In the late fall, the talent on WWE RAW staged a (scripted) labor walkout and vote of no confidence in their figurehead, Triple-H. At the same time, states like Wisconsin (and more recently Arizona) were dealing with their own highly charged labor battles. NPR’s On The Media ran a fascinating piece about the state of labor relations in wrestling, and the ways in which the scripted walk-out both highlighted a very real issue for WWE talent, and simultaneously neutered the issue by fictionalizing it in the WWE universe. The segment includes a clip from former professional wrestler and Minnesota Governor, Jesse (The Body) Ventura talking on Howard Stern’s show in 2010. There’s something very interesting about the relationship of that RAW storyline to the undercurrents in Chad Deity.
You can check out the transcript of the On The Media segment HERE, which is full of super useful contextual stuff on the world of professional wrestling.
Listen HERE.
The Jesse Ventura/Howard Stern excerpt:
JESSE VENTURA: The problem that I’ve had with the WWE for 30 years, Howard, is that they call their wrestlers self-employed, so they don’t have to pay Social Security, and the wrestler has to pay 15 percent self-employment tax. Now, how are they self-employed? When you’re signed exclusively —
HOWARD STERN: Right.
JESS “THE BODY” VENTURA: — you can’t work for nobody else.
HOWARD STERN: It’s a monopoly.
JESSE “THE BODY” VENTURA: Yeah. They tell you when and where you’ll work. They can totally control your life.
HOWARD STERN: And you’re under – you’ve signed a contract.
JESSE “THE BODY” VENTURA: And yet, they call you an independent contractor. How has the government allowed them to get away with that for 35 to 40 years?
HOWARD STERN: And didn’t you have a problem in terms of unionizing?
JESSE “THE BODY” VENTURA: Oh, yeah. I tried to unionize and, and almost lost my job.
Dramaturgy: Chad Deity 