What is being said about Naomi’s contractual status with WWE

As previously reported, women’s tag team champions Sasha Banks and Naomi reportedly walked out of WWE RAW due to creative issues with Vince McMahon.

During Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer of F4WOnline.com discussed the situation…

“Usually, I’m pretty sympathetic to talent. I’ve asked people in the company, several, yesterday and nobody was defending them at all. Quite frankly, nobody can understand it either. I mean, it’s like, ‘Tell me, there’s got to be more than this,’ right?

On Monday’s show, I mentioned Trinity [Naomi]’s contract. So, the deal is, and this was brought up to me as well, her contract, I guess it’s expiring soon, but she was in negotiations for a new deal… It’s possible that they might go with the idea that she’s not leaving, no matter what. Her family’s here. And, so, they don’t feel the leverage they might have felt with like, a Kevin Owens or Sami Zayn, or someone where, if we lowball them, you know, I mean, it’s like, they’re going to leave. So, we have to give them a pretty big offer.”

“In her case, maybe they wouldn’t do it, but most people who are getting new deals are getting substantial raises. Major raises right now because there’s a wrestling war going on. The salary structure of WWE talent has increased greatly because of this. This is a pretty good time for her to make, likely, more money, maybe even a lot more money, but certainly more money, and this probably won’t help her cause in negotiation.

Now, on the flip side, if her deal is almost up or whatever, not too far from now, that they’re renegotiating, in theory, she could sit out but then they could freeze. And it’s the same thing with Sasha. Whenever her deal is up. It’s like, if you don’t perform, whether you’re injured or just whatever, you walk out for a while, that does freeze your contract and if you don’t come back, they can freeze it in theory forever. Of course, in reality, you can’t freeze them forever because at some point, you’re going to go to court and you’re going to win because that won’t hold up in court that they’re freezing you forever. But, then, you’ve got to go to court and all that. That’s another hassle, you’ve got to fight them in court. I guess we’re going to see how this all plays out, but I don’t know.” (quote courtesy of RingsideNews.com)