WWE Taking Over Talents’ Twitch Accounts & Taking Cut of Their Income

As noted before, Vince McMahon recently issued a new edict to WWE’s talent banning them from using outside third party services under their WWE ring names. This ban included talent being required to inform the company of any accounts used and created on YouTube, Twitch, and Cameo under their real and non-WWE names. This new edict was stated by the company to go into effect during this month.

WrestlingInc reported that WWE recently sent another email to their talent informing them that they have until October 2nd to sever all unauthorized business relationships with third party services or else risk facing punishments.

The email also stated that the company will begin taking over all of their Twitch accounts, regardless if it’s under their real names, during the next four weeks.

WWE will reportedly own all of their Twitch accounts and only give wrestlers a percentage of the revenue, which will be counted as part of their contractual guaranteed downsides.

Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the general reaction within WWE’s locker room following the company’s recent email was one of surprise and lividness. Talent reportedly had previously believed that just changing their Twitch accounts to be under their real name would resolve the issue. They also reportedly had felt that the company would back down from their demands following Andrew Yang’s tweets that the government would investigate the company for abusing independent contractor laws under a Joe Biden Administration.

Yang tweeted the following after the latest report.

This would be infuriating to me if I had spent time building up my social media channels only to have WWE take them over from their ‘independent contractors.’ People are angry and rightfully so. https://t.co/Xa2WVsgWU3

— Andrew Yang🧢🇺🇸 (@AndrewYang) October 2, 2020

One wrestler who spoke to Meltzer stated that “this is amazing because it’s really going to open up the independent contractor issue. All these smart attorneys surrounding Vince and this is the battle he wants?”

In regards to the status of Cameo, Fightful Select’s Sean Ross Sapp reported that the company demanded their talent to shut down or make their Cameo pages un-bookable by the end of October 2nd. Sapp reported that the company informed talent that they have recently finalized a deal with Cameo to allow them to continue to use the service but under WWE approved accounts. The company also stated that those who opt in would be required to have all their payments be sent through the company and would receive their share of earnings afterwards.