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Professional Wrestling and Reality TV are Both Intentional Anti-Union Developments

imbarkus

imbarkus

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,645
And they both rose to prime time prominence at a time in the late 90's when the television industry was inconvenienced by actor's and writer's strikes.
So the studios and networks turned to "entertainment" that didn't require actors or writers.

Decades later people act like both pieces of trash are somehow necessary cultural touchstones. Scab TV.

Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.
 

Deleted member 26039

Banned
Oct 29, 2017
2,550
Professional Wrestling is much, much older than the 90s and reality tv. But the fact that they aren't even full time employees still completely blows my mind. They need to fucking unionize yesterday.
 
Sketchsanchez

Sketchsanchez

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
2,702
DUFFMCWALIN said:
Professional Wrestling is much, much older than the 90s and reality tv. But the fact that they aren't even full time employees still completely blows my mind. They need to fucking unionize yesterday.
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To be fair only in WWE are wrestlers treated like employees but are considered "independent contractors", every where else they are exactly that.
 
Dyle

Dyle

One Winged Slayer
The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
29,943
For reality tv that's true only to a certain degree. It was a fundamentally different form of entertainment than what had existed before and their rise came primarily from exploring new concepts for audiences that were tiring of existing tv trends. Their cheap production costs was a benefit but was not the primary reason for their existence.
 
Sketchsanchez

Sketchsanchez

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
2,702
Kayfabe in reality TV is stronger than pro wrestling kayfabe, isnt that wild
 
Blah

Blah

Member
Oct 26, 2017
3,602
User Banned (2 Weeks): Antagonizing Fellow Member; History of Hostility
Damn, a smarter person could have nailed this thread premise. It's so close to being a good point.
 
OP
OP
imbarkus

imbarkus

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,645
Dyle said:
For reality tv that's true only to a certain degree. It was a fundamentally different form of entertainment than what had existed before and their rise came primarily from exploring new concepts for audiences that were tiring of existing tv trends. Their cheap production costs was a benefit but was not the primary reason for their existence.
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Game shows and professional wrestling were certainly things before the rise of both Actor's and Writer's unions.

But they weren't prime time TV.

Blah said:
Damn, a smarter person could have nailed this thread premise. It's so close to being a good point.
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40Idny0.png
 
OP
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imbarkus

imbarkus

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,645
Honestly all of these scab tactics have been vastly superceded by contract entertainment outlets ala YouTube, Twitch, TikTok

But I do find the phenomenon of minimum-wage jobs going unfilled an instance of vast, disorganized, internet-based collective bargaining in the U.S.
 

Ravensmash

Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,797
imbarkus said:
Game shows and professional wrestling were certainly things before the rise of both Actor's and Writer's unions.

But they weren't prime time TV.
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then how is professional wrestling "intentionally" anti-union, even if the popularity did coincide with strikes in other areas?

im confused about the argument you're making tbh

edit: I say "even if" because I'm unsure of the history myself

I don't really see professional wrestling as much different than a form of travelling theatre either

there's nothing about it which makes it incompatible with workers being unionised
 
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imbarkus

imbarkus

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,645
Ravensmash said:
then how is professional wrestling "intentionally" anti-union, even if the popularity did coincide with strikes in other areas?
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It didn't coincide accidentally.
In the 90's there was a push for both Prime Time pro wrestling and Prime Time reality TV in response to the strikes.
Investment by studios and networks at the time grew the business from its Sunday Morning TV roots.

The investment is the intention.
 
L Thammy

L Thammy

Spacenoid
Member
Oct 25, 2017
50,041
Trying to think through it, talking completely out of my ass here.

Since professional wrestling comes from carny culture and - to my understanding - carnies tended to be insular and often consist of marginalized people who couldn't exist in outside society (hence the "run away and join the circus" idea), my guess is that it would be more of a thing that they didn't really have the leverage or interconnection to unionize to start with. Then as wrestling becomes bigger and more corporate, anti-union efforts could continue to push the idea that wrestlers are a tight-knit brotherhood that can't succeed elsewhere (even as some of them begin to transition to other media like Dwayne Johnson) and so don't need to match the standards of other entertainers.

Maybe I'm completely wrong, but that's my guess.
 

mrmoose

Member
Nov 13, 2017
21,190
I really don't think there was more of a demand for pro wrestling/WWE because of the actors and writers strikes, was there? Maybe I'm misremembering. Certainly a proliferation of reality shows came from those strikes (though they existed before that), and I want to say that was primarily the writers strike because most of the reality shows had actors either hosting or in them.
 
Blah

Blah

Member
Oct 26, 2017
3,602
imbarkus said:
I'm capable of so much more.

It was low effort. I probably should have tweeted it. I don't have time to write an article right now.

Make it yours!
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imbarkus I have returned from my 2 week ban because, apparently, *many* people did not like my initial post's tone to you and reported me but know that I am still rooting for you.

Since I've been told it was not abundantly clear, I am on your side.

Wrestling needs a union.
 
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