What’s the story?
This week on SmackDown Live, The Usos faced The New Day in a rap battle, officiated by rap musician, Wale. While The New Day emerged victorious in the contest, The Usos made a snide reference that has become the talking point of the professional wrestling world right now.
In case you didn’t know...
WWE Superstar Paige was the unfortunate victim of a cyber crime as compromising pictures and videos of her were leaked by an anonymous hacker, in addition to several other mainstream superstars, a few months ago. In one of the videos, she is allegedly seen in an intimate situation with current New Day member Xavier Woods.
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While Paige is out nursing an injury at the moment, WWE has made subtle hints to this incident in the past (Big E and Kofi gave Woods knowing glances immediately following the scandal) without directly referencing the leaks. Until now.
The heart of the matter
The Usos and The New Day engaged in a back and forth verbal joust with each team taking personal shots against the other. At one point, The Usos dropped the following lines upon their record-breaking opponents:
“Yo Big E, let's just keep it PG, you know what’s good/Just don’t get all Rated-R like your boy, Xavier Woods.”
At this point, the crowd was stunned at the audacity of the otherwise family-friendly program and they gasped. The rap battle continued with many other personal jabs at subjects like how Jimmy Uso was irrelevant before Naomi got him on Total Divas and conversely, The Usos alluded to Kofi Kingston's Jamaican accent.
What’s next?
It is unlikely that WWE will go back to this in any future programming and drop references to this shocking scandal on a weekly basis. What is heartening to note is that WWE is willing to push the boundaries of PG programming, and we wonder how far they will go, to make the product more entertaining.
Author’s take
This is pure speculation but we wonder if this reference is the direct result of Paige being seen at an Impact Wrestling event (featuring her boyfriend Alberto El Patron), even though she is still with WWE at the moment.
Paige is an asset and she’s still officially a WWE superstar, as of today. WWE would miss out on a golden opportunity to create a new star if they bury her in this manner, on WWE television.
