WWE Athletes and Their Classist Behavior Towards Independent Wrestlers

Since ‘Wrestling Twitter’ became probably the most prominent part of the Internet Wrestling Community, and especially over the past year or two, there have been, unfortunately, numerous incidents of wrestlers in WWE and beyond displaying their own prejudices and attitude problems for the world at large to witness, dissect and criticize.

Although there are more obviously despicable examples of wrestlers being Atrocious (hi, Hulk Hogan! Hi, AJ “the GAY community?!” Styles!), a more recent and more worryingly half-accepted form of behavior is wrestlers being seemingly very classist on social media, for one reason or another. And despite the AJ Styles example used a moment ago, there is an extremely worrying pattern emerging of the majority of these instances coming from WWE superstars, and more specifically, those who have only ever known the WWE system in the industry.

The most recent example – and by your author’s own admission the straw that broke the camel’s back in that it caused this article to be put into work – is Braun Strowman’s recent behavior on Instagram.

‘The Monster Among Men’ recently weighed in on a post made by All Elite Wrestling star EVIL UNO, which suggested that people (who are in a position to) could financially help out independent wrestlers, who are struggling for money right now due to the worldwide coronavirus pandemic. Strowman replied, saying that if independent wrestlers “can’t afford to pay your bills maybe you should change professions”, and that “instead of making a GoFundMe or Patreon I went out and worked hard”.

It doesn’t take long to realise how awful Strowman’s comments are.  First of all, for a man who’s entire experience of professional wrestling is the WWE machine to start accusing independent wrestlers of not working hard enough, is… not good.

Strowman has spent his entire pro wrestling career in a position of monumental privilege; he’s precisely the Vince McMahon Type, so he was given a WWE contract with little to no experience in the industry whatsoever. He skipped any form of developmental, NXT or otherwise, entirely (save for a cameo appearance as one of Adam Rose’s Rosebuds), and was immediately pushed hard as Bray Wyatt’s ‘game-changer’, to the point he was close to getting a WrestleMania match vs The Undertaker, despite only debuting in WWE far less than a year beforehand.

Secondly, Strowman’s words towards those in the independent wrestling industry have direct implications to those outside of it. His comment that he “moved to Florida with $150 to (his) name”  is steeped in the privilege of someone who could afford to take that risk while knowing they wouldn’t be at risk of death should it go badly. His remark about GoFundMe and Patreon not only implies that people whose industry relies on websites such as those don’t “work hard enough”, but also that anyone at all who uses those websites are at fault for doing so. If Strowman stopped to think about the implications of his words before going off on a rant, he might have realized the amount of his fanbase that he was insulting.

Braun Strowman isn’t the only WWE superstar who’s made such a faux pas in recent times. As recently as last year, Seth Rollins decided that the best way to attempt to win a Twitter feud with New Japan Pro Wrestling talent Will Ospreay was to directly reference how much money he makes. Although Rollins has a storied history on the indies, his willingness to seemingly forget his roots and become a part of the biggest and most ruthless machine in the business speaks volumes towards his character. It isn’t hard to imagine Rollins bringing up his bank balance in an argument with a fan, should he think he’s got no other “gotcha!” up his sleeve, and it’s depressing in its exposure of the WWE system, and what it turns talent into.

The blatant classism, the disrespect and the overall lack of class emanating from a significant proportion of the WWE locker room is a worrying trend that the company will do well to reign in as quickly as they can. There can only be a finite number of times that WWE talent insults those who they deem “below” them, before wrestlers whom WWE then approach to become part of the machine start refusing, on grounds of not wanting to work with the type of people the WWE system produces.

Not only that, but the constant, dizzying bad press that the company is receiving because of their talent’s inability to not be classist on social media can not be good publicity for the company. At the time this article is being written, the world as we know it is in the grip of a global pandemic that threatens hundreds of thousands of lives, yet Strowman is on Instagram calling out people who ask for financial aid for not working hard enough. When this worldwide state of emergency is over, how does WWE think history will reflect on them if their employees are being so outwardly callous towards those less fortunate than themselves?

In a time where WWE are both having to play by rules they didn’t set for the first time in almost 30 years, and where WWE could conceivably come out of all of this stronger than ever, the company needs to quickly learn how to handle their superstars and to ensure said superstars aren’t alienating massive portions of their fanbase. For the first time in over 20 years, WWE has direct competition (Hi there, All Elite); they cannot afford to have their main event talent insulting the livelihoods of their fans for the entire world to see.