On September 10, WWE held an episode of SmackDown commemorating the 20-year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Zelina Vega's father died in the terrorist attacks on that day, and was even featured at the 9/11 memorial the next day; however, her match was cut from that episode of the show.
Fans wondered why that happened and expressed a lot of disappointment and anger online. Now, Vega herself has explained the situation and how WWE Chairman Vince McMahon dealt with it,
"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," she tells talkSPORT. "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."
"When it got cut, Vince called me and apologized 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."
Praising the fans for their support, Vega made it clear she's grateful to them and the fact they went to bat for her. However, she clearly isn't quite as upset as they were, and this feels very much like the end of the matter. WWE has certainly made it up to her in recent months, including by making her the winner of the Queen's Crown tournament that concluded at Crown Jewel in Saudi Arabia.
Here's are a couple of recent highlights from Vega's Instagram account: