If you have 23 minutes to spare on Monday and you’re a WWE fan — or even if you just follow professional wrestling casually, or if you’re just a human being who doesn’t care about it — you should use them to watch this segment from John Oliver.
On his HBO show Last Week Tonight, Olver — who notes he’s a wrestling fan — took on the WWE and its chairman and CEO Vince McMahon for the way the company has treated wrestlers, who are dying at early ages and dealing with medical issues after they leave the ring, but who aren’t considered full-time employees. That means they don’t get long-term benefits as independent contractors.
Oliver called for WWE fans to make their voices heard about how McMahon treats wrestlers at next week’s Wrestlemania 35.
This quote toward the end sums up Oliver’s take:
“Even the NFL, for all its massive faults, now offers players health reimbursement accounts and have established a legacy fund for older players who may be dealing with health issues. And when you have lost the moral high ground to the (expletive) NFL, you are morally subterranean.”
Here’s the full segment, which comes with a WARNING: There is lots of NSFW language in it.
