Miscommunication Leads to Unplanned Finish in Chelsea Green Vs Zelina Vega Match – The finish to Chelsea Green vs. Zelina Vega on the April 11 episode of WWE SmackDown was not what producers had originally planned. According to multiple sources within WWE, the match ended prematurely due to a legitimate miscommunication between Green and the referee.
The belief backstage is that Green simply did not hear the referee’s count reaching ten. As the referee completed the count, there was no choice but to call the countout as a shoot. WWE’s live television broadcast left no margin for improvisation once the count concluded.
One person close to the situation suggested that Green may have assumed the referee would restart the count once Vega was rolled back into the ring. Under that assumption, she continued to interact with the crowd and commentary team, unaware the original count was still active. When the referee reached ten, Green was caught off guard, and the bell rang, signaling an unscheduled finish.
There were no injuries involved, and the match was reportedly intended to go several minutes longer. Sources also noted that while the countout was not the planned finish, Vega was still booked to win, so the end result aligned with creative direction—just in a different form than initially scripted.
Importantly, no backstage heat was reported following the incident. One source summarized the situation by saying it was “just one of those things that happen when it’s live television being broadcast without a net.”
The outcome still set the stage for the six-woman tag team match announced for next week in Las Vegas, involving both Green and Vega.
Meanwhile, Green confirmed on April 12 that she’s officially retained legal counsel—and she’s not backing down.
“I HAVE HIRED MY LEGAL TEAM 🫡🇺🇸 @RealNickAldis,” Green wrote in a quote tweet aimed directly at WWE, tagging @LucaCrusifino, the kayfabe attorney who’s been appearing on NXT programming. The tweet included a formal legal document—styled like a real legal appeal—addressed to WWE management.
The letter, signed by Luca Crusifino, Esq., argues that Green’s April 11 count-out loss was “procedurally questionable and competitively unjust.” The complaint claims that the referee’s ten-count was delivered with “undue haste, deviating from accepted WWE cadence norms,” violating WWE Officiating Bylaw Section 7, Subsection C, Provision 4A. That rule, as stated in the document, requires that “all in-ring counts must be delivered at a steady and impartial tempo reflective of standardized officiating pace guidelines.”
Crusifino’s legal team is now demanding a full review of the match footage and is calling for remedial action, including a “mandatory counting cadence retraining course” for the referee involved.
The letter doesn’t stop there. “Should such discrepancies in officiating continue to jeopardize the competitive integrity of Ms. Green’s championship tenure, we will have no choice but to explore further legal remedies—including formal grievance filings and procedural injunctions.”
Green first made noise after her match with Vega by posting, “Filing an IMMEDIATE injunction against @wwe & the 10 count infringement they placed on their United States Champion.” The quote, paired with a salute and U.S. flag emoji, had fans wondering if she was serious. Turns out, she absolutely was.
With WrestleMania fallout still fresh and tensions running high on SmackDown, Chelsea Green just made it very clear that she’s not playing games when it comes to her title reign—or her legal rights.
Miscommunication Leads to Unplanned Finish in Chelsea Green Vs Zelina Vega Match
