WWE legends do not receive a check from the company because of their filming on the WWE Network. A new court decision could set a very interesting precedent for that to happen.
Bill Nye filed a lawsuit against Disney after they started broadcasting their show on Disney +. Science Guy believed that he owed 50% of the royalties generated by these flows. Disney argued that they should only give 20%, saying it was streaming and not broadcast. Streaming has been said to be the natural evolution of home video.
Disney won the case, but in that decision the judge made a very interesting decision. He determined that streaming content is the progression of VHS and DVD. This could possibly happen in WWE if some legends, who had clauses in their home video royalty contracts, wanted to publish it.
This is a new situation and nothing has been done about it. This opens the door to possibly revisiting the idea of WWE paying for legends for the footage they broadcast. WWE’s billion-dollar deal with Peacock could help them pay people who haven’t seen a dime since the launch of the WWE Network.