Keith Lee is apparently frustrated with the way he has been used on WWE Raw since he returned last week on the post-Money In The Bank show. Lee was squashed by Universal Champion Bobby Lashley on last week’s show and was essentially used as a stepping stone for Lashley to get to his feud with Goldberg.
Last night on Raw, Lee lost to Karrion Kross. What is interesting about that match is that Kross was originally supposed to lose again last night Kross was booked to faced Jeff Hardy. Since Hardy is out of action after testing positive for COVID-19, the decision was made to have Lee take Hardy’s place and Kross was booked to get the win via submission.
Lee sent out some tweets yesterday that allude to his 7 months away from WWE TV. He has yet to say why he was gone for so long but he is indicating that he will speak out soon, sometime within the next couple of weeks. Bryan Alvarez noted on Wrestling Observer Live that Lee sent out a tweet about being squashed and then deleted it.
Alvarez said, “All I know is that yesterday, Keith Lee tweeted something which he later deleted which said something to the effect of “gone 7 months and virtually squashed my first two weeks back” or something like that. That one got deleted. Then he tweeted something else and he said, “I am just going to tell you the story myself. Give me a week or two.”
Prior to Lee’s removal from WWE TV in January, there were signs that Vince McMahon was starting to sour on him.
Back in December, Lee was booked to lose to The Miz in a singles match on Monday Night Raw. Plans changed and he was booked to lose to Miz and John Morrison in a handicap match.
Also in December, news broke that Vince McMahon threw a fit over the in-ring work of certain wrestlers and Keith Lee was on the list. It was also reported in December that Bruce Prichard was said to not be a fan of the way NXT wrestlers are trained and that Prichard “buries the way NXT trains talent.”
In February, it was reported that Vince McMahon was no longer on board with pushing Lee as a top star. One of the reasons listed was that Lee’s promos did not catch fire like others like Roman Reigns, Paul Heyman, Randy Orton, Edge, The Street Profits and Lacey Evans.
There was also a legal between WWE and Lee when both sides tried to trademark his name. On June 21, Lee’s attorney was sent a notice indicating that WWE attempted to file the trademark before him. WWE also had issues with their filing since the United States Patent and Trademark Office needed signed consent from Lee since that is his real name. WWE did not provide that consent to the USPTO.
Lee was scheduled to wrestle for the United States Championship at the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view in February but was pulled from that show and didn’t appear on WWE TV until last week.
On Wrestling Observer Live, Alvarez stated that he was given the impression that Lee was out of action due to a health issue. That may be the case but the way he’s been booked lately could be a result of McMahon losing confidence in him.
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