WWE News: WWE Puts Underage High School Student In The Ring On ‘Monday Night Raw’
WWE has some rather young talents on their roster and many of them in NXT, but there is a bit of heat coming the company’s way after putting an underage kid in the ring. On this past week’s episode of Monday Night Raw, Nia Jax was in a match and essentially squashed a developmental talent. Most times, no-one puts much thought into these types of matches, but it received a lot more attention once it was revealed that her opponent was a high school female.
As recapped by the official website of WWE, Nia Jax received a match against Asuka at the Elimination Chamber, but she had another match first. The match was against a local talent by the name of Vanessa Floyd, and even WWE called her “poor” and said the match was really nothing more than a tune-up for Nia Jax.
According to Mike Johnson of PW Insider, by way of Body Slam, Floyd’s real name is Savanna Stone and she is more than just a developmental talent. Floyd is actually a high school student who is no more than 17-years-old and she was put into the ring with one of the top talents on Monday Night Raw.
Floyd is no stranger to the ring, though, as she works on the independent circuit and has for quite some time. She has wrestled in a number of promotions and is the women’s champion of Zero1 USA. She was trained by Mike Elgin and booked to work the National Wrasslin’ League in January.
It’s not like WWE really did anything wrong, but some people may object to having a 17-year-old high school student wrestling veterans such as Nia Jax. Then again, putting Vanessa Floyd/Savanna Stone in the ring isn’t the first time that WWE has had underage talent wrestling established superstars.
Apparently, once Floyd’s real age was realized, it caused a bit of a “scuttle” backstage. As stated by Body Slam:
“PWInsider’s Mike Johnson is reporting that there may have been some sort of scuttle backstage at this week’s RAW regarding the enhancement talent Vanessa Floyd who was used in-ring in a squash match against Nia Jax. Apparently, the issue was over the fact that Floyd is only 17 years old.”
It’s not entirely known if WWE found out Floyd’s age before or after the match.
Terry “Bam Bam” Gordy made his in-ring debut at the age of 14. In the summer of 1994, a 17-year-old Jeff Hardy wrestled against Razor Ramon (Scott Hall) on Monday Night Raw.
Razor Ramon Meets Jeff Hardy on Raw pic.twitter.com/h41kOw7hgt
— Steven Breech (@Steviebreech) October 20, 2017
There have been a number of other wrestlers who were in the ring before their 18th birthday, but times have truly changed. WWE may or may not end up having to explain why 17-year-old Vanessa Floyd aka Savanna Stone was in the ring against Nia Jax on Monday Night Raw, but only time will tell. For now, the company still has mentions of the match on their website and is just moving on.
