As noted Newell and Miranda Alize were scheduled to wrestle Anna Jay and Tay Melo on AEW Collision. However, plans changed suddenly, and the two walked out of the event. It was reported that they left the arena an hour before showtime after a disagreement over the creative direction of their match. Their departure led to a last-minute change in the lineup and raised more questions about backstage communication in AEW.
During a Twitch livestream on Sunday night, the former Tegan Nox addressed the backlash from the AEW Collision controversy, revealing that she’s now been receiving death threats from fans in response to the situation.
Below are some highlights from the livestream below:
On getting death threats: “It’s lovely waking up to death threats again for standing up for what we believe in and looking out for the company. I had multiple today. I got three today and it’s always with the IWC. So it is what it is.”
On being excited to wrestle TayJay:“We were excited to wrestle TayJay. We have a 6 or 7 hour drive. We get there, and we understand things happen. Our match was changed to Mariah and Megan, which is fine, but we were told pretty late in the day before Collision, like the second to last match of Dynamite before this match, which isn’t a lot of time. Then they come back and say it’s going to be a shorter match, which is okay, we’re just happy to have a match. So, we do the match, no problem, and first of all, I don’t know where this rumor of a disagreement, right, happened, I don’t know where that came from, because that didn’t happen at all. We said we appreciated the opportunity, no problem.”
On being at Wednesday’s AEW Dynamite TV tapings: “So, we turn up Wednesday, and we were there the entire night, and then after Dynamite finished, people were leaving, before ROH started, we asked if we have anything, and they said no, we can go home. So, we went home that day after Collision was finished. So we turn up Saturday, hanging around, not told anything until just after doors opened, ‘hey you guys are wrestling TayJay,’ — cool, we have a bunch of ideas ready. By the way, it was 3 minutes, nobody’s happy about 3 minutes, but we weren’t going ‘what the f***?’ But we were told that we were going to have a match of substance, because that match didn’t happen and stuff.”
“I asked if it was 3 minutes, and they said, ‘yep,’ Then after the promo we cut, we were asked to be a credible tag team, so that’s what we did. We decided as a couple, as wrestlers independently that 3 minutes isn’t going make anyone look good. As wrestlers, we want everyone to look good, so we said ‘we really appreciate it, but […] so we were polite, we were respectful, we called our producer over and said ‘hey I don’t think 3 minutes is going to benefit us, not just us but everyone in the tag team, so respectfully I think this should go to someone else who could benefit.’ It went to the other females, good for them, there is no bad blood. There was no ‘f*** you’ that’s all. We spoke to our producer about this, we spoke to others about it and they said that 3 minutes isn’t going to do anyone any good. They went and relayed that information and said we were free to go home. They texted us and told us to go, and if you’ve ever been to that venue, it’s tiny, it’s very, very tiny. So, we were given the go ahead to go home, so we got some food.”
On reports that she was pounding beers after walking out: “What pissed me off the most was how people said we were pounding beers, like I don’t do that on a daily basis — I like to drink. People can have the right for their opinion. I’ve been doing this 15 years, she’s been doing it 14, respectively. I said last year that this is my last two years in wrestling, and we’re already a year gone. I want to have fun this year. We spoke to all parties involved, and it is what it is.”
On the people involved knowing the truth: “It was all done respectfully. It was never an ego thing about 3 minutes. It was that it wasn’t going to be good for anyone in the match. There is more, but we’re not going to go into that. It is what it is. In reality, it is what it is. You guys can believe whatever you want to believe, the people involved know the truth. There are receipts, but we’re not going to show them, because there is no bad blood. I think the most important part for us both is that the people in this business who have a direct line to us have quickly called out the dirt sheets for — not attacking us, but it is what it is.”
