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Wrestling: In Your Face.
Monopoly: A Game That Only Vince McMahon Can Win
by Eric Jenkins

Two weeks ago, there was a news report that Joanie Laurer, known to wrestling fans as Chyna in the WWF, will not be resigned when her current deal expires in November of 2001. After a few days, news came out that she had developed an ego similar to Rena Mero's when she performed as Sable. Chyna was said to have become hard to work with, and this among other things lead to the federation's decision not to retain her services. Unfortunately for Chyna, because of the demise of ECW and the purchase of WCW by WWFE, there is no other major federation that Joanie can sign with.

In recent years, if a wrestler was unable to reach an agreement with the WWF, he could threaten to sign with WCW and vice versa. Depending on the star, either a deal was struck or the wrestler was allowed to switch federations. If the wrestler was unable to sign with neither federation, there was always ECW for the wrestler to fall back on. The wrestler always had a choice of where he wanted to work, and for those wrestlers without choices, they could always go to whichever federation that had bridges that had not been burned. Today, that has all changed and Vince McMahon and the WWF is seemingly the only game in town.

It is not a problem for the casual wrestling fan where they get their wrestling from. It really doesn't matter who owns which federation, as long as there is plenty quality wrestling programming on television. The problem, as I see it, is with regards to job security for the talent. The is no labor union in place to protect the wrestlers from career-ending injuries or unsafe working conditions, and nothing to protect them in contract negotiations. As I mentioned, in the past, there were other options for wrestlers who were unable to make a deal with their current federation. Certain wrestlers will never have to worry about job security, because Vince McMahon would be foolish to let guys like the Rock, Triple H, Stone Cold, Booker T, and the Undertaker leave his employ while they still had wrestling years left. If either of these men were to venture to one of the smaller independent federations, that fed would immediately become a major player. Television networks would bend over backwards to air their programming, and every show that the star is scheduled to appear on would be an instant sellout at double the regular ticket price for that federation's show in their regular arenas. The marginal, however, are not so fortunate.

Every wrestler below the absolute top level of WCW or the WWF is in jeopardy. One day, each and every one of their contracts will be near expiration, and when that happens, they will need to negotiate. As is the case in negotiations, the talent presents the reasons that they feel that they should be resigned, at possibly a salary increase. On the other hand, the contract holder presents the reasons why they disagree, and the two sides either reach an agreement or not. If they were not able to make a deal, the wrestler, in the past, would have been able to use other federations as leverage. Today, without that leverage, the wrestler is at the mercy of the contract holder, in this case Vince McMahon. The wrestlers must either accept Vince's offer, or go to work for one of the many smaller independent federations for significantly less money than they were used to making in the WWF.

As long as a wrestler is on good terms with Vince McMahon, the WWF and the WWF locker room, the wrestler's future is secure. As soon as the wrestler crosses either of those things, the wrestler's career may as well be over.

Website: Wrestling:In Your Face.

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