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WWE introduced a new policy which was reported by Wrestling Inc yesterday regarding penalizing WWE talent for uploading a post on their social media accounts which mentioned any third party, be it a brand, a person, a business or even a charity.
This followed a policy that Vince McMahon and WWE management started enforcing a few months back in September 2020. The policy restricted WWE main roster talent from having their presence on paid services on third-party platforms such as Cameo and Twitch.
However, both of these policies have been met with a lot of backlash from fans and even some celebrities on social media claiming that such policies are depriving the talent of their freedom.
WWE has now provided clarification on the subject matter, as first reported by Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. The new policy can be considered to be almost an extension of the first one.
Earlier, it was believed that the policy stated that WWE Superstars cannot refer to or mention any third-party with their social presence. However, after the new update on the situation, there is a better explanation for the whole scenario.
WWE Superstars are no longer allowed to have third-party deals that make them money. They cannot have partnerships or sponsorships with external parties that are monetized. They might be able to mention or feature any brand on their social media accounts as long as they are not in a financial deal with them.
Fans and wrestlers alike have spoken up about the changes that WWE management is making to the talent's independent contracts. This brought a lot of criticism to WWE management.
Many wrestlers and well-known public figures have had strong thoughts regarding such policies from WWE
The "third-party ban" was one of the biggest controversies of WWE last year and it garnered a strong response against WWE management based on this policy. One was that it left people raising questions regarding the wrestlers' "independent contract" status.
Andrew Yang, a member of the U.S. Democratic party, was one of the more well-known people who brought mainstream attention to the matter after openly speaking about this policy and claimed to be looking into it.
However, nothing solid ever came of it and the policy still stands to date along with this new extension that just came out. This impacted the wrestlers as well, as Zelina Vega was released from WWE after opposing the third-party ban that WWE enforced.
Only time will tell what the repercussions of this new policy will be.
