Zelina Vega tragically lost her father in the 9/11 attacks back in 2001, which is why many fans were outraged when her scheduled match on the September 11 SmackDown, 20 years after the attacks, was removed from the show.

Vega was slated to team with Carmella in a tag team bout against Liv Morgan and Toni Storm, but the match was removed from the show due to other segments, namely the match between Seth Rollins and Edge, going long.

The current Queen’s Crown winner recently spoke to Talk Sport about Survivor Series, where she spoke about her match getting removed from the show. She said that she didn’t feel like the match’s removal was personal, and that a lot of the anger was misguided.

She said:

“A lot of people were really upset, but I felt like a lot of the anger was misguided. I was disappointed, but I also knew it wasn’t a personal thing. If you knew, and obviously a lot of the fans don’t know that the show goes in an order, the way that it went timewise, it got too close and they had to cut it.

Vega continued on, noting that she got a phone call from Vince McMahon himself, who personally apologised to her for cutting the match from the show.

Vega added:

“When it got cut, Vince called me and apologised because he wanted to make sure that I knew ‘listen, this wasn’t done to you personally or anything, it was literally just this (the time), I had to make that call and I’m so sorry.’ And people don’t know that side either. I love and appreciate my fans so, so much. I wish I could just squish their little faces. Because sometimes people can feel like they’re part of the machine and it’s no big deal and the fans probably don’t give a crap, but the outpouring of love I felt that day – and a bunch of other days to – is incredible. Without the fans we’d literally be nowhere. Just know it wasn’t something done personally to me. To have a boss to care enough to call you and go ‘look I’m sorry’, that’s important.”

Zelina went on to win the inaugural Queen’s Crown tournament in Saudi Arabia two months later, and is now scheduled to be a part of Raw’s Women’s team at tonight’s Survivor Series.

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• apology
• Smackdown
• Zelina Vega
• Vince McMahon

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