Velveteen Dream’s Mugshot T-Shirt Sparks Confusion Over His WWE Firing and Arrest History

Velveteen Dream knows how to get people talking, but this time, it might not be for the reason he intended. At a recent independent wrestling event, the former WWE star showed up wearing a T-shirt featuring mugshots of some of wrestling’s biggest names—including Vince McMahon, Roman Reigns, Brock Lesnar, and even himself. The back of the shirt read Guilty by Association, instantly sparking debate among fans.

However, the bold fashion statement led to widespread misinformation about Dream’s own past. Many fans mistakenly linked his WWE release to criminal charges involving minors—claims that are factually incorrect. While Dream was fired from WWE in 2021 following allegations of inappropriate online behavior, he was never arrested or charged in connection to those accusations. Instead, his actual legal troubles stemmed from a separate incident.

Dream’s arrest happened in November 2021 when he was charged with possession of cocaine, destruction of evidence, and drug paraphernalia possession. He also violated a traffic law by not having proper illuminating devices on his vehicle, which led to his initial stop. He was jailed for 25 days in Seminole County, Florida, before being released.

The confusion wasn’t helped by the fact that Dream never directly addressed the accusations that led to his WWE release in his past interviews. While he denied the allegations in an interview last year, he remained largely silent on the controversy in his recent return to the wrestling scene.

In an interview with Chris Van Vliet last year, Velveteen Dream directly addressed the accusations of inappropriate behavior with minors, denying them outright and claiming the screenshots circulating online were fabricated.

“No, those aren’t conversations that I’ve ever had with anybody, minor or adult, legal, illegal, consensual, or non-consensual. Those words, those texts, those images that have been pushed out there on the internet—they’re all false,” Dream stated firmly.

He also claimed that the accounts accusing him were deactivated and that he never engaged in any inappropriate interactions with underage fans.

“On April 24, 2020, I put in my DMs as The Velveteen Dream…when I was working for the WWE, my Twitter and my Instagram, the only two accounts I had, were strictly for The Velveteen Dream. I did speak to a Jacob Schmidt on Instagram. We actually had a phone conversation over Instagram. At no point in time did I ever type anything or say anything that should have or could have been misconstrued as an advance of any type.”

Dream also explained that his interactions were more about mentorship than anything else, saying, “It’s not a friendship. It’s a mentorship. I can only akin it to the big brother, little brother program.”

With Dream once again making headlines, the question remains—was this T-shirt a statement, an attempt at reinvention, or just another way to keep his name in the conversation?