Andrew Yang, the former U.S. presidential candidate who last year promised to look at WWE’s “corrupt labor practices” if Democrats win the election, resurrected the subject today in a tweet and urged current and former WWE Superstars to get in touch.
“Had a call with the Department of Labor. If you are a current or former @WWE performer who feels you were misclassified as an independent contractor contact @lkmiddleb and let’s get you what Vince owes you,” Yang wrote. “Been a long time coming but this storyline is real.”
The man who Yang urged wrestlers to contact is Lucas Middlebrook, a union labor attorney representing airline and professional sports related labor groups including professional fighters who works for Seham, Seham, Meltz & Petersen, LLP with offices in White Plains, New York.
Yang got irritated when WWE refused to let its Superstars engage with third party services such as Twitch and Cameo and warned WWE Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon that he would go after him.
“If I’m not the Secretary of Labor I’m pretty confident I’ll have his or her number to talk about the ridiculous classification of WWE wrestlers as independent contractors while controlling their name and likeness for years, even for something as benign as Cameo,” Yang wrote in September 2020. “Vince you’d better hope your old friend Donald wins because change is in the air and changes are long overdue where your corrupt labor practices are concerned. It would give me great pleasure. The people know.”
