Details On Lilian Garcia’s Current WWE Status With Her Comments

You might have noticed that WWE ring announcer Lilian Garcia has not been on WWE television lately. Her last appearance being before WWE’s Payback pay-per-view event on May 1. Lilian’s been absent from television due to a family emergency she had to attend to. Lilian noted this through Twitter in addition to being excited about returning to Raw this Monday. ProWrestlingSheet.com is reporting that her family emergency is her father being sick with cancer and that WWE has been constantly checking in on her.

Sorry 4 my silence but have been dealing w a family emergency which is why I wasn't @ Payback & #Raw. Hope 2 be bk nxt Mon. Thks 4 tweets😘

— Lilian Garcia (@LilianGarcia) May 6, 2016

TY all 4 prayers concerning my sick family member. Prayers have worked & they r doing much better! I look forward 2 being bk w u nxt Mon 😘

— Lilian Garcia (@LilianGarcia) May 12, 2016

With that said, many internet readers thought Lilian was released from the company due to former WWE writer Court Bauer recently stating on MLW Radio that she was quietly released last week. When Bauer was asked about Lilian’s recent tweets about being back on Raw, he said that he confirmed Lilian’s release with someone within WWE before he came on MLW Radio. With this news from ProWrestlingSheet, it looks like Bauer’s statement on Lilian’s release was incorrect. Although, just because his statement was not fully true doesn’t mean it’s not partially true. Lilian may in fact be leaving WWE soon, but when her contract expires.

Mike Killam of WrestleZone.com has claimed that Lilian was not released (as ProWrestlingSheet’s report supports), but WWE does not plan on renewing her contract once it expires. As far as Lilian’s contract goes, she has noted during previous interviews that it expires in 2017; which is likely January 2017 since she renewed her last WWE contract in January 2014.

On Saturday afternoon, Lilian posted this lengthy message on her Facebook page.

Imagine my surprise today when I woke up to find out that I was among the top trends in the world on twitter! What for, I said to myself….wait, does that say “Lilian Garcia released from WWE”?? That’s when I knew I had to set the story straight. As you know, I have been absent from TV for the past few weeks missing “WWE Payback” & two “WWE Monday Night Raw’s”. I mentioned on twitter that it was due to a family member being ill. Well, that family member is my father. He has been battling bladder cancer and multiple Myeloma (blood cancer) and due to a reaction to the chemotherapy, he became very ill these past two weeks. On top of that, he had to go into two emergency procedures on his kidneys. To say he has had it tough is an understatement. However, he is a retired Lieutenant Colonel from the US Army, being a Veteran from the Korean and Vietnam Wars, so his spirit is that of a fighter. I am so inspired by how he has taken on this disease and continues to battle it with all his might. He has allowed me to share this story as he hopes his journey will inspire anyone else who is battling cancer. Luckily he is doing much better now and gearing up for a new treatment next week. As you can imagine, my entire family has been through a rollercoaster of emotions and cherishing all the time we have with him. I truly believe in the power of prayer and ask all of you to please pray for him and also my mother. They have been married for 62 years, so you can imagine the bond they share together.

Mark’s reaction: Lilian was signed by WWE in 1999 and aside from a brief two year absence from 2009 – 2010, has served the company faithfully for 15 years. I always thought Lilian was a solid ring announcer, but I was never in love with her style of ring announcing like I was with The Fink.

Working with WWE for 15 years is something she should be very proud of. From reading Lilian’s tweets and this news from Wrestlezone about her contract expiring soon, it makes more sense that WWE would just not renew her contract when the time comes. I assume this will happen because WWE wants to have younger, fresher voices behind the mic. Similar to the reasoning WWE gave for releasing Sandow, Barrett and a bunch of others last week, they probably feel like it’s time to change things up. Believe it or not Lilian will be turning 50 years old this August (still looks great), so there’s nothing wrong with wanting new blood doing the ring announcing.

WWE currently has Eden, Jojo and Greg Hamilton (the NXT announcer that is working on the main roster now), so they don’t really need/rely on Lilian as much as they use to. If this is indeed her last months with the company, then thanks Lilian for you service to WWE and good luck with everything you do in the future! Also, TJRWrestling hopes the best for your sick father.

Picture used above is courtesy of WWE.com.