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Yesterday evening, multiple WWE Superstars announced that they will be closing their Twitch channels following an order from WWE.
Last month, Vince McMahon sent out a company-wide email informing WWE talent that they must end any third party communication. This includes Twitch and Cameo, which WWE talent had started to use over recent months.
PWInsider reported earlier today that several WWE talent sat down with Vince McMahon to discuss the Twitch ban, however didn’t appear to be successful in lifting the suspension. Sources at Twitch state there is plans for WWE’s own twitch channel to receive a major push by the end of the year.
WWE sources believe the timing of the new WWE President & Chief Revenue Officer Nick Khan joining the company is likely the reason behind many recent changes.
Some theorize that Khan could reposition WWE as an “in-house management firm management firm for all talents, resetting parameters so all third-party opportunities flow through WWE itself to maximize those opportunities.”
PWInsider.com is told that several talents recently met with McMahon in order to sit down with him to argue against the Twitch ban, but given that a number of high-profile talents, including AJ Styles, have announced they are suspending their Twitch streams overnight, it would not appear they were successful in swaying the WWE head.
Aleister Black and Zelina Vega noted during their live stream, a talent meeting was scheduled to be held on Friday.
Fans have started to use multiple hashtags on Twitter including #LetThemTwitch and #LetThemStream, explaining their displeasure with the issues.
Yesterday, Mia Yim sent out a tweet, informing fans that her Twitch channel will be shut down, meaning that she will no longer be streaming for the time being.
“Sorry guys, no more stream for the time being. Thank you for making these past few difficult months manageable. It’s not goodbye, it’s see you later.”
AJ Styles mentioned on his discord channel, which he is keeping open so his fans can still interact, that his channel will also be suspended
“I want to thank you for all the greatest memories on Mixer and Twitch,” AJ wrote. “I will cherish these memories and I love everyone of you that have made this possible and supported me. As many of you know WWE is making some changes that involve streaming. We will see what the future holds in that regard.”
“With that being said I will be suspending Stylesclash stream. This isn’t good bye, but this is see you sometime in the future. We will leave discord open, but since it won’t be monitored we will be making changes. Chris or I will let you know what that looks like once we figure it out. If you see me at the arenas or wherever be sure to let me know you’re part of the phenomenal family. Again this isn’t the end it’s just a pause. Thank you again for your support.”
Cesaro revealed during a stream that his ‘Claudio’s Cafe’ channel will be closing down.
“Well I appreciate everybody spending some time here with me,” Cesaro said. “I don’t know when the next stream is gonna be… I’ll definitely let you guys know. … Thank everybody for spending your time with me here. Thanks for the subs, thanks for the gifts, thanks for the follows. I really do appreciate it. I hope I’ll be back soon, but when? I don’t know. So, yeah… one last race, who are we gonna race today? So yeah, I don’t know when I’ll be back.”
Paige, who has over 140,000 Twitch followers, mentioned during her stream that she is looking more in unionization.
“People don’t realize I’m outspoken as f–k,” Paige said. I will say how I feel. I don’t care who you are. I will say how I feel because I don’t like being walked all over. … You know what? I’m gonna start looking more into unionization. I’ve been learning about it by a unionization lawyer.”
She also spoke about how Twitch was her only way to connect with fans, after having to retire from the ring in 2018 due to neck injuries
“I’ve honestly got to the point where I cannot deal with this company anymore,” Paige said. “So now I have to make a very important decision. I’m f–king tired, man. I broke my f–king neck twice, twice for this company, over f–king worked. I broke my neck twice for this company and all I wanted was to… they don’t realize that this community isn’t just about f–king subs. It isn’t about that. It isn’t about that. We built a wonderful community, a wonderful f–king family where this is an escape for a lot of people, including myself.”
“I can’t wrestle anymore, I was worked so hard in WWE that I can’t wrestle anymore. My neck is f–ked, my whole dream got taken away from me, dude, and I had to have something that fulfilled even a small part of that huge f–king void that I lost with wrestling. A huge f–king void. I couldn’t wrestle anymore, something I lived, breathed, f–king s–t wrestling since I was a fetus, dude, and it got ripped away from me, and I had to find something that even filled a little bit of that. Twitch was such a wonderful thing for me, it’s such a wonderful place for me.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2E5AXx1cshQ
Some NXT talent have yet shut their channels down, with Dakota Kai and Adam Cole not releasing a statement on the issue. Cole was streaming Friday afternoon.
Jessamyn Duke informed her YouTube community that she plans on continuing to stream, however she might have to change some names and logos
Attention everyone:
I will still be streaming. I will still uploading content regularly to this channel. Names, logos, and likenesses may change, but this channel is mine. I intend on keeping it that way.All I need from you guys is for you to continue watching, leave a like on the videos you enjoy, and share with friends to help grow the community. Avoid toxic posts and comments. Avoid feeding into the drama of the situation (that some of you are most assuredly aware of). If you’re NOT aware of the situation, don’t worry about it. I mean that. Let this channel be an escape from that stuff.
I know many of you have already followed me on my new twitter account but if you haven’t, please do it now! I will only be tweeting about this channel from that account.