WWE Chairman & CEO Vince McMahon reportedly passed on talking with Zelina Vega after she was released from her contract last Friday.

Vega was informed of her release last Friday by WWE’s Senior Director of Talent Relations, Mark Carrano. The Wrestling Observer Newsletter adds that Vega asked to talk to McMahon, but Carrano told her that Vince did not want to talk to her, and she was then escorted out of the building.

As noted, Vega was released last Friday due to reasons related to WWE’s new edict on third party content with sites such as Cameo and Twitch, which Vega is active on. WWE later confirmed with Sports Illustrated that Vega was released due to a breach of contract.

McMahon was reportedly unhappy with Vega for opening up an OnlyFans account, which she was using for cosplay content under a different name, even after WWE issued the third party edict. The feeling was that Vega’s actions boxed the company into a difficult situation. It was noted that Vega’s release was done as a reminder to all talents that the new third party policy will be strictly enforced.

Vega appeared on the “Table Talk” podcast with WWE Hall of Famer & Producer D-Von Dudley back in September and recalled how Vince had previously told her that she was one of his favorite talents, comparing her to his daughter, WWE Chief Brand Officer Stephanie McMahon.

“It’s weird because I think that too and I’m like, you know what? If quarantine didn’t happen – not saying that I wouldn’t have had these opportunities – but maybe it would have taken a little bit longer,” Vega told Dudley. “And also, Becky’s having her baby so there are people that are not here so that just leaves spots to fill and for me, I’m like, ‘Give me the ball! If I drop it, screw me!’ But you lose nothing and I was always ready for that and I think it started with Drew [McIntyre] when we had that back and forth. I was like, ‘Man, he’s like my other promo half.’ It was just perfect.

“Whenever it happened, it was just magic with him and it’s interesting because before even quarantine happened, Vince would always say, ‘You’re one of my favorites. You’re one of the reasons that I watch RAW. I love your character.’ It was such an honor to hear that because one of the things that he used to say to me was, ‘You remind me of Stephanie because she was always working out there. You’re a cutaway machine. I love that about you’ and first of all, I was like, ‘Are you serious?’ Legit, I was going to cry. I love Stephanie. She’s a huge inspiration when it comes to me and the Zelina character, but it’s wild to think that if this quarantine didn’t happen, I wonder where I would be. I wonder if I’d be getting a RAW Women’s Title shot against Asuka.”

Source: Wrestling Inc.

The news of Zelina Vega’s abrupt release from WWE on Friday caught the attention of labor union leaders and politicians, and was covered by mainstream media outlets.

Vega reportedly failed to comply with the third party edict handed out by WWE last month and proceeded to open a new OnlyFans account, which did not help her case among WWE brass, according to Dave Meltzer on the latest Wrestling Observer Radio.

Meltzer noted that Vega was adamant in her position to continue with her Twitch account and the backstory is that she was among “a couple of women who were making more money through social media than their WWE contracts.” Vega was supposedly “making a lot of money on Twitch” prior to WWE asking talents to cease activity on third party platforms.

For Vega, it boiled down to choosing between WWE and Twitch, and she chose the latter, according to Meltzer.

“She made her choice and WWE had no option but to fire her,” he said.

Meltzer mentioned that since the old way of making money in WWE through house shows and PPV paydays is no longer available to talents, they are looking at other revenue sources while working only 5-6 times a month since the start of the pandemic.

Previously, talents who had low guarantees on their contracts were heavily reliant on paydays from house shows and PPVs. While talents who signed contracts pre-AEW are most unhappy due to lower guarantees, talents who got bigger contracts post-AEW have been less vocal about the developing situation.

With WWE taking away the talents’ ability to make money off streaming platforms, there is growing resentment 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.”

On the flipside, WWE maintains that it should get a slice of the revenue that talents make by utilizing their WWE names, albeit in third party platforms.

WWE is reportedly in the process of doing their own Twitch deal and giving a percentage of that revenue to talents. The percentage will be counted against downside guarantees, which is another bit of information that hasn’t sat well with some talents.

Vega returned to her Twitch feed on Friday within a few hours of her WWE release. She is presently serving the customary 90-day non-compete clause, which prevents her from appearing on TV for any other wrestling promotion until mid-February 2021.

Source: Wrestling Inc.