David Starr recently spoke with Wrestlezone’s Angel Garcia and talked about the perception that he is against wrestlers signing contracts with major promotions. Starr, who admittedly gets to proudly ‘wave the flag’ of independent professional wrestling, says he doesn’t want his message to get twisted, and he’s just trying to represent the idea of labor empowerment, not discourage anyone from signing where they want. ‘The Product’ went on to say he thinks fans appreciate him standing his ground, but other wrestlers should know they have power and more value:
“Here’s the thing, and I don’t want to get the message twisted—it’s not about individuals that sign that’s a problem, that’s not it—it’s about the idea that you just sign yourself away without fighting for yourself. Meaning, I want wrestlers to understand that we have power. I want wrestlers to understand that we can say ‘no.’ And I want wrestlers to know that it’s OK to say ‘yes’, but under certain conditions. I want wrestlers to realize their value.
I want us to fight for our own power and rights, as opposed to just someone puts a contract on the table for you, and you get to go ‘oh my God, I get to say I’m signed somewhere.’ It’s not about attacking individuals, it’s about as a unit—wrestlers—being solid together. It’s about all of us understanding that we have more things that we can demand, and we have more things that we should demand, because we’re the ones putting our bodies on the line. We’re the ones putting our life on the line every time we’re out there. That’s more of what the message is about. Some people have misconstrued it, because there are times where I am trying to be more vicious, I say things that are more of a personal attack, but overall the real message that I’m carrying as an individual, as a person and what I want to represent is the idea of labor empowerment. That’s really all I’m looking for.”
‘Your Favorite Wrestler’s Favorite Wrestler’ added:
“All I am about, all I want to push, the idea I’m behind is labor empowerment. The scales are heavily tilted in one direction, and it sure isn’t for the people that are putting their lives on the line.”
Starr, winner of this year’s Super Strong Style 16, says his schedule picks up and he’s staying busy because there’s a lot more that he can accomplish in professional wrestling:
“There’s still a bunch more to accomplish. I’ve worked for a lot of places, there’s a lot of places I don’t work for. Obviously the goal that’s right in front of me would be winning the OTT title, now I’m in line for a PROGRESS World title shot, so hopefully we could get that out of the way. I don’t really work for Fight Club that often, but every once in a while when I’m there, putting myself in the higher ranks there. There’s still Defiant, there’s a bunch of things I can do in Europe, there’s a bunch more things here. Tonight I’m wrestling for the big f’n belt at AAW, that’d be cool. I make an appearance for PWG every once in a while, there’s things like that to be done. There’s lots of other places I haven’t wrestled yet. I haven’t wrestled in Japan, so who knows? There’s a lot of things like that, but I’m just working on getting better every day.”
