What’s the story?
Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer has reported that Aiden English’s emotional outburst last week on SmackDown Live was intended as a dig at Mauro Ranallo. English lost a short match to Tye Dillinger leading to the outburst.
They later showed him sobbing backstage and running into Chris Jericho who told him “there’s no crying on Smackdown Live!”
In case you didn’t know...
English’s passion for acting started very early in his life. He acted in 20 stage productions by the age of 20. After graduating high school, English would attend Columbia College Chicago where he would further study acting.
The heart of the matter
The departure of Mauro gained a lot of mainstream attention when the rumour spread that JBL’s bullying was the catalyst. Bryan Alvarez from the Wrestling Observer didn’t agree with Meltzer by stating that he thinks the two situations have nothing to do with each other.
Alvarez could be right as this isn’t the first time that English has used this persona. English used The “Drama King” gimmick in NXT before forming The Vaudevillians with Simon Gotch.
What’s next?
With the reaction to English’s breakdown on social media, the WWE may feel like this gimmick could be a success. English could have another match on SmackDown Live this week where he loses in quick fashion and has another emotional outburst.
Author’s take
I still believe that bullying was the reason for Mauro’s exit from the WWE. In my opinion, the WWE settled with Mauro in exchange for his silence on the matter. With that said, I don’t think this was a dig at Mauro.
The WWE is very petty, at times, but I think this was furthering English’s “Drama King” character since Gotch’s release and not a dig at Mauro. I thought the Jericho and English segment last week was well done, and hopefully, they can build on that for English going forward.
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