There was a major update on the Neville-WWE situation this morning from Mike Johnson of PWInsider.com. You can read the original report at this link, but here are the condensed highlights:
- The original report stated that Neville walked out at Monday Night Raw this past week. That is NOT the case. Neville wasn’t at Raw and didn’t work any of the weekend house shows. He was replaced by Mustafa Ali in matches against Enzo.
- The original plan for Raw was to have Neville face Enzo, but in a non-title match. The decision was made to replace Neville with Kalisto when they realized Neville would not be at the show. Also, it was Eddie Guerrero‘s birthday. Eddie was a real-life inspiration to Kalisto so they wanted to work it into the show.
- Neville has been pushing for his release so he could work the independent scene the way that Drew McIntyre did to build up his name across the world. The report notes that New Japan would be thrilled to have Neville back.
- Neville has apparently been unhappy with a number of things in WWE, including being left off the WrestleMania 33 DVD. Neville defended the WWE Cruiserweight Championship against Austin Aries on the pre-show at WrestleMania 33 in one of the best matches of the night. Since the match wasn’t on the DVD, Neville didn’t receive royalties from any DVD sales. WrestleMania is always among the top-selling WWE DVD’s of the year.
- WWE still has Neville under contract, but he is not factored into future plans & will not be working live event. There is always the possibility that the two sides can come to an agreement.
This report debunks some rumors & clarifies others. We will keep you posted with more information as we find out.