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John Oliver and Vince McMahon
(Getty)
"Last week, tonight" addressed the alleged disastrous health of WWE performers, as well as the lack of health insurance of the company's talents.
"The untimely death of wrestlers is a worrying trend," said host John Oliver, citing a 2014 study by FiveThirtyEight on wrestler mortality rates. Oliver blamed WWE President and CEO Vince McMahon and the company's contracts with his talent.
"Although Vince's character is an a-hole, it's important to know that the real Vince is also an a-hole," said Oliver. "Many fans hate him legitimately. While the WWE has made him a billionaire, many wrestlers say he treats him terribly. "
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Oliver pointed out that WWE wrestlers are considered independent contractors, although they are under exclusive contract to play only for McMahon's company. He then played several stories of former wrestlers denouncing WWE and McMahon's treatment of their talent.
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"Vince McMahon has always had this mentality of treating wrestlers as circus animals," said Bret "The Hitman" Hart, whose brother, Owen, died fighting for the WWE. "There are all those wrestlers who have broken their backs and who have been living for years, they have nothing to do when all is over, then they sort of took you back, they put you a Ball in the back and threw you out … It's the life of a professional wrestler. "
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Jesse Ventura told Howard Stern that he had been trying to unionize the WWE wrestlers during his tenure with the company, but that McMahon had "corrected him".
"How are they independent when you are exclusively under contract? You can not work for anyone else," Ventura said. "They tell you when and where you go to work, they tell you who you are going to work, they totally control your life, and yet they call you an independent subcontractor, how did the government let them go?" to shoot for 30, 40 years? " ? "
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CM Punk stated on the podcast "Art of Wrestling" in November 2014 that he had a concussion and that a WWE doctor "was leaning on me, saying," Do you a concussion or can you leave for Europe? "sort of thing." He also stated that when he vomited and that he was dry before the games, WWE doctors gave him Z-Packs (antibiotic azithromycin), which led him to defecate during an episode of "Smackdown" in December 2013.
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McMahon and WWE would not provide any health insurance to wrestlers other than injuries in the ring.
In an episode of HBO's "Real Sports" in 2003, McMahon denied any responsibility for the untimely death of wrestlers who would work for him, saying "I would not accept any responsibility for their untimely death." He then made a face at the interviewer and slammed his papers.
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Also in the episode, "Rowdy", Roddy Piper explained that he had returned to the fight between 40 and 50 years because he "has no exit plan" and that he could not make a living otherwise, stating that he could not touch his pension plan until he was 65 years old and that he doubted his Survival up to 65 years. He was right: he died at age 61 in 2015.
However, after Piper's death, the WWE said in a statement: "Unfortunately, some past artists were part of a generation of wrestlers who made unhealthy and mediocre life choices, which sometimes went on beyond of their years in the ring. "
Other medical experts surveyed concurred with this claim and attributed to steroids and drug addiction the mortality rates of former professional wrestlers.
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Oliver pointed out that some wrestler contracts include clauses stipulating that the company is released from liability if a performer suffers permanent injury or death, even if it is caused by its own negligence. The company also reserves the right to terminate the employment of a performer if he suffers an injury that prevents him from playing for six weeks or more. There are no dead seasons to allow wrestlers to recover as in other sports. The company offers yearly physical exams for his talent, as well as cardiovascular and brain tests, as well as drug treatment for former wrestlers.
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He also criticized WWE and McMahon for failing to fund retired performers.
"Even the NFL, despite all its huge mistakes, now offers health payback accounts to players and offers legitimate funding to older players who may be facing health problems," said Oliver. "When you have lost the moral reason that prevails before the NFL, you are morally underground."
In 2016, several former WWE artists sued the organization for alleged brain wounds sustained during their stay in the ring. WWE has denied any responsibility for the alleged CTE suffered by the performers. A federal judge filed the case in 2018.
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A WWE representative told Fox News in a statement: "John Oliver is clearly an intelligent and humorous artist, but the subject matter in his WWE segment is not funny." Before releasing it, WWE responded to its producers. who refuted every point of his unilateral presentation, John Oliver simply ignored the facts. "
"The health and well-being of our artists is the most important aspect of our business and we have a long-standing and comprehensive program for the well-being of talent," the statement said. "We invite John Oliver to attend WrestleMania this Sunday to learn more about our company."
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