We don't talk about unions.
Wrestlers are identified as independent contractors and though there was a Union stable on WWE television during the Attitude Era, there have been no unions in wrestling, and wrestlers rarely talk about unions in public and behind the scenes according to Jake Hager.
"While I was there (in WWE), that was like the four-letter word. Don't talk about your contracts, and don't talk about anything having to do with a union, otherwise, you'll get blacklisted. I saw it happen. Someone...I can't remember exactly, but they were complaining about something and they were talking about how we should all get together and get some power and I'm like, 'it's not that company,'" recalled Hager on Story Time with Dutch Mantell. "The biggest things with those WWE contracts are, they can cancel them anytime, and they've proven that they will, so what does it all really mean if you can't rely on it? You sign your life away."
Mantell said in the 90s, wrestlers were guaranteed $1500 and after that, the company had fulfilled how much they needed to pay and could block wrestlers from working independent events.
Hager added, "It proves the point that back then, and even when I was there, we didn't have any options. There was only one game in town. Now we have AEW, so hopefully the competition makes everything better for the performers. I think you will see that with contracts because you have more options and even overseas, they're paying a little better."
In 2021, Andrew Yang tried to rally WWE superstars to contact a union side labor attorney, but nothing came of his plea.
Dolph Ziggler tried to explain the WWE contract gray areas to Yang. You can find his comments by clicking here.
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