If you were hoping to see Victoria return at the 2020 WWE Royal Rumble, you were disappointed. If you believed the online leaks, you got played.
The 2020 Royal Rumble took place before the world changed as we knew it. Minute Maid Park in Houston played host to Edge's return, Drew McIntyre's win and much more. It didn't see a return of former WWE Women's Champion, Victoria.
In the weekend that preceded the Royal Rumble, several image "leaks" made their way online, suggesting that WWE was testing out TitanTron images for returning superstars. One of them was MVP, who did make his way back, and is still on WWE programming today. The other was Victoria, who hasn't been seen since 2009, and didn't appear on the show.
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Many speculated the leaks prevented the return, but that's not the case.
"I found out from social media as well. I was like, “What?” I go, “Maybe my titantron had a lot of coloring.” I don’t know, but maybe they did that to throw people off. I don’t know because it’s hard to keep a secret in wrestling. Something always leaks, you know what I mean? Which is a shame," she said.
Not only was Victoria absent from the Royal Rumble, she was nowhere near the city at that point!
"I was (just getting off) the Jericho Cruise. Yeah, I was in Miami. I was trying to stay off my phone because I wanted [to be] in the moment. I was visiting family, I was like, “We’re always glued to our phone,” and so I went back and I had missed a ton of e-mails, text messages, everything. I was like, “They must be testing out the coloring on their titantron because my picture came up there.” But, I was already in Miami, the following day I was going to go on the Jericho Cruise. So, I couldn’t," Victoria clarified, before complimenting the Jericho Cruise.
Social media exploded with speculation. To that point, the story behind the moment -- or lack thereof -- was the most requested heading into our interview. The former Tara in TNA never heard from anyone within WWE about why her Titantron graphic was used.
"No. Not in the company, no. Nuh-uh. Just on social media, just going, “Oh, you know…” I didn’t respond because I didn’t want to… I don’t know what to say ‘cause I don’t know the back scene because I’m not part of the company any more. So, I couldn’t tell you why they were testing it out," she closed.
Victoria, real name Lisa Marie Varon has moved on from wrestling, and on to Grown Ass Women TV. She, Mickie James and So Cal Val connect with their fans in a variety of different ways, on several different shows.
You can see our full interview with Lisa Marie Varon at the top of the page. Be sure to check out GAW TV on Twitter, Facebook, Patreon, Instagram and Youtube.