Author: Richard Steinberg was the “suit” in the room when World Championship Wrestling’s cameras stopped rolling. As Director of Corporate Research at Turner Broadcasting and Director of Marketing Services for WCW in the 1990s, he rode the tour buses, carried the arena cash boxes, and walked into incidents most fans never knew happened. From crimson-streaked hotel hallways in England to backroom moments in Germany that no one talked about publicly, what follows is his unfiltered account of life inside the most chaotic wrestling company in history.
Richard Steinberg’s WCW Years Inside Turner Broadcasting
Before the road stories, the ribs, and the incidents that never made the dirt sheets, Richard Steinberg had already built a respectable career outside of professional wrestling.
A graduate of the University of Maryland with a degree in business administration and a minor in broadcasting, Steinberg began his career working at advertising agencies in the Washington DC area, where he first crossed paths with professional wrestling through Capitol Wrestling, Vince McMahon’s promotion in the DC area at the time.
From there, his path took him through Coca-Cola, where he worked as Director of Market Research on new product development for brands including Cherry Coke and Diet Sprite, before an opening at Turner Broadcasting System changed everything.
Hired as Director of Corporate Research at TBS, Steinberg worked across all of Turner’s television properties, from Turner Network Television to Cartoon Network, before Ted Turner’s right-hand man, Bill Shaw, tapped him for a very different assignment.
WCW was losing money, losing ground to the WWF, and needed someone to figure out why. Steinberg spent months conducting focus groups across the United States, attending WWF arena shows undercover, analyzing every revenue stream from merchandise to 800 telephone lines to the WCW magazine, and compiling his findings into what he describes as a document the size of War and Peace.
Turner and Shaw approved the plan and transferred Steinberg directly into WCW. In his first year overseeing merchandising, he grew revenue from roughly $1 million to more than $4 million. He overhauled the WCW magazine into a four-color publication, restructured the merchandise operation to eliminate warehouse losses, and worked directly with talent, including Hulk Hogan, Sting, Ricky Steamboat, Brian Pillman, and Steve Austin, on everything from character development to costuming.
He also walked into situations that had nothing to do with marketing and everything to do with surviving the most chaotic wrestling company in the 1990s.
Through the following 27 stories, Steinberg shares an insider’s perspective of the wrestling business and the individuals involved. Some of these stories aren’t pretty. But it was the way it was.
1. Sid Vicious and Arn Anderson’s Brutal Scissor Fight in Blackburn
I was the WCW official directly involved with the Sid Vicious and Arn Anderson incident in Blackburn, England. For those who want to know the blow-by-blow details of what occurred, this article has you covered!
At the time, I was the Director of Marketing Services for WCW and was on the entire tour.
I received a phone call in my room about 2:30 a.m. that there was a major incident and I was needed in the lobby ASAP. I told them to call the Tour Director or the Head of Security (Doug Dellinger), but I was told he could not be found!
I got dressed and grabbed the elevator down to the first floor.
Blood was everywhere… all over the hotel walls leading down the corridor to the lobby. I passed Sid and Arn’s rooms which were across the hall from each other. Both doors were open—lots of blood and smashed furniture everywhere.
I got to the lobby, and the entire front glass window of the lobby was smashed out with plate glass broken everywhere all over the place.
At this point, I knew nothing except what I saw! I later learned that Sid and Arn had got into an argument, tempers flared, and scissors got involved.
Sid was lying on the floor and bleeding from several wounds when I arrived. I immediately covered two of Sid’s wounds with my hands to try and stop the bleeding. I asked for an ambulance and was told it was on its way! At this point, I knew nothing about Arn.
I got in the ambulance with Sid, and he was crying all the way to the hospital that he didn’t want to die! He was also telling me that he “f***ed up” his big chance to be WCW World Champion, but mostly was moaning that he didn’t want to die! Here was this huge guy crying like a baby!
I entered the emergency room with Sid while the doctor treated him. He was still crying and moaning, “I don’t want to die!” The doctor took a look at his wounds and told me to leave while he treated him.
I walked outside the treatment room, where I encountered 2 Cold Scorpio. He told me the full story of what happened and that he stayed with Arn during his ambulance ride into the emergency room with him.
I made the decision to contact WCW back in Atlanta immediately. I grabbed a payphone, but, of course, it was the middle of the night back in Atlanta, and nobody answered the phone. I left a message for Bischoff and returned to Scorpio.
Scorpio and I remained in charge of the two guys. Scorpio finally left, and I stayed at the hospital for several more hours. I got back to the hotel and netted the police there and Doug Dellinger, the WCW security guy. I then grabbed a couple of hours of sleep.
In the morning, I received a call from Atlanta telling me to remain in Blackburn with Sid and Arn while the tour continued to the next cities. So I remained behind the tour to deal with potential police charges and extensive damage at the hotel.
I had the hotel calculate the entire amount of damages and faxed the information back to Atlanta. WCW then increased the limit on my company Visa card, and I paid the bill at the hotel.
(It should be noted that after my return to Atlanta, it was discovered that a hotel employee had stolen my credit card number and made additional unauthorized charges on my account. So much fun!)
A day or two later, when the guys were stable enough to travel, WCW told me to take the guys on different days to different airports to get them back to the United States. I ultimately put Sid in a taxi and sent him on his way to the airport.
The next day I did the same with Arn but taxied to a different airport.
On the third day, I grabbed two trains and caught up with the tour in Birmingham, England. I walked into the lobby of the hotel and promptly sat down to breakfast with Rick Rude. Onto another day in the circus!
2. Eric Bischoff, WCW Leaks, and Life Inside Turner Corporate
Eric Bischoff was completely paranoid about info leaks in WCW.
Somehow, information about potential new angles, new talent, and even pay-per-view bouts and finishes were making their way to Dave Meltzer at Wrestling Observer and into WWF and onto gossip lines, so Bischoff was on the hunt looking for the “mole” or “moles.”
We would have weekly (sometimes daily) company meetings where we would be threatened with firing if he caught anyone leaking information!
The funny thing was that the company fax machine was in the mailroom, AND confidential info would come across and sit there for hours at a time until Janie Engle (Bischoff’s assistant) or he or others would retrieve it.
Frankly, anyone and everyone could see or read it without any problem!
I never leaked any info, but I saw literally tons of failed drug tests, new talent signed contracts before anyone else knew they were joining WCW, potential angles for upcoming TV, and all sorts of so-called confidential info just lying there out in the open, so it came as no surprise that information got leaked!
3. How Turner Tasked Me With Fixing WCW Against WWF
My original job was Director of Corporate Research at Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. I had responsibility for conducting consumer and new business and all other market research for each and every one of the Turner Television networks.
One fateful day, Bill Shaw, who was Ted Turner’s right-hand man and a senior exec at TBS, invited me into his office.
He told me that Turner was concerned that WCW ratings were not so hot and that the company was losing ground, financial and otherwise, to the then WWF. He asked me to figure out what was going on, why WWF was more popular, how to improve the WCW on-air and in-arena product, and how to improve the cash revenue streams at WCW as well.
I sat down and developed a full-scale investigative market and marketing research program for Turner Corporate to discover ways to improve the WCW product. I submitted my proposal to Bill Shaw and heard nothing back for weeks.
Then, one day, I received a call from Shaw telling me to come upstairs. He told me that my plan was approved (financial and otherwise) and to move forward with great haste.
My comprehensive analysis included secretively going to WWF events (TV at the Manhattan Center in New York City) and other live event locales, secretively interviewing WWF attendees at various local events, conducting consumer focus groups with WCW and WWF television viewers, analyzing wrestling talent in both companies, and conducting interviews with former and current WCW management.
I also investigated revenue streams like the 800 Phone Lines, the magazines, the merchandising, and all other cash revenue lines of business. I also interviewed Bill Apter, Dave Meltzer, and other rag sheet and trade publication journalists.
Needless to say, my job was NOT welcomed by WCW management as they felt it was an intrusion into their domain (even though it was ordered by Corporate)!
Dusty Rhodes, among others, tried to sabotage everything I did. Dusty was ordered to cooperate with me by management, and that didn’t go over very well. He was the head booker at the time.
In the end, I wrote this massive document about the pros and cons of each wrestling organization, what worked and what didn’t, a dissertation on wrestling talent, an internal organization chart and flows of lines of business, and more. The final document resembled a tome like “War and Peace!” It was a massive and completely thorough analysis of the entire wrestling business from the WCW and WWF perspectives.
Bill Shaw was soon later placed in charge of WCW, and he took me from my corporate Turner job into WCW.
Based on my document, he made many changes, some of which were accepted, and others were fought by WCW management. I was put in charge of merchandising to improve the virtually non-existent revenue streams and WCW Magazine and 800 Phone lines and all other non-wrestling revenue.
In my first year, I improved cash income from a miserable $1 million to more than $4 million, and revenue grew every year during my tenure.
I was at Turner Corporate for five years and at WCW for another three years.
I finally had enough of Bischoff and his bullying and oppression and left the company to become Director of Research at Blockbuster Entertainment in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.
During my time, I was also responsible, in part, for character development (face vs. heel), costuming, signature moves, and whatever it took to help create and improve the wrestling talent.
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4. Turning Down Vince and Linda McMahon’s Job Offer After WCW
After my life in WCW, I was offered the VP of Marketing job at WWF (now WWE). They flew me up to Vince McMahon’s house in Connecticut to talk over the job.
The McMahons lived in a gated community, but they had NO LOCKS on the door of their house! I kept thinking that my potential WWF salary wouldn’t even begin to cover the cost of electricity in their guest bathroom! It was that type of mansion.
Linda made me a turkey sandwich in their kitchen while they tried to hire me. Such a funny recollection!
In the end, I turned down the offer. It was a time when Vince was going through financial problems, and he had recently just let Bret Hart go (even though Bret had a lifetime contract)! WWF was too financially unstable for me to move my family to Connecticut AND to put up with Vince’s B.S. at the same time.
5. Ric Flair, Autographs, and a WCW Office Meltdown
The wrestler I hated dealing with the most was Ric Flair. He was a real miserable human piece of work (see below).
On the contrary, my favorite wrestlers were Sting and Lord Steven Regal (Darren Matthews/William Regal). Both were true nice guys.
Regal always had a kind word, and I loved hearing about his youth wrestling on the pier in Blackpool, England.
Sting would generally play cards on the tour bus and keep to himself for the rest of the tour. He would stay in his room at the hotel and always avoided the craziness going on around him!
Part of my role as Director Of Marketing Services was to continually create innovative lines of merchandise for sale in arenas, online, and through catalog sales.
One fateful day, I made the decision to create a product line of Wrestling Autographed Collectables, similar to the items sold in MLB, NFL, NHL, and NBA hobby stores.
I got several of the boys to commit to signing/autographing photos, gimmicks, and other pro-wrestling-type memorabilia.
Naturally, the guys would get a dollar remuneration based upon a percentage of items sold. Each item would be numbered and produced in a limited series to create high perceived value on the part of the collectibles’ buyers.
I was able to get a really cool photo of Ric Flair winning the WCW World Championship belt following a championship fight (as seen above). In any event, Flair “promised me” that he would sign 500 numbered and sequenced photos which I could sell for $10-25 each.
We were heading on tour to the UK, and there was plenty of down/free time when traveling between various UK cities for Flair to affix his signature to the photos.
So the first day, on a 6+ hour bus ride, Flair autographed a whopping 25 photos and spent the rest of the bus trip drinking like a fish.
On the second day, Flair signed ten photos and again quit, personally overcome by the availability of massive amounts of alcohol on the bus.
Day three, Flair signed ZERO pictures, and nothing more got signed for the entire rest of the tour! He adamantly refused to sign another photo.
When we got back to the States, and the first day in the office, I walked into the accounting area and told them not to pay Flair his royalty as I was stuck with at least 465 numbered but unsigned photos! So much for Flair’s promise to make it happen!
No sooner than I walk out of the accounting area, Flair walks in and demands that they pay him for the so-called 500 signatures.
In an unusual turn of events, I was surprised to learn that instead of paying Flair, the accountants actually billed him for the unsigned and thus unusable 465 collectible-numbered photographs!
The next day, Flair appeared in my office yelling and screaming at me like a mad man. He was so hot and heated, and his face was red such that I thought he was going to have an aneurysm! He ranted and raved and yelled and screamed at me for a solid 40-minutes.
When he was done, I turned to him and simply said, “Do you feel better now?”
That set him off on another 25-30 minute tirade!
He eventually left my office and went to continue his tantrum in Bischoff’s office.
A few days later, I heard that Bischoff made the accounting team restore the money withheld for the non-signed photos.
It was a Ric Flair temper tantrum personified!
6. Helping Cactus Jack with His Lost Ear, Vader, and a Long Night in Germany
I did eight to nine tours of Germany with the guys. One night, we were playing in Wurzburg (I believe), and Cactus Jack was wrestling Vader. Suddenly, Cactus gets his head caught in the ropes, and the next thing I see is his ear flying off his head and landing in the middle of the ring!
The referee picked up the ear and handed it to our in-ring announcer, Gary Michael Capetta. Gary then delivered the ear to the medics, where it was put on ice and into a box.
Guess who then got possession of the ear/box? Moi!
The match was either stopped or quickly went to the finish. I don’t remember which because I was fixated on the ear.
The next thing I knew, Cactus was in an ambulance, and I was riding in the back with him and his ear packed in a layer of ice!
It took a while for us to reach the Krankenhaus (hospital) in Frankfurt. When we eventually arrived, we were escorted into the emergency room.
I handed the ice-cold ear over to the ER doctor, who then went on to spend several minutes assessing Cactus Jack’s head and the severed ear at the same time. After a while, an assessment was made to attempt to reattach the ear.
At this point, I was kicked out of the ER, so I ran to find the nearest phone to call back to Atlanta!
Sound familiar? Just like my time with Arn and Sid. Just my luck.
At around 2 a.m., I left Cactus at the hospital and made my way back to the Holiday Inn in Frankfurt, where we were staying for the tour. I walked into the hotel, and there was a massive party going on with the wrestlers and many local fans. The party was totally wild and crazy.
I decided to join the party for a while to detox from the recent severed appendage event!
Somewhere around 2:45 a.m., one of the locals decided to take Hulk Hogan to the street outside the front lobby to show Hogan the guy’s new motorcycle.
For some reason unknown to me, Hogan walked the motorcycle into the hotel lobby, mounted it, and proceeded to ride it completely around the lobby left to right, front to back, and around the inside hotel lobby.
I still have vivid memories of the hotel night manager chasing behind Hogan, trying to get him off the bike and stop all the noise and mayhem!
I finally crashed about 3:15 a.m. and don’t remember much after that!
7. Big Van Vader, a London Tour, and One Infamous Inflatable Souvenir
My first international tour of the UK with WCW was doing a series of bought shows across England. Essentially, WCW was paid a nightly fee to put on each event on tour, and the UK promoter was responsible for all promotion, arenas, etc., and he collected all of the ticket sales/revenue. Merchandising revenue was separate and collected solely by WCW (me).
During this time, Vader was with us on tour. He kept promoting himself with the slogan that he was the “The Bull Of the Woods!” Don’t ask why… it was simply Leon White’s thing!
I had about an hour before I had to jump on the tour bus and was wandering around London. Low and behold, I came across a sex shop that had an inflatable sheep for sale in the front window!
In my mind, it was the closest thing to a bull that I was going to find! SO I bought the stupid thing and inflated it, and took it on the tour bus before we departed.
Naturally, I put the thing on Leon’s (Vader’s) seat.
(For the record, it was an anatomically correct sheep!)
Somehow, Vader took a real fancy to the thing, and he carried it around with him for the better part of the tour… day and night!
The last time I saw it, he was taking it into his room before going to sleep. I never saw it again, NOR did I ever inquire about its location or ultimate resolution!
8. The Nasty Boys, Brian Pillman, and a Wild Night on Hamburg’s Reeperbahn
We were in Hamburg, Germany, on several different tours. The city is most notable for its Red Light District.
On our first visit, we arrived by tour bus around 1:00 a.m. after a grueling, long bus ride following a show in another city.
When we got to the hotel’s lobby, all of the guys decided that they needed to go to the Red Light District immediately! They dumped their luggage at the hotel and piled into several taxis, and headed off.
I was left behind with the tour photographer, Colin Bowman. He and I decided to follow the impending mayhem, so we too jumped into a cab and headed down to the Reeperbahn area.
In one of my less than brilliant moments, we saw Knobs and Sags of The Nasty Boys walking along the street, so we decided to join them.
BIG MISTAKE.
They were their usual boisterous, loud, and crazy selves, and suddenly they come across one of the “ladies of the evening!”
They started to annoy, bother, and harass her to the point where she had to flag down a passing police car.
The Nasties are wild men, and at this point, one started to urinate on the street right in front of the cops!
My entire career instantly passed before my eyes. I could envision the morning newspaper headlines: “Turner Broadcasting Executive Gets Arrested with Pro Wrestlers in Reeperbahn!”
Please don’t ask me how but The Nasties were able to talk their way out of all of us going to jail!
I decided to break away from the guys. It was way too much excitement for me.
While I was ready to head back to the hotel for some seriously needed sleep, I ran across Brian Pullman (then Flyin’ Brian in WCW) walking on the street. Pillman told me “he needs me” and that I had to come with him right away.
Pillman dragged me with him to Herbertstrasse, the closed street where all of the “ladies of the night” in Hamburg are located. Just like in Amsterdam, they ply their trade in shopfront windows.
Pillman took me to one of the storefronts where some girl was strutting her stuff. He told me that I need to “cover his back,” and if he isn’t out in 20 minutes, I am to start banging on the door!
He gave me his watch and wallet because he didn’t want to get rolled or robbed by the girl or anyone else hiding inside and hustled off for some short-form entertainment!
Fortunately, he reappeared about 15 minutes later, and we shared a taxi ride back to the hotel where I had to hear about his exploit in every last detail!
We got back to the hotel about 5:30 a.m. It was one hell of a night!
I was due in the arena about 1:00 p.m. the following day to sort our issues with merchandising, and I also had a meeting with the arena manager. I told the front desk clerk to ring my room with a wake-up call starting at 11:00 a.m. and call again EVERY 15 minutes until noon. If I hadn’t answered my phone by noon, I told them to come bang on the door of my room until I physically answered it!
I then walked into my room and immediately crashed on the bed.
The next thing I knew, I was awakened by loud banging on the door of my room!
Apparently, I slept entirely through ALL four wake-up calls and never heard a thing! I literally spent the next 30+ minutes in the shower in an attempt to again become functional! I don’t know how but I did make it to my 1 p.m. meeting on time!
It was always so much fun on tour with WCW. How I lived through this stuff is beyond me!
9. The Nasty Boys’ In-Flight Rib on a Sleeping Brian Pillman
From this article, you’ll gather that I’ve experienced my fair share of interesting travel incidents with The Nasty Boys while on the road with WCW. During one occurrence, we were heading to Europe to do some shows in the United Kingdom.
About halfway through our Delta Airlines flight from Atlanta to London, The Nasty Boys decided to pull a prank on Flyin’ Brian Pillman, who was fast asleep in his aisle seat.
Brian Knobbs and Jerry Sags of The Nasty Boyz noticed Brian unconscious and went straight to work. They changed seats with some other wrestlers who were sitting in the row behind Pillman. Not long later, they took a razor out of their travel kit and began cutting Pillman’s hair while he slept.
Occasionally, Pillman would wake up or turn over, and the Nasties would stop and wait for him to become unconscious again.
In the end, they cut out a space of hair on the top of Pillman’s head, causing him to look like he had the haircut of a Franciscan Monk! You know, bald in the middle with hair around the sides.
They then got one of the cabin attendants to bring them whipped cream (for ice cream desserts), and they placed a substantial amount over the bald spot! They then topped off their creation with a cherry and headed back for their seats.
The rest of the guys were laughing their heads off!
Pillman eventually woke up when the whipped cream started dripping down his face.
Enraged at what had happened, there was nearly another wrestling brawl at 36,000 feet in the air!
Fortunately, calmer heads prevailed in the end. Unbelievable stuff.
10. The 1991 Great American Bash Mixed-Tag Cage Match That Fell Apart
I was working a WCW show in the Baltimore Arena for The Great American Bash in 1991. The main event had been promoted for weeks as a mixed men’s/woman’s tag team event.
The headline match of the evening was initially supposed to feature The Steiner Brothers and Missy Hyatt against Arn Anderson, Barry Windham, and Paul E. Dangerously.
After Ric Flair departed from WCW and Scott Steiner sustained an injury, Windham was moved to the title match. The final match of the evening was now Rick Steiner and Missy Hyatt against Arn Anderson and Paul E.
WCW spent thousands of dollars promoting this first-time "unique mixed sexes" event via on-air TV promotion, print promotion, and God knows what else. I can’t begin to tell you the amount of time, effort, and money that went into that promotion.
That evening, the Baltimore Arena was sold out for this first-ever type of show. As time rolled around for the main event (the mixed sexes tag team cage match), all participants worked their way down to the ring — and then everything came to a screeching halt.
As it turned out, nobody bothered to clear this event with the Maryland State Athletic Commission!
They had a long-standing rule that male and female competitors were not allowed into the ring at the same time.
To get around this, Dick Murdoch and Dick Slater forcibly took Hyatt backstage, and the match went on as a handicapped match with Rick Steiner defeating the tandem of Arn Anderson and Paul E. Dangerously.
It was just another one of WCW’s brilliantly executed shows that went down the drain. There were a lot of unhappy fans that night.
11. Abdullah the Butcher’s Blood, Suits, and Late-Night WCW Storytelling
At this same event in the Baltimore Arena, I went backstage just before the show’s end and came across Abdullah The Butcher.
Abby had just finished another one of his infamous "blade jobs," and the red was flowing everywhere. I sat with him as he bandaged himself up while he got out of his ring gear and into his street clothes.
The guy put on the most expensive, flashy suit I have ever seen. I don’t remember the price of it (which, of course, he told me at the time), but it was a pretty penny.
So, he puts on this immaculate three-piece suit with a vest and all and then takes out one of the most expensive straw hats I had ever seen.
To that outfit, he adds a glorious walking stick with a pearl handle. Of course, he shows me that there is a sword blade running down the inside shaft of the cane as well.
My lasting memory of the evening’s event was Abdullah The Butcher strutting out of the Baltimore Arena and onto the city streets to walk to our nearby Marriott hotel.
He was a heck of a lot more of a Fashion Plate than Freddie Blassie, that’s for sure!
Later that evening, I sat in the Marriott Hotel bar with the late Mike Graham (Gosset) and the late Billy Robinson listening to old wrestling war stories until 3:30 in the morning. I almost missed my 9 a.m. plane back to Atlanta!
12. Inside the Truck for Fred Ottman’s Botched Shockmaster WCW Debut
WCW had signed Fred Ottman (formerly known as Tugboat and Typhoon, and brother in law of Dusty Rhodes) away from the WWF in 1993. He debuted at WCW Clash of the Champions XXIV as a stormtrooper-esque helmet-wearing wrestler named The Shockmaster.
As fans may recall, the original plan was that Ottman was supposed to crash through an artificial wall to make a grand appearance at a strategic point in time. However, clumsy Fred tripped over a piece of wood holding up the fake wall of the set and resoundingly fell flat on his face as his helmet also fell off, revealing his real personality!
I was sitting in the production truck at that moment with WCW director and producer Craig Leathers, and other production team members.
As Ottman fell, accidentally revealing himself on-air, Sid Vicious, Davey Boy Smith, and several other wrestlers were audibly heard making comments and words of profanity over the airwaves!
There was so much laughing going on in the production truck after this occurred. We were barely able to recover and produce the rest of the show! Everybody in the truck nearly peed their pants of laughter.
It was indeed one of the most memorable moments I had behind the scenes in WCW.
You can read Fred Ottman’s emotional take on his infamous botched debut as The Shockmaster and how his life changed due to his awkward debut here.
13. Ric Flair’s Missed London Party and How Hulk Hogan Saved the Night
I was on two different tours of the UK with Ric Flair and Hulk Hogan.
I recall one time we played at the Royal Albert Hall and another time we played Wembley Arena. In any event, we had the day/evening off after arriving in London from Atlanta. We got off the plane and headed by bus (one for the heels and another for the babyfaces) to the hotel.
Upon arrival, Ric Flair told me that he had an appointment with his favorite hairdresser to get his blonde roots touched up. Before leaving for his appointment, he told the boys to meet him at "his club" in London at 8 p.m. for a big party.
After all these years, the club’s name slips my mind, but it was definitely a gentlemen’s club!
All the wrestlers and touring staff showed up at "the club" at the appointed time, but guess what? Flair forgot to tell the club that we were coming and to let us in!
To make matters more interesting, Flair was a no-show himself!
After about twenty minutes of waiting for Flair not to appear, the front door bouncer let us all in anyway.
As we meandered around the virtually empty club with drinks in hand, the boys were all angry that Flair wasn’t there as he promised them an evening of fun!
After about 45 minutes, everybody broke away and headed off in their own direction.
Lo and behold, I came to find out later that Hulk Hogan had reserved a big table at Planet Hollywood for dinner. Everyone was invited.
We walked up to the front door and passed hundreds of people in line waiting to get in the place. We received the royal treatment in a secure roped-off area away from the other guests.
All night long, the wait staff were saying, "Yes, Mr. Hogan" this and "Yes, Mr. Hogan" that.
A few hours later, nobody was feeling any pain, that’s for darn sure!
To this day, I can’t begin to tell you who paid that enormous dinner bill which included food and drinks out the wazoo (as we say)! I can assure you nothing came out of my pocket!
14. WCW’s German Tour, The Nasty Boys, and a Night That Went Too Far
We did several tours of Germany. As mentioned before, we traveled in two buses (with one for the bad guys and one for the good guys).
We had just finished a show in the east of Germany and were bussing hours away to spend the night in the next show’s town.
We arrived late, sometime after 2 a.m., and everybody was exhausted, irritable, and just wanted to get to bed.
I was on the babyface bus this night (I would regularly alternate between buses so as not to show favoritism to any one group of guys), and we pulled up first to the street in front of the hotel. I was gathering my luggage when the heel bus pulled up about ten minutes later.
The door of the heel bus opened, and a body fell out of the front door onto the pavement.
I looked carefully and couldn’t immediately recognize who it was. Suddenly, the WCW tour photographer was there shooting photos of the carcass in the road!
It turned out it was our German ring announcer, a guy named Ollie.
The story comes out that Ollie and The Nasty Boys were sitting in the back of the bus drinking beer for four solid hours.
During this time, Ollie began professing the greatness and superiority of the German Race. This went on for a good while until the Nasties couldn’t take it anymore. So, Knobbs and Sags dropped a Halcion tablet into Ollie’s beer and waited until he was utterly unconscious.
They then shaved the hair off one side of his head, used a magic marker to write anti-German slogans on the visible part of his body, and followed it up with the ultimate indignity of supergluing his male "piece" in an upward position on his body.
As I witnessed this human mess lying in the street, as the WCW official directly involved with this tour, I also had to attempt to confiscate the film from the tour photographer. I couldn’t have any evidence of this appearing in any wrestling rag sheets, could I?
Well, I left Ollie lying on the street and proceeded into the hotel. I got my room assignment and headed onto the elevator with Maxx Payne (Daryl Peterson). It turns out his room was next to mine.
He went into his room, and the bed was only about 1/2 the size of an average pro wrestler! It’s okay for my 5’10" frame but not for the boys!
It turns out the majority of the guys had to sleep on the floor because the beds were way too small!
Just another day in the WCW traveling circus!
15. Brian Pillman, a Tour Bus, and the "It’s Just Vitamins, Brother" Moment
WCW was on tour in Cologne, Germany twice. Our show played in what was then the Velodrome, a bicycle racing arena.
During the first half of one show, I suddenly realized that I was a bit chilled in the arena. So, I went back to the tour bus to retrieve my jacket to wear in the building.
As I entered the supposedly empty bus (all of the wrestlers were supposed to be in the arena building), I noticed a commotion going on at the very rear of the bus.
I looked down the aisle, and there was Brian Pillman with his pants dropped to the ground and his lily-white bottom sticking out at me!
On his left side was someone holding him upright and on his right side was someone else with a black medical bag, just like a typical medical doctor would carry, standing with a giant syringe injecting something into Pillman’s rear-end!
Pillman suddenly turned around and saw me entering the bus.
I didn’t say a word — not a single word. I grabbed my jacket and started to leave the tour bus.
I knew what was going on. He knew what was going on. And he knew that I now knew what was going on! It was steroid injection time!
At this moment, Pillman looked up, stared into my eyes, and said, "It’s just vitamins, brother!"
I then flashed Pillman the ‘V’ for Victory sign with my fingers and departed the tour bus to re-enter the arena!
Pillman was worried that I, one of the so-called "suits" (front office personnel), would rat on him with WCW management and get him fired. However, I never said a word to anyone. Not to one single person, ever. Not until now, anyway.
Pillman realized he could trust me from that moment on, and I am sure he told the rest of "the boys" that I saw what was going on but never opened my mouth.
After that, Pillman and every other wrestler on tour ensured that my remaining time on that tour was a great one.
16. Inside Hulk Hogan’s Nearly Ruined First WCW Championship Photoshoot
Before his arrival to WCW, Hulk Hogan was guaranteed that he would win the WCW World Championship as part of his deal.
Before officially appearing on WCW television, Hogan was in production on the Thunder In Paradise set in Tampa, Florida.
In anticipation of his World Championship win, WCW needed some professional photos of Hogan in his wrestling gear holding the WCW Belt (which he would ultimately win).
I also needed those photos to produce a wide variety of Hogan wrestling merchandise for sale in arenas and by mail order.
So, one day, WCW management told me to take the WCW World Championship belt and fly down to Tampa to meet with Hogan at the Don CeSar Hotel.
A room had been secured, and a professional photographer was hired to meet me at 10 a.m. at the hotel for the Hogan photo session.
Furthermore, they told me that "The Mouth of the South" Jimmy Hart would pick me up from my flight at the Tampa Airport.
The photoshoot morning arrived, and I grabbed the absolute earliest flight from Atlanta to Tampa.
It was so much fun going through airport security with the belt. I had to take it out of my bag and run it through the x-ray machine, which let every possible TSA agent see what I was carrying.
Of course, they all wanted photos with the belt, which I politely declined least I missed my scheduled flight!
The flight went well, and I arrived to find Jimmy Hart waiting for me at the flight arrival gate.
I had never met Jimmy before, and I was very excited to finally have the opportunity to spend a bit of personal time with him.
As we drove off, Jimmy told me that we had to make a slight detour before we hooked up with Hogan at the Don CeSar.
The next thing I know, we were pulling up to the driveway at Jimmy Hart’s house!
Time was of the essence, and we were due at the photoshoot in 45 minutes, but here we were at Jimmy’s house (and I didn’t know why we were there)!
Jimmy invited me up to his master bedroom and told me to have a seat. Jimmy then plopped into his bathroom and proceeded to start trimming and then dying his hair and mustache jet black.
What the heck? I didn’t fly to Florida to watch Jimmy Hart’s grooming session!
The clock was ticking down the time, and it’s ONLY 5 minutes before the scheduled photoshoot, and Jimmy Hart is still waiting for his hair and mustache dye to set!
He finally got around to washing out the hair color, dried himself off, and we were again on our way. Mind you; we were only about one hour late!
Man, I was having a cow because I had a flight back to Atlanta that I wasn’t going to miss!
About a half-hour later, we arrived at the set for Thunder In Paradise. We picked up The Hulkster at his trailer but then we had to drive him to his house.
The three of us (and the belt) eventually ventured into the Don CeSar just about 90-minutes late.
The photographer had been waiting for us, and he was already in an irritable mood as he had another photoshoot lined up. He wanted to leave right then and there!
I needed this photoshoot to go well, so I promised the photographer time and a half to calm him down to complete the pictures, which appeased the photographer.
Hogan changed into his wrestling gear while Jimmy Hart put on one of his famous airbrushed tuxedo jackets and grabbed his painted megaphone, and away we go.
In the end, the photoshoot went exceedingly well. Hogan and Hart were amazingly cooperative, and I got every picture I could ever imagine and that WCW could ever want.
I barely made my flight back to Atlanta with just a single-digit amount of minutes to spare before they closed the door to the plane!
So goes another typical day at the WCW office!
17. Chasing Down Hulk Hogan to Finalize His WCW Merch Deal
Hulk Hogan had just signed with WCW, and I was given his home and cell number to arrange a meeting to discuss merchandising opportunities before his announced signing.
By the way, Hogan received 60% of the gross merchandise sales bearing his likeness and name.
I placed a call and spoke with his (then) wife Linda, who informed me that The Hulkster would be away until the next day.
The next day, I was scheduled to work a fan fest in the Boston, Massachusetts area, but I told my then-teenaged son to take Hogan’s call and give him the number where I could be reached.
So Sunday afternoon, I was working this event doing a fan signing and autograph session with Terry Funk.
I looked at my watch. It was 1 pm, then 2 pm, next 3 pm, now 4 pm, and finally 5 pm, and still no call from Hulk Hogan.
I managed to break away from Funk for a few minutes and grab a phone to call my home in Atlanta. My son answered, and I asked him if he had heard from Hulk.
My son informed me that Hogan did call, but he was in such awe speaking to him that he forgot to tell him to call me in Boston.
He simply said I wasn’t home.
I had to wait another four days until I could track down Hulk Hogan to schedule our meeting.
Hulk’s name was licensed to him by Marvel Comics. WWE always paid the licensing fee to Marvel to use this name.
When Hogan joined WCW, Marvel Comics at first decided that they wanted a fee in excess of $10,000 to re-license the name.
However, a few weeks later, Marvel decided that they DID NOT want to re-license the name for use by the wrestler. This caused negotiations with Terry Bollea to come to a virtual halt.
WCW finally threw up their hands as Marvel was unwilling to budge.
Ultimately, Terry Bollea informed WCW that he would directly enter into negotiations with Marvel Comics to use the Hulk Hogan name.
In the end, Bollea paid whatever fee was required to Marvel to remain Hulk Hogan.
You can learn more about the fascinating story of Hulk Hogan, Marvel, and the fight for his name in the following article on our site: Marvel Comics: The Money They Made off Hulk Hogan.
18. The German Bus Ride Where WCW Cleaned Out a Highway Liquor Stop
During our infamous tours of Germany, WCW played in the city of Halle on two separate occasions.
On our second tour, during one of those God-awful long bus rides which ran at least six hours between cities, the boys came to another fateful decision.
They needed adult beverages. Not just one or two. But more than enough to kill the pain of another miserably long bus ride immediately following the evening’s event in Halle.
The guys started grumbling about the lack of drink around 11 am, and by 10:30 pm, when the evening’s event was over, a massive call for brews had arisen from both the heel bus and babyface bus.
That evening I was scheduled to ride on the heel bus.
I constantly alternated buses between venues so the wrestlers wouldn’t think I was playing favorites with one group over the other.
So the event ends, and we all break for the buses like a bat out of hell. I couldn’t get on those buses fast enough.
Suddenly, The Nasty Boys are demanding that we pull in at the first convenience stop on the highway.
Both drivers pulled over, and the entire entourage rolled into the closest highway convenience store and emptied every one of the drink-laden coolers!
Can you imagine the sight of 15-20 professional wrestlers suddenly dropping into this store and filling up their arms with every bottle of brew they could carry?
Well, if that wasn’t a most unusual sight, how about all of the guys proceeding to the cash register at one time and plopping down their evening libation to pay for their haul?
Of course, not one wrestler managed to bring their wallet into the store when it came time to pay. Wrestlers are notorious for not paying anything if they can somehow get away with it.
So I had to pay front the astronomical cost in Deutschmarks (not yet Euros at that time) to cover the bill.
Fortunately, as I was in charge of collecting cash for all the arena’s merchandise sales, I had the financial resources at hand.
I then spent the rest of the tour trying to collect all of my money back from each wrestler on both buses.
I was repaid by everyone, EXCEPT The Nasty Boys, if I remember correctly.
By the way, Knobbs still owes me $10 USD, which I lent him in Hamburg.
19. Rick Rude’s Hotel Phone Bill and a Near-Missed WCW Flight Home
While on a tour of Germany, I would be the last person out of each arena just before boarding the tour bus; I carried the evening’s cash receipts from the sale of event merchandise.
Some evenings I boarded the bus with the equivalent of $10,000-25,000 in my possession.
The procedure for the tour dictated that each morning in a new German city, I would go to the bank with Doug Dillinger, a then Atlanta Cop and Director of WCW Security, for the tour.
First, we’d make a cash deposit to the CNN German Corporate Bank Account. The funds were then wire transferred to Atlanta’s Turner Broadcasting System corporate bank account.
This procedure worked like a charm until we walked into a bank in Frankfurt with my shoe box full of cash one day.
The bank was already on alert for potential illegally deposited funds. They didn’t want to hear anything about a tour of professional wrestlers and nothing about depositing to the CNN account for a wire transfer to the USA.
They called the local police, and Dillinger and I had to spend over two hours convincing them that all this cash wasn’t illegally acquired and not to arrest us.
Fortunately, Frankfurt was the last city on the tour, BUT that wasn’t the end of the excitement.
We did a show that evening, and the following day we were due to depart for the airport at about 9 am for a flight back to Atlanta.
So everyone is on board the bus and ready to depart when the hotel manager comes racing out and refuses to let us leave.
It turns out that Rick Rude made a long-distance call back to the states to a girlfriend, and he owed more than $500 USD for the call.
Of course, Rude refused to pay, claiming “he didn’t talk that long and that he had fallen asleep during the call, so he shouldn’t have to pay because he didn’t talk all of the time.”
Another lame wrestler excuse.
So the haggling went on for about 30 minutes, and we weren’t going anywhere until I paid the money.
Meanwhile, I was sweating because we were about to miss our flight.
Nobody except me was carrying any significant amount of cash, so I finally paid the hotel manager for Rude’s telephone call and made our way to the airport.
Upon returning to the States, WCW reimbursed me for my out-of-pocket and subtracted the $500 from Rick’s next paycheck.
Rude wasn’t a happy camper.
20. Ron Simmons, Paydays, and Lottie Racing Him to the WCW Office
Ex-WCW World Champion Ron Simmons was notorious for mismanaging his finances back in the day.
He would come into the WCW office every few weeks to collect his paycheck, and somehow, all of his money would miraculously disappear before he reached home. So on paydays, it was a regular event for Simmons’ wife Lottie to call the office to make sure that WCW had paid Ron Simmons his contractual salary.
God only knows what he told her when he didn’t arrive home with the dough.
After several months of this ongoing situation, Lottie finally got fed up with Ron’s b.s. So she started coming into the WCW office to collect Simmons’ pay.
It became an actual game to see whether she got to the office to collect the check before Ron or if the champ would make it to the office before Lottie.
And so it became commonplace for WCW staff members to have a regular payday bet of $5 each on whether Lottie or Ron would get to the building first to collect the moolah.
My money was on Lottie each time, and more often than not, I won.
21. Razor Ramon, Scott Hall, and WWF’s Legal Battle With WCW
I had left WCW for the brighter lights of working at Blockbuster Entertainment in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida when one day I got a phone call from Jerry McDevitt, WWE’s lead attorney.
He wanted to know if I would cooperate with them and possibly testify on the then-WWF’s behalf in a deposition and potential court appearance over the likeness and usage of the character Razor Ramon.
Scott Hall had left WWF for WCW, and Vince McMahon was noodling around for a copyright/trademark infringement suit against WCW.
I agreed to an in-person meeting with the WWF attorney.
Jerry McDevitt ultimately sent a lady attorney down for a luncheon meeting with me at a local Ft. Lauderdale hotel. The entire 3-hour conversation related to using the likeness and graphics and intellectual property rights of the WWF and their character Razor Ramon.
A few weeks post-meeting, I received a typewritten document containing my statement(s) in the mail, which I then signed and returned to the WWF attorneys. I heard nothing more about this situation after that point in time.
22. Promoter Jim Barnett, Turner Office Politics, and That Hypnotic Fountain
Working for WCW meant that I had to interact with many unusual personalities and their quirks, wrestlers, and office personnel alike.
My favorite office personality was the late promoter James E. Barnett, whom everyone called Jim.
Jim Barnett knew the business inside and out, having been a promoter or owner of promotions within the USA and Australia.
In addition, Jim worked as a paid employee or consultant for Vince McMahon, Jim Crockett Promotions, and WCW.
Lots can be said and have been told about Jim. I loved hearing his stories, everything he had done, and what he had accomplished in his lifetime.
Those were great chats and lunchtime events. But I must say the man was a character.
Jim’s office was located two doors away from mine.
In between us was Rob Garner, former VP of Syndication at WCW. The day I started working there, I was taken to meet Mr. Barnett.
As I walked into his office, the first thing I noticed was not Jim Barnett.
Instead, the fact that he had an actual working/flowing water fountain in front of his desk blew my mind and distracted me from his outstretched hand.
This relatively large, fake marble water fountain with an unclad male cherub statue from which water flowed into the fountain’s base was right before my eyes.
I kept looking to see the water source and how the thing operated.
It was a self-contained unit with no actual water line installed.
But I couldn’t take my eyes off the water fountain to pay attention to Barnett’s words.
I couldn’t begin to tell you what Jim said to me that day.
And comically, it was that way every time forward when I was sent to his office. That fountain was hypnotic.
I was so darn fixated on his stupid water fountain that much of his words of wisdom are now lost to time.
23. Klondike Bill, Gordon, and the Old-School History Behind WCW Events
One of my more unusual acquaintances within WCW was Klondike Bill (William Soloweyko).
Klondike was a former Canadian professional wrestler in the 1960s and ’70s. Long past his prime, and after having fallen upon hard times as many do in the business, he was ultimately hired by Jim Crockett Promotions to set up and tear down guard rails and the wrestling rings.
He and his working buddy, Gordon, traveled to and from wrestling events and city to city without any recognition whatsoever.
However, before events in different Atlanta area locations, I would be sure to venture into the evening’s arena and spend 30 minutes to an hour chatting with Klondike and Gordon about the good old days of professional wrestling.
I can’t begin to tell you how much history and knowledge of the wrestling business I gained from my time with these two gentlemen.
Long after I left WCW, I learned that Klondike had passed away from a neuromuscular disorder in 2000, and Gordon also had died.
These two friends were kind enough to share their wrestling life experiences.
It’s something that I cannot ever thank them enough for.
24. Sherri Martel’s WCW Run, Drug Tests, and a German Tour Romance
During my time in WCW, it was well-known that the company would still hire you, even with a failed pee test, if they wanted you. Such was the case with the late Sherri Martel.
One day I walked into the WCW mailroom to retrieve my post, and there on the fax machine, out in the open for the entire world to see, were the results of Sherri’s recent company-mandated pre-hire toxicology test.
I couldn’t help but notice that there were enough medicines in her system to hang out a CVS or Walgreens sign over the front door of her home. It was unfortunate to see.
The very next day, Sherri Martel was observed wandering the halls of the company office, laughing out loud like a banshee.
So naturally, immediate reactions were, “She isn’t going to be around these parts for very long.”
She lasted about one year, much to my surprise.
As things rolled around, WCW was in the process of getting another paid show to work in Germany, where Sherri would come on tour with the guys.
The Hamburg-based German tour promoter (who also did concerts) was a man named Hermjo Klein. His parents couldn’t decide whether to call him Herman or Joseph, so they settled on Hermjo.
This was to be Hermjo’s second bought show tour, but it almost didn’t happen as he missed several deadlines for making final payments to WCW. So we didn’t know if we were going or not until the day before the tour began.
Hermjo worked in concert with a man named Dieter Krap. Yes, that was the correct spelling of his name.
When I first met the man, he introduced himself as ‘My name is Dieter Krap, like in s***.”
Dieter was the producer of WCW on German TV. We would send weekly PAL VHS tapes to Dieter, who would edit the video into a hodgepodge hot mess called “The Best of WCW.”
What a misnomer.
Hermjo Klein had a British assistant, a gentleman named Barry. Barry did the leg work for Hermjo and traveled with us from arena to arena.
Somewhere between our arrival in Germany and the second night’s show, Barry took a shine to Sherri Martel.
Sherri would go out of her way to look her very best for Barry. She’d wear God’s most hideous dresses and pour cheap perfume all over her body to impress him.
Barry and Sherri would sneak off to some secluded area of the evening’s arena in between matches, only to become visible again before the tour buses loaded and pulled out for the next city. Wink. Wink.
Following the last show of our ten or so city tour, there was a small farewell party hosted in Hermjo Klein’s office.
A few of us were present. Don Sandefur (the WCW Tour Director), Doug Dillinger, Sherri Martel, Dieter Krap, Hermjo Klein, Barry Whats-His-Name, and myself.
Bubbly was flowing, and recorded music was playing in the background. Sherri gravitated toward Barry, and they started to dance.
Soon it was like the two of them were in a Camel Clutch.
Barry was holding onto Sherri for dear life, and they were simultaneously slow dancing and in a lip lock.
Meanwhile, Sherri was crying. Then, finally, there was enough water to generate a cyclone.
Giant humongous gobs of tears mixed with her extra thick layer of mascara and foundation as they were running down her face.
Nobody said a word. All eyes were fixed on the surreal spectacle
Sherri’s wet mascara started to run down and all over Barry’s white shirt.
He was utterly oblivious.
Those two dancing lovebirds were a remarkable final memory of that tour.
Sometime after the German stint, Sherri was terminated from WCW.
Enough said.
25. Sharing an Elevator With El Gigante and Seeing WCW’s Giant Up Close
Jorge González was an Argentine basketball player. He was massively huge, billed at feet tall (though a legit 7’6″ or 7’7″), and weighed like you would imagine someone of his stature to weigh.
He was a big boy.
Running WCW just before I started working there, Jim Herd got a glimpse of this guy and decided he could be a wrestler.
In Jim’s opinion, he would be a real money draw.
On the day he showed up at our building to sign his contract, I just happened to get on the elevator with Gonzales and his handler.
We were the only three people on it.
Five other Turner Broadcasting Employees refused to get onto the lift after catching a glimpse of the massive Jorge.
The elevator started its upward journey, and I mistakenly turned around to get a better view of the future El Gigante. This guy was humongous.
I am 5 feet 10 inches tall, and the top of my head ONLY reached the guy’s belt buckle. I then make a fateful decision to say hello and shake his hand.
I can tell you that some colossal bear claw grabbed hold of my right hand and violently shook my arm up and down for what seemed to be an eternity.
Of course, it was probably more like only 15 seconds, but, at the time, I thought it would never stop.
Finally, the future El Gigante and his man got off the elevator on the 7th floor, and I was still on board the darn thing looking down to make sure I still had a hand.
I forgot to get off the elevator, and I returned to the first floor to catch another upward-bound carriage.
It was a shame that the guy couldn’t wrestle. He might have made WCW (and the WWF) a lot of money.
26. A Sickening Nasty Boys Incident and How WCW Staff Stepped In
My first international tour with the boys departed Atlanta and plopped our group in Zurich, Switzerland.
The overseas flight was reasonably calm.
I say reasonably because I spent hours observing The Nasty Boys (Brian Knobbs and Jerry Sags) trying to prank their fellow wrestlers as we traveled across the Atlantic Ocean.
To be specific, the Nastys spent most of the flight trying to shave off the eyebrows of their WCW comrades as they were sleeping.
As time has long passed, I don’t specifically remember who spent the majority of our tour trying to re-grow their eyebrows but trust me, at least three wrestlers felt the wrath of The Nasty Boys.
Immediately upon arriving at the hotel, there was a mass exodus from the tour bus into the lobby bar. Drinks were free-flowing, and about three hours passed before I could eventually work my way to my room.
I can’t begin to tell you how tired I was. So not surprisingly, I crashed onto my bed for what I hoped would be a long and well-deserved nap.
But instead, a few hours passed when a telephone call rudely awakened me.
Our referee Nick Patrick Hamilton (rest his soul), informed me that I “needed to get downstairs as fast as possible.”
“Oh, s***,” I thought. “Here we go again!”
The door was wide open. Nick Patrick and The Nasty Boys were standing inside the room, and there was a young woman in the buff passed out cold on the bed.
She was drinking with another wrestler when The Nastys dropped an H-Bomb (Halcion tablet) into her drink.
In any event, Nick and I were trying to come to grips with the situation while The Nasty Boys were debating amongst themselves whether or not they should have their way with the visibly unconscious woman.
It sickened us. There was NO WAY that Nick and I would let a potential criminal situation transpire.
So we got The Nasty Boys out of the room and locked the door. I then contacted hotel security, and I was able to get someone from security posted on the front door with the explicit instructions NOT to let anyone, I mean anyone, into that room.
I returned to my room for my well-needed nap.
I awakened and immediately headed for the supposedly secure room about four hours later. But unfortunately, I arrived at the door, and there was no security guard present whatsoever.
I freaked out, knocked, and a wrestler opened the door.
I looked around, and no girl was to be found anywhere.
She had thankfully suddenly woken up, got dressed, and left the room under her own power, never to be seen nor heard from again.
It was yet another possible tour disaster averted.
27. A Proposition From Vince McMahon Leads to Lifelong Friendship with Gorilla Monsoon
After leaving WCW for greener pastures and putting pro wrestling behind me, I took a job as Director of Marketing and Research at Blockbuster Entertainment in the Ft. Lauderdale Corpus headquarters.
One day I got a call at home from Vince McMahon. The then-WWF was going to do a pay-per-view from West Palm Beach, and Vince asked me to drive up to meet him. He claimed he had a proposition for me.
So, Vince asked me to meet him around 2 pm at the arena.
The day was a Sunday, and I was excited as I wanted to see the show.
It was going to be The Rock’s first-ever pay-per-view event. The heck with Vince McMahon. I wanted to see The Rock in action.
But my now ex-wife was unhappy. She wanted me to have nothing to do with wrestling anymore.
Like a good husband, I ignored her and made the drive from Ft. Lauderdale to West Palm Beach in record time.
I was stoked to again be hanging out backstage with my wrestling buddies.
So I got to the arena to find that Vince was running late. He hadn’t made it to the building yet. So I plopped my butt down on some rolled-up ring mats and watched some of the guys in the ring as they walked through their upcoming matches.
The next thing I knew, Gorilla Monsoon sat down next to me and started jaw-boning.
I grew up in the Washington, DC area and always watched Capitol Wrestling (WWWF in the DC area) on WTTG-TV channel 5 with Ray Morgan as host.
In any event, Gorilla Monsoon was a headliner in those days (as well as a part-owner of the promotion). Whenever Monsoon was announced in the ring, he was always billed as coming from Outer Mongolia, and he spoke no English.
And occasionally, I would tell my parents I was heading for the library but instead drove to Downton DC to the Uline Ice Arena to catch a live event. Nothing could replace those twenty rows of folding chairs and electric fans blowing air across large ice blocks. It was primitive arena air conditioning.
So here I was, stretched out on a dirty ring mat, conversing with my childhood hero.
It was somewhat warm in the area as the air conditioning wasn’t working so well in the building at 4 pm before the 7 pm pay-per-view.
Monsoon whipped out a giant handkerchief to wipe the sweat off his brow. I looked over at him and said, “The heat in West Palm Beach sure beats the weather in Outer Mongolia, don’t you think?”
I still remember his giant roar of laughter to this very day.
That was the start of my long-time personal friendship with Gorilla Monsoon.
So it goes, so it goes.
And it was always colorful and crazy in the world of professional wrestling!
If these WCW and Turner tales left you wanting more, you can hear Richard share additional stories and context from his time inside the company on the All Axxess Podcast with Joe Bruen:
These stories may also interest you:
- Mr. Hughes and the WCW Traveling Circus in Europe
- How Harley Race and Sting Tamed a Monster in WCW
- WCW Monday Nitro: Behind the Curtain on Its Final Show
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