Tama Tonga Fined By WWE For Posting Rehearsal Footage

WWE has been more than happy to peel back the curtain and allow fans a look into the inner workings of storylines, creative room discussions, real-life reactions from wrestlers about their matches and wins, and much more in the WWE Unreal Netflix series (something WWE's wrestlers haven't been too happy with). However, this is only seemingly allowable on WWE’s own terms. 

Member of The MFTs and now former WWE Tag Team Champion Tama Tonga took to social media this week prior to Friday Night SmackDown, giving fans a 360 degree shot of the stage, arena, and ring, where most of the other people in the video were indiscernible and not clear. It was enough to tell that some rehearsals were taking place for the upcoming episode of SmackDown in the Lenovo Center, but nothing that would have been particularly damaging.

However, it was revealed by Andrew Zarian of Fightful that Tama Tonga was fined by WWE for this social media post. It was described as a “significant fine” due to WWE’s unwritten rule of not filming during rehearsals. On SmackDown, Tonga was on the losing end of a WWE Tag Team Championship match, still getting featured on the episode.