WWE News: Alex Riley Reportedly Has Backstage Heat with WWE Officials

Back during the summer, Alex Riley had one of the best turns we saw in the WWE in all of 2011.

After spending his entire career up to that point as a heel on both NXT and once on Monday Night Raw as The Miz’s sidekick, Riley finally snapped on an episode of Raw by attacking The Miz. In an instant, Riley was getting some very solid babyface reactions, and it appeared that he would be the next young face to get elevated to that upper mid-card or main-event scene.

Well, appearances can certainly be deceptive.

Once Riley’s feud with The Miz ended, he seemed to get completely lost in the shuffle. He almost never appears on Monday Night Raw, and all the momentum he once had is pretty much gone.

Now, we know why.

From the Wrestling Observer Newsletter (via SEScoops.com):

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Alex Riley is reportedly in the WWE doghouse. 

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When Riley first stopped appearing on TV, I thought to myself, “OK, it’s probably because the creative team hasn’t been able to come up with anything good for him since his feud with The Miz is now over.” 

I mean, Riley was never too good in the ring, but I found it hard to believe that the WWE would get a nice push going for this guy, only to stop putting him on TV shortly afterward. Now, I guess it makes sense that he has some backstage heat. 

Obviously, there’s no story on what Riley did or didn’t do that pissed WWE officials off, but no matter what happened, he might have committed career suicide. 

Just look at what’s happened to Jack Swagger since he reportedly got himself some heat around the end of 2010 and the beginning of 2011. He was a former World Heavyweight Champion, but he’s basically been a big joke over the last year or so.

And who can forget about Drew McIntyre? 

He developed a bit of a bad reputation in early 2010 that got him a ton of backstage heat, and then, the issues with his wife (Former WWE Diva Tiffany) certainly didn’t help things. Now, the guy who was once labeled as Vince McMahon’s “Chosen One” gets about as much TV time as I do. 

It remains to be seen if a similar fate awaits Riley, because the path he seems to be taking looks like it’s somewhere in between the ones of McIntyre and Swagger. 

If I’m Alex Riley, I hold my breath that it’s more like Swagger’s, so at least I could get on TV.