CJ Perry on WWE ending third party brand deals for talent

Back in September of 2020, WWE established a rule that said talent were not allowed to make third party deals, which at the time included streaming on Twitch. The company seems to have relaxed their stance on that since then, but at the time it was controversial.

In an interview with Fightful, CJ Perry spoke about why that was a difficult time for her and how she handled it at the time.

She said: “That was hard when WWE stopped us and Vince gave us all those letters. That was definitely hard. It was rough. I was a little sad at the time, I remember, because I felt like it was the only thing I could control. You can’t control storylines. You can’t control, especially over in WWE, where they are very much ‘This is what you’re going to do.’ So I felt it was the one place I had a little more control over. But again, I had a great contract and I think I came to the world of wrestling a little bit later than a lot of people, especially girls. They come in at 18, we’re in NXT until they’re 25, then they come up to the main roster or something like that. I came from entertainment. This was my fourth career. I was a professional dancer. So to me, I just approached everything very differently. I looked at it like, ‘Okay, I can either bitch and complain about it or I can leave.’ You saw that with some people, that they thought they were bigger than the franchise and rarely is anyone ever bigger than the franchise, really. A time is gonna come for everyone, either they’re gonna leave or get released, then you can pick up the brand deals. But, for me, I love wrestling. I just know how this business works. I was like, ‘Okay, I’m just gonna take it easy and come back to when I’m [ready],’ and that’s what I did.”