A new report about Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s niece gets major pushback.
This week, WWE announced its newest rookie Performance Center class: Alyssa Daniele, Garrett Beck, Nicholas Panicali, and Zoe Hines. Hines’ WWE arrival is particularly noteworthy due to her status as Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s niece.
RFK Jr., of course, is the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS). Because of this, a new report claims that WWE was “politically forced” to sign her to a contract.
“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,” journalist Dave Meltzer said on Wrestling Observer Radio. “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.”
Indie wrestlers Ben Bishop and Bruss Hamilton have since pushed back on this report, attesting that Hines performed well at her WWE tryout. Hamilton and Bishop both took part in separate tryouts with Hines, and said she put in the work. Furthermore, they state that Hines kept her high-profile family ties to herself during it.
Prior to signing with WWE, Hines played softball at Boston University, where she started 29 games during her junior year. Whether Hines will keep her name or adopt a new one for the WWE rings has yet to be seen.
Kennedy recently said that he considered Linda McMahon, the current US Secretary of Education, to be a close friend. He also said that McMahon helped open the door to Hines getting signed, although he did not specify how she influenced the move.
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