Following WrestleMania 42 this past weekend, there’s been several complaints regarding the lack of security at the hotels that WWE talent were staying in, specifically when it came to autograph and picture hounding. In addition to WrestleMania becoming a two-night event, an entire week of festivities including “WWE World” and the WWE Hall Of Fame occur before the show, and according to Fightful Select, talent was furious about fans overstepping boundaries over the last seven days.
On Tuesday, Fightful claimed they were met with the response “what security?” from a number of stars when asking about talent safety protocols, with wrestlers unanimously agreeing that WWE and TKO should be providing more on-site security for the company’s biggest events. Usually, WWE stars are responsible for their own hotels from town-to-town, but for major shows like WrestleMania, WWE often provides hotels for its talent. That said, it’s been reported that a sizeable portion of the roster opted to book their own hotels off-site to avoid large crowds of fans asking for autographs and pictures.
Another WWE source told Fightful that fans were encouraged to not engage in physical contact with wrestlers during meet and greets. However, there was said to be health risks of fans trying to hug talent in certain situations. Fightful also conversed with a former WWE Champion who claimed that fans were using their children to gain access to wrestlers, “A lot of fans use their kids to get us to sign things,” he stated. “If we don’t, they put phones in our face and try to guilt trip us.”
One of WWE’s most popular women’s stars also weighed-in on the situation, where she aired her frustrations towards the Connecticut-based promotion for continuing to under-prepare when it comes to security. “It’s Vegas, we were f****d from the beginning,” she claimed. “WWE never actually pre arranges good security. It’s like they wait until s**t happens, then they do damage control or add security.”
Top talent and WWE legends deal with invasion of privacy
Throughout the last week, there were several wrestlers who were shown setting their boundaries with fans on camera, or reportedly had to directly address certain individuals when walking through hotels. The most well-known altercation was between a fan and talent occurred after WrestleMania night two concluded when CM Punk slapped a phone out of the hands of a person who wasn’t respecting the space and privacy of his wife AJ Lee and Bayley.
In addition, WWE Hall Of Famer Booker T claimed a fan was recording him on camera while he was in the bathroom, Damian Priest confronted somebody who didn’t respect the space of his female coworkers, and Sean Waltman, also known as X-Pac, stated he was physically assaulted by a fan. Other minor conflicts also took place with some of WWE’s biggest stars, with Fightful reporting that Seth Rollins had to nudge a fan away from his wife Becky Lynch and himself, while newly signed star Royce Keys was seen asking a fan to respect his time.
One wrestler told Fightful that the reasonning for the large number of fan incidents could be due to WWE, TKO and their sports merchandise partner Fanatics skyrocketing prices, explaining that the average fan can no longer afford certain experiences, causing them to directly interact with talent. Unfortunately, it wasn’t just WWE stars who encountered these issues last week, as many wrestlers on the independent scene also dealt with fans invading their privacy, including Elayna Black, formerly known as Cora Jade, who claims she was groped in public. Overall, talent feel that more money needs to be put towards protecting stars during the biggest week in wrestling, or that funding should be provided in order to pay for their own security.
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