After announcing his desire to return to professional wrestling after a three-year hiatus and recording a potential comeback interview with Chris Van Vliet that could be best described as deeply controversial, Patrick Clark, better known to fans as Velveteen Dream, returned to the ring at Dynasty Pro Wrestling in New York, where he defeated Alec Odin as a surprise participant in the show's opening match.

Discussing the Dynasty Pro appearance on his Hall of Fame podcast, Booker T, who has admitted he's talked to Clark in the past, opened up about his return to wrestling and the mixed reaction it garnered from fans around the IWC.

“I know the Velveteen Dream made his return back to Dynasty Pro Wrestling. Over the weekend, upstate New York somewhere,” Booker T noted via 411 Mania. “And he’s getting mixed reviews as far as — I think the promoter is just getting mixed reviews as well, because — and this is the question here that I’m going to pose to you. They brought Patrick Clark, also known as Velveteen Dream, back as a surprise guest. They didn’t tell any of the fans until he came out of the curtain. Do you agree with that or not? First match back after the controversies and whatnot.”

Discussing the prospects of Clark's return ad nauseam, noting that he too has been accused of things but was able to do his time and have a career because he changed, Booker finally got to the question at hand: should Velveteen Dream get a second chance?  Needless to say, you'll want to read his response.

Booker T has a complicated take on Velveteen Dream's future.

Turning his attention to the most important question at hand, should Velveteen Dream have a second chance, Booker T again compared Clark's situation to his own, noting that he takes precautions to keep himself in the right where the 28-year-old from Washington DC, clearly did not.

“I just don’t feel like you should be persecuted forever if there is not a real crime. If there was a real – if there was a victim. If it was one of these kids that has accused him of something, and the police came and picked up Patrick Clark and took him to jail, and he was prosecuted for that? I will be all for everything that these people are talking about. But when none of that is proven, and people have already convicted him of it, it’s really — there again a slippery slope that any one of us can find ourselves going down that same slippery slope. Somebody can say, I touched them. And I know I didn’t touch them, but if it gets to public opinion and they take it and believe that person, my life could be ruined,” Booker T noted.

“And I say that because I say that because I’ve had a wrestling school for almost 20 years now. And I’ve never — and I do this for a reason. I’ve never had a private conversation or a private session with a female in my wrestling school in 20 years. And I do that for a reason. Because I got to protect myself 100%. Just because these days anybody can say anything, and my school can get closed down overnight because of an allegation that has been made that’s untrue. So just say people, really be conscious of thinking about when you post stuff, and you really don’t know the situation. All you’re doing is just backing somebody’s pay or backing the way you feel about a certain cause. And we all should feel that way about the cause. We should not dismiss that one bit. But if someone has not been convicted of it, and there’s just been a lot of allegations thrown around? And the police have investigated it? What do I gotta do to prove myself? There’s no way I can prove myself.”

Are Booker T and Clark's situations similar? Not really, no; Booker took part in robbing a Wendy's while Clark has been accused of grooming minors, in addition to the other actions that led to the three arrests that the former member of Harlem Heat mentioned in his comments. While he hasn't officially been charged with anything in regard to his improprieties, that has more to do with how such allegations, accusations, and, ultimately, cases are legislated in the American criminal justice system.

Say what you will about giving apologetic actors second chances, but in Clark's “apology video,” he never actually apologized for those accusations, leading plenty of fans to believe he deserves to be nowhere near the platform professional wrestling provides to performers, even the smallest indies shows in Upstate New York.