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On the latest edition of his podcast, 83 Weeks, former WWE SmackDown executive Eric Bischoff addressed WWE's controversial new policy regarding third parties. Vince McMahon recently sent out a mail to talent telling them to end third party agreements with platforms like Twitch and Cameo. This decision has caused some controversy, especially because WWE Superstars are considered independent contractors, and the likes of US politician Andrew Yang have chimed in on this issue.
Speaking about the decision on his podcast, Eric Bischoff said that he saw both sides of the argument. While he can see why WWE did what they did, Bischoff feels like this course of action could 'backfire':
"I see both sides of it. Number one, I understand it, and this is probably gonna rub some people the wrong way or whatever. But WWE invests massive amounts of money in their characters, in their intellectual property. And the intellectual property and the values of the assets that are created and such is what drives WWE – it’s the blood that pumps through their heart. And you have to protect that. I understand why they’re doing what they’re doing. But it can backfire."
Eric Bischoff on why WWE may have made this decision
Eric Bischoff went on to talk about why WWE may have made this decision. He said that there was always the risk of disgruntled Superstars speaking about the company on a platform like Twitch that could adversely affect WWE:
"The WWE logo doesn’t belong to the talent. That’s not their investment. That’s not a publically held corporation that the talent has equity in necessarily. It’s WWE property. So if you’re using that in a way that doesn’t benefit the WWE, or think about it this way – again it’s not if but when – somebody’s gonna go on Twitch or Twitter or some other third-party platform and do or say something that could embarrass the company or hurt the company – not just embarrass them but financially hurt them or expose them in a way that’s out of their control because the talent decided just to go off and do something they wanted to do and use the WWE intellectual property and trademark to promote it. I’d have a hard time with that if I was in WWE.
We still don't know what WWE's final decision regarding this will be but we should find out more in the coming days. Some ex-wrestlers like Mick Foley and Kevin Nash have also criticized the decision publiclly.
