F*ckin' Work Visas, How Do They Work?

When Angelina Love was fired from TNA for her work visa expiring last year, we all pointed and laughed and said "Oh hey, look at the stupid blonde chick". We all had a chuckle, a chortle if you will, and thought that the issue with work visas would never really come up again. Yeah, about that...

Now, it seems like the WWE has itself a real problem on its hands with Wade Barrett and Scrooge McPoyle both having to paddleboat across the pond to get their papers in order just so they can get oiled up and prance around a wrestling ring in their underwear on American television. Rumor has it that noted ginger and current WWE Champion Sheamus might be in similar hot water if not now then soon. With this rash of foreigners, important ones at that, being threatened with deportation, is it time for the actual wrestling companies themselves to do something about keeping their employees legal instead of trusting them to do it themselves?

In all three cases, potentially four, the wrestler in danger of deportation was or is important to their fed's continuity. Love was at the time one-half of the hottest Knockout act in TNA. When she was fired, The Beautiful People were stripped of their wrestling contingient. Although both Love and Velvet Sky were purported to be hot pieces of ass, only Velvet really fit that bill. Love, with her horseface and all, had a very nice body, but she was clearly there to fit the bill as a credible wrestler in the face of gals such as Awesome Kong and Tara. She eventually returned, but really, the momentum of TBP had been screeched to a halt as nothing more than eye-candy with the addition of the smoking-hot but terrible in the ring Lacey Von Erich and Madison Rayne.

IN the current cases, Barrett, McPoyle and Sheamus represent a huge part of the present and future directions of the WWE. Barrett is the leader of a hot stable, one that has dominated the WWE's flagship program for a month now, and one that really couldn't afford the loss of an important figure since Bryan Danielson was future endeavored for getting an angle over at the angle's outset. McPoyle, if Bryan Alvarez is to be believed, was supposed to win Smackdown's Money in the Bank match. Oops. And Sheamus, well, he's possibly the most over heel on the roster right now, and yeah, he's the WWE Champion. If his paperwork were to expire without renewal, that would be the most devastating loss of them all.

Seeing that foreign talent is such a big part in both companies, wouldn't it make sense for their respective HR departments to keep track of everyone's working papers? This isn't some mom-and-pop business. If a guy's work visa expires, you can't just pull someone else off the street to do his job. Additionally, keeping them on to work illegally is out of the question because their job is to appear on television. This is not a symbiotic/parasitic relationship. The company and the wrestlers are codependent, no matter how much Vince McMahon wants you to believe otherwise. Without Hulk Hogan, Steve Austin or Bret Hart, there is no Vince McMahon as we know him today.

Therefore, it's in the best interest of both the WWE and TNA to make sure that these wrestlers are legal. At the very least, there should be someone in HR that is at least reminding guys like Barrett and Sheamus to keep up their paperwork and to make sure everything is up to date and on the level before the deadlines come up. It's not that hard, really, or at least it shouldn't be. I preach personal responsibility like a mofo, but let's be real here; wrestlers aren't in the ring because they're Rhodes Scholars now. Some of them forget things, be it by their own brainpower or because they take bumps to the head and the back of the neck on a nightly basis 300 out of 365 days of the calendar year. It wouldn't take that much effort to pull off, actually.

The last thing anyone wants is for a hot angle or a big feud to be put on the kibosh because of bureaucratic oversight. These companies need to learn a lesson from this and make sure that no one has to go home because of a lapsed work visa ever again. I mean, it's bordering on embarrassing here, and really, the WWE and TNA already have enough to be embarrassed about without having their wrestlers being sent home by Uncle Sam for working illegally.

Photo Credit: WWE.com

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