As soon as the news broke that Brendan Dassey’s conviction had been overturned, fans of the Netflix true crime series Making a Murderer knew what had to happen next. On Friday, August 12, judge William E. Duffin overturned Dassey’s conviction for his role in the rape and murder of Theresa Halbach, claiming that the young man’s confession was “involuntary under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments,” because of the investigators’ “repeated false promises” in conjunction with factors like his age and “intellectual deficits.” Simply put: Dassey never stood a chance.
Unless the state of Wisconsin initiates proceedings to retry Dassey within 90 days of the Aug. 12 decision, he will be a free man, and as such people who believe that he is truly innocent want to see him rewarded for what he has been through. One of the things that made him such a sympathetic figure to fans of the series was how upset he was that he would miss WrestleMania 22, and so people started a petition to send him to WrestleMania 33, which takes place in Orlando in April 2017.
And now, the popular porn website xHamster has stepped in to handle the rest.
“We are pleased that we can make this young man’s dream of going to Wrestlemania come true,” said Alex Hawkins, spokesman for xHamster. “We have been in talks with the family and they are more than thrilled that Brendan will get this opportunity after so many years of heartache and injustice. We are waiting on a response from Brendan and we know he will be thrilled that he is going to Wrestlemania when he gets out.”
It’s hard to imagine that Dassey would turn down this opportunity, as it’s possibly a weird-but-heartwarming ending to a sad story. But his fans and supporters should also hope that Dassey finds some sense of normalcy and privacy in his newfound freedom, should the state choose not to retry him. After all, WrestleMania tickets are awesome, but having everyone stare and point at you while you’re cheering on John Cena doesn’t sound like much fun. But who knows?
