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Posted in: Sports, TV, WWE | Tagged: Smackdown, wrestling, wwe, Zelina Vega
Zelina Vega Makes Surprise WWE Return on Smackdown
After rumors swirled about the subject for weeks, Zelina Vega finally made her surprise return to WWE on tonight's episode of WWE Smackdown. Vega was announced as a participant in the Women's Money in the Bank ladder match by Sonya Deville, and ended up beating Liv Morgan in a match to solidify that spot.
Zelina Vega fell out with WWE in October 2020, when WWE instituted a new policy for third party media deals like Twitch streaming, Cameo, or OnlyFans that allowed wrestlers to make money outside of their WWE performer contracts, a welcome relief with touring shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic. However, WWE wanted that money for themselves and demanded wrestlers hand over control of their accounts, with wrestlers receiving a portion of earnings, counting against their "downside guarantee." A downside guarantee is the amount of money WWE is contractually obligated to pay performers even if they aren't wrestling. Since the coronavirus pandemic meant wrestlers would work just once per week, the nature of the downside guarantee meant that many wrestlers would essentially receive none of the money from the third party deals, though they would have to participate as part of their official WWE responsibilities, according to Andrew Yang. Yes, that Andrew Yang.
Vega refused to hand over her Twitch account, instead defiantly launching an OnlyFans. Vega was released by WWE in November after tweeting in support of a union for wrestlers, attracting the attention of SAG-AFTRA. But now, she's back.
We know WWE hasn't been unionized, so the question is: did the company allow Vega to keep her social media deals as part of her new contract? She was streaming as recently as Thursday on Twitch. And what of Vega's husband, Aleister Black, who was one of many wrestlers cut by WWE in June? Could Black be on his way back as well?
Check back tomorrow for Bleeding Cool's full WWE Smackdown review, and maybe we'll know more by then.
UPDATE: Vega has issued the following statement:
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