Pro Wrestling Union

[BC1978]

Hogan gets a bad rap by guys like Bret Hart & Shane Douglas because they felt he could have started a Wrestling Union.

But with competing promotions how would this even be possible.

There is no way all the wrestlers in the NWA, AWA, World Class, and WWF would have been onboard with a Union.

It seems to me like a Union would only give more Wrestlers creative control and more power in booking.

 

[Wald]

The purpose of the Union was to insure guaranteed health insurance for the performers, standard image rights you find in other sports and to get rid of nonsense like Vince's 'independent contactors' bs that costs his performers a lot of money in travel and accomodation.

Hogan gets a bad rap because he basically used this info to leverage himself anything from another title reign to a better contract for himself without thinking of the guys lowering down the card. Hogan was getting the star treatment off Vince, was earning the big bucks to not care about accomodation and basically shafted all those undercard guys with families at home as they scrimped and saved on food, travel and accomodation because Vince, Turner etc. wouldn't be paying them a pension on retirement and they were getting shafted on taxes as they were earning.

Despite this Vince still holds all your likeness rights, you need to seek his permission to work elsewhere (wrestling or media), they pay Vince a 10% management fee. ever see Kanyon's contract? There was a clause in there that stated the WWE would not have to pay his relatives or benefactors anything should he die whilst working for them.

Unions are needed in all walks of life, even if it's just as a warning bell for companies. I'm not exactly sure why America has such a hatred for them.

As for how it would have worked, simple. Every WWF wrestler at the time goes to Vince and says that they are forming a union or they are walking. Vince either lets them walk and loses his ENTIRE roster to the NWA (at this time that includes Hogan, Savage, Roberts, Bundy, Andre, Heenan, Piper, the Bulldogs etc.) or he gives in to them and lets them form a union. So his choice, in effect, is either let them form a union or go out of business.

As for competing promotions, you could say that NWA, AWA etc. wouldn't touch a guy coming from the WWF union, but the union member could simply leave if he was not working for the WWF any more and couldn't find work. Would he be alienated? Maybe, but once Flair, the Road Warriors and the rest in the NWA saw the package on offer in the WWF Union they'd either be leaving the NWA for the WWF or they'd be demanding similar for them.

 

[MrMojoRisin]

Not all at once... but it just needed to start somewhere, and somewhere where it would actually have an impact. The WWF was that place, and with the clout that Hogan had, he was the guy.

You have to remember. At the time they were talking about, wrestlers didn't have guaranteed contracts... or really guaranteed anything. If they got hurt and couldn't work... they didn't get paid. Expenses were mostly out of their pockets. Payoffs weren't always the greatest, and the travel was especially brutal. A union could have assisted with all of that, which promoters were well aware of, which is why anyone who tried pushing for one immediately found themselves blacklisted.

Hogan had too much power though, and couldn't have been brushed aside as easily. It would have still been risky for him, which is probably a main reason he never tried pushing for one. But if there was anyone from that era who could have started a pro wrestling union, it was Hulk Hogan. And if it happened in the WWF, there would have been a ripple effect across the rest of the territories, because the best talent would have left for the unionized waters of the WWF more than they even had been doing.

 

[BC1978]

As for how it would have worked, simple. Every WWF wrestler at the time goes to Vince and says that they are forming a union or they are walking. Vince either lets them walk and loses his ENTIRE roster to the NWA (at this time that includes Hogan, Savage, Roberts, Bundy, Andre, Heenan, Piper, the Bulldogs etc.) or he gives in to them and lets them form a union. So his choice, in effect, is either let them form a union or go out of business.

As for competing promotions, you could say that NWA, AWA etc. wouldn't touch a guy coming from the WWF union, but the union member could simply leave if he was not working for the WWF any more and couldn't find work. Would he be alienated? Maybe, but once Flair, the Road Warriors and the rest in the NWA saw the package on offer in the WWF Union they'd either be leaving the NWA for the WWF or they'd be demanding similar for them.

This isn't how a Union works and you know nothing about contract law.

The WWF guys couldn't go work for the NWA or AWA because they'd be breaching their WWF contracts. They'd have to go on strike and shut down the WWF operations.

This whole process would take years in order for the talent to switch companies their contracts would need to expire, or they would need to get fired, or be allowed to quit.

However the WWE could replace them with scabs or entice top stars to comeback with better deals. The people getting screwed would be the low card guys.

 

[Wald]

I said Vince would either fire them or give in to them, if he fired them they are free to work for other companies.

As for leaving them on strike, do you really think people would keep watching the WWE if the top stars were replaced by scabs and jobbers from the indie scene? Vince would also have to pay on their contracts or release them as him not paying and refusing to allow them work simply wouldn't hold up in courts