WWE’s new policy regarding WWE Superstars working with third-party companies saw numerous wrestlers shut down their Twitch channels earlier this year. Among those who had to shut down was AJ Styles, who recently sat down with Vince McMahon alongside Xavier Woods and Sasha Banks to discuss the controversial issue. “The Phenomenal One” recapped what happened in a new interview with TalkSports’ Alex McCarthy.
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“Myself, Xavier Woods and Sasha Banks had a sit-down meeting in Connecticut with Vince about this whole situation, and it was determined that it’s intellectual property, this is [points at his face],” Styles said (h/t WrestleTalk). “We do well as far as the WWE, and if there’s an opportunity to pay back that money that, you know, we work hard for at different times, we probably should. I was doing this long before the lockdown, before the Coronavirus I was streaming and doing my thing, so I was always doing it on my time off… I wasn’t happy about it, no one was, but it is what it is. I’ll handle it the way that I have to. I’m a team player, he [Vince] is the captain, I’ll follow his lead as far as Vince is concerned.
“Will it change, will something happen? They’re working it as we speak,” he continued. “Will I be happy with it? Probably not. The opportunity to stream in the future is wide-open. I obviously have the equipment, I just don’t have the opportunity to do that right now.”
Other wrestlers have publicly criticized the policy, including Paige and Zelina Vega — the latter of whom was released last month.
“If I go down as someone who stood up for themselves, then so be it,” Vega said in her first stream following the release. “I’m so thankful. I’m not angry. I’m just heartbroken ‘cuz doing this, being a wrestler, is all I ever wanted to do.”
Styles will challenge Drew McIntyre for the WWE Championship on Sunday night at the TLC pay-per-view. Check out the full card for the show below:
- WWE Championship: Drew McIntyre vs. AJ Styles (TLC Match)
- WWE Universal Championship: Roman Reigns vs. Kevin Owens (TLC Match)
- Firefly Inferno Match: “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt vs. Randy Orton
- SmackDown Women’s Championship: Sasha Banks vs. Carmella
- Raw Tag Team Championships: The New Day vs. The Hurt Business
- WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships: Nia Jax & Shayna Baszler vs. Asuka and TBA
- Kickoff: Big E, Daniel Bryan, Otis and Chad Gable vs. Sami Zayn, King Corbin, Cesaro and Shinsuke Nakamura
