Welcome to the Grapevine! This section of Smark Henry is where we round up all the important founded and unfounded rumors floating around the pro wrestling scene that you may have missed over the past few days. Remember to take everything with a grain of salt!
The WWE third-party edict gets worse
Not only are WWE wrestlers not allowed to have "unauthorized" third-party accounts, but WWE will reportedly be taking control of all wrestlers' Twitch accounts. The wrestlers will only receive a percentage of any revenue the streams generate, and in an even worse move, the revenue received will count against the downside guarantee, which means the downside WWE pays them will be smaller. It remains unclear if this applies only to wrestlers still using their kayfabe names on their streams, or every employee streaming on Twitch. As mentioned previously, any wrestler who refuses to comply with the edict will be fined, suspended, or fired. (Source: Wrestling Inc.)
UPDATE: Fightful Select has obtained new information, saying that WWE will be partnering with Cameo for business, presumably to route any revenue through the company.
We say: Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse... it gets worse. The public backlash was not enough to make it worse, and while it could be enough to mobilize the workers against Vince McMahon, the reality is not everyone has a Twitch stream to be affected by this. No matter how bad it looks, it likely just won't be enough; the fans will keep watching and the world under the WWE will go on.
Adam Cole and Kyle O'Reilly to be top faces on NXT
Adam Cole and Kyle O'Reilly are reportedly in the books to be top faces on NXT. Cole's face turn was teased after the loss to Finn Balor for the vacant NXT Championship on NXT Super Tuesday II, while O'Reilly is in the midst of his turn. However, it seems as though not everyone in the Undisputed Era will be turning face, as Bobby Fish and Roderick Strong are firmly the heels against Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch. The plan seems to be a split for the Undisputed Era, who has been together since August 2017. (Source: PWInsider)
We say: We're not sure how this is going to come across, but we do understand the different needs of the NXT roster. There's a dearth of faces over at the top of the card, while there aren't enough heels in the tag team division. We just hope it isn't some quiet split that suddenly just happens because they can't figure out how to write it, but we have better faith in NXT writing.
News on Harold Meij's resignation
Some potential reasons for Harold Meij stepping down as NJPW president and CEO are the failure to bring in $200 million in revenue, losing presence in American TV, losing American talent, and not partnering with AEW. The pandemic has no doubt affected the ability of NJPW to make the money they needed to make, while the company's legendary refusal to work with Impact Wrestling due to their history was the point where they lost AXS TV, which is now majorly owned by Impact's parent company Anthem. (Source: Wrestling Observer Radio)
We say: We don't know too much about the business side of NJPW, but we do hope this means more partnerships again—looking forward to the potential AEW relationship here.
Let us know what you think of today's news in the comments!
: The Third-Party Edict Gets Worse, Undisputed Era Turn and Split, Harold Meij){kind=link}