Peyton Royce Facts: Journalist Dave Meltzer’s Body-Shaming Comments Slammed By WWE Star

Australian WWE star Peyton Royce snapped back at journalist Dave Meltzer on Wednesday for body-shaming her on a radio show, by suggesting that she was a “lot lighter” in the past.

“So what would you have me do Dave … starve myself? This is how nightmares for young women start. The females in your life must be proud,” Royce wrote.

Royce was lauded by a number of personalities from the Wrestling world for taking a stand against Meltzer’s criticism.

Here are a few facts about Royce:

1. Royce went to Westfield Sports High School — which was incidentally the same institution attended by her partner Billie Kay. Both of them form the famous duo The IIconics. While in school, Royce excelled in dancing before realizing she was interested in wrestling, Ring Inside Intel reported.

2. Although she was born in Australia and began her wrestling training there, she later moved to Alberta, Canada, to attend the Storm Wrestling Academy.

3. She was trained by Canadian professional wrestler Lance Storm. “Lance [Storm] has been amazing to me ever since I have done the camp back in 2012, he's always been such a big supporter and motivator. He is still always there for me up until this day," Royce told Wrestling Inc in an interview in May.

4. She participated in a number of independent wrestling promotions across both Australia and North America before signing with WWE in 2015.

5. Although Royce has managed to keep her personal life shielded from public scrutiny, she was rumored to be dating fellow wrestling star Tye Dillinger, who is a Canadian. The reported couple met in NXT, which is a professional wrestling brand within WWE. Despite being rumored to be dating for three years, the pair has never shared a picture of them together on social media. Both of them, however, used to share photos of the same miniature pinscher named Sheriff frequently.

6. One of the icons from her sport whom Royce idolizes is former American wrestler Eddie Guerrero. “I used to pray at night and tell him that I was going to do this for you because you gave me all these memories and all these feelings and I just wanted to give back to others the way you gave to me," Royce said about Guerrero.

Royce’s response came after a Twitter user posted a recording from the Aug. 9 episode of the Wrestling Observer Radio where Meltzer and co-host Brian Alvarez spoke about The IIconics, the duo of Royce and Kay in an unflattering light. The following is the transcript of the clip:

Meltzer: “I thought [The IIconics] had a thing in NXT, but on the main roster I don’t get a thing out of them. I don’t think their promos are really good, their wrestling isn’t good. I think even Peyton Royce’s transformation to look more attractive..I don’t know, I don’t want to say.

Alvarez: “She was more attractive on NXT?”

Meltzer: “I thought so, yes. To me, yes I would say so but that’s neither here nor there.”

Alvarez: “No one is saying she’s unattractive, by the way everybody.”

Meltzer: “I know, no shit. I didn’t say that at all. But she doesn’t stand out to me, when she was in NXT she did…. She was a lot lighter.”

Meltzer has since apologized for his demeaning words in a series of tweets. “I'd like to apologize to you. You are an exceedingly attractive woman. I do realize the lengths and pressures on women in the entertainment world to maintain unnatural looks at times and am glad you pointed this out,” he wrote in a tweet.

Another tweet said: “Again to everyone, I do want to apologize and I'm glad Peyton Royce sent her tweet because there was a valuable point there that we can all learn from.”

He also posted an extensive apology on the Wrestling Observer message boards.