Several former FCW, DSW, and NXT employees previously working within or with the WWE developmental system made public allegations of misconduct by DeMott during his time as trainer, including accusing DeMott of making trainees perform dangerous drills, physically assaulting and bullying trainees, using homophobic and racial slurs amongst other derogatory terms, letting trainees train while naked, and condoning sexual harassment. These allegations were made by Kevin Matthews, Mike Bucci, Ivelisse Vélez, and Devon Nicholson in 2012, Chad Baxter and Chase Donovan in 2013, Curt Hawkins in 2014, as well as several wrestlers including Judas Devlin, Briley Pierce, Brandon Traven, Derrick Bateman, independent wrestler Terra Calaway, and New Japan Pro Wrestling star Kenny Omega from late February to March 2015. Devlin and Traven claimed to have submitted complaints to WWE management about DeMott in March 2013 when they were still employed with WWE, but only publicized the complaints in 2015. WWE released statements regarding some of the claims that came to light in 2013 and 2015, claiming that investigations were done and no wrongdoing was found. Pierce questioned the thoroughness of the investigations, stating that WWE did not question him despite him allegedly being one of the claimed victims. The allegations caused a negative reaction on social media in March 2015, with the #FireDeMott hashtag trending on Twitter. On March 6, 2015, DeMott publicly denied the allegations on Twitter, but also announced his resignation from WWE "to avoid any embarrassment or damage" to the company.