Jesse Ventura
speaker
493 appearances
3 recordings
3 series
first heard Dec 2024
last heard 25 Mar
Jesse Ventura’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
Trend
recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 2 in all, peaking in Mar 2026 with 1.
Appearances
It's two weeks before the show. All we had to do was, in mass, walk out, go to the media, and say we refuse to wrestle unless federal negotiators for union are brought in. It's federal law. He couldn't stop it. It's federal law. And we refuse to perform until we're allowed to unionize. or collective bargain and bring these people in. And I made that passion speech.
And when I was done, I went home and the next day Vince calls me immediately. Well, I found out he apparently called all the wrestlers and threatened them all and all of this stuff, I guess. I didn't know about that, but he called me and I stood up to him. I said, Vince, I said, this isn't just to fight you. I said, this is about the fact right now, and this was mid 80s.
I said, right now I'm paying $5,000 a year for health insurance for me and my family. I said, if we- Out of your own pocket. Out of my pocket. If we had a union, there's strength in numbers. Maybe I'd only have to pay $2,000 a year instead of $5,000. I said, Vince, I've seen hundreds of guys give 20 years of their life to this business.
And in the end, they ain't got a pot to piss in, a window to throw it out of. I said, we're wrestlers. We're not financial planners. And I said, if we had a union, maybe a guy could retire on 500 bucks a month and get something for the 20, 30 years you give to this business. I said, it isn't just about fighting you. I said, sure.
And we'd like working conditions to where if you go on the road three days in a row, you're then given so many days off.
I'll tell you how bad it was when I got injured with pulmonary emboli, blood clots in the lungs. Yeah. That was caused by flying. Really? Yes. They've determined it today that you're very more susceptible. That's why you need to exercise on planes. And they don't say nothing now because the airline people are well aware of it. I get up on every plane and do toll raises for 10 minutes.
The flight attendant won't say a word to you. They know exactly what you're doing. Interesting. But the point is, here's how bad it was. The month that I had the pulmonary emboli blood clots, do you know how many days that month I flew? 28.
Yes.
You're talking 30 days in a month and 28 of them when I was on an airplane. Let's get back to, that's what I wanted the union for. I wanted the union. And for Hogan to then make a statement, well, I didn't want to get paid like everybody else. He makes it sound like unionizing is socialism and communism. Does Pat Mahomes make the same money as everybody else in the NFL? Of course not.
He makes way more. And they have a union. Does LeBron James make more than everybody in the NBA? Yes, of course he does. And they have a union. Hogan would have still made more. That's a lame excuse. You want to know how bad it was? It came out in my court case. My court case against Vince, we have the numbers from WrestleMania 3, right? The big one. Pontiac Silverdome. Hogan against Andre.
And then the greatest match that I ever saw, Ricky Steamboat against Macho. the greatest match I'd ever broadcast or ever seen, that match. But that aside, We got the numbers in my court case. Hulk Hogan made more that night than all of the rest of us combined, including Andre.
Now, you know, I don't know why he didn't. You want to know why he'd lay his life down to stop a union?
Of course he did. And here's why. And here's why. If you come from the business during my era of the old territory days, the worst thing you can be accused of being is an office stooge.
That's somebody who rides around with the boys, pretends he's one of them, but all the while he's listening to the gossip and he's reporting it back to the promoters, taking care of himself and being, quote, an office stooge. That in my day of wrestling was the worst thing you could ever be. Well, it's interesting. And that's what Hogan was.
It didn't come out until my trial that I had. And it only came out because I told my attorney the story. And when you depose someone, you can ask anything. in a deposition. So I told my attorney the story and my attorney was great. They beat Vince. And my attorney, I said, if you can find out who ratted me, I would really love to know who was the rat in the dressing room that ratted me out.
And so during the deposition, I can't say anything. I'm sitting there and my attorney asked Vince, he said, Mr. McMahon, he said, has there ever been a union in wrestling? And Vince said, no. And my attorney said, has anyone ever tried to form a union in wrestling? And Vince thought a moment and he said, yeah. He said, I think Jesse Ventura might've spouted his mouth.
I remember he used the term spouted his mouth off about it one time, a number of years ago. And my attorney said, oh really? He said, did you hear Mr. Ventura talk about unionizing? And Vince went, no. And my attorney said, well, then how were you aware of it? With no hesitation, Vince went, Hulk Hogan told me. I almost fell out of my chair. Now, I had to sit there. I can't show no emotion.
I can't, you know, it's a deposition. I can't talk. I can't nothing. I can only sit there and confer with my attorney. It was as rough as getting hit in the face with a hard left jab because Hulk Hogan had, I thought, been my friend.
That's why I wanted to find out. I wanted to know who was the rat in the dressing room because I made sure there was nobody from the office. when I made the speech, because I made sure of it. Pat Patterson wasn't there, Strongbow wasn't in there, none of the agents were there.
No, no. Hogan came into the AWA when I was there.
Showing 361–380 of 493 · page 19 of 25
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