WWE can be a strange strange company at times and this Tuesday was no different. Fans wearing AEW merchandise were prohibited from entering the arena in Jacksonville where SmackDown LIVE took place this week.
One fan took to his Twitter to make this incident public. The word spread quickly and people started talking about the said incident.
Was just turned away from attending Smackdown for wearing @AEWrestling merchandise. Was told I would NOT be allowed in or to purchase a ticket per @WWE. @MattJackson13 @NickJacksonYB @CodyRhodes you guys wouldn’t turn me away from an AEW show would you?
— Scrump_1 (@scrump_1) January 8, 2019
As reported earlier, the AEW Double or Nothing Rally also took place earlier in the same city which would explain why those fans were wearing their merch to the SmackDown show.
However, another fan took to his Twitter to reveal that WWE had reversed their decision and was now allowing fans to walk in anyway. The said fan managed to get in the footage wherein the Security Guard who turned him down explains the situation to him.
Security is now allowing in AEW shirts after tossing me out for wearing one. I even offered to buy a WWE shirt and they wouldn’t allow me to. I was able to get back in through another entrance after changing pic.twitter.com/TRhGoLlWDD
— Graham (@thagreenlizad) January 9, 2019
WWE quickly reversed their decision after the whole fiasco went viral and that was absolutely the right thing to do. However, they still received a significant amount of backlash from the community, justifiably so.