £10 for children.

Theater managers, who work with Cannock Chase and North Yorkshire Councils, said they were ‘shocked’ that a ‘homophobic slur’ was used at their venue, adding that they do not want to work with anyone who ‘peddles homophobic views’.

During the ASWA Midlands wrestling match at the 427-seat theater in May last year, Douton – as alter ego Layton Cole – went on the homophobic tirade to stalls packed with as many as 150 children, according to someone in the audience.

“I drove to the post office and picked up a package and inside was a letter addressed to me that said, ‘Layton Cole, listen yes.’ I promise, it said ‘listen yes,’” Douton shouted into the microphone to the packed audience.

‘And it went on: “Jonny Rose (his wrestling opponent) is a big p***.” ‘

Children laughed at Douton’s comments before he continued: ‘And I couldn’t believe what I was reading, but I kept reading… It said, “Big Tim Burns is a big p***.”

‘In support of the Royal Mail and Her Majesty herself, I’d now like to hear a crescendo of: “Big fat p***!”

You then hear how children repeat the song together with and after Douton no fewer than ten times.

The witness, who also attended this show, was outraged that fight promoter Douton was encouraging children to make homophobic comments. “I can’t believe they make children shout these things,” he told MailOnline.

He said the room was ‘full of kids’, about 100 to 150, most of them shouting ‘big p***’ to Douton’s beat.

He added that his wife, who works with children, called the scene “horrible.”

ASWA Midlands also runs a wrestling school for children, which the witness to this incident said was concerning given his apparent attitude towards sexual minorities.

A spokesperson for Inspiring Healthy Lifestyles, which runs the Prince of Wales Theatre, told MailOnline: ‘We are shocked that this language and homophobic slur has occurred at one of our venues.

“This was a private rental event using our facility and our staff were not present at the time. As soon as we became aware of this incident, we immediately suspended the organization that rented the venue and removed all future advertising for their upcoming events from our website.

‘Inspiring Healthy Lifestyles does not support or collaborate with any entity or organization that promotes homophobic views; we cannot emphasize that enough.

“We are a proud champion of inclusivity for all, which is reflected in the work we do every day in community engagement.”

Luke Douton admitted his chant of ‘big fat p***’ was ‘probably a bit close to the line’ when approached by MailOnline for comment, but blamed the ‘pressure’ of the live moment and said he was past a ‘period of depression and self-loathing’.

He claimed to have ‘stepped away from wrestling’, but at the time of writing Douton’s wrestling alter-ego Layton Cole is still listed as part of the ASWA Midlands roster on his website.

The wrestler will also appear as Layton Cole at an event at the Tamworth Assembly Rooms in Tamworth, Staffordshire, on Saturday, September 30.

Douton said that as far as he remembers, he made the comments during “a promo where my head went blank and some crazy stuff came out that was probably a little too close to home.”

“But you’re live and you’re under pressure, sometimes crazy things slip out,” Douton added.

‘I thought afterwards that this was one of my worst performances, but it was an exceptionally difficult time and I had to deal with a lot of negative things that affected everything for me at the time.

“Thankfully, I have moved past this period of depression and self-loathing and moved from wrestling to a business that brings me great joy. I’ve played thousands of matches over almost twenty years and I’m sure not all of them were perfect and not all of them were done right.

“If over the time I’ve been doing it, I’ve given some people an escape from the bad in their lives for a few hours or a laugh when they needed it, I’m happy with that.

“I’ve done a lot of free shows for charities and low-income families. I’ve been raising money for the Teenage Cancer Trust with events and lots of things like this. When I felt I could do my part, I did.

“I did my best dude.”

MailOnline has contacted Al Snow for comment.