The Piledriver Report 2.07.07: Professional Wrestlers- The Forgotten Wounded Warriors of the Sports World

This past week, the National Football League celebrated Super Bowl week in Miami, Florida. They paid homage to Lovie Smith and Tony Dungy being the first African American head coaches to lead a team to the Super Bowl. They prepared a throne for Peyton Manning’s coronation as eventual champion of the football world. They celebrated the pageantry of what has become the biggest sports party in the country. Amongst the partygoers and good times, there was a demon making the rounds that the NFL was trying to ignore. Thanks to Mike Ditka and shows like HBO’s “Real Sports,” the NFL’s little secret has come to light.

While the NFL has been enjoying a tremendous amount of riches, they seem to be ignoring the men that helped mold the NFL into the cash cow that stands before you today. The segment on the “Real Sports” broadcast gave detailed accounts of several retired NFL players who can barely walk. They have knee injuries, back injuries, and many suffer from post concussion syndrome. Some of these men can’t even leave their house due to their past football injuries. While the government classifies most of these men as being disabled, the National Football League states that as long as these men can sit behind a desk, they are not disabled.

Not only aren’t these men receiving full disability benefits, but also their pensions are a measly $25,000.00 a year. This pales in comparison to baseball players who have given ten years service. Those baseball players receive a pension of $175,000.00 a year. While the NFL ignores this problem, the NFL Players Association does as well. When asked about bargaining with the owners to give more money to retired players in their next Collective Bargaining Agreement, the head of the Player’s Union, Gene Upshaw (a former player), said that “they (retired players) didn’t hire, and they can’t fire me. I work for the players in the league today.”

After hearing how these former players put their bodies on the line, and are now receiving very little in return, it got me thinking about the professional wrestling industry. Wrestlers are independent contractors. That basically means that they are guns for hire. I’m not going to claim to know how the WWE handles things. I don’t know if they provide pensions or insurance for their wrestlers. Even if the WWE does this, which would be a great thing, the number of wrestlers in the WWE are a micro-fraction of the number of wrestlers that there are in the wrestling industry.

Where a normal athlete would be forced to sit on the sidelines by their team’s medical staff, a wrestler doesn’t have these restrictions. Take a look at some of these wrestlers who throw caution to the wind, and continue to compete. Homicide has been wrestling since the end of 2005 with a messed up should. Bryan Danielson worked for months before finally taking time off to get his shoulder operated on. The Big Show was in a tremendous amount of pain with an assortment of injuries, most notably his back. Yet, he kept going, because the WWE needed him in ECW. Rey Mysterio Jr. was supposed to get knee surgery a long time ago, but a once in a life time World title push kept him from getting his knee worked on. How many months went by before Konnan finally got the hip replacement surgery that he so desperately needed?

There are several reasons why wrestlers hold off getting surgery. One is that they don’t want to lose their spot on the card. If they are getting a main event push, who’s to say that the slot will be waiting for them when they come back. Forget about their push for a moment. They may even be fearful of losing their jobs. Anyone remember when Test was home recovering from an injury suffered in a WWE ring? While recovering from the injury, the WWE released him. If you were a mid-card wrestler, who needed surgery, you may be afraid that if you got the surgery, you would find a pink slip waiting for you before you return.

Second, is the paycheck. In wrestling, there is no such thing as going on disability. If you don’t work the match, you don’t get paid. Like most people, wrestlers have rent, car payments, and families to take care of. If they aren’t working, these bills aren’t getting paid.

For most, I pretty sure benefits are another big reason for wrestlers holding off on getting surgery. I can’t say this at a 100% certainty, but I’m sure only a select few wrestlers have health insurance. Can you honesty believe that John Doe rookie indy worker has health insurance? Sure, the WWE guys, and probably the most well paid indy workers have it, but probably not many others. Look at Konnan. I would think that he is a big enough name. However, he is taking donations to help pay for his transplant. Maybe he has insurance, and it doesn’t cover it. I can’t tell for certain. What I can tell you is that Konnan isn’t the first wrestler that had a benefit show or was accepting donations due to medical expenses. What about Bam Bam Bigelow? Former Wild Samoan Afa was looking for donations to pay for Bigelow’s funeral. He called Vince McMahon. Vince didn’t just give a donation. He offered to pay for Bigelow’s entire funeral. For all that people complain about Vince McMahon, he deserves props when for doing paying for Bam Bam’s funeral.

One of the dangers of these wrestlers delaying surgeries and refusing to take time off is how wrestlers tend to cope with the pain that they put their bodies through. Of course, I am talking about pain pills, and a problem that we hear about way too much in regards to pro wrestlers. That would be painkiller addiction. How many wrestlers have become addicted to these pills. Even worse, how many wrestlers have died way before their time, in large part because of complications that their body suffered due to this addiction. This list is as large as an encyclopedia.

The sad fact is that there is really nothing that can be done to change things. An ideal situation would be for the government to step in, and take a portion of the money that they get from wrestling licenses and other fees they receive from the wrestling industry, and use the money in that pot to provide some kind of medical insurance for wrestlers. This is highly unlikely. The government, and most of the country, looks down on professional wrestling. Do you really think they would do anything to help these men and women? Doubt it. Another idea would be to unionize the wrestlers, but there is NO WAY in hell that will ever happen.

It’s extremely upsetting. These men put their bodies on the line every night to entertain the fans, and why? For the love of the game (not Triple H), the roar of the crowd, and the chance of one day making it “big?” These men are one big injury away from losing everything. I’ve seen wrestlers take dives over the top rope, and crash headfirst on to the floor. Besides getting a headache, and maybe worse, what do these men get? Nothing, except a bunch of fans screaming “This is awesome!”

When you think of it, fans are just as bad as the wrestling promoters. Do the promoters want their wrestlers to get injured? Of course not. However, if a wrestler suffers a career ending injury, how many stick around the federation? You may have a handful that continue to work in the front office. For the most part, those wrestlers might as well be a horse with a broken leg. Once they are of no use to the promoters, they are shown the door.

Many fans are the same way. They demand thumbtacks, tables, bared wire, fire, and crazy high spots. The more extreme and insane, the better. They expect the unexpected. Sure, these fans appreciate the effort. They chant something positive to the wrestlers when they see these men throw caution to the wind, and put their bodies on the line. However, when a wrestler does get hurt, they become “out of sight, out of mind.” Don’t believe me? When was the last time you said to yourself, “Man, I wonder how Chris Nowitzski is doing since suffering from post concussion syndrome.” Or how about Droz? Remember him? He was paralyzed in a WWE ring during a match with D-Lo Brown. How many fans still think of him? Probably few and far between.

You can’t blame yourself though. It’s just the way things are. Time and distance tend to give people fading memories. The next time you see someone taking a Mike Foley dive off the top of a cage, or crash headfirst into the concrete floor following a botched Shooting Star Press, while you are chanting “Holy Shit! Holy Shit! Holy Shit!” remember that each move they make to entertain you can be their last. Then think about when their careers are over. Remember about the retired NFL players who can barely walk, and are being mistreated by the NFL and the NFLPA. Think about how these wrestlers wish they could be so lucky. At least the retired NFL players get a little bread crumbs thrown in their direction. The wrestlers? They have no pension, no health plan, and probably a future of pain and suffering. To these men, I applaud you, and wish you the best of health throughout your careers and post-wrestling lives. When the arena lights get turned off for the final time in your careers, hopefully the fans will not forget the pain and the sacrifice you all went through to entertain us all. I know that I won’t.