There’s More To This New WWE Talent Signing

Dave Meltzer has reported that WWE’s signing of Zoe Hines — niece of United States Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — was politically driven rather than the result of a standard performance evaluation. Speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio, Meltzer described the signing as one that had been widely anticipated and dreaded internally for the better part of a year before it became official.

“I certainly heard a lot about Zoe Hines I would say six months ago, and it was very much this is one that was politically forced on them. 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 it was a forced hiring because of who she was and because of Robert F. Kennedy and Linda McMahon both being in the cabinet. 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,” Meltzer said.

WWE officially announced Hines as part of the latest WWE Performance Center class alongside Alyssa Daniele, Garrett Beck, and Nicholas Panicali. Hines is a former softball player at Boston College who represented France’s national softball team. RFK Jr. publicly announced her signing in March, noting that Linda McMahon — US Secretary of Education — was involved in the process.

WWE’s ties to the Trump administration run deep beyond the Hines situation. Triple H serves as vice-chair of the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition alongside McMahon’s Secretary of Education role, giving the company significant political connectivity at the highest levels of the current US government.