On Monday’s episode of WWE Raw, Xia Li wrestled her first match on TV in months when she took on Candice LeRae, but it only lasted one minute as the match ended unexpectedly when the referee called it off.
It happened when Li connected with a combination of a knee strike and a spin kick with LeRae going down, looking like a legitimate KO due to how weird it looked. Indi Hartwell checked on LeRae as trainers ran down as well to check on her.
While speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer noted LeRae is fine and the stoppage was part of an angle.
Bryan Alvarez: “Well, getting old is better than Candice versus Li because they went a minute and then they did a KO finish. But it’s like they want to do the KO finish, but they don’t even do it right. It’s like she gets hit with the kick and she goes down and she’s dead and the referee is looking at her.”
Meltzer: “I thought that Candice did a great job.”
Alvarez: “Candice did a great job. But the referee’s like, hold on, step back.”
Meltzer: “I think they wanted to make it look like she had no idea what was going on. And it’s awkward.”
Alvarez: “As a referee, you should know that people can get knocked out and like it’s your job to stop the f**king match. Not let them get yanked up as a corpse and then just push the other person back again.”
Meltzer: “No, no, I mean, they all did what they were supposed to do. You know, it’s like, I think that they wanted to make it look awkward, but by doing so, it just felt like the referee was completely incompetent.”
Alvarez: “And if you want to do the knockout finish, you can do a knockout finish that’s like you got first. You got to educate the crowd because these fans were not ready for this. They booed like crazy. And then you also have to not make it look awkward. It’s like if someone gets hit with a kick and they sell it as they’re knocked out like the KO finish.”
Meltzer: “When she got up, she was all wobbly. That’s like the perfect time to just say stop it.”
Alvarez: “But the ref didn’t. She got up wobbly, and she fell down.”
Meltzer: “It’s like she fell down. And then the referee’s like starting to take time. Yeah. It looks stupid.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article, please credit F4WOnline.com with an h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription. An F4WOnline.com subscription includes the Wrestling Observer Newsletter and daily audio shows in addition to thousands of hours of archived audio shows.
