To pretty much no one’s surprise, the conversation about WWE signing Alyssa Daniele, Garrett Beck, Nicholas Panicali, and Zoe Hines to Developmental contracts yesterday (April 29) has focused almost exclusively on Hines, the niece of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. who leads the United States Department of Health and Human Services for President Donald Trump.
Online that discussion was primed by RFK breaking the news of his niece’s WWE signing last month, which he inferred came via his connection to former
WWE CEO and two-time Trump cabinet member Linda McMahon. That came along with a report that multiple people at WWE said the company “may feel pressure to do something with” Hines as a result of her uncle’s connections.
Scrutiny of Zoe Hines already figured to be more intense than what most arrivals at the WWE Performance Center are subject to. A more detailed account of the alleged “pressure” WWE feels regarding RFK Jr’s niece (via his marriage to actress Cheryl Hines) will only intensify the spotlight on the former collegiate softball player.
It’s from the same source as that earlier item, Dave Meltzer. These quotes are from the latest Wrestling Observer Radio:
“I certainly heard a lot about Zoe Hines, I’d say six months ago, and it was very much like this is one that was politically forced on them.
I mean, she’s a real athlete, she’s a softball player. When she had her tryout, it’s not like she knocked them dead or even knocked them even. It was very much said that it was a forced hiring because of who she was and because of Robert F. Kennedy and Linda McMahon both being in the cabinet, and it was just, she wanted to try.”
Meltzer compared it to another situation with someone who’s family has much stronger ties to WWE, namely Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s daughter, formerly known as NXT General Manager Ava:
“… it was like Simone Johnson, the same thing. She was not a good wrestler. They eventually used her as Ava and everything like that, and used her in a different role.”
He concluded:
“I had heard people very much dreading knowing this. As far as the hiring of her, I would say it was probably known easily a year ago that it was inevitable this would happen.
”Everyone can improve, you never know — but it was one of those where the people who knew and seen and everything had told me it was a hire they were dreading because it was a forced one. Anyway, it’s now official, but it’s been official for a long, long time.”
Almost always a lightning rod in the wrestling world these days, Meltzer’s comments figure to make the conversation as much about him as about Hines. The Observer scribe is fresh out of a lengthy social media beef with Conrad Thompson over whether Meltzer saying 14-year-old Brodie Lee Jr is better than most people at NXT placed unfair expectations on Brodie Jr. (from which Dave dove right into a debate with half of Twitter/X about Hulk Hogan’s legacy this week). His new quotes figure to paint an even bigger target on Zoe Hines.
But I also don’t doubt there are those inside WWE reaching out to Meltzer to express concern about Hines’ hiring, and she would have gotten some “nepo baby” heat without any help from the dirt sheets. It might not be fair, but it wasn’t fair to at least one other recent tryout attendee that Hines’ uncle and his current job possibly tipped the scales in her favor.
Plus, while we online wrestling fans get a bad rap — often deservedly so — we’re also wrestling fans. If Zoe Hines takes to the business, respects it, puts in the work, and proves to be entertaining in some role on NXT, few among us will hold how she got the job against her.
Weigh in on Zoe Hines hiring and/or the reporting of it in the comments below.
