Thread by @aboynamedart

So as a wrestling fan, I feel like trying something today. Let's do an annotation thread on last night's John Oliver piece re: WWE and healthcare.

For starters, that bit about WWE losing the rights to "WWF" to the World Wildlife Fund? True. Don't fuck with panda lawyers.
cnet.com/news/wrestling…

Oliver: "I like wrestling." That's cool. Here's the examples he chose:

- Jake Roberts & the cobra: Taped 21 October 1991

Braun Strowman/Big Show and the collapsing ring: Aired 17 April 2017

Longtime fans might remember that the Braun/Show sequence (or spot) was reminiscent of a match between Show and Brock Lesnar in June 2003. Show would admit in interviews in 2015 that the ring was prepped to make this look good.

Steve Austin and the beer truck: Aired 22 March 1999
cagesideseats.com/2012/3/22/2889…

Kurt Angle and the milk truck: Aired 20 August 2001
cagesideseats.com/wwe/2018/1/21/…

(If you're wondering whether the Angle, uh, angle was a callback to Austin two years earlier? Pretty much yes; at that point Austin had become the primary antagonist and Angle - a goody-two-shoes, hence the milk - was his top challenger.)

"Whatever the fuck this is" is actually the climax of the hardcore match between Edge and Mick Foley in Wrestlemania 22, aired 2 April 2006.
bleacherreport.com/articles/13235…

Not much to say about the movie bit except: The Marine 6 is notable because Becky Lynch -- the story of the moment as we head into WrestleMania -- played the lead baddie.

That stat about WWE making $930.2 million last year? True - a 16% increase, in fact, over 2017.
businesswire.com/news/home/2019…

"WrestleMania involves things like this." Specifically, Shane McMahon diving off the top of Hell In A Cell -- a higher cage than normal -- at WM 32, aired live 3 April 2016.

(Also, this might just amuse me but: It appears Michael Cole there is looking at some notes as he delivers the call, "FOR THE LOVE OF MANKIND." LOL.)

That line isn't just Cole being emphatic, btw - it's a reference to this sequence in Mankind vs The Undertaker from June 1998, one of the most dramatic (for better or worse) in modern wrestling.

Oliver asking at this point, "Are you not entertained?" left me -- who's watched wrestling in various permutations for decades -- feeling weird. I'd love to get his reaction to a match involving Zack Sabre Jr. or Orange Cassidy for the sake of comparison.

OK, now we come to the montage of wrestler deaths. This is going to take us a few places.

Eddie Guerrero: Died 13 November 2005; he was found in a hotel room. Cause of death listed as "acute heart failure due to underlying atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease."

Randy Savage: Died 20 May 2011 after suffering a heart attack while driving. Officials attributed his death to "an enlarged heart with severe atherosclerosis of his coronary arteries."
bleacherreport.com/articles/16439…

Chyna: Died 20 April 2016. Coroners said she had a mix of alcohol, painkillers, and muscle relaxers in her system. Her manager said that she overdosed accidentally.
latimes.com/local/lanow/la…

King Kong Bundy: Died 4 March 2019. Cause of death not disclosed. As of this week, one of his 10 cats still needs a new forever home.
courierpostonline.com/story/news/loc…

FWIW, let's note that of this group, Guerrero was the only one who was an active talent at the time of his death.

Here's a link to that FiveThirtyEight report from 2014 informing Oliver's graphic here:
fivethirtyeight.com/features/compa…

And here's the original chart, with an explanation by reporter Benjamin Morris:

That same year - 2014, remember - researchers at Eastern Michigan University published a study examining 557 male talents "active between Jan. 1, 1985 and Dec. 31, 2011."
journals.plos.org/plosone/articl…

Of that group, 62 talents died. The study concluded, "Professional wrestlers are more likely to die prematurely from cardiovascular disease compared to the general population and morbidly obese wrestlers are especially at risk."

Oliver: "[WWE] basically holds a monopoly on the industry." While this is true from the standpoint of "who's on television," the resurgence of independent promotions (not territories) should also be recognized, as that can also involve a heavy workload for talents.

This isn't to blame the indies alongside WWE; but in watching this report it helps to note that before becoming "independent contractors," talents will also travel and wrestle for years as ::actual independent contractors::

OK, the Villainous Vince montage! Vince forces Trish Stratus to strip, aired early 2001. He also made her bark like a dog - and the crowd cheered.

Vince puts the strap to Hornswoggle: Aired live 18 February 2008. Swoggle would end up OK, though - he's got a match against Nick Gage this coming weekend.

... OK, so he'll be OK up until this coming weekend. Good luck, man.

Vince droppin' N-bombs, <s>wordddd</s>: Two things to note here.
1) John Cena, the white hip-hop enthusiast, is side-eyeing the hell out of him.
2) Booker T. & Sharmell, actual Black people, are as well.

Also, if you watch the clip in full you see that the writers (and Vince) allowed time for viewers to see Booker being angry at what Vince is doing. Could this have been done without that particular line, though? Yup. But here it is.

Oliver on Bret Hart's anger in Wrestling With Shadows: "His own brother Owen died wrestling for Vince." Amazingly, Oliver actually understates what happened.

On 23 May 1999, Owen Hart died after falling more than 50 feet while being lowered toward the ring from the rafters for his match on a show airing live. The show continued even after his death was confirmed. It has never been re-aired.
cbc.ca/archives/entry…

Here's the SEC filing from WWE for the year ending 31 December 2018
sec.gov/Archives/edgar…

The phrase "independent contactors" appears 8 times in the document. It first appears alongside a statement saying that 215 talents are under exclusive contracts.

I couldn't find the clip from this 2010 Jesse Ventura appearance on Howard Stern's show, but Ventura's story was also referenced in a 2012 Grantland story on the WWE labor issue.
grantland.com/features/wwe-h…

And THAT story takes you to a 2010 NYT story that includes this passage:
nytimes.com/2010/07/16/nyr…

The NYT also got comments from Linda McMahon, then a Senatorial hopeful, addressing these issues.

Here's a link to a different NYT report - the 9 June 2007 story, "Investigating Mislabeling of Employees" - which you can see above Oliver's shoulder. WWE is not mentioned in the piece, though.
nytimes.com/2007/06/09/nyr…

And here's the commentary piece, "A Wrestler's Life: Full-Time Employee As Government Contractor," with a shot of the graf mentioning "retirement pensions."
academia.edu/8024839/COMMEN…

Back to that Grantland story for a sec: It highlights a 2008 lawsuit against WWE and the "independent contractor" argument, something Oliver did not mention last night.
grantland.com/features/wwe-h…

Here's that May 2007 IRS document Oliver cites re: worker classification. "An
independent contractor is free to work when and for whom he or she chooses."
irs.gov/pub/irs-utl/x-…

Now, this bit on "success or continuation of a business" isn't in the document, I don't think, but it is one of the 20 factors the IRS has weighed in determining whether a worker is an contractor vs an employee.
tinyurl.com/y44fh5oc

And here's a link to the WWE statement calling talent "the company's greatest asset." It should be noted that it covers its wellness policy, including drug tests and concussion management.
corporate.wwe.com/who-we-are/tal…

While we're talking about unions, let me point out that @davidbix wrote about this last year
deadspin.com/more-and-more-…

Bad news: I couldn't find those two contracts Oliver mentioned.
Good news: Here's Steve Austin hitting Vince with a bedpan, as aired 5 October 1998.

Here's a link to the story about Lance Cade cited by Oliver, which deals with his father's criticism of WWE.
theday.com/article/201008…

That story, though, does credit the original quote to PWInsider:

And now we come to CM Punk. Longtime fans will recall that being A LOT a few years back.

So the audio clips here were taken from Punk's seminal appearance on Colt Cabana's podcast in 2014. On that show, Punk described a pattern of bad care on the part of WWE's chief doctor. But it's a hell of a listen the whole way through.

If it's easier for you, though, here's the @cagesideseats transcript
cagesideseats.com/wwe/2014/11/28…

But that doctor, Chris Amman, subsequently sued Punk claiming invasion of privacy and defamation. Last June, Punk was cleared of those charges.
chicagotribune.com/news/local/bre…

Here's that Real Sports interview in which Vince bats away Armen Keteyian's notes.

Prior to that clip, Keteyian notes in a voiceover that wrestlers who contacted the show said that both WWF and WCW fostered a "bigger is better" mentality for talents' physiques.

Oliver circles back to the Wellness Policy statement here. Let's note, though, that besides paying for rehab for former talents that WWE also has a program helping with college costs and financial education.
corporate.wwe.com/who-we-are/tal…

That clip I posted a couple of tweets ago also contains Roddy Piper saying, "I'm not gonna make 65."

Into the homestretch now, and Oliver talking about the fans' involvement. Here's the USA Today story about #GiveDivasAChance and AJ Lee. Lee retired in 2015, and currently has a best-selling book.
ftw.usatoday.com/2015/02/wwe-aj…

Finally, the bit on Roman Reigns -- and two really big missteps on Oliver's part. First, of course, is that "joke" about the guy's hair. That did NOT land.

The clip in question aired live on 3 April 2017, the night after Roman beat The Undertaker at WM 33 and retired him (or so we thought.) That's reason enough to boo anybody, and Roman actually played it perfectly by ::not:: claiming to be a hero.

Oliver's not wrong in arguing that fans turned against Roman prior to his return from leukemia treatment, but the big example of this came two years earlier, at the conclusion of the 2015 Royal Rumble.

You might remember that show for giving us the immortal shot of The Rock seemingly not knowing what to make of the audience response:

For those curious about Jake Roberts' story after watching Oliver's piece, The Resurrection Of Jake The Snake is on Hulu and Amazon Prime, among other services.

Oliver then mentions the NFL's Legacy Fund, created in 2011, as a better step compared to what WWE has taken. You might want to keep an eye on that situation, though.

The NYT reported last September that there's a sharp divide in benefits for players who retired before 1993 compared to those who left the game after.
nytimes.com/2018/09/07/spo…

Update: Since we started pulling this together, WWE has said that it already refuted Oliver's points and that he "ignored the facts."
prowrestlingsheet.com/wwe-invites-jo…

Shout to @wrestlenomics for highlighting this trove:

https://twitter.com/wrestlenomics/status/1112841410007498752

Finally, I want to highlight @apileoskulls' point that the healthcare discussion should cover more than deaths

https://twitter.com/apileoskulls/status/1112779255136620544

It's also interesting to see this discussion renewed in light of the 2015 Mexico City initiative allowing wrestling talent and their families access to free medical care.
excelsior.com.mx/comunidad/2015…

Aha! Addendum 1 via @wrestlenomics

https://twitter.com/wrestlenomics/status/1112843584598794240

And Addendum 2

https://twitter.com/wrestlenomics/status/1112844080416002054

On the question of fans chanting, "GIVE THEM HEALTHCARE" at Mania? I'll be there, so let's see how that plays out.

Thanks for reading, though! I'll probably post some pics from WrestleCon Friday and JJSB 3.2 Saturday as well.

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