10 Biggest Lies In Wrestling
10. WWE Takes Care Of Their Talent
Professional wrestling has one of the weirdest business practices out there. Somehow for decades they’ve been able to get away with classifying wrestlers as independent contractors. Now, if you work at WWE headquarters in Connecticut, you are an employee and get health insurance, and a 401K, you know, typical employee benefits.
But if you put your body on the line in one of their rings, and travel with them around the world, well...you’re on your own when they let you go. Even if the wrestlers don’t have their own union, like every major sport, they should at least be in the Screen Actors Guild, because they’re on TV every single week. WWE is not a fan of this idea, and has fought it at every single turn for years. It’s truly baffling how they get away with this. We’ve seen a couple of lawsuits over the years challenging this stance, but so far they’ve been unsuccessful at changing the status quo.
What the company doesn't want to admit is the fictional movie of The Wrestler is far closer to life than they would like you to believe. Due to a wrestler having no pension, and having to take handle all of their own medical care after their major league run is over, many end up broken physically, mentally and financially (just see the ever-increasing numbers of wrestlers taking to GoFundMe for financial help for proof).
But watch any promotional or charity video that WWE puts out, and you’d think they’d extend that same courtesy to the wrestlers themselves. You would likely never imagine there would be any sort of problem to speak of. They're just all one big, wacky family who likes to bodyslam each other every Monday and Tuesday night.
It can be kind of a seedy industry to follow at times, and one that is not suited for everyone...