During a recent French-language podcast, host Pat Laprade shed some light on WWE’s adoption of stricter guidelines regarding masks being worn and talent observing social distancing measures.
On the July 9th edition of Les anti-pods de la Lutte, Laprade reported that it was WWE performer Kevin Owens that raised concerns at the tapings on Friday, July 3rd that led to the policy.
Owens reportedly told Vince McMahon he was not comfortable over the lack of masks being worn and people being too close. Owens informed McMahon that he was going to go home. McMahon asked Owens what he wanted him to do with Owens said to have responded that McMahon was the only person the crew was going to listen to.
Laprade went on to describe that McMahon asked if instituting a policy with fines would work. Owens responded that he once swore on SmackDown, was fined, and never did it again – proving it to be a deterrent.
Owens saw that people began wearing masks and keeping their distance, and he chose to stay for the tapings, which included last week’s episode and the show airing tonight.
Shortly after, fines were introduced with Mike Johnson at PWinsider.com the first to report failure to wear a mask would result in a $500 fine for the first offense and $1,000 for a second offense.
Earlier this month, Fightful Select had reported that an unnamed talent on Raw had approached Vince McMahon about the situation involving masks and social distancing.
Owens has been a public advocate for people to wear masks and noted that his wife’s grandfather died from COVID-19 earlier this year.
Let’s try this. pic.twitter.com/SJXJSpNfd7
— Kevin (@FightOwensFight) June 29, 2020
