Update on the firing of Zelina Vega and WWE backstage resentment

WWE released one of their top female Superstar, Zelina Vega, reportedly on differences regarding the company’s new third party edict.

 


 

Vega also released her own statement on the matter, in which she said this would not be the last we see of her. She added that she was heartbroken, but is willing to go down as someone who stood up for themselves.

Zelina Vega was vocal about continuing to stream on her Twitch account despite the edict, which led to WWE releasing her around two weeks after the ban was implemented, per reports by PWInsider.

Ten minutes before WWE’s announcement of her release, Vega tweeted out that she supports unionization, and the WWE Universe did not take long to connect the dots. Vega has been consistently supporting talks of unionization from another Superstar Paige, who has been one of the loudest protesters of WWE taking over the Twitch accounts of their talents.

https://twitter.com/Zelina_VegaWWE/status/1327382306491928576?s=20

In a recent update on the matter, Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer Radio shed light on Zelina Vega’s stand and the backstage resentment regarding the third party situation.

Zelina Vega made more money on Twitch than in WWE

Dave Meltzer said (H/T WrestlingNews.co) that sources told him some WWE Superstars were earning more from social media than they were from WWE, and Zelina Vega was one of them. Understandably, she stood by her decision to continue streaming, and also opened a new OnlyFans account in the meantime.

“So, essentially as everyone knows, the talent was given a timeframe to get rid of their Twitch and Cameo accounts. During that timeframe, Zelina Vega didn’t get rid of it and she opened an OnlyFans account. The backstory on this and it’s funny because one person kind of told me when the thing went down that there are a couple of women that are making more money with their social media than they are making with WWE and they are gonna be real interesting and one of those was Zelina Vega.”

“On her Twitch she’s making a lot of money and so it’s like what do you do in that situation and I think she made her choice and they had to fire her…”

WWE backstage resentment over third party ban

Meltzer also noted that there is a lot of “backstage resentment” in WWE right now over the third party ban.

On one hand, Superstars are mostly working one day a week now, two if there is a PPV event, instead of being on the road all the time. They want to make money off the extra time to make up for it.

But WWE, from a corporate standpoint, does not want to let talents use their in-ring name owned by the company and earn money off it. Meltzer pointed out that if WWE treated talents as ’employees’ then this decision would have more footing. But WWE considers Superstars to be independent contractors and they do not get full employee benefits. That should ideally allow them to make money elsewhere.

Meltzer also talked about how Gabrielle Carteris, President of SAG-AFTRA labor union, has reached out to Zelina Vega and thanked for standing up for labor solidarity.

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