Why Jesse Ventura Returning to the WWE is a Big Deal
WWE Hall of Famer Jesse Ventura was backstage at Monday Night Raw this week and through posts from Triple H and Jesse Ventura himself we know that he is now a part of the WWE officially. The exact position or role that Ventura will hold in the company is currently unknown but this still signifies a massive change in the way the company will function in the future.
You may be wondering why this is a big deal and it mainly comes down to problems that Ventura and Vince Mcmahon had with each other during the 1980s and 90s.
Jesse “The Body” Ventura started off as a wrestler winning championships in the AWA and also numerous NWA belts across a number of territories, eventually in the early 1980s he moved to WWE with his tag partner Adrian Adonis but his time in the ring in the company was short lived as by 1985 Ventura shifted from a being a in ring competitor to sharing a commentary desk with Vince Mcmahon.
The issues between the two began in 1987 when Ventura got a part in “Predator” which Mcmahon was trying to stop him from getting because Mcmahon did not want to set the precedent that wrestlers could leave and attempt to make it in Hollywood.
Ventura got the part in the film and due to this joined the Screen Actors Guild through this he began to notice how the WWE took advantage of wrestlers due to the lack of a union, an example he still talks about to this day is wrestlers being classed as independent contractors despite them not fitting that criteria. Once Ventura returned to the WWE with this knowledge he tried to unionise the company which Vince Mcmahon did not want. After Hulk Hogan went behind Venturas back and told Mcmahon what he was doing Mcmahon was able to stop this attempt at creating a union.
The next aspect of the problems between Ventura and the WWE spawn from a lawsuit Ventura filed against the WWE after finding out that he was lied to about who can receive royalties from home video releases of WWE content. Ventura was of the belief that only feature performers were able to receive royalties and as a non-feature talent he was not eligible for the privilege, but eventually Ventura discovered there were non-feature talent on royalty deals. Ventura won the case and received $809,958 as compensation for royalties lost he would also receive royalties from all future home videos that had his commentary present, due to this WWE removed his commentary from any future releases that initially had his commentary on it.
Even though there were issues in the 1990s Ventura did make very few sporadic appearances throughout the years including one off appearances in segments and to be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2004, but he never returned to the company full time. Now that he looks to be actually a part of the company for the first time since 1990 it could potentially signal that the way that the company is being run has drastically changed due to change of management.
