At AEW’s Forbidden Door event, Stephanie Vaquer impressed the world with her performance and this got her on WWE’s radar, ultimately leading her to signing with WWE. However, it appears both CMLL and NJPW are upset over the way she joined WWE without fulfilling her obligations.
As reported earlier, CMLL announced that Stephanie Vaquer officially parted ways with the promotion and NJPW. Vaquer chose to relinquish both the CMLL Women’s Tag Team Championship and the CMLL Women’s Championship, citing personal reasons that also prevented her from participating in FantasticaMania.
It was then confirmed that Stephanie Vaquer officially signed contract with WWE and will be heading to Orlando shortly to begin her WWE training. However, not everyone is happy with how things were handled.
While speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio, CMLL was upset with Vaquer’s abrupt departure just before a scheduled event in San Jose, CA. Despite their willingness to let her go to WWE, CMLL expected her to honor her commitments and drop titles as agreed upon. Vaquer’s decision not to follow through upset CMLL, who felt WWE hadn’t handled the situation properly.
“When she had told them (CMLL), they basically asked her and said you know ‘we won’t stand in your way or anything like that, if you want to go you can go, but just do business the right way’. She’s got the tag titles in CMLL, she’s got the CMLL singles title, and it was basically go to San Jose, where she’s been advertised for months and drop the title there, drop the tag title, we’ll do a farewell. And the feeling was, that they expected that of her and basically told her ‘look they want you (WWE) and they may not want you to do that, but you haven’t signed yet so you can just tell them, I want to go out the right way’. Then on Monday when she signed, she told them that Tuesday, which was last night in Guadalajara (July 9) was her last night, and she wouldn’t be coming to Arena Mexico on Friday, she wouldn’t do any of the dates – she’s got dates all over the world. The idea was to come to San Jose and drop the title and she didn’t do that. CMLL was very upset over her, you know because of what happened, and also they had never been targeted in this way by WWE.
Similarly, NJPW was also displeased because Vaquer was prominently advertised for an upcoming event, with her departure affecting their plans and credibility. AEW, which had made an offer to Vaquer, was disappointed she chose WWE instead. Meltzer noted that while WWE was Vaquer’s desired destination, the manner in which she left was met with criticism and disappointment from all parties involved.
“New Japan was very upset because when they first announced the show in San Jose she was in the first batch of people announced, and they have been advertised for months. It’s kind of like their basic thing is ‘you’ve been advertised for months for this show, in a championship match and then five days before the show you pull out, and you’re the champion’. AEW wasn’t happy because they did want her and they made an offer to her, but she went with WWE. That’s the place she wanted to go, but how it happened was not well received.”
We have also reported the likely date for Stephanie Vaquer’s WWE debut, which could be as early as this weekend. Nonetheless, some fans feel bridges have been burned over this move but Vaquer chose what was best for her and that’s all that matters.
What do you think of the way Stepanie Vaquer handled the entire situation with CMLL and NJPW? Should she have fulfilled her obligations first? Let us know in the comments section below!