No matter who you are, if you watch WWE, you were likely affected by at least one of the recent releases. From Rusev to Zack Ryder and stretching all the way back to The Revival, WWE has cast off a lot of cult favorites amidst a difficult time for all of us. For independent firebrand David Starr, those layoffs aren’t just a tragedy, they’re an injustice. Known as a rare voice for unionization in wrestling, David told DailyDDT that WWE’s firings are hurting everyone.
The people that are still there are dealing with, what they say, they’re dealing with survivor’s guilt. Everybody there just seems really sad. They seem sad. They’re not angry, they’re sad. Everyone is just really sad, and they’re also nervous. Everyone is nervous. Nobody knows when it’s over. Nobody knows if it’s done.
As seen by today’s release of Curtis Axel, he’s certainly not wrong. But David understands how hard it is to speak up when you’re ingrained in a system like World Wrestling Entertainment and see an empty indie scene due to the current pandemic. “It’s hard to say you’re disappointed they don’t come out and publicly speak out in favor of their peers and workers. That would be huge, and it’s really easy to say that, but again we have to take into account the difficulty of taking that first step.”
Still, David says that it’s a necessary step in need of a leader and not the type of locker room leaders he’s argued with in the past. “I think that if you’re gonna be a leader, it’s just my opinion, leadership isn’t defending your bosses. It isn’t defending the powerful. Leadership is defending the weak. They should be making sure that every single person is taken care of as opposed to making sure that the boss is happy with you being on top.”
