Thea Megan Trinidad, formerly known as Zelina Vega in World Wrestling Entertainment, was released from the company because she refused to give up her Twitch channel.
Trinidad tweeted out support of unionization which is to infer that professional wrestlers should form a union so that they could negotiate as a collective unit.
I support unionization.
— 𝓩𝖊𝖑𝖎𝖓𝖆 𝓥𝖊𝖌𝖆 (@Zelina_VegaWWE) November 13, 2020
About 15 minutes after this tweet was sent, the former Vega was let go by the company. To be fair, she had been relegated to a minor role in storylines over the course of several weeks.
Upon the news of the firing, many individuals reached out in support of Trinidad.
The SAG-AFTRA union which represents entertainers tweeted out support for her standing up to the WWE and SAG president Gabrielle Cateris seemed to be interested in her plight.
So do we. https://t.co/kgTIrv0jdl
— SAG-AFTRA (@sagaftra) November 14, 2020
Hey @Zelina_VegaWWE Thanks for standing strong for labor solidarity. I support you. Please email me PresidentCarteris@sagaftra.org https://t.co/tYEiiFhB9S
— Gabrielle Carteris (@TheGabrielle_C) November 14, 2020
According to a report from Jon Alba, it appears that SAG may be getting involved in reaching out to wrestlers.
I inquired with @sagaftra president @TheGabrielle_C following her tweet recognizing @Zelina_VegaWWE’s call for unionization. This is her statement response, which seems to be one of the first times SAG-AFTRA is publicly offering support for pro wrestlers. #WWE pic.twitter.com/jX4E6To5oo
— Jon Alba (@JonAlba) November 16, 2020
Payout Perspective:
There are two distinct issues going on here but will likely be swept into one as we go forward. The first is the idea that the WWE is enforcing the IP rights of its characters by having its independent contractors turn over their Twitch account to the company. From an intellectual property perspective, the WWE should have done this a long time ago or at least let their talent license them out when utilizing them for third party revenue purposes. Second, the control over independent contractors. Its quite clear that the WWE has gotten away with using its talent without considering them as employees although they cannot freely work as independent contractors. With SAG attempting to reach out to pro wrestlers (according to the social media reports) and a new administration, the company may face a little pushback on the employer/employee side.
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