City Sends Cease & Desist To Wrestling School Owned By Paul Roma Due To "Adult Business"

By Marc Middleton

The Paradise Alley Pro Wrestling school and promotion has been hit with a cease & desist letter from the city of East Haven, Connecticut. PAPW is ran by former WWE and WCW star Paul Roma, and former WWE enhancement talent Mario Mancini.

The promotion shared a copy of the C&D with fans on Twitter this week and wrote, "PAPW NEEDS YOIR HELP! PAPW has been given a Cease and Desist order by the Town of East Haven, and we have been labeled as "adult entertainment" (pornography). Please help us in this fight. We love all of our fans and want to continue creating shows that create memories for you..."

The C&D was sent this past Friday, ordering the promotion to shut down because their wrestling school has been deemed a violation of local zoning laws, which lists "wrestling studios" as Adult Oriented Businesses. The city noted that the wrestling use is considered an Adult Oriented Business. The city order classifies Adult Oriented Businesses as adult book stores, adult motion picture theaters, adult mini-motion picture theaters, adult video sales and/or rentals, adult cabarets, adult novelty businesses, and adult personal service business and/or establishment, which was bold in the C&D that the promotion received, indicating that this is what they are accusing PAPW of being.

The law classifies an adult personal service business and/or establishment as the following:

"An establishment, club, business, by whatever name designated, which offers or advertises or is equipped or arranged to as to allow a person, while clothed, nude or partially nude to provide personal services for an individual of the same or opposite sex on an individual basis in an open or closed room and which excludes minors by virtue of age. Such services or activities include, but are not limited to, massages, body rubs, alcohol or lotion massages or body rubs, and other similar treatments; as well as modeling, studios, wrestling studios and individual theatrical performances."

The city says PAPW is a "wrestling studios" business. East Haven is ordering the promotion to immediately cease & desist all wrestling activity at the location. Failure to comply can result in fines and/or criminal penalties. The promotion also has 30 days to appeal.

The irony here is that PAPW bills itself as family-friendly entertainment with a "mix of old school wrestling & modern professional wrestling."

There is no word yet on if they plan to shut down, or appeal the C&D. You can see their full tweet below.

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