According to Dave Meltzer of The Wrestling Observer Newsletter, most people backstage in WWE were very surprised to hear of Rich Swann's arrest, as well as the details behind it. There were a few people though who knew Swann and his wife from working with them on the independent circuit and those people weren't too surprised by it because they knew that their relationship could be "combustible" at times.

Those people who knew them from the indies also reportedly noted that they were both in a bad place in their lives before they got together.