One of the biggest stories of the year in pro wrestling hasn’t been about something in the ring, but a business move made outside of it. The WWE bringing the hammer down on third party partnerships for their stars has led to controversy where fans have judged the company for not allowing their stars to make extra money on platforms like Twitch and Cameo.
The controversy was enough to attract the attention of SAG-AFTRA and former presidential candidate Andrew Yang, and it led to the termination of Zelina Vega from her WWE contract. The end result was a loss for the WWE Superstars, who had to give ownership of their accounts to the company. In return, a portion of the income generated from those platforms would wind up being given back to them and deducted from their downside guarantee.
AJ Styles was one of the main stars affected by this, who used Twitch and Mixer to engage with his fans, creating a community that stretched out to Discord as well. He was one of the stars who was rumored to have been involved with a sit down meeting with Vince McMahon in an attempt to get him to reverse course, and he spoke about it with Inside the Ropes.
While the end result didn’t help the situation and it left Styles unhappy with the eventual decision, he decided to accept it as he’s a team player.
Myself, Xavier Woods, and Sasha Banks had a sit-down meeting in Connecticut with Vince about this whole situation, and it was determined that it’s intellectual property, this is (points to his face). We do well, as far as the WWE, and if there’s an opportunity to pay back that money, that we work hard for it in different times, then we probably should.
I wasn’t happy about it, no one was. But, it is what it is. I’ll handle it the way I have to. I’m a team player, he is the captain, I’ll follow his lead as far as Vince is concerned.
While it’s definitely not the result stars wanted, Styles has begrudgingly accepted the decision as he understands the need to be a team player. It’s unknown if things can change surrounding this ban, but Andrew Yang has certainly made enough waves that the WWE could have a big fight if they want to maintain this edict for years to come. You can watch the rest of the interview below.
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