There's a lot of confusion as to what WWE was outlawing when it came to Superstars using third-party platforms to engage with fans and make a little money on the side at the same time. AJ Styles attempted to provide some clarification on Monday.
Many assumed Vince McMahon was saying stars couldn't use sites like Twitch, YouTube, Cameo and other streaming services to talk to fans. Others said, that wasn't the issue, but WWE Superstars using their on-screen names was a problem because of intellectual property issues. It all seemed a bit odd that the company didn't want performers engaging with fans, but it did make a sense that Vince didn't want wrestlers profiting off their trademarks without company approval.
During his recent Twitch stream, AJ Styles commented on WWE's policy regarding talents using 3rd party platforms.
He explained, "From the contact that I’ve had and the information I got, WWE does want us to interact with our fans, and that means streaming. They want this to happen." First, that's a much different take on the situation from a WWE perspective than most fans seemed to believe was the case. He added, "They want you to have a YouTube channel."
What also seems interesting, is that Styles suggested wrestlers took liberties they knew were probably in a grey zone and might get them in trouble. He explained:
What we know was a little vague at first, but we’re going to talk about things that need to happen. There were things going on that we knew that we couldn’t do, but times have changed. It’s a weird time. We did different things and it was borderline whether we knew we could do it or not.
Streaming Is No Going Away
Styles did put fans at ease when he said, "Streaming is not going to be taken away, YouTube is not going to be taken away." He said WWE will make some changes and that could potential alter some of the content being put out there, but Styles repeated, "WWE wants us to stream and interact with our fans."
Sytles went to bat for WWE and said they aren't the bad guy here. They're not trying to take everything away. Styles noted, "Don’t stress out about ‘bad guy WWE,’ it’s not like that. Things have changed. It’s a great place to work, I’ll let my own children work for this company."
h/t: Quotes from BodySlam.net
