A 34-year-old wrestler has filed a legal appeal against the WWE over a supposed unjust action. The incident took place on the April 11 edition of Friday Night SmackDown from Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena in Washington.
WWE Superstar and inaugural Women’s United States Champion Chelsea Green is accusing referee Ryan Tran of having a lack of “rhythmic consistency.”
Chelsea Green accuses referee Ryan Tran of officiating her match against Zelina Vega with “undue haste”
Chelsea Green dropped her legal appeal on X (formerly Twitter), which states that referee Ryan Tran had officiated with “undue haste” and that he deviated from “accepted WWE cadence norms.” The appeal demands that he take a “counting cadence retaining course” from Green herself after he allegedly did not meet the expected standard on SmackDown.
NXT’s Luca Crusifino, who portrays a lawyer on-screen. Crusifino also acts as the fixer and “consigliere” to Tony D’Angelo’s The D’Angelo Family stable. Green hired him to take action. His legal team, The Crusifino Law Firm, sent the appeal against WWE for her mistreatment.
@Fightful spread the word pic.twitter.com/D8d2rSwQQ3
— CHELSEA GREEN (@ImChelseaGreen) April 12, 2025
The legal appeal also noted a lack of fair officiating should not affect Ms. Green’s US Title reign, taking this opportunity to make an example. This might be the best use of social media a WWE Superstar has made in recent memory, carrying the storyline forward with a rising NXT talent keeping kayfabe alive.
What was this unjust action that Chelsea Green fell victim to on WWE SmackDown?
Chelsea Green has found herself a new adversary in former LWO member Zelina Vega on SmackDown. The two locked horns on the Friday night show, without Green’s Secret Service being in her corner. During their match, the Women’s US Champ was complaining to the announcers after she threw Vega back in the ring.
Per PWInsider, she was not aware that referee Ryan Tran had continued counting. He ultimately had to award Vega the win because the show was live. The finish confused viewers and Green, who did not know what to make of the situation until it was announced that she got counted out.
Chelsea Green vs. Zelina Vega on #SmackDown ending in a count-out wasn’t the original plan, and the referee called for the count-out finish as a shoot.
The match was supposed to go a few minutes longer.
– per @PWInsidercom & @FightfulSelect pic.twitter.com/lbpOrpT9dW
— PW Chronicle (@_PWChronicle) April 14, 2025
According to the report, the match was planned to go longer. However, Zelina Vega walked away with the win in quick fashion, potentially setting up a future title match. Despite things not going as planned, the two stalwarts don’t have any heat from WWE higher-ups.
At the time of this writing, the Women’s US Champ does not have a match for WrestleMania 41, which is scheduled to emanate from Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas this weekend (April 19-20). As for Chelsea Green’s appeal, WWE is yet to comment on it.