What’s the story?
On a recent edition of the Minneapolis’ 93X Half-Assed Morning Show, WWE Superstar Curtis Axel weighed in on the LaVar Ball segment that transpired on this week’s episode of Monday Night RAW.
Axel explained that although the segment may have been funny, it wasn’t exactly ‘child-friendly’ per se. He elucidated that the WWE now generates a PG-13 product and aims to deliver content that’s suitable to be viewed by people of all ages including children.
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Axel is a third-generation professional wrestler and explained that for the Ball family to go on live TV and cut an outlandish promo- including a racist term said by 15-year-old LaMelo Ball- was outlandish, and not something that wasn’t a part of the WWE’s script.
Curtis Axel was quick to express his displeasure on Twitter before this interview as well.
In case you didn’t know...
The WWE is no stranger to having celebrities appear on its shows, given the fact that several international mainstream stars such as Donald Trump, Stephen Amell, Mike Tyson and Shaquille O’Neil have appeared on WWE programming in the past.
The Ball family comprises popular basketball personalities and has been making headlines as of late owing to Lonzo Ball’s recent signing with the LA Lakers.
The heart of the matter
LaVar, Lonzo and LaMelo Ball appeared on Miz TV this past Monday on RAW, in a segment that saw LaMelo utter a racist term on the microphone while the show was being broadcast live on TV.
The Ball family segment has apparently received negative reviews from the professional wrestling community, with a few Superstars such as Baron Corbin criticising the Ball family’s performance in the said segment. Here’s what Curtis Axel had to say regarding the same:
“Yeah, I was watching it backstage and I was embarrassed. Growing up in the family business like this and seeing some guy… the whole family to me. Granted, you know the kid’s gonna be a superstar or whatever but the dad and the other guy, they do this on a program where my family’s busted their ass- it embarrasses me and it pisses me off. It sucks. They went off on their own and did whatever they did to hype themselves up, so I was disgusted with the whole thing.” [Quotes courtesy: wrestlingnews.co]
What’s next?
As of the time of this writing, there are no immediate plans for the WWE to collaborate with the Ball family as regards the latter making on-screen appearances on WWE’s main TV shows.
Author’s take
The Ball family has been hogging the spotlight as of late owing to a few controversial statements made by LaVar Ball. Nevertheless, the WWE seems to have made the best use of the Ball family’s ongoing hype. However, it’s best that the company refrain from using the family on its main show i.e. RAW from this point moving forward.
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