Alberto El Patron's New Promotion To Offer Health Insurance
Nacion Lucha Libre promises wrestlers "stuff they don't have with other companies."
The issue of health insurance is a big talking point within the wrestling world at the moment, with WWE continuing their ongoing refusal to provide it on the basis of tricky restorative compensation - even after John Oliver publicly lambasted them for it - and AEW's Tony Khan refusing to answer the big question without equivocation.
One new wrestling promotion will offer performers health insurance at the very least. Speaking with the Miami Herald about his newly announced Nacion Lucha Libre, Alberto El Patron - better known to WWE fans as Alberto Del Rio - revealed that wrestlers in his company will receive "stuff they don't have in other companies" - insurance being one of them:
We’re always going to have doctors. Our wrestlers are going to have health insurance and life insurance. Stuff they don’t have in any other companies. Most of the companies, including WWE, they have their own doctors. They don’t provide you with health insurance. They force you to get your own health insurance. If you don’t get you own insurance, you’re not allowed to perform. If anything happens in their shows, yes you’re completely covered, which I think is the only company doing that.
El Patron went on to explain that NLL's insurance will cover performers both inside and outside the ring, and will include a retirement plan. He criticised other promoters for not following suit, concluding that for them, "wrestlers are just meat."
Nacion Lubra Libre holds its debut show on 11 July, in Mexico City's Sala de Armas. The main event sees Team Mexico (Alberto El Patron, Dr. Wagner Jr., El Hijo del Fantasma) take on Team Puerto Rico (Miami’s own MVP, El Mesias, Apolo).