A former NXT and IMPACT Wrestling star is scheduled for a court appearance on January 3 following a DUI charge she received back in May 2023.

Kimber Lee, real name Kimberly Frankele, will be appearing in court due to a DUI and Resisting an Office with Violence and Battery on a Law Enforcement Officer. Frankele pled not guilty to all charges back in July and she waived her right to a speedy trial.

Lee, 33, reportedly was described to have “blood shot watery eyes, and she slurred as she spoke,” when Officer Roberts pulled her over. According to Roberts, Lee kept “Forgetting why and asked me several times when (sic) I was messing with her.” She also was very difficult with handing over her driver’s license, tried to leave the premises, which ultimately led to Lee striking Roberts after he tried to handcuff her.

Roberts decribed the incident as follows:

“[Kimber Lee] began kicking me in the chest and in my face, busting my lip and the gums in my mouth. At one point, the subject grabbed the cell phone and after I removed it from her hands and after I removed it from her hands, again I tried to place the restraints on her, and she my left hand twice hard enough to break my skin a (sic) bleed from it.”

Lee was a member of NXT from 2016 to 2018 before making her way to IMPACT as she became an accomplice to Deonna Purrazzo before teaming with Su Yung. She announced her retirement from wrestling back in May.

Several wrestlers are upset with Combat Zone Wrestling for how they treat and portray their female wrestlers. Recently, the company has been running PPVs featuring matches from previously held CZW events. Several PPV events featuring women’s wrestling matches have been given titles such as “CZW Girlz: Top Heavy & Tough” and “Hot & Sweaty Combat.”

Several wrestlers have spoken out about the naming of these shows and how the female talent are being portrayed.

I never publically bash CZW but this is just terrible. I’m embarrassed that my name is attached to these “PPV’s” I doubt I have any legal right to get my name off there. This is gross. The CZW office should be ashamed. I’m sorry to the ladies and that have to deal with this. https://t.co/Dtolvb0eDR

— RSP ????????????? (@RickeyShanePage) May 13, 2020

LuFisto published the below video directed at CZW:

“I am a very proud professional wrestler,” LuFisto says in the video. “Lately, CZW, Combat Zone Wrestling, has been promoting us as soft-core porn actresses. I’m a professional wrestler, I’m not a cat fighter, I’m not a sweaty girl getting involved in dirty fights. Although I am top-heavy and a very proud bottom-heavy girl, nothing gives them a right to promote me as such. That’s not what I signed up for.”

The full video can be viewed below:

CZW Issues Statement

Combat Zone Wrestling has since issued a statement that they entered into an agreement with a media distributor who is able to name the PPVs whatever they want. CZW said they stand behind the ring action in all their footage. It sounds as though they signed away their right to have anything to do with the branding of the shows.

Combat Zone Wrestling's Official Statement on PPV Titles. pic.twitter.com/ikY9FLbjBm

— CZW: Combat Zone Wrestling (@combatzone) May 19, 2020

Jordynne Grace and Kimber Lee Comment

“And I’m certain I NEVER signed an agreement giving you the right to sell my intellectual property…. nor did ANY of the women you’re blatantly disrespecting. Or how you told us all you wouldn’t book us if you wouldn’t f**k us. It’s about time the harassment gets exposed,” Kimber Lee Tweeted.

Impact Knockouts Champion Jordynne Grace issued the following response to the statement released by CZW:

https://twitter.com/JordynneGrace/status/1262549791575334918

Ava Everett released a statement regarding the matter and Jordynne Grace replied that she is sorry she didn’t speak up earlier.

https://twitter.com/JordynneGrace/status/1262754723678916608

More comments were made in the replies section of various threads on the subject.

https://twitter.com/JordynneGrace/status/1262552368819961856

Or forcing girls to share hotels with him and cuddle with him……. ?

— “The Bad Boy” Joey Janela (@JANELABABY) May 19, 2020

https://twitter.com/Kimber_Lee90/status/1262778565050990596

27-year-old Kimberly Frankele is better known to wrestling fans as Kimber Lee. The former Chikara Grand Champion was released from her WWE contract earlier this year and has since returned to the independent scene.

Ahead of her participation in this weekend’s “the Northern” tournament with Smash Wrestling in Toronto, Kimber Lee spoke with Slam! Sports. During the interview, Kimber Lee spoke about her time in WWE developmental and her career on the independents.

Kimber Lee Interview Highlights

Kimber Lee was asked about the difference between the independent circuit and the year she spent in WWE developmental.

“When you’re on the independent circuit your schedule really depends on yourself,” she said. “If there are three [NXT] shows on the weekend you can work one or none at all.”

“When I first started at NXT I didn’t get to travel as much, I mainly stayed in Florida and trained a lot,” Kimber Lee continued. “I got to work with trainers like Robbie Brookside and Norman Smiley.”

https://twitter.com/Kimber_Lee90/status/998994532837584898

Abbey Laith in NXT

Kimber Lee wrestled under the name Abbey Laith while in NXT. She only appeared on 3 episodes of NXT television. She lost to Ruby Riot on the April 5th, 2017 episode and also participated in two battle royals, neither of which she won. Abbey Laith did regularly compete at NXT house shows, however. She lost most of her matches but did have a good showing in the inaugural Mae Young Classic. Laith made it to the quarter-finals of the tournament before losing to Mercedes Martinez. She had defeated Jazzy Gabert and Rachael Evers to reach that point in the tournament.

Kimber Lee was also asked about her experiences being a woman in the business and what her experience has been like with inter-gender matches.

Lee will wrestle in an inter-gender match in the 1st round of this weekend’s Northern tournament. She takes on Wheeler Yuta. Both Yuta and Lee were trained by 205 Live Superstar, Drew Gulak. Here is what Lee had to say about her upcoming opponent.

“He’s going to have a strong technical base because Drew is such a technical mat wrestler,” she said. “It’s going to be more of a grappling battle than people think.”

More information on Smash Wrestling’s tournament this weekend can be found here.

In addition to Lee, Matt Riddle, Joey Mercury, Joe Hendry, Joey Janela, and Mia Yim are also entered into the tournament.

Lee concluded the interview by stating, “The Crown Jewel is very much alive, so never count me out.”

WWE officials are in talent acquisition mode right now and there will be several recognizable names signed during the first quarter of 2017. Several talents are scheduled to report to the WWE Performance Center on 1/3 and a PC tryout session is planned for early February. According to PWInsider, Some of the names reporting to work in January are for the all women’s tournament, including Evie, Nixon Newell, Heidi Lovelace and Kimber Lee, who was used as an enhancement talent on NXT this week against Ember Moon.

WWE is said to be working harder than ever to evaluate & watch the indy scene, to the point where they are having agents watch iPPV events to do full agent reports on those shows. WWE does a similar report on their own house shows as a way to track talents and how they’re improving.

On a related note, we reported earlier that Mickie James has signed a multi-year deal to return to the WWE SmackDown brand. PWInsider reports that her deal is for three years.

Here are the results from PROGRESS’ Chapter 37 show ‘A Sudden Sense of Liberty’ which took place at a sold out O2 Ritz in Manchester:

Bubblegum b. Chuck Mambo – Bubblegum took the win via pinfall in his return to PROGRESS

Kay Lee Ray b. Kimber Lee – Kay Lee Ray defeated Kimber Lee via pinfall

James Drake b. Fabian Aichner – PROGRESS debutant James Drake defeated Fabian Aichner via pinfall, this was also Aichner’s debut match for the company after impressing at WWE’s Cruiserweight Classic tournament.

PROGRESS Championship Number One Contender Match – “The Villain” Marty Scurll b. Pete Dunne, Joe Coffey & Trent Seven – Scurll took the submission victory to become the Number 1 contender to the title he lost to Mark Haskins at Chapter 36, after the match Jimmy Havoc appeared through the crowd and gave Scurll and Acid Rainmaker.

South Pacific Power Trip (w/ Dahlia Black) b.FSU  & The Origin – The SPPT took the win via pinfall and now look likely contenders for the PROGRESS Tag Team Championships at a later show.

PROGRESS Atlas Championship – Rampage Brown b. Mikey Whiplash – Rampage took the win in his first defense of the PROGRESS Atlas championship via pinfall.

PROGRESS Championship Match – Mark Haskins b. Zack Gibson – Haskins took the win via submission in his first defence of the PROGRESS title since winning it at Chapter 36

#MANCHESTER TODAY! Useful info and FAQ: https://t.co/Rhkg4nIJ1X. See you at @O2RitzManc! #ThisIsProgress pic.twitter.com/aM93me8sxS

— PROGRESS Wrestling (@ThisIs_Progress) October 16, 2016

CHIKARA Grand Champion KimberLee spoke with Rolling Stone about her big win at last weekend’s Top Banana show from the former ECW Arena in Philadelphia, PA. Here are some highlights of what she said about:

Chyna’s influence on her & wrestling men: “I never really thought I would. Somebody who influenced me a lot when I was younger was Chyna. I never was allowed to watch wrestling when I was younger – my mom didn’t like it. So I had to sneak and watch it, and when I did, she always stuck out to me. She had the Intercontinental title at one point. So when I started to wrestle, that’s who I looked up to, and that’s what I wanted to do. Even from the beginning, I was saying that I wanted to wrestle men – I wanted to be looked at the same. I didn’t want to have to wrestle just girls. I didn’t want to have to do girly stuff. I wanted to do the same things that all the guys got to do. That’s how I’ve always been talking.”

Fans who are against inter-gender matches:

“I’m sorry that’s their opinion, but not everybody is a fan of every single wrestling company. Everybody has their flavor of choice. I think that intergender is becoming more popular and is becoming a bigger entity now. Not everybody is going to like the same artist; everyone has their own opinion. But I want to get as many people as I can to like intergender wrestling. That’s my goal, to turn everybody’s opinion around.”

Does she see herself in WWE one day?

“Absolutely. That’s the biggest platform that we have to perform. It’s a way to reach more people. It’s also one of the only avenues that you have to do this as a full-time job, which would be amazing. But I don’t want to go there to be what the Divas have been, I would want to make a change.”

You can read the full interview at RollingStone.com.