John Oliver wants to force the WWE to treat its wrestlers better. His plan involves fellow wrestling fans.

John Oliver takes on the WWE
(Image credit: Screenshot/YouTube/Last Week Tonight)

John Oliver dedicated the bulk of Sunday's Last Week Tonight to "professional wrestling, literally the only good excuse to wear a onesie — and that's right, babies, you're not pulling it off." Specifically, Oliver focused on "the undisputed corporate champion of wrestling, the WWE," and its "incredibly powerful" chairman and CEO, Vince McMahon, who "eliminated or absorbed" regional wrestling competitors throughout the 1980s and '90s to essentially form a wrestling monopoly.

Look, "I like wrestling," Oliver said. "It's objectively entertaining," and the WWE has "delivered numerous ludicrous and genuinely incredible moments," some of which he played. That's why WWE's WrestleMania is the No. 6 most valuable sports brand, just below the World Cup and four slots above the World Series, he said. But the wrestlers themselves die early at a "shockingly high" rate, and many fans "legitimately hate" McMahon "because while the WWE has made him a billionaire, many wrestlers say he's treated them terribly," and he has "shielded himself from responsibility for his wrestlers' welfare" to a "shocking" degree, mostly by ludicrously labeling them "independent contractors."

"When you take all of this together — with wrestlers working as independent contractors in a monopolized industry largely free form meaningful oversight and able to be fired at any time — you wind up with an environment with huge potential for unsafe conduct," Oliver said. Wrestling fans "really care about these wrestlers," even "long after the WWE has abandoned them," but fans shouldn't have to crowdfund their health care and funeral costs.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

"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," Oliver said. "And when you've lost the moral high ground to the f--king NFL, you are morally subterranean." He offered a plan for how the WWE's influential fans might force a change at next week's live WrestleMania, laid out in a familiar format. (There is NSFW language.) Watch below. Peter Weber

To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.