'The Main Event' is a happy movie about pro wrestling, but whitewashes the WWE a bit too much
‘The Main Event’ is a wonderful children’s film about an eleven-year-old boy who finds a magic wrestling mask that gives him superpowers. A fan of WWE, the boy uses his newfound powers to not just try and win a chance to make it to the roster but to also help his father, a single parent, make ends meet.
It’s a sweet story about friendship, integrity, family, and obviously, the immeasurable joy that professional wrestling brings to the lives of millions across the world. More than anything, this movie tells a tale of people who want to be part of WWE, who dream to have their stage names being chanted by everyone, who dream of a kicka*s entrance music, who dream of glory. It’s a hearty film for the whole family and in this season of gloom, proves to be an effective distraction from a world undergoing an apocalyptical phase.
But for me, as a former pro-wrestling fan, as a former WWE fan, things seemed a little off. As the end credits for the film rolled, I was reminded of a film whose last scene had left my heart aching. Darren Aronofsky’s 2008 wrestling tragedy, ‘The Wrestler’, is as far as possible from ‘The Main Event’ as possible. The only common thing between the two features is professional wrestling and even there, the connection is flimsy.
While ‘The Main Event’ exudes hope and joy, ‘The Wrestler’ focuses on how pro-wrestling not just proves to be a dead-end for an older man, but also how it took away every bit of happiness from his life. True to form, Aronofsky presents a grim, almost hopeless, picture of an aging wrestler who has no relationship with his estranged daughter, whose only friend is a stripper, and whose life has been a series of painful accidents and loneliness. He doesn’t have glory. He doesn’t have money. And he doesn’t have anybody. Yet he continues to do what he loves.
In a way, both movies are about love for the sport. But ‘The Main Event’ whitewashes it too much. Sure it’s a kids’ movie, but the whitewashing feels particularly painful in every sense when one knows how pro wrestlers in WWE are treated.
In 2019, John Oliver, on his HBO comedy-news show ‘Last Week Tonight’ did an expose on the vicious practices of Vince McMahon and WWE. The picture Aronofsky painted is far from exaggerated. As Oliver demonstrated in his report, WWE basically absolves itself of responsibility for its wrestlers’ welfare, who aren’t even full-time employees. They are independent contractors -- thus exempt from U.S. workplace safety and discrimination laws -- who don’t get paid annual leave, pensions, worker’s compensation insurance, or basic employer-sponsored health coverage. Dozens of former wrestlers, Oliver said, have died before the age of 65, many of them from suicide and drug overdoses.
Oliver cited one wrestler’s contract that absolved the WWE of responsibility even if the wrestler suffered permanent injury or death due to the company’s own negligence. “Here’s how bad it is: even the NFL, for all its massive faults, now offers players health reimbursement accounts and have established a legacy fund for older players who may be dealing with health issues,” Oliver said. “And when you’ve lost the moral high ground to the f*cking NFL, you’re morally subterranean.”
Oliver said of Vince McMahon, “Because given that Business Hulk here is a billionaire on the broken backs of his non-employees, the very least he could do is show the same dedication to wrestlers that they have shown to his company.”
Pro-wrestling, especially WWE, is a dream for a lot of kids, teenagers, and adults. But the dream comes at a heavy cost - often of health and sanity. 'The Main Event’ does remind us of what fun it is to watch the pageantry of WWE. But everything else, from ‘The Wrestler’ to Netflix’s comedy series ‘G.L.O.W.’ to the news, reminds us of the dark underbelly of this behemoth.