Shit just got real! Politician Andrew Yang goes after WWE. Actress Lea Thompson responds.

[C.S.]

UPDATE

Batista just responded.

ANOTHER UPDATE (9/14/20)

This isn't going away...

Andrew Yang On How A Joe Biden And Kamala Harris Win Could Help WWE Wrestlers

 

[cm funk]

Edited September 5, 2020 by cm funk

[MoS]

Shit like this happens every once in a while and nothing comes out of it. Maybe I am too jaded

[Burgundy LaRue]

The chances of anything coming of it are slim at best. Most will wonder why Yang is wasting his time with outlaw wrestling. Then something wacky will happen on RAW. Then this will be forgotten by next Wednesday.

[SirEdger]

Even there, CM Punk brought up a good point on Twitter; if the majority of talents doesn't comply with his edict, what will Vince do - fire them all? Maybe they should keep going with what they're doing right now and let Vince embarrass himself with bad PR once more.

[C.S.]

23 minutes ago, SirEdger said:

Even there, CM Punk brought up a good point on Twitter; if the majority of talents doesn't comply with his edict, what will Vince do - fire them all? Maybe they should keep going with what they're doing right now and let Vince embarrass himself with bad PR once more.

It's a shitty point though, because Vince would definitely make an example out of a few lower carders.

Doubt Punk will be paying their bills after doling out such irresponsible trollish advice. 

[El-P]

3 hours ago, C.S. said:

It's a shitty point though, because Vince would definitely make an example out of a few lower carders.

Who can work somewhere else. And really, a low-carder in WWE doesn't seem to make *that* much money anyway. With AEW around and other company having been rather agressive as far as getting talent (*IMPACT* signed quit a bit of people during the pandemic), it's not like being fired from that pit that is WWE is the end of the world (that's what WWE want its workers to think i.e the insane cultish speech that Trip does to the people who don't want to re-sign "We're a family, we'll always be there, who know is AEW will still be there in a year...").

The Batista re-tweet is something. 

[NintendoLogic]

I expect Vince to respond to this by bringing back Jimmy Wang Yang and inducting him into the Kiss My Ass Club.

[Burgundy LaRue]

According to Meltzer, the straw that broke the camel's back was Lana advertising Bang energy drinks on IG. Her IG is named thelanawwe. So if the point is wrestlers not using their WWE personas to promote non-WWE sanctioned stuff, that makes legal sense. Lana is WWE IP. Now if they try to stop CJ Perry from doing what she wants as herself, that's a major problem. She and others can quit WWE and make more money as social media influencers, if I had to guess.

[El-P]

The irony when you think Rusev quit and became basically a pro streamer...

[NintendoLogic]

Paige changed her Twitch name to SarayaOfficial, so Lana can change the name of her IG account to realcjperry or whatever if that's the sticking point. Like I said in the other thread, she most likely has SAG membership from her previous movie roles. She should seriously consider getting them involved if it goes beyond what her social media is called.

[El-P]

UNIONIZE BITCHES !

[WingedEagle]

Is this really that controversial if they're prohibited from using WWE IP to stream/advertise third party goods or on other platforms?  It seems reasonable that the company doesn't want Roman Reigns or Lana selling anything outside of the office.  But its of course an entirely different story to say that Joe Anoai or CJ Perry can't use their own name and time for such endeavors. 

[Burgundy LaRue]

It shouldn't be controversial. Robert Downey Jr can do Cameo if he wants. But he can't do it while playing Iron Man. This is the same thing.

If Vince is trying to cut off their outside income altogether, then that's a problem.

[NintendoLogic]

I get the impression that they're keeping the details as vague as possible to see how far the talent will allow them to go. You would think that trying to assert control over all outside endeavors, even under their real names, would obviously result in serious pushback. But after what went down in Saudi Arabia, all bets are off.

[FMKK]

I heard it claimed that Paige could be making up to $45k a month from her streaming. If I were her, I'll tell Vince to hit the bricks.

[Edwin]

Paige and a few others have said they could keep their third party deals, but they would have to be under their real names and not under their wrestling names.

[goodhelmet]

Great interview. 

"I am sick and tired of seeing my childhood heroes die"

"It's plain fucking greed"

 

 

[rovert]

His recent Twitter follows are pretty interesting a bunch of active wrestlers many who were fired this year who have since been outspoken about WWE's labour practices, a bunch of journalists and CM Punk.

https://twitter.com/AndrewYang/following 

How recently those wrestlers were let go runs in contrast to those who filed a lawsuit against WWE in 2008 headed up by Scott "Raven" Levy. Levy and several other former wrestlers sued to attempt to get employee status for wrestlers claiming they were not independent contractors. But the lawsuit was thrown out due to the statute of limitations from when the WWE contracts were in place to when the lawsuit was filed had expired. The 2020 releasees and Yang could cause WWE a lot of problems. 

[sek69]

Should be interesting for WWE to potentially go from having Vince's BFF as President to having someone very much interested in wrecking their shit in a position of power (Yang will almost certainly end up getting some role in Biden's administration should he win).

 

[C.S.]

This isn't going away...

Andrew Yang On How A Joe Biden And Kamala Harris Win Could Help WWE Wrestlers

 

[cm funk]

I love Andrew Yang.  Would be amazing if it took a guy like him who's actually a smart wrestling fan to finally put the screws to McMahon

[Johnny Sorrow]

Well, not just McMahon. Unless I'm unaware of AEW, Impact, and ROH wrestlers being employees with benefits and 401ks. 

[sek69]

1 hour ago, Johnny Sorrow said:

Well, not just McMahon. Unless I'm unaware of AEW, Impact, and ROH wrestlers being employees with benefits and 401ks. 

The wrestlers there are a *lot* closer to actual independent contractors though. They usually allow their talent to take other bookings and don't try to control folks to the ridiculous degree Vince does.

But yes, it would effect all companies if wrestlers were to ever get properly categorized.

[C.S.]

Yang responds to the latest sleazy WWE tactic: