Jim Cornette has clearly never been one to mince his verbiage when it comes to any subject matter that’s under the sun and his recent thoughts regarding the WWE talent cuts that took place on April 15 was not exempt from any such kind of discourse.
On his most recent episode of Jim Cornette’s Drive-Thru, Cornette goes on to talk about the releases stating that there is no way WWE wrestlers should be considered independent contractors considering all the rules and regulations that they must follow.
“Nobody that’s on the roster for the WWE should be considered an independent contractor, especially when you cannot even fart or choose your own verbiage on social media without it being approved by the office, but you’re still an independent contractor and they can tell you to go piss up a rope anytime they want,
Cornette continues citing a situation of all the limitations in which former WCW employee Bill DeMott had with his contract with the once top promotion and says when operations are run as such, that the individual is an employee rather than an independent contractor. He believes All Elite Wrestling’s employees do fall under the category of the latter rather than the former.
“Once you get to the level of involvement with each other that you are working for a company like the WWE or like WCW as it was run in those days, you’re an employee. Now All Elite Wrestling, no, they run one day a week and a PPV every three months or whatever and you can work for other promoters, no. Anywhere where you legitimately can work for other promoters or determine what your name is or how you’re presented, you’re an independent contractor. When you work for the fuckin’ WWE, you’re a goddamn employee. You’re an employee in spandex and they’ve conned the government this long and they’ll continue to do so until there’s a union and then the first thing a union would do is say, ‘Well this is fuckin’ ridiculous! We’re gonna call the IRS and talk to somebody important.’
Cornette does believe that wrestlers as independent contractors are the way matters should be ran in the industry of professional wrestling, but the way WWE has been handling their talent over the years is not by the legal book.
“I’ve said this before, wrestlers should have always and should be independent contractors because that’s the way wrestling should be run, but if it’s going to be run this way then the WWE wrestlers not being employees is fuckin’ idiocy and it’s against the law.”
(Transcription credit should go to @DominicDeAngelo of WrestleZone)
You can listen to the entire episode of Jim Cornette’s Drive-Thru with him and co-host Brian Last below:
