Ric Flair says pro wrestling had chances to unionize decades ago — and he admits both he and Hulk Hogan were approached about helping make it happen.
The Nature Boy opened up about the subject while speaking with Booker T on the Hall of Fame podcast. The conversation started with Flair talking about how brutal the wrestling business can be when performers get hurt and the show simply keeps moving. Flair compared that culture to major sports leagues stopping competition after a serious medical emergency and said wrestling operates very differently.
“In our business where guys are jumping off a goddamn top rope on tables, ladders, chairs, and somebody gets hurt, show goes on. It’s the most insensitive business in the world.”
Flair made it clear he wasn’t putting all the blame on one promoter or company either. In his view, generations of wrestlers helped create the system themselves.
“There’s no one person to blame for it. It’s just wrestling. We’ve let — we as wrestlers have let that happen.”
That’s when Flair revealed that attempts were made to get wrestlers organized during the 1980s, including approaches made directly to him and Hogan. Flair then explained why neither of wrestling’s biggest stars wanted to take that risk.
“Do you know how many times people came to me and Hogan in the ’80s and said, ‘Let’s unionize’? How many times you think people have asked me to walk out?”
“But you know what? You know why we didn’t? We would have been replaced, number one. Been blackballed, number two. And number three, don’t think you can’t be replaced.”
Booker T agreed and added that everybody in the business can be replaced. Flair didn’t try to dodge responsibility for how things turned out either. He acknowledged that wrestlers themselves have to take some of the blame for never building a stronger system of protection. Flair then pointed to how rare it has historically been for an entire wrestling show to stop because something serious happened.
“It’s our own fault. We don’t have that. But I mean, it’s just — it’s not one person that makes the decisions. We have ourselves to blame for it.”
“I mean, it took something that drastic to pull the show, and it just don’t happen. Guys get hurt, man. The show goes on.”
That fear of being replaced or blackballed apparently carried a lot of weight during Flair and Hogan’s era. Even two of the biggest names in wrestling history weren’t willing to test how quickly the business could move on without them.
Flair’s admission also shows just how deeply the “show must go on” mentality was baked into wrestling long before the modern era. The opportunities to push for a union may have existed, but when the biggest stars believed they could lose everything for trying, nobody wanted to be the first one through the door.
Do you think Ric Flair and Hulk Hogan could have changed the wrestling business if they had backed a union in the 1980s, or were they right to believe they would have been replaced and blackballed? Let us know what you think in the comments.
This transcript was produced exclusively for Ringside News from the original recording. Republishing the transcription in full is prohibited. When using excerpts, provide prominent credit and a link to this article.
