Credit: WWE.com

Backstage WWE and AEW Rumors: Latest on Reginald, Sheamus and More

Erik Beaston

On the heels of WrestleMania, the wrestling rumor mill has updates on a late-week change to one of the show's finishes, which saw Sheamus defeat Riddle to win the United States Championship.

Was The Celtic Warrior always supposed to win the title?

And where was lovable sommelier Reginald on wrestling's grandest night after he earned more television time than he should have, often at the expense of the women's division?

Dive deeper into those two topics, as well as Ivelisse's status with All Elite Wrestling in this collection of rumor and innuendo.

Finish of Sheamus vs. Riddle Changed at WrestleMania

Riddle was initially intended to retain the United States Championship at WrestleMania, but that finish was changed late in the week, according to Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful Select.

The idea behind the change was for the feud to continue, but Riddle was beaten by Bobby Lashley in an extended squash just 24 hours later, while Sheamus did not even appear on Raw.

The finish was somewhat surprising because it felt like Riddle had built momentum leading into WrestleMania and was one of the more prominently featured stars on the Raw brand. Halting said momentum to give Sheamus another title reign feels like a step back regardless of the reasoning behind it.

That the follow-up was nonexistent did not help matters.

Now, WWE is in a situation in which the guy who has been around for more than a decade is a champion for whom the company has no plans while the young star, building a fanbase and legacy for himself, is without a title and is a glorified tackling dummy for the WWE champion.

And the company wonders why it struggles so mightily to create new stars.

Update on Why Reginald Missed WrestleMania

If you are one of the few not turned off by the overexposure of Reginald since January, you were probably wondering where the sommelier was at WrestleMania 37. Randall Ortman of Cageside Seats reported he was absent because he was sick.

Reginald had spent weeks leading into the event as the love interest of Nia Jax. The Irresistible Force teamed with Shayna Baszler to successfully defend the Women's Tag Team Championship, defeating Tamina and Natalya in a hard-fought match.

Who knows what the quality of that match would have been if the focus were less on the in-ring competitors and more on the overused sidekick.

It was Reginald who was responsible for the lackluster, even downright awful booking that dominated the early weeks of the Sasha Banks-Bianca Belair program before segueing into being a part of the tag team champions' act.

Who knows whether he will be back on television anytime soon or if the company will use his illness as an excuse to keep him away for a while. If it does opt to bring him back, hopefully WWE can use him in moderation because stealing the spotlight from the women in the division is, was and will continue to be unacceptable.

Ivelisse's AEW Status Revealed

At one point, it appeared as though Ivelisse and Diamante would be the hottest new act in All Elite Wrestling. Then the duo disappeared from Dynamite, working only Dark.

That is until they stopped appearing on that show too. Recently, Diamante appeared on the show, but Ivelisse was nowhere to be found. We now know why.

"Talent had informed us prior to that they didn't expect Ivelisse to return to AEW as she had well-known disagreements with agents backstage. We weren't given any context to the nature of the disagreement," Sapp reported.

In a now-deleted tweet, Ivelisse revealed she had been let go. "History repeats itself unfortunately. I speak up about mistreatment and get let go. Thats life."

Sapp followed up with Ivelisse, who said:

"I spoke up about mistreatment from a Coach, even to other women too, there were witnesses and I was the one suspended and left in limbo and just now let go, and nothing has been done at all the entire time about [Thunder Rosa] slandering my name the entire time in AEW and doing everything to sabotage my position there, I kept quiet, [Thunder Rosa] also has a history of getting involved with officials in order to get ahead which there was a lawsuit and everything in [Lucha Underground]."

There has been no follow-up or a statement by AEW denying Ivelisse's allegations as of yet. Nor did she name the coach who treated her poorly.

At this stage, it's impossible to know what has happened, but from an in-ring perspective her departure is a shame. Ivelisse is an immensely talented wrestler who should be tearing it up on television week after week.

   

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