The fan, autograph and picture hounding of WWE talent at the hotels. Fightful has spent the week speaking to WWE talent about the situation around security at WWE hotels.
A number of talent replied with the same "what security?" question. Almost unanimously across the board it was agreed by wrestlers in all locker rooms that WWE and TKO should be providing on site security to talent at major events when the wrestlers are staying at a centralized location. During most events, talent are responsible for their own hotels. At ones like WrestleMania, they're provided by WWE. Still, a number of wrestlers opted to stay at different hotels to avoid the rush of fans and autograph hounds. We're told that makes WWE arranging travel services more difficult.
A WWE source said there were also videos and photos of talent being approached for hugs at Meet and Greets, and encouraged fans to not initiate or instigate physical contact with the wrestlers. Beyond comfortability issues, there are also health risks of the talent hugging fans in meet and greet situations.
One wrestler said that they think things are getting worse because of the skyrocketing prices associated with WWE under TKO and Fanatics. They don't feel they are as financially accessible to fans who want to meet them and would normally pay for meet and greets. "They charge inaccessible prices
There were a number of fan related incidents this week at hotels. CM Punk was seen slapping a phone out of a fan's hand that didn't respect the space of Bayley and AJ Lee. All but one talent we spoke to said that the fan had it coming. Royce Keys was shown asking a fan to respect his time. Booker T said that he got filmed in the bathroom by a fan, something that a number of wrestlers then echoed to Fightful privately. There was a situation where Becky Lynch and Seth Rollins were emerging through a room, and Rollins had to nudge a fan that stepped into his path. Sean Waltman also had a situation with a fan, and Damian Priest had to confront a fan that wouldn't respect female wrestlers' space.
One WWE wrestler did say he thought CM Punk should have handled things differently, citing his past physical incidences. However, WWE sources do not expect legal action.
"A lot of fans use their kids to get us to sign things," a former WWE Champion said. "If we don't, they put phones in our face and try to guilt trip us." Another WWE superstar said "It’s Wrestlemania and there are wrestling fans in town. What do people expect?"
A WWE staff member joked "I think we should be allowed to superkick one annoying fan a day." The overall sentiment is that TKO and WWE need to spend the money to protect the talent, or start paying for the talent to get security themselves.
"It's Vegas, we were fucked from the beginning" one prominent women's talent said. "WWE never actually pre arranges good security . It's like they wait until shit happens, then they do damage control or add security. We love the personal security teams, and they did as much as they could but hotel security was busy taking care of the problems you already have in Las Vegas."
"It was bad," another former WWE Champion said.
Fightful reached out to a WWE rep for comment, but did not hear back.
We heavily encourage fans and subscribers of Fightful -- do not wait at airports or hotels for talent, and do not mail things to their homes unsolicited.
2x NXT Champion
Defeated Brock Lesnar in his FIRST WrestleMania match at WrestleMania 42
One of the most dominant and fastest-rising stars in WWE today
He IS the next big thing in WWE.
