In the WWE, Wrestlers Say Labor Abuses Are Everywhere
The WWE wrestlers who put their bodies through the ringer on a near-nightly basis lack basic control over their work and lives. Many know they need a union — but the barriers to forming one are steep.
Vince McMahon gets the crowd ready at WrestleMania 23 at Detroit’s Ford Field, Detroit, Michigan, on April 1, 2007. (Leon Halip / WireImage)
The world of professional wrestling is currently in turmoil.
Amid revelations of hush money payments to a number of women who worked as talent for World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) who had sexual relationships with Vince McMahon, the long-time WWE CEO resigned from the company that he and his father had built since the 1950s. The idea of Vince McMahon ever retiring previously seemed far fetched to many. At the age of seventy-six, for instance, McMahon recently participated in a wrestling match at this year’s WrestleMania, WWE’s largest annual event, even receiving a patented Stone Cold Stunner from McMahon’s longtime adversary Stone Cold Steve Austin.
OMG I'M DYING LMAOOOOOOOOO #WrestleMania pic.twitter.com/LdLocKfIvG
— Italo Santana (@BulletClubIta) April 4, 2022
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