A WWE legend once wanted Ric Flair to make a dangerous career move—forming a labor union within professional wrestling. This idea was even turned down by Hulk Hogan.
While several other industries have unions to protect workers and ensure fair treatment, professional wrestling does not have one. This is largely due to the scripted nature of the business. Wrestlers at the top of the industry earn substantially more than mid-carders and lower-card talents. For a company like WWE, factors such as merchandise sales and royalties also play a significant role in determining how much a wrestler makes.
There were attempts to form a labor union in the 1980s, led by Jesse Ventura. However, Hulk Hogan intervened and approached Vince McMahon, who promptly shut down the idea. Since then, no further efforts have been made to establish a union within professional wrestling.
During a recent appearance on *Games with Names*, Ric Flair revealed that Jesse Ventura asked him repeatedly to help form a union, but Flair wasn’t interested at the time. Surprisingly, even Hulk Hogan turned down the idea.
“How do we not have a union? A multi-billion dollar company, no union. Yeah, nobody wants to do it because they’ll just move on without you. They wanted me and Hogan to do it, then Hulk called me and said, ‘I said I’m not jumping out there because they’ll just replace me.’ I don’t know. I just didn’t want to be in. Jesse Ventura drove me crazy, but come on, come on. I know Jesse. What he said. So I give up the NWA World Championship, walk out there—they’ll just put the belt on DiBiase or back to Harley or somebody who knows. I don’t know, it just wasn’t something I wanted to explore, but I certainly was asked to do a lot.”
— Ric Flair
It will be interesting to see if the next generation of wrestlers will be successful in forming a union.
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**Vince McMahon’s Controversial Moves**
Ric Flair also shared a troubling story about WWE during a critical point in his health. While battling for his life and on life support for 14 days, Flair discovered WWE had sent him letters attempting to claim the rights to his name.
“Because I sued them. Well, because when I was dying, I was on life support for 14 days, everybody cashed in. My agent stole $150,000, because if I was dead, then it would all go to court, whatever my will was at that time. Estate planning is very important, by the way. But everybody cashed in because they thought I was going to die. And then when I lived, I find out what was going on. I read the letters, WWE was writing me letters, wanting me to sign them while I was assigning my intellectual property back to them. So I didn’t sue them, I just said, ‘I’m going public with this. Give me my sh*t back.’”
— Ric Flair
Fortunately, Flair was able to survive and fully recover despite these difficult circumstances.
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**About the Author**
Sunil Joseph is a pro wrestling journalist covering AEW and WWE news stories at Sportskeeda. Holding an MBA in Marketing, Sunil brings nearly seven years of experience. He admires former world champions AJ Styles, Will Ospreay, and Kenny Omega for their in-ring excellence and mic skills.
If given the chance to change a storyline, Sunil would have booked Roman Reigns to end The Undertaker’s WrestleMania streak instead of Brock Lesnar, believing Reigns needed the victory more. Sunil is committed to accuracy, thoroughly fact-checking his articles. When not writing about wrestling, he enjoys watching cricket.
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*H/T Sportskeeda Wrestling for the quotes and source material.*
https://www.sportskeeda.com/wwe/news-ric-flair-reveals-wwe-legend-wanted-make-dangerous-career-move-turned-hulk-hogan