As more details about WWE/Twitch stuff come out, the narrative needs to shift from “WWE wants the money” to “WWE has realized that third party things like Twitch give its labor more leverage than they’re comfortable with.” https://twitter.com/WrestleTalk_TV/status/1328018675266412546

Like, yes, the money is something they’d like, but the issue is two-fold:

1. Twitch essentially breaks WWE’s long-held system where being a fan of someone meant following WWE for their content.

2. A secondary source of income makes it easier to say no to WWE.

Couple that with the fact that AEW exists/is going to be getting more television time & NJPW is likely going to try expanding in America post-pandemic, and the benefits they’ve had as a monopoly over labor are rapidly shrinking. This is an attempt to curtail that issue.

It’s failing because they were extremely slow to address the growth in the gaming market (they used to say shit about how they didn’t understand younger guys because they gamed instead of partied), and because the way they’re addressing it is extremely punitive.

It’s not a matter of weather or not the Twitch/Vega issue *will* fundamentally alter WWE—it already has.