WWE Restricting Media Access for WWE Performers

[Con T.]

Here is the article in question. Before I get people asking what the hell Top Rope Press is, Meltzer confirmed it on Twitter.. Here's the main takeaway of the story:

Following the backlash to the Charlotte/Paige contract signing that closed RAW on Monday (where the late Reid Flair’s death was brought up in poor taste as part of storyline), WWE has now apparently restricted the ability for their wrestlers to make appearance on independent internet radio/podcast programs.

While WWE formerly would occassionally allow talent to make these appearances, on the condition that in most circumstances all questions would be submitted to WWE ahead of time for approval, these appearances are now reportedly all off the table for the time being.

So, at this point, WWE is really going to find new and innovative ways to keep looking worse from this Charlotte/Paige deal, aren't they?

If you're really worried about how your talent is going to present themselves after a controversy you yourself created, I dare say you're lacking in self awareness. Not sure exactly how this works with podcasts like Jericho and Austin, but if we don't see WWE stars for the next few weeks, I suppose we all know why.

This is really no better than the evasive shit the NFL pulls when they're in the midst of a scandal, but this is really not a good look for WWE. Instead of outright apologizing for something dumb, but very small, they're allowing for this story to control corporate policy. I mean, think about this: the talent are supposed to be independent contractors. In what world are independent contractors to be told when they can and can't be on a podcast?

How bad does this make WWE look?

 

[MTL722]

Once again, we seem to be polar opposites. And i mean that in the best way because thats how conversations and discussions become interesting

I dont think this makes WWE look any different than it did before. It is a publicly traded company whose Superstars, or talent, are representatives of the company. Im actually surprised that WWE would allow interviews of this nature in the first place. Also, Ive seen ZERO mention of this in mainstream press so it really is only a big deal to a few people

Let me first say that Ive done interviews for multiple websites before, although only with mixed martial artists. Ive interviewed Strikeforce fighters (back when they were their own company) and UFC fighters as well as some other smaller organizations. In every one of these interviews I was required to submit a copy of all questions I intended on asking the talent. Its to protect the talent as well as the organization from being caught off guard by a possibly controversial issue

I highly doubt that this is exclusively a result of the Reid Flair comment for multiple reasons. WWE has done far more offensive things than have someone make a vague comment about a performers family life

 

[Richard Blonoff]

I am not a smart man, but to me it appears that most of the complaining coming from this whole incident is from people who are mad that there is a controversy surrounding what was said.

It reminds me of the whole Starbucks outrage a couple of weeks ago. I saw plenty of people making posts about how people who complained over a red cup were stupid, but not once did I actually see someone complain over the cup itself.

I see a lot of people complaining that some people are upset over what Paige said, but not many who are actually upset that Paige said what she did.

Like I said, I'm not a smart man so I could be totally off base here.

 

[Azane]

I guess we'll go back to the Heelish ways of "IM GONNA BEAT YOU UP!" instead of having interesting stories, because the Twitter age gives everyone a place to complain about something that isn't even about them.

 

[MERPER]

So, let me see if I get this correctly...

WWE continues trotting out a bad product so they try to "spice it up" a bit with lazy writing and an awful promo where they feel making fun of someone's death is ok...

people criticize and ridicule it and an interviewer asks a critical question of the moment and now they say "how dare you question us, no more access to our wrestlers"...

this company is such an epic joke at this point... how about providing a better product with better writers and storylines that don't rely on the angle of a person's death to "boost interest" and you wouldn't have problems.

 

[MERPER]

I guess we'll go back to the Heelish ways of "IM GONNA BEAT YOU UP!" instead of having interesting stories, because the Twitter age gives everyone a place to complain about something that isn't even about them.

yes, because Paige making fun of someone's death and Charlotte displaying horrible acting skills with her fake anger and dismay sure makes me pumped to watch their championship match on a horrendous PPV card!

Can't wait!

 

[Jack-Hammer]

I don't really see how this makes WWE look bad at all. The vast majority of the time, the interviews on internet radio/podcast shows are little more than puff pieces anyway. It's not as if any of the talent, at least none who're interested in committing career suicide in WWE, are gonna go on these shows and answer any real, definitive, hard hitting questions that might put them in hot water. And if some of the talent did, it'd almost certainly be someone along the lines of Zack Ryder or Curtis Axel, who'd probably be released shortly thereafter, and whatever damaging comments they made could easily be written off as being from two disgruntled guys who felt they "deserved" better.

In an age where social media and political correctness are the new God, nothing remotely "edgy" can be done in wrestling without someone getting pissed off about something. A lot of dirt sheet writers, Meltzer among them, has criticized WWE for a lack of edgier storylines or angles, yet look what happens whenever they do something. The angle with Charlotte & Paige will probably win Meltzer's WON Most Disgusting Tactic award, especially if Meltzer subtly, or not so subtly, hints that the drones who vote for the awards each year do so.

 

[kor420]

I think it's a stupid move, that was caused by a bunch of thin-skin, politically correct crybabies. You know it's really sad that a heel cannot even be a heel anymore this business.

 

[Navi]

Hold on didn't the WWE create this little incident on their own with the little promo that Paige was scripted to do, and as someone else said Charlotte's horrible acting. This isn't something that happened on a podcast or during an interview, they created this monster themselves.

What a ship of fools, seriously, and with Captain McMahon at the helm. I've heard a lot of podcasts and watched numerous interviews and they are all done with publicizing the WWE and whatever event is coming up. During Mania week, their wrestler's were everywhwere promoting the product and themselves. Never once did we hear of anything amiss happening.

No Vince you caused this or one of your writers did. Now you are blaming others for it. No wonder this ship is rowing around in circles.

 

[MERPER]

Hold on didn't the WWE create this little incident on their own with the little promo that Paige was scripted to do, and as someone else said Charlotte's horrible acting. This isn't something that happened on a podcast or during an interview, they created this monster themselves.

What a ship of fools, seriously, and with Captain McMahon at the helm. I've heard a lot of podcasts and watched numerous interviews and they are all done with publicizing the WWE and whatever event is coming up. During Mania week, their wrestler's were everywhwere promoting the product and themselves. Never once did we hear of anything amiss happening.

No Vince you caused this or one of your writers did. Now you are blaming others for it. No wonder this ship is rowing around in circles.

Ding. Ding. Ding. We have a winner.

Great post.

Not only did they bring this on themselves with a lazy, stale "promo" touching on something that had no place and is completely irrelevant to the angle but it's like they expected, in today's day in age, for it to go over without ANY problems or push back at all.

Like EVERYONE would be 100% ok with it. (Which also shows how out of touch with reality they really are). Heck, I had people this week who don't even watch or know anything about WWE who had heard about this in some other general walk of life and ask me about it, and displayed their displeasure with such a thing.

And so now, because how dare anyone say anything remotely negative about the company, they are putting restrictions into place??

Wake up WWE, you reap what you sew. You did this to yourselves and only you are to blame.

Ya know how easy it would have been to build up hate in the Paige/Charlotte feud in any other way than making fun of a dead guy? Here's 2 easy ones: rip on Ric for being a drunken slob half the time. Or rip on him for his ways with women over the years. Would it have caught some flack as well? Sure but nothing like they got over this one.

 

[George Steele's Barber]

This is welcome news. I like kayfabe and this keeps it a little bit more true. I don't want Paige to say vicious vile things on Monday night and then on Tuesday talking about rescuing pets or curing cancer. I don't want my wrestlers to be real people the other 99% of the time.

Yaz is not a smart man, he is closer to being a stupid woman.

 

[ShinChan]

Its like you do a mistake and blame others who are under you and then punish them too..... WWE did a mistake, and then punished talents under it like this...

 

[Softcore Holly]

Seems...unnecessary. Bad segment aside those appearances are pretty much free publicity and especially with the pre-approved questions they sound like safe, easy cash for WWE. Not even sure it's really done just because of the "backlash" since then wouldn't it make sense to just restrict appareances to Paige/Charlotte till the heat dies down? Like why stop everyone from appearing especially when they know all the questions beforehand? Of course there is the possible scenario where one person might ask about it anyway but I'm guessing that most interviewers wouldn't want to risk not getting any more WWE stars in the future over 1 dumb question. If this report is true I have to think that there's another unknown reason behind it, and if it really is because of that segment then I doubt this ban will be lifted before long.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

The problem so much isn't what talent are saying, but that they are putting a lid on them working "outside of WWE" again. Just this week Ziggler has "done a Barrett" and said on an external thing he's got 2 years left... that's not what they want and if they are ok with him being there for just 2 years, they don't want that broadcast... cos eagle eyed IWC will be calling it in 18 months time..."Oh he's on his way out so he's jobbing" etc.

They know the value of external channells but now they want them to be totally approved, most likely to avoid pissing ESPN off... could you imagine if some podcast got a scoop that ESPN then didn't? could derail their whole deal.

It's got very little to do with the talent themselves doing much wrong, WWE also doesn't want too much "out of character" stuff unless it's via their reality platforms, be it Total Divas, Breaking Ground or the inevitable main roster behind the scenes show (probably coming to...yep ESPN...)

 

[goalieman31]

Wwe knew there would be controversy over this and choose to do so cuz of people like us. Now we are taking about it along with a bunch of news outlet. Remember any publicity is good s long as your name is mentioned

 

[Mustang Sally]

Wake up WWE, you reap what you sew. You did this to yourselves and only you are to blame.

Partially, yes....but this era of Political Correctness (I don't know why I capitalized the term; it certainly deserves lower-case status) takes some of the blame, too.

The jobs of public relations people to the stars has become nearly impossible because just about everything anyone might say is going to drive some people to the brink of insanity. The notion of the Paige/Charlotte event spawning what performers can say during outside interviews is just an outreach of PC. It stinks, but is probably necessary in today's world.

For some reason, it reminded me of something I watched on WWF in 1988. During one of their Saturday recap shows that aired on New Year's Eve, the company had put several 'WWE Superstars' in front of the mic in an isolated room and asked them to tell us their New Year's resolutions. I don't remember the segment word-for-word, but it went something like this.


Leaping Lanny Poffo: "For the new year, I want to bring peace, joy and prosperity to everyone in the world."

Don Muraco: "In the year 1989, I want to reach in Tito Santana's chest and rip out his still-beating heart."

Davey Boy Smith: "I wish happiness and joy to all the people of the world."

Bad News Brown: "In the new year, I want to kill a beer-bellied sharecropper named Jim Powers."


Obviously, there were no 'tweeners' back then; there were good guys and bad guys. I was 9-years-old and laughing my butt off at the whole thing, apparently not yet old enough to be reduced to tears of rage at what was being said by the heels.....since I knew even back then it was all staged.

Today, WWE is restricting media access for their talent? Heck, it's just a sign of the times, but there's a lot to be said for the old days when everyone wasn't so damn sensitive. More fun, too.

 

[rmp0012002]

what Paige said was what Vince told her to say through her character, I don't blame Paige. Prenventing their wrestlers from going on podcasts is stupid as its free advertising for the promotion and their events. HHH is close to Ric so I wonder if he was against Reid being mentioned in the angle. Creative is made up of about 20 people including Vince and HHH but most are main stream media people that don't know how to write a true wrestling angle. If they incorporated more adult angles then they open up the demographic that will watch their product.

 

[d_henderson1810]

I can't see how the whole mention of Reid Flair is any worse than the night the following dialogue happened:-

Randy Orton (to Rey Mysterio):- "Rey, you keep looking up to heaven. Well, Eddie isn't in heaven. He's down there- IN HELL!"

There wasn't a media ban then, and that was no less tacky than the Paige-Charlotte one.

I don't particularly like seeing talent use dead people for cheap heat, but what is a heel supposed to say? They are meant to be a prick, and so they say horrible, prickish things. As long as the family of the deceased is okay with it being mentioned, then I don't have a problem.

For example, if Paige had been feuding with Natalya instead, and mentioned Owen Hart's career crashing to the ground, or something, that would be worse, because there is no way Martha Hart would ever agree to such an angle, whereas I don't know Charlotte or Ric's attitude towards Reid getting mentioned.