Stratus reacts to Maxxine Dupri criticism, Mone’s contract reportedly upsetting AEW talent

– As previously noted, a video of Maxxine Dupri getting booed at a WWE live event went viral on Twitter/X. Several wrestlers including Rhea Ripley and Zelina Vega came to Maxxine’s defense.

During an interview with Slam Wrestling, Trish Stratus reacted to the criticism that Maxxine has received…

“I think these keyboard warriors have no idea what we do. I suffered it too. They were like, ‘Oh that (match) was crap.’ Well, you try it. I love that (the women) banded together. Because we all get it, we all go through it, we live it. It affects us, you know? We have feelings. So when people say something mean, it doesn’t feel that great. So it’s great that we can all use the platform of social media to (unite), and let (the critics) know that they can’t just talk s— and get away with it. I love that we can put them in their place,”

“I think that Maxxine is doing amazing. I think she’s being booked perfectly. I see similar parallels to the way I was booked early on. I believe I have this connection with the fans because of how I came up. I didn’t do the traditional upbringing. I didn’t come in trained, I didn’t do the indies or the ‘minor league’ so to speak. I literally learned on the road – I learned as I went, and everyone was along for the journey. They got to see me fall down. But they also got to see me stand up, dust myself off, and try again. I think she’s doing a great job. She’s athletic, she’s got a great look, she’s gorgeous. I think she’s the perfect underdog story. I think it’s going to turn around and people are going to click with her, and she’ll be around a long time. I would (encourage) her to use those negative words as her fuel. I hope she turns it into a fire so that she can go back to them and say ‘Look at what I did now.’ When I was getting criticized, when people were telling me I’d never succeed, my motivation was to become so good that people couldn’t help but notice. That drove me. Hopefully that can be her fuel as well.”

– Dave Melzter is reporting that there are women backstage at AEW who are ‘unhappy’ about the amount of money Tony Khan is paying Mercedes Mone simply because of ‘her name’,

The internal belief is that the women who have been there since day one and have shed blood for the company and helped build it aren’t getting even 10% of what Mercedes will be getting paid.

Melzter also reports that there are AEW ‘higher ups’ who aren’t impressed with Mone’s comments regarding her “certainly heading back to WWE one day” just weeks after she’d signed her AEW contract.