On paper professional wrestling and politics shouldn’t really mix, but they do. Current US President Donald Trump is a prime example, having been featured in past WWE segments, is a current WWE Hall of Famer, and the former CEO of the company, Linda McMahon, worked in the Trump administration and is heavily involved in his 2020 reelection.
That said, other examples include former or current wrestlers dabbling in running for public office, such as Jerry Lawler (for mayor of Memphis), Rhyno (for a seat in the Michigan state legislature) and Glenn “Kane” Jacob (who successfully got elected mayor in Knox County, Tennessee).
Usually the relevancy of real life politics takes a backburner to the goings on in professional wrestling, but those boundaries may be starting to fray due to recent events. Former Democratic presidential contender Andrew Yang, who rose to prominence promoting innovative policies such as a universal basic income, recently sent a barrage of tweets at WWE Chairman Vince McMahon.
“C’mon Vince, you’ve already deprived the folks breaking their backs for you of healthcare, security, recovery time, retirement benefits and fair treatment re: licenses and royalties. At least let them make a living off their own name. Many of them need it,” Yang said.
The former 2020 presidential candidate, an admitted wrestling fan, added if he doesn’t become Secretary of Labor, he’ll at least “have a direct line” to whoever it is to address the “ridiculous classification” of WWE wrestlers being ‘independent contractors’ while controlling their names and likeness.
“Vince, you better hope your old friend Donald wins because change is in the air and changes are long overdue where your corrupt labor practices are concerned,” Yang concludes. While he was running for president, one of Yang’s promises was to classify wrestlers and MMA fighters as actual employees in the companies they work for so they could receive healthcare benefits like most employees of companies.
What prompted this scathing ‘promo’ from Yang was a recent story about how McMahon wanted WWE talent to stop their relationship with third party companies within 30 days or risk getting fined or fired, as many wrestlers have online accounts on platforms such as Twitch and YouTube for alternative revenue sources.
However, as reported by Dave Meltzer, it was later clarified that talent will be able to maintain both YouTube and Twitch accounts, but would have to do so using their real names as opposed to their WWE ring names. They were told they would have to inform the company of YouTube and Twitch accounts using their real names.
Guys like Xavier Woods of the New Day, who appears on his gaming channel as Austin Creed, wouldn’t have much trouble hosting Up Up Down Down as WWE themselves endorsed it. But the fact that this matter emerged, and WWE had to somewhat backtrack, says a lot about the current state of the precarious nature of working in professional wrestling as a wrestler.
Maybe in other companies things are a bit better, but in the world’s largest professional wrestling company, the fact that performers who are under contract and designated ‘independent contractors’ is laughable if not insulting.
Yang subsequently went on the Chris Van Vliet podcast to expand on his earlier tweet:
I’m not saying all will be right with the world the moment Joe Biden gets sworn in as President of the United States, should he be successful in ousting Trump from office, but Biden (with someone like Yang in his ear) would definitely be more receptive to fair, progressive labor rights for professional wrestlers than Vince McMahon’s “very good friend”.
An average professional doing the 9-5 grind who really loves wrestling across all platforms. Here's hoping wrestlers finally get some basic workers rights in 2021.
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