As reported earlier, the sudden release of Zelina Vega, abruptly getting released by WWE, is doing headlines, all over the professional wrestling industry. From Friday Night onward, this news has also caught the attention of labor union leaders and politicians which threw some mainstream media spotlight into the incident.
It’s a known fact that Zelina Vega failed to comply with the third party edict issued by WWE, last month. She intentionally missed the deadline of October and also proceeded to open a new OnlyFans account. It did not help her case among WWE brass, according to the latest reports by Dave Meltzer on the latest Wrestling Observer Radio.
Zelina Vega Release: She’s Earning Much From Twitch Than WWE Contract
The veteran wrestling journalist also noted that Zelina Vega was adamant in her position of not moving away from her Twitch account. She has a solid reason behind this as she was among “a couple of women who were making more money through social media than their WWE contracts.” Paige is also supposed to be another woman who earns a lot in the same way.
Zelina Vega was supposedly “making a lot of money on Twitch” prior to WWE asking talents to stop activities on such third-party platforms. La Muneca had to choose between WWE and Twitch, and she chose the latter option. According to Meltzer, “She made her choice and WWE had no option but to fire her.”
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Dave Meltzer also mentioned that the “old way of making money in WWE” through house shows and PPV paydays is no longer available to the superstars forcing them to look out at other revenue sources. Unlike the previous busy schedule in the company, they’re working only 5-6 times a month since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. So stars like Zelina Vega who comparatively earn less from contract needed alternative income sources.
Previously, talents who had low guarantees on their contracts were mostly reliant on paydays from house shows and PPVs. WWE has been “taking away” the talents’ ability to make some money off the streaming platforms and there’s been some growing resentment about it in the locker room, added Meltzer. “With no house shows or PPVs, they need a way to augment the past money and WWE took it away from them.”
As for WWE, they maintain a way to get a part of the revenue that talents make by utilizing their WWE names or identities including those third-party platforms. It should be noted that Zelina Vega was back with her Twitch session within a few hours of her WWE release. She is under the regular 90-day non-compete clause with WWE, which would prevent her from appearing on any TV shows for any other wrestling promotion until mid-February, next year.
