For as long as I can remember, I have loved professional wrestling: the pageantry, the storylines, the ability to suspend reality, even for an hour, and immerse myself in the world of powerhouses and body slams.

But as I’ve gotten older, I’ve begun to appreciate the pressure that professional wrestlers are under to perform, night in and night out. For many people, wrestling is simply “fake”, but it’s more than that. The family of Owen Hart knows all too well about the human cost of the industry, as do thousands of other families.

In 1999, during the WWF pay-per-view “Over The Edge”, Owen Hart was set to portray his comical “Blue Blazer” character, a superhero that would regularly partake in pratfalls. On the day of the pay-per-view, Owen Hart confided in fellow WWF employee and industry legend “JR” Jim Ross that he was uncomfortable with the stunt, citing a fear of heights.

On the night of the show, as Hart prepared to take flight from the rafters, tragedy struck. The harness that he had been wearing malfunctioned before Hart had even left the rafters, dropping him almost 80 feet to the ring below. The referee for the match, Jimmy Korderas, recalled how he thought he could hear screaming while he was in the ring, before the top rope bounced back and hit his hand. Upon turning around, there was Owen, lying on the floor, unconscious.

Owen Hart died that night, at just 34 years old.

The question many have asked in the years that followed is, “Why didn’t Hart just say no to the stunt?” That, unfortunately, is not an option for professional wrestlers, who are classed as independent contractors.

They are at the mercy of show bookers, who can decide whether a wrestler can put food on the table or not, night after night. There is no trade union that wrestlers can join, following the infamous firing of Jesse “The Body” Ventura for trying to unionise wrestlers. Only to have Terry Bollea (AKA Hulk Hogan) snitch on his efforts to Vince McMahon, who subsequently had Ventura blacklisted for years from the industry.

Even in the UK, wrestlers don’t have a dedicated trade union to join. Equity has put forward a voluntary Code of Conduct that wrestling promoters can opt into, with only five British wrestling promotions being members of Equity’s Wrestlers’ Network.

This is a blatant case of gig economy exploitation. Wrestlers are on zero-hour contracts with zero benefits or support, and are expected to put their lives on the line. They lack basic worker protections, with health, travel, and injury costs falling on the individual instead of the company that put them in the dangerous position in the first place.

We, as Liberal Democrats, must champion the cause for better rights for professional wrestlers. Liberalism is not just freedom from government interference, but freedom from exploitation. We should be working with unions like Equity and BECTU to ensure wrestlers can access representation without needing their promotions to sign up, and encourage licensing standards for all wrestling promotions to sign up to, if they wish to operate in the UK.

Owen Hart’s widow, Martha Hart, once said she didn’t want Owen’s name tied to wrestling again. Not because she doesn’t love the sport, but because the wrestling industry failed him. That failure, which cost Owen his life, should haunt us all. Twenty-six years later, the lesson remains: without rights, there is no safety. Without safety, there is no freedom.

If we Liberal Democrats believe in fairness and dignity for every worker, then we must extend that belief to the wrestling ring.

The show must go on, but not at the cost of a performer’s life.

* Jack Meredith is a member of the Welsh Liberal Democrats and an active campaigner and canvasser with Swansea and Gower Liberal Democrats. His writing focuses on democratic reform, social justice, trade unionism, economic democracy, and the institutional foundations of effective government. He has written for the Fabians, Lib Dem Voice, Liberator, Nation Cymru, Bylines Cymru, and Centre Think Tank.