Suburban Fight incident
In late December 2018, Kelly wrestled a match against Tuna for the Suburban Fight promotion in Los Angeles. During the match, with Tuna laid out on a folding chair, Kelly pulled out a bloody tampon from her ring tights and stuck it in Tuna's mouth. Footage of the match received little attention for over a week until Gail Kim commented on Twitter in disgust, after which the footage went viral. Many wrestling veterans including Jim Ross, Angelina Love, and Tessa Blanchard also commented in disgust, while Gregory Helms joked by asking if it was a "First Blood Match".[17]
Kelly defended the angle, stating that it was in a bar that required to be 21 or older for admittance and that it was simply for entertainment, confirming that the tampon was a scripted spot in the match and wasn't actually used for menstruation.[18][19] She later commented that women are held to a double standard compared to men, citing Joey Ryan sticking a lollipop into numerous wrestlers' mouths after pulling it out of his tights, as well as Mick Foley using "Mr. Socko" during the Attitude Era; Reby Sky echoed the same sentiments.[20][21] Ryan, Tommy Dreamer,[22] and Tazz[23] came to Kelly's defense, all stating that she did her job to get over and it worked. Road Dogg initially blasted Kelly for the angle until Ryan called him out over similar angles during the Attitude Era (notably the infamous Mae Young "birthing a hand" angle), after which he publicly apologized to Kelly.[20][21]
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