John Oliver power-bombed Vince McMahon on Sunday’s “Last Week Tonight,” calling the WWE chairman an “asshole” and a “weird, weird man.”
“While the ‘character’ Vince is an asshole, it’s important to note that the real Vince is also an asshole,” Oliver said on his HBO show.
What’s got Oliver so steamed ahead of WrestleMania 35? Mostly, it’s McMahon’s treatment of his wrestlers, who are not technically employees but are rather independent contractors. That distinction allows WWE to not provide longterm healthcare solutions and other benefits to the men and women putting their bodies on the line 200 nights a year.
“Look, maybe when wrestlers might work years ago for multiple different organizations it made sense to call them (independent) contractors,” Oliver said of the territory days. “But now that WWE has a chokehold on this industry, it makes just as much sense to call them that as it does to call Jimmy Carter a ‘panty-dropping f— machine.’ It’s just clearly not true ANYMORE.”
Oliver pointed out that even the National Football League is making progress these days towards taking care of its athletes for the future. He doesn’t see the same in WWE’s Wellness Policy.
‘When you’ve lost the moral high ground to the f—ing NFL, you are morally subterranean,” Oliver said.
As is often the case by the end of a “Last Week Tonight” takedown, Oliver proposed a plan to rectify things at World Wrestling Entertainment: He not-so-subtly reminded the WWE Universe that we can make signs for and form chants at Sunday’s WrestleMania. Makes sense, as the McMahons recently reminded fans on national TV that we’re truly the “Authority.”
Watch the video above.
TheWrap reached out to WWE with a request for comment on Oliver’s takedown piece. We did not immediately hear back.