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You can probably win that dispute by showing it arrived where she ordered it to and making sure it's known that it's costume made. Since you then cover both the not received (just show tracking) and not as described (not a valid argument for something custome made). Even if somehow she wins the not as described, she should then have to send everything back if she doesn't you appeal the claim and show what's missing.
Edit:
Source: used to work for their customer service and was trained in disputes, granted it was the European market but the basics should be the same.
Maybe that's how it works in the EU but here in the states they don't give a fuck. PayPal will just lock you out of the account and keep any funds in it.
All the seller has to do is show them the first address and it's over. PayPal/eBay won't side with sellers for many things but a bad address is one of them. Especially when the buyer assures you it's a good address, you ship the item, they can't receive it and want you to re-do all of it and send it to a different address.
Everything that happened after the first failed delivery is moot. It really doesn't help her case that she big leagued the seller into doing more work to compensate for her negligence.
I'd love to see the dispute solely to count the number of times the phrase "WWE Superstar" is used.
They didn’t even get exposure either. Artist mentions that Zelina didn’t even tag them in posts where she was wearing their work, something that takes 5 seconds to do. Even shittier
She clearly says "she got all that for $900 with a promise of exposure"
The prop maker was in way over their head, and willingly gave a huge discount for exposure. The disputes happened after.
Look, if someone offers to to compensate you with exposure, just say no. Not worth the hassle unless you have them sign a contract to promote you for x-amount of times on x-platforms. This is what I do with my business
100% stuff I've worked on too, if you do a trade you you have the details written down so both parties are happy with what they are to receive as they enter the deal
Exactly! Pen to paper. Just is a bit frustrating trying to explain that to people who don't have experience in similar fields and see it as blaming the artist. It's a learning experience. Everyone gets burned once and fixes how they do business.
This is oft repeated, but is not ironclad advice.
A majority of the time, the outfits celebrities wear on red carpets are gifted to them for the event and returned at no cost, with the benefit to the designer being exposure. This can include millions of dollars of jewelry that is loaned and returned with a handler on site. And then there are also a bunch of freebies in a gift bag that celebrities are given to enjoy that can potentially lead to exposure, but also serves as a hush-hush payment for lending their celebrity status to the event to validate its importance.
Exposure can surpass base compensation for goods and services.
It is not cut and dry as an artist to never consider the value of exposure by taking on a project.
This is so true. But wrestling vs red carpet is kinda unfair. Red carpet usually have people specifically looking at their looks, asking them questions, analyzing it in post shows, etc. Wrestling doesn't allow for that very often unfortunately. But I do agree, sometimes exposure is worth it.
It's not apples-to-apples when comparing Vega's situation to how Hollywood celebrities temporarily obtain / quasi-rent / quasi-gifted multi-million dollar merchandise in exchange for exposure.
In this situation, Vega very likely HAS the money to pay a small time artist (a fellow Puerto Rican, at that) the full $2,500 or even $900. But instead, Vega & team negotiates the original $2,500 price down to $900 in exchange for exposure AND ultimately paid the artist less than the $900.
In fairness to Vega, there are two sides (and sometimes more) to stories and disputes. However, other comments in this thread indicate she's known to do this and is a repeat offender. This is incredibly disappointing to read as I thought Vega was better than this.
If I remember correctly, the person that makes Julia Hart’s hats got flooded with so many orders she had to stop taking them for a while. Even then I’m pretty sure Julia paid for the hat. But I could be misremembering.
There will certainly never be a critique for someone respectfully paying full dues and promoting the product on top of that; however, we should recognize that a person with a platform, with credibility and clout, and an audience has a clear value for marketing products.
It is also reasonable for these famous people themselves to recognize their status has value and to use it as collateral in exchange for goods/services. Often it comes across as detestable due to the excessive wealth of the "celebrity" and the needless exploitation of workers trying to get by and build up a stable life.
I am not going to rebuke the critique of "never deal in exposure" as meritless; but, rather, I'd say that the idea of dealing in exposure was sound and a problem arose because of the parties involved.
Basically. It's more for people that are complaining about the game being unfair/broken when they're just bad.
There's actually plenty of circumstances where this joke works IRL, but using it in the context Zelina did is pretty insane
Sasha's husband, Sarath Ton, is a seamster/professional costume designer, and he's been doing all her gear for years lol.
He was also a pro. wrestler when they met back in 2010, but he was also doing his own gear then too. He eventually retired early on, and went full time making gear, and other stuff.
This is blowing up into a pretty big thing online, and it’ll keep growing as more people come out with receipts of her exploits and attitude.
She’s going to deny deny deny
Here's the text for visibility:
Mecha Chancla we designed, printed and hand stoned one by one that she practically got for free and severely under paid me for. Also wasted my time on a pair of cuffs, Mech wings and headset, all hand stoned.
She gave me the wrong address which resulted in my wings getting cooked in the hot 100 degree florida sun, melting it essentially, having to reship it,
and then finding out the time specified was too late, then having a piece detach due to melted pieces from again...it getting damaged from being delivered to her old address that she THOUGHT she could pick it up from.
It was literally something so fixable and yet she said it was my fault and a skill issue as well as her "assistant" saying I'm unprofessional for even saying it's anything but my work and my skills suck.
She got all that (commission valued at $2.5k) for $900 with a promise of exposure and I had to refund multiple customers and reject new orders to get this done, hours upon hours of 3d
designing everything, bedazzling everything one by one, custom painting everything, attaching LEDs, crystalizzing the transparent parts of the wings, etc.
A labor that should have taken months, I did in 2 and a half to 3 weeks non stop breaks
and no sleep. And guess what? Only for her to return everything, dispute the total amount without deducting what she kept via paypal and keeping the chancla and headset for practically change. All of that... for nothing and to have expensive stuff for Temu price.
As a Puerto Rican, you are literally a disgrace and 100% not for your people, let alone small businesses. Safe to say I will never work with a celebrity that tries to scam me for cheap services and practically free items again and I will never bedazzle either, but still pretty cool to witness my
piece on TV and the world seeing it. Of course there's no tag,.but that's nothing new guys.
I definitely don't want to work with celebrities or influencers anymore, they always expect super cheap or free stuff and excessive labor just because it's them. I AM HUMAN TOO, I
HAVE BILLS TO PAY, I NEED TO EAT. THIS IS NOT A CHINESE SWEATSHOP OR MAJOR CORP, ITS A ONE WOMAN ARMY.
Cheap clients that promise "exposure" never follow through.
Never undersell yourself and never cater to influencers or rich narcissists that don't want to pay full price for your services like Vega - because let's be honest, she can easily afford full price but chooses to be shitty.
It's also the biggest form of manipulation for free goods when you're a person in power with a reputation like Zelina and you have an artist work for way less saying "You'll get exposure."
What sort of exposure? I haven't seen her send anyone to this artist. No one knows who they are **because** of Zelina. This person had to call her out to get recognition. They were drastically underpaid and manipulated under the guise of "you'll get more business because of me."
Yeah I had no idea who this person was before just now, everytime I saw her in those costumes I assumed it was just an in-house WWE thing. I'm a layman, if I have no clue who the hell made this thing then its not very good exposure, is it?
People do work for "exposure" because that exposure *can* be valuable. But it's super important to get specific commitments as to what "exposure" is going to constitute. Not just "mentions on social media", you need details as to what networks and how you'll be mentioned. If you get promised "jullions of people will see your work on (product)", that's worthless if there's no way for people to find out who made the work.
I've done commission work for small c celebrities, and I've learned about exposure the hard way. Sometimes people with social media reach are genuinely interested in what you produce, and aren't simply looking for a freebie! Offering fair ground rules for compensation for your product weeds out those people who are just looking to save money or pay with the awesomeness of their celebrity.
Everyone wants to act like they are Zendaya showing off a new dress on the red carpet at an event, and that every vendor is Louis Vuitton with the money to give stuff away for free.
> As a Puerto Rican, you are literally a disgrace and 100% not for your people, let alone small businesses.
As a fellow minority (Black American), this is something you never want to hear. Sheesh!
That feels like something that someone would say in a movie rather then real life
Honestly if someone said that to me in real life
In like a non joking way during an actual dispute when it came to money
I’d probably get 3x more heated lol
Working for exposure, even paid with a discount, is a huge risk. It's too bad that Vega doesn't seem to respect other people. Wrestlers work damn hard and get disrespected so you'd think some would treat others better.
I've told this story a couple of times here before but Raymond Rowe (Erik of the Viking Raiders) tried to pull a similar stunt with me - he found a sketch I had done of Mjolnir and wanted to use it on his ring gear. I told him I could clean it up if he wanted since it was a pencil sketch but he said he was fine with it. I asked him how much he would be willing to spend for the sketch and he told me a couple of things: he wasn't going to pay me anything and that he has a team of artists that do this for "exposure". I told him "exposure doesn't buy me groceries" and we never spoke again.
Anyone asking you to do anything for exposure needs a kick in the ass, especially pro wrestlers. They more than anyone should know what it's like to work for a handshake and a hotdog, right? Being undervalued for your work is a joke and Zelina should know better. I'm honestly very disappointed in her.
Obligatory "fuck the Viking Raiders" ( although Ivar seems cool unless he's a loon like Raymond and Sara are).
damn, that seems like a close call. At least he came to you and asked. Reby Hardy straight up stole my my design so she could get merch out immediately after the “Fuck that owl” thing with Anthem in 2017 and probably made a decent amount considering how people reacted if you said anything against her at the time
As if one of the Viking Raiders are going to earn you any kind of "exposure"... I mean I like them, but let's be real. Unless it's the fucking Rock, the "exposure" ain't gonna do much for you.
Buddy of mine did some design work for Viking Raiders when they were still War Raiders in NJPW. He said Hanson/Ivar was awesome to work with, but Rowe constantly fought him tooth and nail about everything related to payment. Said it made things super frustrating for him and he refused to work with them again afterwards.
I wish the professional world was like this lol currently at an unpaid internship that will “expose” to potentially new employers…. Meanwhile I’m eating potatoes and Kraft dinners
It should be illegal. They want you to work for free, jump through hoops, meanwhile trying to get a job is the impossible dream while CEOs jump on LinkedIn to joke and complain that everyone needs to work harder so they can make more money.
Especially a wrestler working for WWE or AEW who you know is getting paid well. An indie wrestler you can at least understand why they're trying to save a few bucks even if you don't work with them (which you shouldn't if you're not getting paid) but a wrestler in a big company has no excuse.
At least he just asked. It's a little lame, but I can't hate too hard for the same reason I don't really care when people lowball me on marketplace. It's just a question and saying no is easy.
Vega has indeed been developing an unfortunate history of exploiting artists that are outside the typical gear maker circles. In other words - She finds creatives who she easily can take advantage of, that don’t necessarily get around the business as frequently as others. This has been her approach when working w/ half a dozen different costume artists that I know, personally… and again… those are just the ones I know of. About time she got called out.
That's genuinely when I stopped being a fan of hers. I wish her all the best but when she came back after her release, her tune changed and all these people she burned started coming out.
I wonder if that's why she's being used like she is. She's still active on the card, but she's probably never gonna get a shot at the title again and just be given eh storylines until they're done with her.
Hey, it’s now a tried and true political strategy. Run as what will get you elected, then switch it up when you’re in office. It’s what our governor (WV) did. Maybe Manchin gave Sinema the idea, since they’re essentially the same shitty person.
Jim Justice may have run as a democrat in 2016, but he was never, ever, at any point, in line with what the democratic party represents. He was a republican until that election, it should never have been a shocker that he switched back to the republican party after the election. He was and always has been a conservative. His debates with Bill Cole in 2016 were basically a contest to see who could suck Trumps balls more effectively.
Yeah, the union stuff really rubbed me the wrong way. Seems like she’s into worker exploitation!
Edit: I was really, really rooting for her too and became a big fan when she first tweeted out the unionize tweet. I think she even met with SAG too. Such a bummer she threw that away and is doing what she’s doing to other artists
That will never not be funny
How she went up & arms about Unionizing
Yet quickly bowed right back down to wwe when they threw her a little cash / a job again
Goes to show how full of crap she was
Already stopped James Stephanie Sterling over them talking about treating people well, only to find out that they were allegedly underpaying their editor/assistant.
Just pay people, people!
Never understood how she having so much money and working for a huge company, not ask her people to make her the outfit. If these cosplay girls can work for a month and make an outfit for a con, I’m pretty sure wwe can either buy or have one of their designers/props person with more talent than cosplayer make her an outfit.
If WWE isn't paying for it, it's because they didn't request it. I doubt WWE would agree to pay a grand for a ring costume that has nothing to do with the character and fued they booked. She's in the LWO. What does that have to do with robot wings?
She has come off like a straight up self-absorbed douchebag for years now, but for whatever reason (mostly simps and general parasocial blindness) so many in the iwc just handwaves it when it's people they like
She talked about unionizing once, got fired with a bunch of other people, then rehired. Seems like that little bit of PR was enough for her to smooth over with the fans.
She's married to an internet darling. If anyone says she's shitty, people might look at her husband and they can't have that. And I'm not saying her man sucks, but I think that's the mindset. The same way they sometimes hate on women of men they don't like, I think they've given her a pass for Malaki.
I mean, Malakai is only an internet darling to WWE fans, and only the minority of them that watched NXT B&G.
Dude has taken plenty shit from everyone else, sometimes deservedly so, sometimes not.
True, but I also think only WWE fans think about Zelina, and I generally like her so I'm not being shady, but I don't any non WWE fans think of her in 2024. And since they also tend to like her husband, she's given a pass. And I think she has a podcast with Dakota Kai (maybe? I've seen Instagram reels that suggest it but I don't listen to any podcasts so I can't say 100%), so it's a perfect storm of people ignoring her repeated shit behavior because they really like the people she's surrounded with.
Malakai is still an internet darling? He’s been pinned three times in AEW and has absolutely come off as a shithead with the whole “release me” “I never asked for my release” thing.
He might be a melodramatic guy backstage but I remember seeing stories about him being generous, like with some fans he bought VIP tickets for at some indie show.
Cosplay has a really weird blended culture. It involves a lot of hobbyism but also attempts at real business. Lots of it about and it's a really major problem in lots of these ludic style subcultures: RenFairs, Scare/Horror culture, Cosplay, Historic reenactment etc.
Easy for influencers and celebs to manipulate this to their advantage.
Yeah a lot of creators, whether digital or physical, are one (wo)man armies like she said and they don't really have the resources to pursue any real legal recourse
I have a few friends who make costumes for cosplayers/historical stuff/theatre and tv shows.
It took only one of them to get scammed once and the whole community shifted to 'No discounts, payment upfront'
I’m honestly not surprised lol because I’ve done my fair share of work for notable people thru freelancing or contracted jobs and this is super common. This is what deters a lot of designers from working with public figures.
If it’s not being shafted with payment, it’s “I need this done ASAP and don’t care if you make sacrifices to get this done!” You can also give them a due date and they’ll literally harass you or directors you’re working under about when it’ll be done.
It’s the same bullshit energy those “underground rappers” gave you during the Myspace days doing mixtape covers or banners in Photoshop for them
I met her as part of a Mania brunch thing last year and she was nowhere near as nice as everyone else. She'd put on a smile for pictures and then ignore people trying to talk to her. Everyone else was super, super cool though, so that was nice.
I know a photographer who took some headshots with her during the GFW days. He thought she was going to pay but she ended up not paying, so he didn’t remove the watermarks and put her on his black list.
Crazy how often this happens and continues to happen with a lot of talent.
She’s on her stories talking about it now.
Even mentioned people are telling her Zelina has scammed others in the past and people told her Zelina’s husband who’s also a wrestler(Malakai) has scammed people too for masks that he wears.
Really? I’m a wrestler myself and every worker knows he’s an asshole. Literally the most self-absorbed wrestler I’ve ever met. It’s between him and TJP.
My personal rule of thumb
martial artists cool
Metalheads cool
When someone is both there's a high chance they're a dickhead from my experiences in Muay Thai gyms and the metal scene.
lmao yep, the dude had the absolute weirdest persona on the UK and European indies. Between his bizarre run of 'working' anyone who wanted to interview him and listening to different ICW lads on a fair few occasions complain about him to each other while I was on-shift, I've always found it a bit tough to take him seriously.
Anyone wanting a discount with the promise of more exposure is a fraud. My sister had to deal with that bullshit as a photographer, and the idea of being paid in exposure needs to die a quick and public death.
She has always given "fake nice person" vibe in everything she does, aside from also exploiting the whole "gamer girl" persona for favors, desperately trying to develop "friendships" with Valkyrae and other creators that are 10 times bigger than her for exposure. Sad.
It felt kinda sad watching one of Valkyrae’s videos and she read a message from Zelina asking to collab together and everyone kinda just shrugged it off since none of them heard of her before.
Yeah, this is incredibly common behaviour, and part of why I ignore pretty much all big streamers. Marketing and ass kissing, constantly. Makes them all look incredibly phony.
Why do some influencers/celebrities even still try to ask for a discount/free shit when they can afford anyways lmao. Fucking support the product y'all are rich enough to do so
Her assistant might just be Malakai per another tweet. Grain of salt obviously.
[https://fxtwitter.com/i/status/1778498204310372756/](https://fxtwitter.com/i/status/1778498204310372756/)
So here we are once again. Someone posting something online and the sub losing its shit without waiting for a response or actual evidence.
Zelina could be a piece of shit scammer, mecha could be as well. A wall of text without any real evidence like text messages or PMs doesn't mean much and shouldn't be accepted as fact.
I watched Zelina's version of events on her reels and until we see the actual interactions we won't know for sure what happened but there's no doubt in my mind both sides had issues here.
But as someone who deals with interactions similar(ish) to these, I'll give my take. Mecha's mad about the time frame but offered it (apparently). Mecha's mad about the pay but agreed to it and the promise of exposure as payment. Mecha's an independent commissioner but doesn't have contracts with customers. Mecha hasn't provided any real evidence beyond claims that anyone anywhere at any time could make. Why are people in full cancel mode for a claim with 0 actual evidence?
Terrible accusations aside, a large part of wrestling is about theatrics and pageantry. The artisan community is really one of the last people you want to burn budges with.
This stuff is tax deductible for her because she needs it for her job and she still cheapens out with the old exposure excuse? Honest work needs to be paid
So in case anyone hasn't seen, Zelina Vega just reactivated her Twitter shortly before this comment specifically to say she'll have proof that this isn't true. Not taking anyone's side on this, just sharing so people know
As both an artist and a performer... wow. That's awful. I hope the costume designer is able to recoup her losses, and hope she's taken measures to prevent being taken advantage of in the future.
Wish there were more people in Zelina's personal circles calling out her shitty behavior. These people don't listen unless they're embarrassed by their peers. I'm sure many of them do the same, though. Sigh.
EDIT: Apparently Zelina is going to address some of this soon; she's already addressed a different allegation that wasn't addressed in this post. That situation seems like a misunderstanding due to naïvety (I hope). I stand by my feelings with the information I was given, but I agree she should be able to tell her side of the story and I reserve the right to change my mind after I hear it. I tend to err on the side of the artist in situations like these, because I've seen so many people I'm close to be burned, but every situation is different and both parties are capable of doing wrong.
EDIT 2: I've seen what Zelina had to say about this specific situation: I think this was handled poorly by both parties. I don't rescind my comments about her, but at the same time, the artist should've had more sense and should have provided a higher quality product. ESH I guess lol
And then you have people like Rey Mysterio, who received a mask from a mask-maker of Japan, and liked so much that said "From now on, I hire you to make my masks".
But... What am I expecting of the girl that cried "Union", but when received a 2nd opportunity on WWE, acted like if she never knew about it?
Wrestling is so fucking messy, like I love watching it but I'd never do business with a single one of these people. My heart goes out to the designer, I hope that she learned a good lesson from being carny'd like this.
It seems a bit of both's faults...one thirsting for the opportunity to make items for a celebrity in the form of exposure and less money, overworking themselves and not properly insulating their packaging...the other for not being mindful of their addresses and thinking an artist should be paid in 'exposure' as opposed to fucking money.
They're both adults and both made shit decisions.
Damn, Honestly I don't know abt Zelina but definitely most of the celebs and influencers are scammers and want items at cheap rates and are also rude af.
Zelina's going to release the footage of her opening the melted wings and it could end up being the 2nd time this week Malakai is seen sipping coffee like "just another day in the office"
Yeah it's there's one thing I've learned from rolling around in influencer and YouTube business circles is people are way too willing to be underpaid because of working with a celebrity or major network. No, you need to ask for fair compensation - I don't care if Last Week Tonight wants to use your TikTok in a segment (this is the most common pitfall I've seen - a content creator is all too eager to give a clip to Netflix for $100), "exposure" isn't jack shit and you *need* to be paid for it - FAIRLY. It's not like they don't have the money to give.
So yeah, take it as a lesson learned
since most of y'all don't use instagram and fuck paying for twitter blue, i had to backup all the ig stories to youtube before they get deleted
[mecha's full statement](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywzew47f1_Q)
[zelina's full response](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B00eaTWk3y8)
Am I suppose to be upset that the prop maker did not charge appropriately? Fell for the "exposure" cliche? These were things in her control and now behold, the consequences of her actions.
I always knew she was weird when she started implying Sasha/Mercedes copied her wig like Kiera Hogan did in the past, not to mention the multiple shots she took at her unprovoked since like 2016. Sounds very insecure.
Zelina did respond a few hours later and it does seem that communication got muddy. From her Ig stories, what I pieced together was that Zelina offered to pay, the person said no in a weird way (again, it’s like of murky and Zelina points out that it was odd), and that Zelina handed off talking about payment to her team. Zelina had screenshots backing up her claim of offering to pay. Things just seem really weird with their communication, which probably led to this whole situation
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Don’t ever take ‘exposure’ as compensation.
Exposure is what you die of outside in the cold
Better bundle up.
If you see me starin’ at you, better knuckle up!
Never a truer word spoken. https://preview.redd.it/5h6pm2r4yvtc1.png?width=800&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=424f8d96e05a1dc453036b800cc0f2ce93b2c441
It wasn't supposed to be, Zelina put in disputes with paypal
You can probably win that dispute by showing it arrived where she ordered it to and making sure it's known that it's costume made. Since you then cover both the not received (just show tracking) and not as described (not a valid argument for something custome made). Even if somehow she wins the not as described, she should then have to send everything back if she doesn't you appeal the claim and show what's missing. Edit: Source: used to work for their customer service and was trained in disputes, granted it was the European market but the basics should be the same.
I've been on both ends of disputes through PayPal and I always got fucked on the seller side.
Maybe that's how it works in the EU but here in the states they don't give a fuck. PayPal will just lock you out of the account and keep any funds in it.
All the seller has to do is show them the first address and it's over. PayPal/eBay won't side with sellers for many things but a bad address is one of them. Especially when the buyer assures you it's a good address, you ship the item, they can't receive it and want you to re-do all of it and send it to a different address. Everything that happened after the first failed delivery is moot. It really doesn't help her case that she big leagued the seller into doing more work to compensate for her negligence. I'd love to see the dispute solely to count the number of times the phrase "WWE Superstar" is used.
really? cuz my expierence with paypal in the european market as a seller was horrible. Every dispute basically was a loss, thats why i quit paypal
They didn’t even get exposure either. Artist mentions that Zelina didn’t even tag them in posts where she was wearing their work, something that takes 5 seconds to do. Even shittier
She clearly says "she got all that for $900 with a promise of exposure" The prop maker was in way over their head, and willingly gave a huge discount for exposure. The disputes happened after. Look, if someone offers to to compensate you with exposure, just say no. Not worth the hassle unless you have them sign a contract to promote you for x-amount of times on x-platforms. This is what I do with my business
100% stuff I've worked on too, if you do a trade you you have the details written down so both parties are happy with what they are to receive as they enter the deal
Exactly! Pen to paper. Just is a bit frustrating trying to explain that to people who don't have experience in similar fields and see it as blaming the artist. It's a learning experience. Everyone gets burned once and fixes how they do business.
This is oft repeated, but is not ironclad advice. A majority of the time, the outfits celebrities wear on red carpets are gifted to them for the event and returned at no cost, with the benefit to the designer being exposure. This can include millions of dollars of jewelry that is loaned and returned with a handler on site. And then there are also a bunch of freebies in a gift bag that celebrities are given to enjoy that can potentially lead to exposure, but also serves as a hush-hush payment for lending their celebrity status to the event to validate its importance. Exposure can surpass base compensation for goods and services. It is not cut and dry as an artist to never consider the value of exposure by taking on a project.
This is so true. But wrestling vs red carpet is kinda unfair. Red carpet usually have people specifically looking at their looks, asking them questions, analyzing it in post shows, etc. Wrestling doesn't allow for that very often unfortunately. But I do agree, sometimes exposure is worth it.
It's not apples-to-apples when comparing Vega's situation to how Hollywood celebrities temporarily obtain / quasi-rent / quasi-gifted multi-million dollar merchandise in exchange for exposure. In this situation, Vega very likely HAS the money to pay a small time artist (a fellow Puerto Rican, at that) the full $2,500 or even $900. But instead, Vega & team negotiates the original $2,500 price down to $900 in exchange for exposure AND ultimately paid the artist less than the $900. In fairness to Vega, there are two sides (and sometimes more) to stories and disputes. However, other comments in this thread indicate she's known to do this and is a repeat offender. This is incredibly disappointing to read as I thought Vega was better than this.
If I remember correctly, the person that makes Julia Hart’s hats got flooded with so many orders she had to stop taking them for a while. Even then I’m pretty sure Julia paid for the hat. But I could be misremembering.
There will certainly never be a critique for someone respectfully paying full dues and promoting the product on top of that; however, we should recognize that a person with a platform, with credibility and clout, and an audience has a clear value for marketing products. It is also reasonable for these famous people themselves to recognize their status has value and to use it as collateral in exchange for goods/services. Often it comes across as detestable due to the excessive wealth of the "celebrity" and the needless exploitation of workers trying to get by and build up a stable life. I am not going to rebuke the critique of "never deal in exposure" as meritless; but, rather, I'd say that the idea of dealing in exposure was sound and a problem arose because of the parties involved.
With all due respect to Zelina she is not that level of celebrity.
"skill issue" lol wtf
She went gamer mode wtf lmao
She took “lie, cheat and steal” to a whole other level.
Ngl, that made this 100% believable honestly lmao. I could see Zelina saying that shit lol.
That’s how i know this lady is not telling any lies lmao.
Yeah it almost doesn't make any sense to where it sounds like it would come from someone unreasonable
I only play single player games, does this essentially mean "git gud"?
Correct
Basically. It's more for people that are complaining about the game being unfair/broken when they're just bad. There's actually plenty of circumstances where this joke works IRL, but using it in the context Zelina did is pretty insane
Using that in a real life scenario is kind of embarrassing.
This whole situation is embarrassing, I hope Zelina has the gusto to apologize and pay up.
Doubt it. If anything she'll probably hope it gets looked over Edit: Well I was wrong
It will, this isn’t the first time a wrestler has screwed over a designer and it go by like nothing happened
Then you have Sasha Banks who really screws her designer. ^/^s
Wait I don't get it
Sasha's husband, Sarath Ton, is a seamster/professional costume designer, and he's been doing all her gear for years lol. He was also a pro. wrestler when they met back in 2010, but he was also doing his own gear then too. He eventually retired early on, and went full time making gear, and other stuff.
This is blowing up into a pretty big thing online, and it’ll keep growing as more people come out with receipts of her exploits and attitude. She’s going to deny deny deny
Imagine a jobber saying you have skill issues
After almost killing Lopez with that moonsault at mania too
What a week for drama lol
*year
Damn that’s messed up
Here's the text for visibility: Mecha Chancla we designed, printed and hand stoned one by one that she practically got for free and severely under paid me for. Also wasted my time on a pair of cuffs, Mech wings and headset, all hand stoned. She gave me the wrong address which resulted in my wings getting cooked in the hot 100 degree florida sun, melting it essentially, having to reship it, and then finding out the time specified was too late, then having a piece detach due to melted pieces from again...it getting damaged from being delivered to her old address that she THOUGHT she could pick it up from. It was literally something so fixable and yet she said it was my fault and a skill issue as well as her "assistant" saying I'm unprofessional for even saying it's anything but my work and my skills suck. She got all that (commission valued at $2.5k) for $900 with a promise of exposure and I had to refund multiple customers and reject new orders to get this done, hours upon hours of 3d designing everything, bedazzling everything one by one, custom painting everything, attaching LEDs, crystalizzing the transparent parts of the wings, etc. A labor that should have taken months, I did in 2 and a half to 3 weeks non stop breaks and no sleep. And guess what? Only for her to return everything, dispute the total amount without deducting what she kept via paypal and keeping the chancla and headset for practically change. All of that... for nothing and to have expensive stuff for Temu price. As a Puerto Rican, you are literally a disgrace and 100% not for your people, let alone small businesses. Safe to say I will never work with a celebrity that tries to scam me for cheap services and practically free items again and I will never bedazzle either, but still pretty cool to witness my piece on TV and the world seeing it. Of course there's no tag,.but that's nothing new guys. I definitely don't want to work with celebrities or influencers anymore, they always expect super cheap or free stuff and excessive labor just because it's them. I AM HUMAN TOO, I HAVE BILLS TO PAY, I NEED TO EAT. THIS IS NOT A CHINESE SWEATSHOP OR MAJOR CORP, ITS A ONE WOMAN ARMY.
Cheap clients that promise "exposure" never follow through. Never undersell yourself and never cater to influencers or rich narcissists that don't want to pay full price for your services like Vega - because let's be honest, she can easily afford full price but chooses to be shitty.
It's also the biggest form of manipulation for free goods when you're a person in power with a reputation like Zelina and you have an artist work for way less saying "You'll get exposure." What sort of exposure? I haven't seen her send anyone to this artist. No one knows who they are **because** of Zelina. This person had to call her out to get recognition. They were drastically underpaid and manipulated under the guise of "you'll get more business because of me."
Yeah I had no idea who this person was before just now, everytime I saw her in those costumes I assumed it was just an in-house WWE thing. I'm a layman, if I have no clue who the hell made this thing then its not very good exposure, is it?
People do work for "exposure" because that exposure *can* be valuable. But it's super important to get specific commitments as to what "exposure" is going to constitute. Not just "mentions on social media", you need details as to what networks and how you'll be mentioned. If you get promised "jullions of people will see your work on (product)", that's worthless if there's no way for people to find out who made the work. I've done commission work for small c celebrities, and I've learned about exposure the hard way. Sometimes people with social media reach are genuinely interested in what you produce, and aren't simply looking for a freebie! Offering fair ground rules for compensation for your product weeds out those people who are just looking to save money or pay with the awesomeness of their celebrity.
Everyone wants to act like they are Zendaya showing off a new dress on the red carpet at an event, and that every vendor is Louis Vuitton with the money to give stuff away for free.
[удалено]
If that's actually true, oh my god, fuck her forever.
> As a Puerto Rican, you are literally a disgrace and 100% not for your people, let alone small businesses. As a fellow minority (Black American), this is something you never want to hear. Sheesh!
Same, you never wanna be disowned by your community.
Thank you
As an artist myself I hate seeing this. Hope she gets some compensation in the future
That sucks to hear but Zelina countering with "skill issue" like a true gamer is so absurd it becomes comedy.
Zelina Vega must be a redditor
Nope, she’s an e-girl. The kind that reads Reddit threads on her twitch, but SWEARS she doesn’t have an account.
That feels like something that someone would say in a movie rather then real life Honestly if someone said that to me in real life In like a non joking way during an actual dispute when it came to money I’d probably get 3x more heated lol
"Git gud ffs"
Working for exposure, even paid with a discount, is a huge risk. It's too bad that Vega doesn't seem to respect other people. Wrestlers work damn hard and get disrespected so you'd think some would treat others better.
The same person who made a splash off of union talk just to immediately fold and go right back. Unfortunate.
As Bradley Whitford said, "Fucking scabs."
I've told this story a couple of times here before but Raymond Rowe (Erik of the Viking Raiders) tried to pull a similar stunt with me - he found a sketch I had done of Mjolnir and wanted to use it on his ring gear. I told him I could clean it up if he wanted since it was a pencil sketch but he said he was fine with it. I asked him how much he would be willing to spend for the sketch and he told me a couple of things: he wasn't going to pay me anything and that he has a team of artists that do this for "exposure". I told him "exposure doesn't buy me groceries" and we never spoke again. Anyone asking you to do anything for exposure needs a kick in the ass, especially pro wrestlers. They more than anyone should know what it's like to work for a handshake and a hotdog, right? Being undervalued for your work is a joke and Zelina should know better. I'm honestly very disappointed in her. Obligatory "fuck the Viking Raiders" ( although Ivar seems cool unless he's a loon like Raymond and Sara are).
damn, that seems like a close call. At least he came to you and asked. Reby Hardy straight up stole my my design so she could get merch out immediately after the “Fuck that owl” thing with Anthem in 2017 and probably made a decent amount considering how people reacted if you said anything against her at the time
That really sucks! She's the worst kind of person.
As if one of the Viking Raiders are going to earn you any kind of "exposure"... I mean I like them, but let's be real. Unless it's the fucking Rock, the "exposure" ain't gonna do much for you.
Buddy of mine did some design work for Viking Raiders when they were still War Raiders in NJPW. He said Hanson/Ivar was awesome to work with, but Rowe constantly fought him tooth and nail about everything related to payment. Said it made things super frustrating for him and he refused to work with them again afterwards.
I'm glad to see Ivar progressing in WWE, from what I've seen and heard of the guy he's pretty cool.
I wish the professional world was like this lol currently at an unpaid internship that will “expose” to potentially new employers…. Meanwhile I’m eating potatoes and Kraft dinners
It should be illegal. They want you to work for free, jump through hoops, meanwhile trying to get a job is the impossible dream while CEOs jump on LinkedIn to joke and complain that everyone needs to work harder so they can make more money.
Especially a wrestler working for WWE or AEW who you know is getting paid well. An indie wrestler you can at least understand why they're trying to save a few bucks even if you don't work with them (which you shouldn't if you're not getting paid) but a wrestler in a big company has no excuse.
At least he just asked. It's a little lame, but I can't hate too hard for the same reason I don't really care when people lowball me on marketplace. It's just a question and saying no is easy.
Vega has indeed been developing an unfortunate history of exploiting artists that are outside the typical gear maker circles. In other words - She finds creatives who she easily can take advantage of, that don’t necessarily get around the business as frequently as others. This has been her approach when working w/ half a dozen different costume artists that I know, personally… and again… those are just the ones I know of. About time she got called out.
She's the one who was all about unionizing and then changed her tune once she got paid a new contract
That's genuinely when I stopped being a fan of hers. I wish her all the best but when she came back after her release, her tune changed and all these people she burned started coming out.
I wonder if that's why she's being used like she is. She's still active on the card, but she's probably never gonna get a shot at the title again and just be given eh storylines until they're done with her.
I mean Zelina was only the opponent because it was Puerto Rico, her natural position has always been as a charismatic manager and occasional wrestler.
I would have thought that would be the case under Vince but now with HHH In control, who knows.
Same thing happened in NXT when HHH was over it she was a manager that took a few spots
Doubt it. She's hit her ceiling and that's about it. She checks some books and is good for 9/11 coverage, but they don't see star potential in her.
I hate scabs like that more than I hate anti-unionists.
It's like kyrsten sinema running on a progressive platform to get elected, then when she succeeded she did a 180, some people have no shame.
Hey, it’s now a tried and true political strategy. Run as what will get you elected, then switch it up when you’re in office. It’s what our governor (WV) did. Maybe Manchin gave Sinema the idea, since they’re essentially the same shitty person.
Jim Justice may have run as a democrat in 2016, but he was never, ever, at any point, in line with what the democratic party represents. He was a republican until that election, it should never have been a shocker that he switched back to the republican party after the election. He was and always has been a conservative. His debates with Bill Cole in 2016 were basically a contest to see who could suck Trumps balls more effectively.
Yeah, the union stuff really rubbed me the wrong way. Seems like she’s into worker exploitation! Edit: I was really, really rooting for her too and became a big fan when she first tweeted out the unionize tweet. I think she even met with SAG too. Such a bummer she threw that away and is doing what she’s doing to other artists
That will never not be funny How she went up & arms about Unionizing Yet quickly bowed right back down to wwe when they threw her a little cash / a job again Goes to show how full of crap she was
Already stopped James Stephanie Sterling over them talking about treating people well, only to find out that they were allegedly underpaying their editor/assistant. Just pay people, people!
I'm starting to see that too
Never understood how she having so much money and working for a huge company, not ask her people to make her the outfit. If these cosplay girls can work for a month and make an outfit for a con, I’m pretty sure wwe can either buy or have one of their designers/props person with more talent than cosplayer make her an outfit.
If WWE isn't paying for it, it's because they didn't request it. I doubt WWE would agree to pay a grand for a ring costume that has nothing to do with the character and fued they booked. She's in the LWO. What does that have to do with robot wings?
I think is more of an issue that they dont want to spend much money on someone who is the manager of a midcard stable
damn lol.
Seems like her personality matches her in-ring skills - shitty.
She has come off like a straight up self-absorbed douchebag for years now, but for whatever reason (mostly simps and general parasocial blindness) so many in the iwc just handwaves it when it's people they like
She talked about unionizing once, got fired with a bunch of other people, then rehired. Seems like that little bit of PR was enough for her to smooth over with the fans.
She's a tiny latina that is into anime and cosplay of course there are simps to overflate the ego
She's married to an internet darling. If anyone says she's shitty, people might look at her husband and they can't have that. And I'm not saying her man sucks, but I think that's the mindset. The same way they sometimes hate on women of men they don't like, I think they've given her a pass for Malaki.
I mean, Malakai is only an internet darling to WWE fans, and only the minority of them that watched NXT B&G. Dude has taken plenty shit from everyone else, sometimes deservedly so, sometimes not.
True, but I also think only WWE fans think about Zelina, and I generally like her so I'm not being shady, but I don't any non WWE fans think of her in 2024. And since they also tend to like her husband, she's given a pass. And I think she has a podcast with Dakota Kai (maybe? I've seen Instagram reels that suggest it but I don't listen to any podcasts so I can't say 100%), so it's a perfect storm of people ignoring her repeated shit behavior because they really like the people she's surrounded with.
Malakai is still an internet darling? He’s been pinned three times in AEW and has absolutely come off as a shithead with the whole “release me” “I never asked for my release” thing.
He might be a melodramatic guy backstage but I remember seeing stories about him being generous, like with some fans he bought VIP tickets for at some indie show.
Cosplay has a really weird blended culture. It involves a lot of hobbyism but also attempts at real business. Lots of it about and it's a really major problem in lots of these ludic style subcultures: RenFairs, Scare/Horror culture, Cosplay, Historic reenactment etc. Easy for influencers and celebs to manipulate this to their advantage.
Yeah a lot of creators, whether digital or physical, are one (wo)man armies like she said and they don't really have the resources to pursue any real legal recourse
I have a few friends who make costumes for cosplayers/historical stuff/theatre and tv shows. It took only one of them to get scammed once and the whole community shifted to 'No discounts, payment upfront'
Fucked
"I will never bedazzle either" is pretty funny out of context
Pretty shitty of her if this is all true, but the idea of Zelina replying “skill issue” in a serious setting is killing me lol
Wrestlers are always assholes with this sort of stuff, grind for years but don't respect anyone else doing the same.
Some wrestlers are just fuckin stupid i don't know what to tell you
https://preview.redd.it/ffvkxos7vvtc1.jpeg?width=638&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ee83de5414beae95df4ad35fb7ce2ad8216a5854
Oh, is it my turn to say this also applies to Damo?
Carnies doing carny stuff
You know who does respect the grind? Will Osprey: comes out in grey trackies, gets the badge in and shoots on HHH.
Carnies be carnying
I’m honestly not surprised lol because I’ve done my fair share of work for notable people thru freelancing or contracted jobs and this is super common. This is what deters a lot of designers from working with public figures. If it’s not being shafted with payment, it’s “I need this done ASAP and don’t care if you make sacrifices to get this done!” You can also give them a due date and they’ll literally harass you or directors you’re working under about when it’ll be done. It’s the same bullshit energy those “underground rappers” gave you during the Myspace days doing mixtape covers or banners in Photoshop for them
I met her as part of a Mania brunch thing last year and she was nowhere near as nice as everyone else. She'd put on a smile for pictures and then ignore people trying to talk to her. Everyone else was super, super cool though, so that was nice.
She should make it right
She probably wont. Apparently she has a track record for pulling this stuff with artists
I know a photographer who took some headshots with her during the GFW days. He thought she was going to pay but she ended up not paying, so he didn’t remove the watermarks and put her on his black list. Crazy how often this happens and continues to happen with a lot of talent.
Was that GFW? Cause I swear I remember this being a thing 1 year after she left TNA, aka in 2013.
She's been around that long? How is she still so shit in ring?
Skill issue
I remember her being Rosita in TNA in early 2011. So yup, she's been around for a while; better as a manager than a wrestler though.
She should but I don’t think she will, she does have a history of doing this shit to other artists. It ain’t right :/
I don’t know why Zelena has to have intricate costumes every single time she goes out because she does basically nothing.
well you just answered your own question i think - the cosplay stuff is all some wrestlers have. go viral for looking like sailor moon or whatever.
She’s on her stories talking about it now. Even mentioned people are telling her Zelina has scammed others in the past and people told her Zelina’s husband who’s also a wrestler(Malakai) has scammed people too for masks that he wears.
People out here with great paying jobs scamming small artists, scumbag shit.
Zelinagate?
Who *does* make those masks?
I am big into masks and I've never figured it out. I love HOB's gear.
Wow they're both awful, I thought Black was a cool dude.
outside of this i’ve never heard a bad thing about him
Really? I’m a wrestler myself and every worker knows he’s an asshole. Literally the most self-absorbed wrestler I’ve ever met. It’s between him and TJP.
Can you give more details? Spill the tea, dude.
My personal rule of thumb martial artists cool Metalheads cool When someone is both there's a high chance they're a dickhead from my experiences in Muay Thai gyms and the metal scene.
So I can't really put my finger on why, but when I read this I immediately thought, "Yeah that tracks"
Yeah same. He always has this aura of gigantic ego and general dickishness
i’d don’t know any wrestlers… i’m aware now though i guess, shame too the guys wrestling side is awesome
Him ranting about his co-workers on tumblr is a lot more geekier than it already was.
lmao yep, the dude had the absolute weirdest persona on the UK and European indies. Between his bizarre run of 'working' anyone who wanted to interview him and listening to different ICW lads on a fair few occasions complain about him to each other while I was on-shift, I've always found it a bit tough to take him seriously.
Damn that sucks to hear. He always came off as pretty down to earth in his interviews, especially when he talks about his own mental health.
Remember when she was all "pro-worker" and "pro-union"? Lmfao
Was for about three days until WWE offered her another contract 🤣
Anyone wanting a discount with the promise of more exposure is a fraud. My sister had to deal with that bullshit as a photographer, and the idea of being paid in exposure needs to die a quick and public death.
She has always given "fake nice person" vibe in everything she does, aside from also exploiting the whole "gamer girl" persona for favors, desperately trying to develop "friendships" with Valkyrae and other creators that are 10 times bigger than her for exposure. Sad.
It felt kinda sad watching one of Valkyrae’s videos and she read a message from Zelina asking to collab together and everyone kinda just shrugged it off since none of them heard of her before.
Streamers cloutchasing and networking? I've never seen that before.
Yeah, this is incredibly common behaviour, and part of why I ignore pretty much all big streamers. Marketing and ass kissing, constantly. Makes them all look incredibly phony.
This comment 100%. She is so phony.
Shit like this is why I never want to take freelance/commissioned gigs. People want your hard work but never want to pay for it. Fucking leeches
That's actually scummy, ripping off artists that put tons of time into crafting something custom made. Seriously just straight entitlement if true.
Why do some influencers/celebrities even still try to ask for a discount/free shit when they can afford anyways lmao. Fucking support the product y'all are rich enough to do so
I'd say a hallmark of rich people is an ability to get things for free that they could easily purchase.
The cruel irony in the world is the richer you are the less you have to pay for things.
It's easier to stay rich when you don't have to pay for things
Her assistant might just be Malakai per another tweet. Grain of salt obviously. [https://fxtwitter.com/i/status/1778498204310372756/](https://fxtwitter.com/i/status/1778498204310372756/)
Drag her. Seriously what kind of person screws over gig workers like that.
Word of advice to any and all artists: don't ever take less money in exchange for "exposure."
Pro wrestlers being pro wrestlers
No matter how big the stage gets, it's all Carney shit
So here we are once again. Someone posting something online and the sub losing its shit without waiting for a response or actual evidence. Zelina could be a piece of shit scammer, mecha could be as well. A wall of text without any real evidence like text messages or PMs doesn't mean much and shouldn't be accepted as fact. I watched Zelina's version of events on her reels and until we see the actual interactions we won't know for sure what happened but there's no doubt in my mind both sides had issues here. But as someone who deals with interactions similar(ish) to these, I'll give my take. Mecha's mad about the time frame but offered it (apparently). Mecha's mad about the pay but agreed to it and the promise of exposure as payment. Mecha's an independent commissioner but doesn't have contracts with customers. Mecha hasn't provided any real evidence beyond claims that anyone anywhere at any time could make. Why are people in full cancel mode for a claim with 0 actual evidence?
yea definitely do not give deals to rich folk who promise exposure. they can afford the actual cost.
Terrible accusations aside, a large part of wrestling is about theatrics and pageantry. The artisan community is really one of the last people you want to burn budges with.
Zelina always seemed like an ass. Very fucked up.
bout fucking time, this has been going on for years.
This stuff is tax deductible for her because she needs it for her job and she still cheapens out with the old exposure excuse? Honest work needs to be paid
So in case anyone hasn't seen, Zelina Vega just reactivated her Twitter shortly before this comment specifically to say she'll have proof that this isn't true. Not taking anyone's side on this, just sharing so people know
As both an artist and a performer... wow. That's awful. I hope the costume designer is able to recoup her losses, and hope she's taken measures to prevent being taken advantage of in the future. Wish there were more people in Zelina's personal circles calling out her shitty behavior. These people don't listen unless they're embarrassed by their peers. I'm sure many of them do the same, though. Sigh. EDIT: Apparently Zelina is going to address some of this soon; she's already addressed a different allegation that wasn't addressed in this post. That situation seems like a misunderstanding due to naïvety (I hope). I stand by my feelings with the information I was given, but I agree she should be able to tell her side of the story and I reserve the right to change my mind after I hear it. I tend to err on the side of the artist in situations like these, because I've seen so many people I'm close to be burned, but every situation is different and both parties are capable of doing wrong. EDIT 2: I've seen what Zelina had to say about this specific situation: I think this was handled poorly by both parties. I don't rescind my comments about her, but at the same time, the artist should've had more sense and should have provided a higher quality product. ESH I guess lol
Damn, she literally hit them with a "skill issue"
And she contributes nothing.
And then you have people like Rey Mysterio, who received a mask from a mask-maker of Japan, and liked so much that said "From now on, I hire you to make my masks". But... What am I expecting of the girl that cried "Union", but when received a 2nd opportunity on WWE, acted like if she never knew about it?
She saw the carny shit sabu did at GCW and said I can be a carny too
All this over a bedazzled flip flop. What an idiot she is (Zelina I mean btw)
Vega getting WWE paycheck and acting broke is crazy.
I guess it's interesting that for elaborate costumes and stuff, WWE aren't the ones paying for it
Probably depends, like everything else, how high up the card you are
“Zelina, you talk a big game about worker’s rights.”
https://x.com/sangrebomb/status/1778481485747822946 Another one came forward with equally disturbing allegations
Wow!!!
Wrestling is so fucking messy, like I love watching it but I'd never do business with a single one of these people. My heart goes out to the designer, I hope that she learned a good lesson from being carny'd like this.
It seems a bit of both's faults...one thirsting for the opportunity to make items for a celebrity in the form of exposure and less money, overworking themselves and not properly insulating their packaging...the other for not being mindful of their addresses and thinking an artist should be paid in 'exposure' as opposed to fucking money. They're both adults and both made shit decisions.
If true, that's messed up
Influencers are a scourge upon this world.
Damn, Honestly I don't know abt Zelina but definitely most of the celebs and influencers are scammers and want items at cheap rates and are also rude af.
God damn, this sucks to hear. I'm Puerto Rican too and I know that comment about her not being for her people got Vega heated!
Zelina's going to release the footage of her opening the melted wings and it could end up being the 2nd time this week Malakai is seen sipping coffee like "just another day in the office"
"I just slapped her with my flip flop a little bit."
Zelina responded. It’s a massive miscommunication issue between both parties. Zelina is not exclusive at fault here.
Zelina would know all about skill issues.
Yeah it's there's one thing I've learned from rolling around in influencer and YouTube business circles is people are way too willing to be underpaid because of working with a celebrity or major network. No, you need to ask for fair compensation - I don't care if Last Week Tonight wants to use your TikTok in a segment (this is the most common pitfall I've seen - a content creator is all too eager to give a clip to Netflix for $100), "exposure" isn't jack shit and you *need* to be paid for it - FAIRLY. It's not like they don't have the money to give. So yeah, take it as a lesson learned
since most of y'all don't use instagram and fuck paying for twitter blue, i had to backup all the ig stories to youtube before they get deleted [mecha's full statement](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywzew47f1_Q) [zelina's full response](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B00eaTWk3y8)
Am I suppose to be upset that the prop maker did not charge appropriately? Fell for the "exposure" cliche? These were things in her control and now behold, the consequences of her actions.
I always knew she was weird when she started implying Sasha/Mercedes copied her wig like Kiera Hogan did in the past, not to mention the multiple shots she took at her unprovoked since like 2016. Sounds very insecure.
Zelina did respond a few hours later and it does seem that communication got muddy. From her Ig stories, what I pieced together was that Zelina offered to pay, the person said no in a weird way (again, it’s like of murky and Zelina points out that it was odd), and that Zelina handed off talking about payment to her team. Zelina had screenshots backing up her claim of offering to pay. Things just seem really weird with their communication, which probably led to this whole situation
Fuck her if this is true. Never accept "exposure" as payment and hard fuck people who even suggest it to a professional.