Former WWE Champion Arrested Twice in Florida

By Brian Jones

Patrick Clark, previously known as Velveteen Dream in WWE, was arrested in Florida on Friday for an out-of-county warrant for "possession of drug paraphernalia," according to PWInsider. It was also reported by PWInsider that this was the second arrest in the month for Clark as he was also arrested on Aug. 20 by Orlando Police for first-degree battery and trespassing on property after a warning. For the first arrest, Clark bonded out for $1,200 on Aug. 21 and pleaded not guilty. He had an arraignment hearing scheduled for the charges on Sept. 28, but the hearing is now listed as canceled. 

Clark, 27, spent his WWE career at NXT where he was the brand's North American Champion. He began his WWE career in 2015 and made his debut with the company at a live event in 2016. He was one of the top prospects in WWE, but that took a hit when he was hit with a pair of sexual misconduct allegations in 2020. Clark was taken off TV while dealing with injuries suffered in a car accident and didn't receive a warm reception when he returned. 

Clark was cut from WWE in May 2021. Shortly after his release from WWE, Clark went to Instagram to respond to the against him. "The allegations from April 20, 2020 have effectively derailed any upward momentum I had professionally. And has ultimately resulted in my termination with WWE. My name is Patrick Clark, not the Velveteen Dream. Velveteen Dream is a character that I have spent years developing and trying to bring to life," Clark wrote, per ComicBook.com. "The success of the Dream character, relied heavily on kayfabe, my ability to blur Patrick Clark from Tough Enough with this over the top personality."

Clark continued: "The character was conceptualized the day Prince passed, April 21, 2016. I knew nothing about him at that time, but my thinking was that I could use my interpretation of Prince to create an onscreen personality vastly different from who I am as a person. *Cue Velveteen Dream: A Sexually Ambiguous, Gender Fluid, Self Absorbed Diva. And as I learned more about Prince I began to tame certain aspects of the character. Aspects that I deemed way too over the top and inconsistent with who Prince was as a performer."

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