As noted, two-time AAA Reina de Reinas Champion Taya Valkyrie was recently a guest on Talk Is Jericho. Among other things, Valkyrie talked about the controversy surrounding her being stripped of the Reina de Reinas title and feeling “backstabbed” by Vampiro. Also, Chris Jericho weighed in on Sexy Star allegedly shooting on Rosemary.
In April, Taya defeated Ayako Hamada to regain the Reina de Reinas title in a gruelling and bloody street fight.
“I won the title in probably one of my favorite matches and most intense matches I’ve ever had in my [pro wrestling] career versus Ayako Hamada.” Valkyrie continued, “Vampiro comes out [after the match], says all this stuff, calls us back to the ring, it’s big, emotional stuff, and people are throwing money in the ring. It’s craziness. I go backstage and I’m just out of my mind and like, ‘oh my God! What just happened?’ and it was crazy.”
Shortly after winning back the Reina de Reinas title, Taya was involved in a car accident and was unable to compete in the squared circle. ‘La Perra del Mal’ claimed that she was duped into returning the title to AAA as AAA personnel was not upfront with her about supposedly wanting to set up an angle. Adding insult to injury, Taya found out about being stripped of the championship on social media.
“I later found out because John was going there for TV, Johnny Mundo, John Morrison, John Hennigan, my fiancé, was told, he was invited to come to TV because he’s their Triple Crown Champion right now. So they said, ‘can you bring Taya’s belt because we want to shoot some stuff backstage with it?’ Yeah, and of course, I said, ‘of course, you can take my belt!’ I don’t care about the belt – it’s not about that, so he brought the belt and he called me that night after the show and I was like, ‘so are you bringing all the belts back with you and stuff?’ because we also wanted to do some shoots with them because we’re both the champions of the company! The power couple! And he goes, ‘oh no, they didn’t let me take yours.’ And I was like, ‘what? What the hell is going on?’
“Immediately, I texted Dorian [Roldan Peña], who is… his family owns AAA. And he’s like, ‘oh, just wait, just wait.’ Do you know what I mean? Me and Dorian have always had a really good working relationship. I’ve never had problems with him. I love his mom who passed away also this year. They were like my family down there! They totally looked out for me and stuff. And then, the next day I woke up to find out that I had been stripped of my title, which Vampiro announced on social media. So I found out over social media that I had been stripped of my title. Not a phone call, not a message, not an email. I’m glued to my cell phone. You can text me anytime and I’ll answer you right away. Not a big deal. They told me that the angle they were trying to use was it was an illegal choke that I used to win, but I was congratulated on my win because that makes zero sense. And it was a no-DQ [match], so tell me how that makes sense. If this is all storyline, make something that in my opinion makes sense.”
Taya added, “if I couldn’t go there to defend it, I was totally ready to, like, make a video [and] make up some heelish way of saying, ‘screw this – I don’t want to come down there.’ There [were] a million ways this whole situation could’ve been handled!”
Taya went on to say that she felt “disrespected” by AAA and extended her well wishes to the company and everyone currently affiliated the Mexican lucha libre professional wrestling promotion.
“I just felt very disrespected because I was like, ‘they did that to me in that way’. And everyone’s like, ‘just calm down – it’s just part of the thing’ and I’m like, ‘if this is what it is and it is part of an angle, then why isn’t anybody talking to me?’ A lot of people know this, that a lot of people left AAA in the last year. All of my friends left AAA in the last year because they had problems with the office, they just didn’t feel they were getting paid enough, just different things. Everyone has their own reason and I stuck behind them.”
Taya said, “I think the championship thing really bothered me because I take it so seriously. I’m so passionate about how much work I had to do to get that. And moving beyond that, that chapter for me has closed or has paused for now and that’s fine. Good luck to the girls that are there. Good luck to the company. Good luck to everybody. And I don’t want to speak poorly of a company that gave me an opportunity, but it was s–tty what happened and I’m just moving forward and appreciating everything a little bit more still.”
Taya shared that she felt “backstabbed” when Sexy Star was brought back to AAA and Vampiro untruthfully announced that Taya no-showed.
“To later on find out that they brought back Sexy Star who had left on bad terms with the company a year-and-a-half earlier, just to have a weird match where then Vampiro got in the ring and said that I didn’t show up for my booking, like I didn’t show up to the show. No, I was not booked. I couldn’t even go! Do you know what I mean? And I get it, like, making a story and stuff, but it just wasn’t built the right way in my opinion.”
Taya continued, “Sexy Star becomes the new Reina de Reinas Champion and it all just seemed a bit weird to me. I’m not going to get into too many details, but it just seemed suspicious and it just made me feel like I was backstabbed. It made me feel like I wasn’t important anymore after that long. All-of-a-sudden, it seems like I don’t even exist. Do you know what I mean? So there were ways of doing it and I just felt it wasn’t done the right way.”
Apparently, Taya does not know where she stands with AAA; however, she has a contract with the company.
“I don’t know where I stand right now with AAA. I’m taking time off from Mexico. I needed some time off. I’m very happy right now doing my stuff and planning my life. I’ve never been in a better place in my personal life. I’m planning a wedding for the spring.” Taya explained, “I do have a contract with them. I continue to have a contract with them. I’ve just chosen that I need some time to breathe and stuff. I feel like a lot of things need to be discussed because I’m just not happy with the way this all went down and I don’t like the way it made me feel more than anything.”
Taya stated that Vampiro published nasty things about her on social media, but hopes that he has learned to treat talent better. ‘The Lucha Queen’ was pleased that John Morrison stood up for her as ‘The Pro Wrestler With The Most John-Based Nicknames’ is not naturally confrontational. Additionally, Taya divulged that she felt like Vampiro did not have her back in the situation.
“[Vampiro]’s ruffling some feathers and John did ultimately stand up for me, which if anyone else knows John, he’s the nicest person too, for him to say what he said on Twitter was a big deal because he doesn’t talk like that to people. But Vampiro went online and said some really horrible things about me, which he then deleted. And then, he apologized on his Facebook page, and then, deleted it. And then, apologized to me in person, at Comic-Con and I just don’t like holding grudges. This is work at the end of the day. I don’t have to like someone to work with them, but I will always take the higher road because this is my livelihood and my life. I just thought he didn’t handle this professionally. And if you’re supposed to be the person representing the talent, you shouldn’t talk about them like that and I think he realizes that now. I hope he realizes that now. I really thought that… he’s also a Canadian in Mexico. I just felt that the Mexican culture is very patriotic and they all stand together and he was the one Canadian that I really thought would have my back and I felt like he didn’t have my back, so I just felt like s–t basically.”
Also, during the podcast, Jericho himself had some choice words for Sexy Star and banned the luchadora from TIJ for life.
“If that’s true, Sexy Star, you’re a sexy piece of s–t and so is anybody that books you from now on. [In pro] wrestling you’re giving each other your body. There’s a lot of trust and to do something malicious like that, on purpose, I don’t care what the circumstances are – that’s just bad, bad news, man. I don’t know where her mind is at. I’ve never met her. At this point, I don’t think I want to. Sexy Star, you are now going to have a lifetime ban from Talk Is Jericho. Sexy Star is banned from Talk Is Jericho for life. There you go. That’s my little piece of the pie. That’s what I say about that.”
Sources: WrestlingINC and Talk Is Jericho
