Kamehacon is an upcoming fan expo dedicated to all things Dragon Ball, being held for it’s second year in Irving, Texas. The expo boasts a heavy catalogue of activities for fans to participate in, such as cosplay contests, a Dragon Ball FighterZ tournament, and celebrity autograph sessions and panels. In 2019, the convention is set to host a wide range of Dragon Ball related voice actors, such as Ryo Horikawa (Vegeta, JP), Daemon Clarke (Cell, US) and Stephanie Nadolny (Kid Goku, US).
Dragon Ball Super: Broly voice actor Vic Mignogna was also initially slated to appear as a special guest at Kamehacon, but following the emergence of sexual misconduct accusations both old and new against Mignogna, Kamehacon announced in February that Mignogna would no longer be attending:
Vic Mignogna will no longer be attending Kameha Con 2019.
— Kameha Con (@KamehaCon) February 1, 2019
However, Nick Rekieta, host of the Rekieta Law YouTube channel, revealed in a furious tirade that the convention had attempted to invite Mignogna back as a guest, only to be met with threats and harassment from Monica Rial and Chris Sabat, fellow Dragon Ball Z voice actors and two of the prominent personalities involved in the “#KickVic” campaign:
During the stream, an angry Rekieta claims that Kamehacon had recently decided to invite Mignogna back as a guest and planned to announce it publicly on Tuesday, March 19th, only for the convention owner to be met with threats from Rial and Sabat:
“Four or five weeks ago, Kamehacon drops Vic Mignogna. Okay. So did everybody else. Didn’t know it at the time, but Vic was under contract. So, let’s just say Rial, Sabat, Soy-e [Ron Toye], Shane [Holmberg]…you disgusting vermin, Shane…they lie. They go ahead and straight up lie to the owner of Kamehacon. Flat out lie. ‘This is going to happen.’ They know it can’t happen. They’ve admitted on social media, specifically, that they know this won’t happen, but they lied to him.”
“This” refers to alleged warnings given by Rial and Sabat to the owner of Kamehacon that, if Mignogna was allowed to attend, they would refuse to appear and skip the convention.
“So what next? Well, looks like, the owner of Kamehacon had a change of heart. I’m not sure why. I’m not sure what was going on with that. Maybe it was nice petitions from fans? I don’t know. What I do know is that the owner of Kamehacon, five days ago, had a change of heart, and he said ‘We’re going to bring back Vic Mignogna.’ Because, these other people, I guess because the other people lied to him. Seems like a good reason to not breach a contract is when you find out the other people are lying to you. So he say’s ‘we’re going to bring back Vic.'”
The source for this information, according to Rekieta, is an insider at Kamehacon:
“I have a source inside Kamehacon. You thought this wouldn’t get out? You thought that your activities behind the scenes, bullying a con owner into thinking about cancelling conventions, for the fans…THEY’RE NOT FOR YOU, THEY’RE FOR THE FANS. You think that it wouldn’t get out. You thought that it wouldn’t get out. Not just once. Cuz, I mean, they did it once. ‘Ah! If Vic gets to go, we’re not going!’ I’m sorry, he’s under CONTRACT. He’s under contract, a signed piece of paper. You don’t get to do that. You don’t get to do that.
Let me make this doubly clear, because I know what you’re going to accuse me of. This information comes from inside Kamehacon. I’m not getting this information from Vic. I’m not getting information from Ty [Beard]. This comes straight from the party.”
Rekieta then picks up his mobile phone, and refers to text messages exchanged between himself and the Kamehacon owner, who claimed to be under pressure regarding the announcement of Mignogna’s return:
“What do you mean pressure?”
“Rial and Sabat”
As the March 19th date passed and no announcement regarding Mignogna had been made, Rekieta grew curious and reached out to the convention owner for more information:
“So this guy, he says ‘I think I can’t bring Vic back.’ Well then, something else happens, and I don’t have the info, but something else happens. And the guy straightens up and he says ‘No, no, no, okay. We’re going to do it. We’re going to have Vic, because these guys can’t make me break a contract or whatever it was, we’re going to have Vic, we’re going to have him here. We’ll announce it Tuesday.
Tuesday, we’ll announce it. Please don’t say anything until Tuesday.’ Tuesday comes, where’s the announcement? Nothing. Silence. Where’s the announcement? Nothing. Silence. Then I find out that for three hours, roughly, three hours, Sabat, Rial, blowing up this guy’s phone. Threat after threat after threat blowing up this guy’s phone.”
The convention owner then reached out to Rekieta, to whom he claimed that the harassment was so great that he is currently considering ending the entire Kamehacon convention:
“One of the last updates I got suggested that the owner was not going to do Kamehacon anymore. That’s what they’ve done to this guy. ‘I can’t deal with this. I don’t think I can do this anymore.'”
As of writing, no official statement regarding these allegations has been made by Sabat, Rial, or Kamehacon.