THTRobtaylor
Once & Future Wrestlezone Columnist
WWE has a real problem here but one they can't do anything about...
They literally cannot touch anyone involved in the video or they will bring a major storm on themselves... as controversial as the video being made/getting out is, there is a real backlash against so called "**** shaming" at the moment... any punishment on the WWE's part would fall into that trap and basically create a Hogan style lawsuit.
If the video was taken in 2014, that's anytime in the last 3 years... neither Paige or Woods were "quite" on the roster then if it was filmed early in the year... so it's doubly difficult for WWE to do too much... All 3 clearly knew each other well from NXT, they were consenting adults and lets face it, people in WWE probably knew about it...
WWE has often straddled a line when it comes to interfering in relationships between what they treat legally as "independent contractors". It's not going to take much for someone to sue them over it and open the whole "are they staff" debate in a court...which Vince really doesn't want. With the issues over her ADR relationship already and then a company backlash over this... Paige could very easily claim she was being singled out/hounded/bullied... and that would get WWE into a lot of legal trouble. In many ways, this was the best thing that could happen to Paige... after all, how can WWE argue "moral terpitude" with the tales of Steph and Randy, the harrassment scandals and their record of settling sexual harrasment suits ala Sable... Most Judges and Juries would come down on them like a ton of bricks.
It's hard to feel sorry for anyone involved, as the adage "if you don't want it out there, don't film it" comes to mind, but if Paige likes that sort of thing... then why can't she do it? Who does it actually hurt?
As for Woods... it's a little more murky... His wife is expecting a baby right now...so it's probably not gone down too well... As I remember he got married around 2015, so at the time if he was "single" then again, no ones business... but even if he'd told his new wife about it and they weren't together then, having it come out publicly isn't going to be good...
The guy probably laughing is Maddox... suddenly he is relevant again.
One guy probably smiling too is The Rock... he's making a movie about Paige... she's now all over the news... there's no such thing as bad publicity, so when the movie is released... more people will now be interested than perhaps would have been before. That also will probably save Paige from too many repercussions... if the E do mess with her, Rocky will no doubt come down on her side...
It's embarrasing for WWE and it IS a problem due to Linda now being in the Cabinet... it's a scandal WWE don't need... especially with New Day being so promient over Mania weekend... but at the same time, Trump can hardly call the moral highground either with his record...
They literally cannot touch anyone involved in the video or they will bring a major storm on themselves... as controversial as the video being made/getting out is, there is a real backlash against so called "**** shaming" at the moment... any punishment on the WWE's part would fall into that trap and basically create a Hogan style lawsuit.
If the video was taken in 2014, that's anytime in the last 3 years... neither Paige or Woods were "quite" on the roster then if it was filmed early in the year... so it's doubly difficult for WWE to do too much... All 3 clearly knew each other well from NXT, they were consenting adults and lets face it, people in WWE probably knew about it...
WWE has often straddled a line when it comes to interfering in relationships between what they treat legally as "independent contractors". It's not going to take much for someone to sue them over it and open the whole "are they staff" debate in a court...which Vince really doesn't want. With the issues over her ADR relationship already and then a company backlash over this... Paige could very easily claim she was being singled out/hounded/bullied... and that would get WWE into a lot of legal trouble. In many ways, this was the best thing that could happen to Paige... after all, how can WWE argue "moral terpitude" with the tales of Steph and Randy, the harrassment scandals and their record of settling sexual harrasment suits ala Sable... Most Judges and Juries would come down on them like a ton of bricks.
It's hard to feel sorry for anyone involved, as the adage "if you don't want it out there, don't film it" comes to mind, but if Paige likes that sort of thing... then why can't she do it? Who does it actually hurt?
As for Woods... it's a little more murky... His wife is expecting a baby right now...so it's probably not gone down too well... As I remember he got married around 2015, so at the time if he was "single" then again, no ones business... but even if he'd told his new wife about it and they weren't together then, having it come out publicly isn't going to be good...
The guy probably laughing is Maddox... suddenly he is relevant again.
One guy probably smiling too is The Rock... he's making a movie about Paige... she's now all over the news... there's no such thing as bad publicity, so when the movie is released... more people will now be interested than perhaps would have been before. That also will probably save Paige from too many repercussions... if the E do mess with her, Rocky will no doubt come down on her side...
It's embarrasing for WWE and it IS a problem due to Linda now being in the Cabinet... it's a scandal WWE don't need... especially with New Day being so promient over Mania weekend... but at the same time, Trump can hardly call the moral highground either with his record...