If needing a template by which to understand CM Punk's incendiary statements against World Wrestling Entertainment, the best place to look first is at the history of Jesse "The Body" Ventura's tumultuous employment history with the World Wrestling Federation. Signed to the WWF in 1981, the fast-talking and buff-bodied Ventura was a heel cut from the same cloth as "Superstar" Billy Graham. Also a bit of a backstage rabble rouser, as early as 1984 he famously pushed for WWF employees to form an employee union to better push for employment rights as at-will employees of the company. This did not work and gained him a bit of heat, but by 1984 Ventura was largely out of in-ring competition due to blood clots forming on his lungs. A commentator through the rest of the 1980s Ventura was released by the company as his image was used in the marketing of a video game for Sega,while his employer WWE had a contract with Nintendo. Not able to come to an agreement surrounding the use of his likeness for a competitor, McMahon released Ventura in 1990. However, once released, Ventura realized that in his 1987 negotiated commentator contract, he had waived his rights to videotape royalties, once told that only featured performers received royalties for video sales. Realizing this was indeed not the case (and maybe also annoyed with the issues surrounding his release, Ventura sued the WWF/Titan Sports in Minnesota state court for fraud, misappropriation of publicity rights, and quantum meruit. Titan instead took the same case to federal court, and the case was decided in Ventura's favor to the the tune of the WWF paying Ventura back-owed benefits of $801,333. Bizarrely enough, after cashing out, signing with WCW, embarking on a successful political career and becoming a political pundit, Ventura returned to the same WWF he sued in 1998 and 1999 as the special guest referee at the Summerslam pay-per-view event. Is this a harbinger of a potential CM Punk return to WWE in a decade? Who knows. However, the case of Ventura's settlement may be the most bizarre case ever of Vince McMahon getting egg on his face, wiping it off, and using his loss(es) to his company's ultimate financial gain.
Besides having been an independent professional wrestling manager for a decade, Marcus Dowling is a Washington, DC-based writer who has contributed to a plethora of online and print magazines and newspapers writing about music and popular culture over the past 15 years.
