Hulk Hogan’s dying by way of middle assault at age 71 got here as a surprise to many enthusiasts of the larger-than-life wrestler who’d earned the nickname “The Immortal.”
However in lots of respects, the true wonder was once that Hogan, born Terry Gene Bollea, lived as lengthy a lifestyles as he did.
Regardless of the staged nature of its struggle, skilled wrestling is a notoriously unhealthy occupation. Research rank it a few of the riskiest professions. Wikipedia even maintains a complete record of untimely wrestler deaths.
The explanations for pro wrestling’s risks are in large part tied up within the trade’s running stipulations. And a part of Hogan’s legacy could also be his complicity in the ones stipulations. In 1986, he allegedly performed a key position in undercutting a unionization effort – arguably the nearest professional wrestling has come to unionizing.
‘The Body’ sticks his neck out
WWE’s first WrestleMania was once held in 1985. The pay-per-view tournament was once vastly a success and established the corporate – then referred to as WWF – because the country’s preeminent wrestling promotion.
Throughout the accumulation to WrestleMania 2 the next 12 months, wrestler Jesse “The Body” Ventura understood that performers had extra leverage than they’d ever had. He started advocating at the back of the scenes for a wrestling union.
The tale, as recounted by way of Ventura, is going like this: An acquaintance of Ventura’s within the NFL inspired him to begin organizing at the back of the scenes. WWE was once at the back of the ball: In 1956, the NFL become the primary American professional sports activities league to have its union known. It was once adopted by way of the NBA in 1957, MLB in 1966 and the NHL in 1967.
It helped that Ventura had little to lose. He’d be showing within the drawing close “Predator” movie; will have to he get blackballed from wrestling for seeking to shape a union, he may almost definitely generate income as an actor. (Few will have predicted that he would pass directly to be elected governor of Minnesota in 1998.)
As Ventura introduced in combination his friends to hash out the main points of what a professional wrestling union would possibly appear to be, he additionally incorporated the promotion’s reigning champion, Hogan, with the considering that the give a boost to of the WWF’s greatest big name would spice up the motive and insulate others from retaliation.
As a substitute, WWF proprietor Vince McMahon were given wind of the hassle and known as his performers in my opinion, threatening their jobs. The unionization effort sputtered, and McMahon ultimately driven Ventura out of wrestling.
After Jesse ‘The Body’ Ventura attempted to unionize his fellow wrestlers, WWE proprietor Vince McMahon stuck wind of the hassle – and nipped it within the bud.
WWE/Getty Pictures
Ventura went directly to sue the WWF over unpaid royalties. Throughout the invention procedure, Ventura testified that he had realized it was once Hulk Hogan who snitched to McMahon and successfully sabotaged the union pressure.
Hogan by no means publicly admitted to telling McMahon in regards to the rumblings of a union. The WWE hasn’t ever showed nor denied the sequence of occasions.
Both manner, there were no unionization campaigns in skilled wrestling since then.
‘Do the job’
As of late’s WWE performers are legally categorised as “independent contractors.” They’re answerable for their very own go back and forth, coaching, costuming and insurance coverage, whilst their employer owns their likeness and is indemnified from legal responsibility because of damage or dying.
One in all professional wrestling’s paradoxes is that the highest promotion’s wrestlers aren’t unionized, whilst its target market has traditionally skewed low source of revenue and blue collar. Wrestling has lengthy been a circle of relatives trade, and maximum wrestlers are part-timers running further jobs – continuously in blue-collar, union positions. A lot of them are truck drivers and warehouse staff, building employees and bouncers.
Wrestler-turned-scholar Laurence de Garis has written about how the language of wrestling is wealthy with references to exertions. A “work” in wrestling is a staged storyline; to “do the job” is to lose a fit. The function of many performers is to be regarded as a “good worker” by way of friends, and WWE performers strive against as many as 300 nights in keeping with 12 months. The corporate has no offseason.
The steroid, painkiller and alcohol abuse that has been endemic to the trade might smartly stem from pressures on wrestlers to accomplish evening after evening, even supposing they’re in ache, for worry of dropping their place. Within the Nineteen Nineties, Hogan himself confessed to intensive steroid use, which is understood to give a contribution to middle illness.
You’d assume that those harsh running stipulations would make wrestlers ripe for a union. Why that hasn’t took place is up for debate. WWE purchased out its festival within the early 2000s; most likely its standing because the closing ultimate primary wrestling promotion within the country has weakened the leverage of wrestlers. Or perhaps the testosterone-driven, masculine nature of the game makes unity appear to be weak spot.
Staff left maintaining the bag
The tale of Ventura’s failed unionization bid is a tale of what will have been. However in some sense, I see the tale of the WWE as a part of a broader tale of the U.S. economic system.
After a length of relative balance after International Warfare II, American paintings because the Nineteen Eighties has transform ruled by way of mergers, buyouts, deregulation and financialization. Income are more and more generated by way of monetary approach similar to hobby and capital beneficial properties as an alternative of via providing authentic items or services and products. Layoffs and precarious paintings have transform the norm.
WWE’s earnings exploded within the Nineteen Nineties and 2000s. The corporate went public in 1999 – despite the fact that the McMahon circle of relatives retained majority regulate – and dipped its feet into movie manufacturing, truth tv and on-line streaming.
In 2023, WWE merged with UFC’s dad or mum corporate Undertaking to shape TKO Workforce Holdings. TKO’s earnings was once greater than US$2.8 billion in 2024.
In the meantime, Undertaking has been spun off as a Hollywood skill company and was once got by way of a personal fairness company. The end result of those new earnings streams and mergers haven’t trickled all the way down to its in-ring performers. Up to now in 2025, WWE has laid off or launched greater than 30 wrestlers and a minimum of 10 staff from the corporate’s company wing.
In step with Forbes, Vince McMahon’s internet value is $3.1 billion.
Leon Halip/WireImage by way of Getty Pictures
A lot as skilled wrestlers have remained unbiased contractors, this association has transform normalized within the broader American economic system, with greater than 36% of American citizens taking part within the gig economic system. In 2022, Stanford researchers recognized gig paintings as a “social determinant of health,” since maximum gig employees lack employer-sponsored well being care, paid day without work or ill days.
Concerned with one and none for all
In nowadays’s economic system, success or happenstance, somewhat than advantage, appear much more likely to persuade who achieves monetary safety and who scrapes by way of, dwelling paycheck to paycheck.
Hulk Hogan, as skilled wrestling’s greatest big name for two decades, no doubt believed he earned his position on the most sensible of the trade. However with out diminishing his skills, it’s value noting he arrived at exactly the right kind second in historical past to transform that big name. For a few years, a wrestler was once anticipated to have “shoot” talents – this is, exact wrestling experience – will have to an opponent ever pass rogue and switch a staged efficiency into an actual battle.
However as McMahon’s energy and affect expanded, the glance, the sound and the nature of the wrestler become maximum essential. How smartly may a wrestler carry out for the digital camera? How smartly may he promote T-shirts to younger enthusiasts?
Regardless of Hogan’s obstacles as a technical in-ring performer, his mullet, mustache and “24-inch pythons” – the nickname given to his monumental biceps – made him the appropriate individual on the proper time.
Hogan additionally succeeded as a result of his warring parties within the ring had been keen to make him appear to be a celeb. They had been in a position to “do the job” and do it safely.
Every other paradox {of professional} wrestling is that it calls for performers to seem as though they’re hurting one any other. However their number one function, in reality, is holding one any other protected.
To me, that sounds so much like unity.
