With WWE being the only major player in the world of sports-entertainment, professional wrestlers don't have the options they once had. Recent years have seen an uptick in the success and ability of other non-WWE promotions to generate interest, but WWE is still THE place to be for professional wrestlers that want to achieve the highest level of success. When Ted Turner was in the wrasslin' business, talents had more leverage about for whom and for what they would risk their bodies for. Turner was a cable television giant and had the funds to compete with, and even overtake, Vince McMahon's WWE for several years. Paul Heyman, though the complete opposite of Turner in terms of financial prowess, was able to provide his talent exposure and street credibility for which they could leverage and help turn into contracts from one of the bigger companies (look at Brian Pillman, for example). The Japanese and Mexican wrestling industries were a lot healthier back then, too, for what it's worth. With talents having such little leverage today, it takes guts to willingly walk away from WWE or for a talent to decide to not risk their body unnecessarily just because WWE wants them to. Unfortunately, too many wrestlers can't afford to walk away or say "no" to the company and end up putting themselves in harm's way far too often. Night after night of tough, physical matches will obviously take a toll on the body and the lack of job security definitely plays a part in the talents' thought process to "just do it".