The Wrestling Thread.

Aaaaaand TNA Impact has been cancelled from Spike TV.

Just a rumor atm isn't it?

Nah, apparently it's not being renewed when the current deal expires in October.

While details are still coming in from various sources & wrestlers, the story going around this morning is that Del Rio slapped a Social Media Manager at this weeks television (Likely Raw, since he wasn't on Smackdown).

The lead up to the confrontation started in catering, when sombody (assuming a catering staff member) asked the person (the Social Media Manager) to clean off his plate. The social media manager then joked about how that's "Del Rios Job".

Alberto found out and confronted him. The Social Media Manager didn't apologize and then smiled at him, so Del Rio slapped him.

In the company, the belief is that Del Rio will have his 90 days non-compete clause as per standard in the WWE, which will prevent a move to atleast TNA and more than likely AAA. AAA will be very interested in him, as they continue interest in its U.S. growth.

Upon WWE releasing Alberto Del Rio on Thursday, Aug. 7, it has arguably been the hottest topic in the professional wrestling industry. Since then, many different reports and rumors have circulated on the matter. First, rumors, which would eventually be confirmed, swirled that Del Rio slapped a social media employee of WWE.

Word then got out that Del Rio was claiming everything was caused by racist comments from the worker. In turn, F4WOnline revealed that this was indeed the case. While in catering, WWE’s Social Media Manager allegedly said, “that’s Del Rio’s job,” when asked by a fellow employee to clean off his plate.

Upon the report from F4WOnline, the website’s message board began discussing what WWE employee this may have been. In turn, Dave Meltzer of the website would simply state, “Cody Barbierri.”

Since Meltzer came out with his identity, Barbierri has been receiving a plethora of tweets from the WWE Universe on his Twitter account, @CodyBarbierri. On his Twitter account, he identifies himself as the social media manger of live events for WWE. His LinkedIn page says the same.

UPDATE:

Shocking many in the professional wrestling world, WWE released Alberto Del Rio on Thursday, Aug. 7. The company stated that the former WWE Champion was released due to unprofessional conduct and an altercation with an employee. On the day he was released, rumours stating that Del Rio Slapped a social media worker began to swirl.

The following day, WWE issued a bizarre statement on the matter, on its Twitter account. Part of the statement read, “If you’re angry at anyone, be angry at Alberto.” What made the whole thing even more intriguing is that the statement was then retweeted by Triple H.

The situation is taking a bit of a strange turn, as F4WOnline has picked up on the alleged racist comments made Del Rio snap. The website is reporting that the whole ordeal started with an interaction between WWE’s Social Media Manager and another WWE employee in catering. The latter asked the social media employee to clean off his plate. This led to his alleged response of “that is Del Rio’s job.”

In turn, Del Rio found out about the comments, and confronted the social media staffer. He then reportedly refused to apologize, and simply smirked at Del Rio. Afterwards, this is supposedly when Del Rio slapping the employee across the face.

Source: WrestlingRumours.net