WWE Hall of Famer Kevin Nash suggests pro wrestlers should attempt to form a union

Kevin Nash, who headlined the one pro wrestling pay-per-view that will ever have been broadcast out of Augusta County, and hopes people have forgotten about that, has people talking today about the need for pro wrestlers to unionize, in the wake of the news that TKO and WWE has been slashing talent salaries.

Nash made this an issue in a recent episode of his Kliq This podcast, in which he opined that the current corporate structure with WWE has made the traditional “independent contractor” model that the wrestling business has used forever obsolete and predatory.

“You can’t have it both ways. You can’t play Endeavor at the top with the 300 percent increases and 1099 the dock workers. If they’re going to play by those rules, let the boys play by the same rules,” Nash said, before bringing up the failed effort of Jesse “The Body” Ventura to launch a union in WWF in the 1980s.

“This could be one of those times where this whole 1099 thing finally fucking just … bring the folders out. Bring them all out. Jesse, you said on the Hulk thing your era’s over. It’s not, come here, we need you, Jesse,” Nash said.

It was Hulk Hogan who put the kibosh on Ventura’s union effort in the 1980s, and since that one failed, miserably, there hasn’t been any union effort that has gained steam since.

Nash suggested that wrestlers attempt to unionize “through the Screen Actors Guild,” which Nash himself did, taking roles in several movies to be able to qualify for health insurance through SAG.

The idea of using the Guild to create an offshoot focused on wrestlers makes a lot of sense.

“They’ll be more than happy to take their cut of your money. It won’t be 50 percent, but it’ll change the ballgame,” Nash said, making the point that WWE has given up the game in terms of letting the cat out of the bag that the mat game is heavily scripted.

“Take one of the programs that’s written down, and you tell me that that program isn’t more heavily written and more produced than ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ was when all those actors got SAG paid,” Nash said.