Report On Keith Lee Health And Backstage Issues – During a recent PWTorch audio show, Wade Keller addressed some of his comments about Keith Lee and those who think that he is too harsh for saying that Lee needs to get in better shape. Keller made it clear that he likes Lee and what he has been reporting is what people who know Lee have told him.
“I’m not in the Keith Lee hater club,” Keller said. “I am his only friend because I’m not enabling him and acting like the reason that he hasn’t succeeded as much as he should is the fault only of Vince McMahon. It’s not, it’s on him. And this is from friends who care about him and who talked to me. If Keith Lee is wrestling, he’s in the ring wrestling putting his health and the well-being of his opponent on the line. If he’s cleared for that, he can be cleared to work out and get in shape. If the idea that he can’t possibly get in shape because he had COVID, and he might die, or he went through stress, then take some time and get in shape or don’t wrestle if you can’t. I mean, that’s not an argument.”
Keller continued, “Number two, all this predates COVID and what he went through, including the attitude issues that were going on that I heard about in NXT. I’m not making up the fact that Keith Lee did himself in through his own actions for years in the WWE system. And I’m not doing it because I’m out to hurt Keith Lee. Keith Lee’s career has not gone the way it should for reasons I’ve conveyed from what other people have told me who are not out to get Keith Lee, and there’s no incentive for them to say anything bad about him. They like him. One of them texted me after his match on Wednesday and was lamenting how he looked and his cardio…again, it wasn’t hateful. It wasn’t mean-spirited. This is somebody who likes him and was hoping they’d see a different Keith Lee.”
Keller then stated that sometimes it seems as if Vince McMahon gets blamed for everything even though the blame is misplaced some of the time.
“I feel like sometimes Vince gets blamed and every wrestler, whoever gets cut, it’s only Vince McMahon’s fault,” Keller said. “There is more information out there and my job is to ask around and provide it and I have. If you think I talk about it too much, fair enough, that that’s a whole different topic. But the idea that it’s all Vince’s fault, and everything I brought up is just irrelevant, I just think that’s silly.”
Keller also pushed back on the notion that Vince McMahon could have done more to push Lee. Keller said McMahon did see Lee as a star but Lee did things to derail his push.
Keller said, “And so the reality of the world Keith Lee lived in is he’s not in WWE anymore and it’s not because Vince McMahon didn’t see big things for him. It’s not that Vince McMahon didn’t want to make money with him. ”
Todd Martin pointed out that Vince McMahon is said to be a fan of Matt Riddle but he has him slotted in a comedy role. Keller doubled down about Lee not being pushed because of backstage issues.
“If everything is always someone else’s fault, and there’s no personal responsibility when it comes to the reality, fair or unfair, of what WWE wants from the wrestlers that they spend every week with dealing all the producers, all the fellow wrestlers, they’re at a point where it isn’t about creating the best roster and the best product. They don’t have a financial incentive.”
“I think Keith Lee would still be in WWE had he made some adjustments that he out of pride or stubbornness, or obliviousness or whatever didn’t do. I’m just conveying in good faith, what I think is a true story, which is, if he did do some changes, as other people have done, he’d still be there making money and being featured. And he didn’t. That’s not me dogging Keith Lee, that’s me conveying the facts of the case, which is he’d have a better career and maybe it remains to be seen in AEW.”
Keller continued, “I don’t think he asked to be released because he wanted to roll the dice in a different place. I think his goal was to have things go better in WWE, and I’m just reporting why they didn’t.”
Report On Keith Lee Health And Backstage Issues
