Austin Aries will be disciplined for his public form of sexual harassment towards TNA Wrestling ring announcer Christy Hemme on last Thursday's episode of Impact Wrestling. Mark Madden of WrestleZone.com garnered a statement from David Schwarz, Senior Vice President of Communications for Spike TV, regarding the matter Tuesday.
“We have a zero tolerance policy for sexual harassment,” said Schwarz. “We discussed [the incident] with our partner. [Aries is] being disciplined. I’m trying to get more information on what action is being taken. Dixie Carter took this very personally. He will be disciplined. Again, we have a zero tolerance policy for sexual harassment.
“I’m not sure specifically how [the discipline] will be handled. To what extent, I don’t know. This is certainly something we don’t condone and don’t tolerate. Such behavior is not welcome."
In response to whether Aries' discipline should be made public since Hemme was harassed on national television, Schwarz responded, "I think that a statement of some sort will be coming. That’s being worked out. But immediate action will be taken."
On the show, Hemme mistakenly introduced Aries and tag team partner Bobby Roode as their opponents for the evening, Christopher Daniels and Kazarian. This led Aries to corner the inaugural winner of WWE's Diva Search in the ring as he intimidated her into correctly introducing him before climbing onto a second-level turnbuckle and shoving his groin near her face.
Following the show, Hemme voiced her displeasure with Aries' actions via Twitter, deeming it "unacceptable." Late Saturday night, Aries appeared to address the incident though the social networking outlet, writing, "Pretty nuts, some of the junk people get the balls to say over the net, knowing they couldn't to your face...Eh, anyway, time to sack out."
