Backstage Talent Reactions to Fan Incidents Towards WWE Talents During WrestleMania 42 Weekend in Las Vegas

As noted before, CM Punk, Damian Priest, and several other WWE talents were involved in multiple incidents with fans during this past WrestleMania 42 weekend at the MGM Grand Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. Besides current WWE talent, WWE Hall of Famer Sean “X-Pac” Waltman had revealed that he was also stalked and assaulted by fans during WrestleMania 42 weekend at the same hotel.

Fightful Select reported that several WWE talents spoken to had raised their concerns about the lack of proper security at official talent hotels. Those same talents spoken to reportedly responded saying “what security?” when asked about the situation from this past weekend.

One source spoken to within WWE claimed that certain fans had crossed boundaries during meet-and-greet sessions when they attempted to initiate hugs with the talents. This same source reportedly stated that this type of action was strictly not encouraged, not just for personal reasons but also due to health factors.

Another talent spoken to reportedly stated that they believe that things were worsening with fans because of the “sky-high” ticket prices set by WWE under TKO and Fanatics for meet-and-greet events. This same talent reportedly stated that they believe these events are no longer financially accessible to fans who want to meet them and normally pay for meet and greets. It was reported that “inaccessible prices” could be a reason behind the fans getting aggressive of late towards WWE talents.

One former WWE Champion spoken to reportedly stated “A lot of fans use their kids to get us to sign things. If we don’t, they put phones in our face and try to guilt trip us.”

Another talent spoken to reportedly stated “It’s WrestleMania, and there are wrestling fans in town. What do people expect?“

It was reported that talents across the board from multiple locker rooms unanimously agreed that WWE and TKO should provide on-site security to talents during major events when the wrestlers are staying at a centralized location. It was also reported that while wrestlers usually arrange for their own accommodations, WWE provides and takes care of hotels during bigger events such as WrestleMania. It was also reported that multiple talents chose to stay at different locations to avoid the rush of fans at big events which has made arranging travel more difficult.

One WWE staff member reportedly stated in a joking tone that “I think we should be allowed to superkick one annoying fan a day.”

It was reported that the general sentiment amongst the talents is that TKO and WWE should spend the money to protect their talent or start paying for the talent to get security themselves.

One top female talent spoken to reportedly stated “It’s Vegas, we were fucked from the beginning. 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.”