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Defiant Paige Refuses to Hand Over Twitch Account to WWE

Published Sun, 01 Nov 2020 11:25:21 -0600

by Jude Terror

Last updated Sun, 01 Nov 2020 21:45:26 -0600

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As the end-of-October deadline came and went, WWE made good on their promise to seize the twitch and cameo accounts of their wrestlers so that they can move forward with plans to launch their own versions, share only a portion of the revenue with the wrestlers, and then count that portion against the wrestlers' "downside guarantee," the minimum amount of money the wrestlers are contracted to receive from WWE even if they don't wrestle, which, during the pandemic era with no live shows, likely means most talent will essentially lose all of the money they were making from Twitch or Cameo. But as most WWE stars quietly acquiesce to the wishes of their corporate master, a few have decided to take a stand, such as Paige.

Paige appears on WWE talk show The Bump ahead of the Backlash PPV.

Paige, who no longer wrestles but is still under contract to WWE, is one of the stars refusing to surrender her twitch account. In a heartfelt message on a Twitch live stream last week, Paige said she's "honestly gotten to the point where I cannot deal with this company anymore" and mentioned that she's "overworked" and that she "broke my fucking neck twice for this company." She went on to say, "People think I should be thankful that I still have a fucking job. And I am. But that doesn't mean I should be treated like fucking shit. I had my neck taken away from me twice. You can't take away my Twitch too." Paige then confirmed in a new stream on Saturday she had no plans to stop Twitching, saying, "I like to stand up for what is right. For not just me, but for everybody."

Meanwhile, stars like Mia Yim of Retribution and AJ Styles have willingly given up Twitch, as have several other wrestlers, with plans apparently to return once WWE gets their plans for an official Twitch presence sorted out. The big difference for Paige is that her future with WWE is uncertain, as her inability to get in the ring means her earning potential with the company is limited, while stars like Styles, up-and-coming stars like Yim, and permanent midcarders like Cesaro and Aleister Black have pretty much accepted a future of mediocrity in exchange for corporate subservience and seem less willing to rock the boat.

Of course, if Donald Trump loses the presidency on Tuesday, former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang has threatened to look into WWE's business practices, so things could change in the future.

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