WWE Rumors: Company Is Reportedly Unhappy With Top Celebrity Over Upcoming AEW Appearance

As confirmed on this week’s edition of AEW Dynamite, rapper Snoop Dogg will be making a special guest appearance on the show’s January 6, 2021, episode, making him the latest big-name celebrity to do so. Given his past background with WWE, however, it appears that the company isn’t too pleased by his upcoming spot on the rival promotion’s weekly program.

As quoted by WrestlingNews.co, Bryan Alvarez recently revealed on Wrestling Observer Radio that certain people within WWE were surprised to learn of Snoop’s upcoming Dynamite appearance. He added that he knows there are people in the company who are “very upset” by this move, even if he does not have a contract with Vince McMahon’s promotion and is actually “part of the Turner family.”

“He’s the host of the show that Cody was doing, the game show. So obviously that is the tie in. It’s the same way they got Shaq.”

Alvarez was referring to Go-Big Show, a program co-hosted by Snoop and Cody Rhodes that is set to premiere on TBS on January 7. He also made mention of Shaquille O’Neal’s guest spot on this week’s episode of Dynamite, which saw him and Brandi Rhodes interviewed backstage by announcer Tony Schiavone, as recapped by Comic Book. The basketball legend currently works as an analyst on TNT’s Inside the NBA.

As noted by WrestlingNews.co, Snoop has had a long history with WWE, particularly since he has appeared multiple times on its weekly shows and pay-per-views to support his cousin, reigning SmackDown Women’s Champion Sasha Banks. The rap legend has also taken part in various backstage and in-ring segments, including one where he and Hulk Hogan had a flex-off with Curtis Axel on a 2015 episode of Monday Night Raw. Thanks to his long relationship with the promotion, he was inducted into the celebrity wing of the WWE Hall of Fame in 2016.

This isn’t the first time in recent weeks that AEW has reached some sort of deal with someone who was previously associated with WWE for several years. Although Sting was mostly associated with the now-defunct World Championship Wrestling (WCW) — a company whose shows aired on TNT in the 1990s and early 2000s — he started working for McMahon in late 2014 and became a Hall of Famer in 2016, months after suffering a career-ending injury. On December 2, he made his big debut for AEW, and reports have since gone into detail regarding the reasons why “The Icon” spurned WWE’s offer to re-sign him earlier this year.