WWE surprised many Wednesday when it reportedly released former NXT Women’s Champion Mandy Rose, whose real name is Amanda Saccomanno.
Rose was released after explicit content from her FanTime page was leaked. This reportedly went over the parameters of her contract, which left the company in a position where it felt termination was the only choice.
Roxanne Perez won the NXT Women’s Championship off Rose on NXT on Tuesday. This reportedly was a last-minute decision by WWE since it advertised a match against the two on Jan. 10 on the New Year’s Evil special. Rose held the belt for 413 days prior to Tuesday.
Many fans were shocked by the news, and Rose thanked everyone for their support on her FanTime page.
“Hey guys, thank you for all the messages,” Rose wrote Thursday, per Fightful. “I am overwhelmed with all the love and support from you guys. And don’t worry the page is still up!”
This leads to multiple takeaways from WWE’s seemingly abrupt decision. Here are three:
How planned was this?
Rose’s FanTime page is not new by any means. So why did this became an issue now? Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter reported Thursday WWE producer Matt Bloom had informed WWE’s Senior Vice President of Talent Development Creative Shawn Michaels of the explicit content. Michaels, whose real name is Michael Hickenbottom, initial reaction was they had to get the title off her immediately. The Tuesday show was flipped around, and Rose lost the title that night.
The timing of the reported release was interesting because it came a day after reported legal demands were revealed against Vince McMahon. There also was a sexual assault allegation that had never been reported along with those legal demands. Was WWE trying to cover those allegations up by releasing one of its popular stars? One would think so, but that would require perfect timing. These legal documents were filed in November, and the story was published Tuesday. WWE likely had no idea when the Wall Street Journal would release its report, so it would take conspiratorial thinking to release Rose whenever the report would come out.
That’s not to say it wasn’t what the company was thinking, but it’s highly unlikely. But again, Rose’s FanTime page is not something she just started, so it has led many to wonder if WWE had just found out about what Rose was doing outside of her work in the company, which leads into another point.
WWE continues to be selective on punishment
WWE cracked down on talent’s partnerships with third parties in 2020. The company reportedly forbid talent from using their WWE names when promoting sponsorships not associated with the company. There also was contention with talent being on Twitch and promoting themselves using their WWE names. Multiple talents quickly used their real names or a different nickname, or multiple talents simply stopped using the Twitch platform altogether. This leads to Rose’s FanTime page. Was she not allowed to use that platform? WWE talent are independent contractors, legally speaking, but as demonstrated by the third-party crackdown, there are limits to that.
Is the threshold simply the explicit nature of Rose’s activity outside of WWE? Many fans have pointed out Matt Riddle has been absent from WWE television due to failing his second drug test. But the company reportedly sent Riddle to rehab, as reported by Bodyslam.net on Monday. WWE has promoted itself as a family-friendly product, but is the line drawn at explicit content but not drug use? This certainly speaks toward a larger societal issue on how women are viewed in the media, but Riddle is not the only star to have gone largely unpunished for their actions.
On April 27, Jimmy Uso, also known as Jonathan Fatu, was arrested for a DUI. It was Uso’s second arrest after he was arrested for allegedly driving drunk in July 2019. But WWE kept him on television. Did his real-life cousin Roman Reigns, a.k.a. Leati Joseph “Joe” Anoa’i, have anything to do with Uso being unpunished? Reigns is the company’s top star and Uso is part of the company’s top stable in “The Bloodline,” so it wouldn’t be that much of a surprise WWE was more lenient compared to Rose, who seemingly wasn’t as fortunate.
You can even look at NXT. JD McDonagh, a.k.a. Jordan Devlin, was accused of abuse by a former partner. WWE released a statement saying they would look into it but have not publicly commented on the situation since then, and McDonagh remains on television.
There must be more solidarity among talent
During WWE’s crackdown on third-party deals, there appeared to be real push at the attempt of unionizing talent. Zelina Vega, a.k.a. Thea Trinidad Büdgen, tweeted in support of he effort and was soon released by WWE, though the company said it had nothing to do with the tweet. SAG-AFTRA tweeted in support of Vega. But the momentum soon dissipated, and Vega returned eight months after her release on July 2, 2021 — the tweet has since been deleted.
But during Vega’s dispute with the company, no talent publicly supported her. The same was true when Sasha Banks and Naomi walked out at a Raw taping on May 16. The company publicly threw them under the bus, and there has been silent from those within the company ever since. Banks appears to be on her way out of the company, which has been the only real development on the situation in 2022.
Now, it’s very easy for those outside of the company to chime in on what people should or should not do. There is inherent risk in stepping up to a boss, and since talent are independent contractors, they easily can be released. But stories of WWE’s labor abuses continue to be brought to light by former wrestlers like Levi Cooper to even talk-show hosts like John Oliver.
Again, it’s very easy to speak behind a keyboard, but the current state of WWE is if you are not someone’s favorite wrestler or the relative of a top wrestler, your job is not guaranteed. But whether it’s a union, an association or even just talent speaking out publicly, there needs to be more support for talent when unjust actions take place. Rose allegedly broke a parameter of her contract, yes. But as stated before, there appears to be inconsistency on when contract violations are broken.
After McMahon’s resignation in July of this year, WWE had a chance to change things around. But it seemingly is more interested in maintaining the status quo, which has not been a net positive for all talent.
