The Honky Tonk Man appeared at Steel City Con several years ago. I was there to meet him and Greg "the Hammer" Valentine and to get my LJN's and Intercontinental Championship DVD signed by both men. Prior to their meet-n-greets, they were scheduled to take questions from the audience. Two seats were at opposite ends of a stage in a large conference room. Honky Tonk sat in the seat to the audience's left while the chair on the right remained empty. I raised my hand, and when I got the microphone, I asked HTM if he'd ever been threatened or felt that he had to watch his back, perhaps in the aftermath of throwing Elizabeth to the canvas. He answered with a great story about barroom brawls which included a 2 x 4 that split open someone's head. My kids who were seven and three at the time were crying over the gory details. But Dad had no intentions of leaving. Fortunately, I had a friend there who offered to take my kids for a walk.
After the Q&A was finished, the crowd made their way out of the conference room. The Hammer was just setting his things on his table. "Oh, you got heat!" Honky Tonk ribbed, in regards to Valentine no-showing the fan-interaction segment. "Good!" Valentine growled back. "I thrive on heat!"
I mean no disrespect to Mr. Valentine. Although he was initially a little grumpy and kept his answers short, ("How are you, Hammer?" "Good." "How much are autographs?" "Twenty,") it was still fun to meet him. I told him about how much I enjoyed seeing his Lumberjack Match with Tito Santana live. "That's on a DVD, isn't it?" he asked. "Yes," I answered. "Actually, it's on this DVD." In the end, he shook my hand and thanked me. And I got him to smile! But Honky Tonk's stories were so fun and entertaining that I don't think Valentine could have added anything more. After the initial disappointment of Valentine's absence, once Honky Tonk got rolling, fans hardly noticed the Hammer was gone.
The Honky Tonk Man told us how much money a wrestler could make by getting in the ring with Hulk Hogan. When things were really hot in the mid 80's, a billing opposite the Hulkster could earn a grappler as much as 10 grand in one night! Imagine the cash Adrian Adonis and "Mr. Wonderful" were making in late '86 and early '87 when they were battling Hogan as many as nine times in one week! Actually, you don't need to imagine; it's pretty simple math. Couple that with the fact that HTM said Hogan didn't work stiff, and a program with the Hulkster had to be a dream for most heels in the WWF at the time. "I'd lay down right now and take a leg from the Hulkster for ten grand," Honky told the crowd as he pointed to the floor. It's lie, not lay, but we know what you mean.
One such program consisted of Hulk defending his title against Kamala, the Ugandan Headhunter, in big cities and small towns all over the country. The Hulkster approached Kamala and said something to the effect of, "I hope you're getting yours," in regards to how much money their feud was drawing. Apparently, Kamala wasn't getting the going rate for matches with Hogan. Kamala asked Mr. McMahon for a raise to which Vince responded with something along the lines of, "Well, I don't want to keep you from making more money. If you think you can make more, you're certainly free to go." While the Hogan/Kamala feud was engaging because Kamala felt like a real threat to Hulkamania, perhaps McMahon thought he could insert another bad guy in the equation and have the same results. But at least he let Kamala go to explore other opportunities.
It would appear that WWE has taken notice of AEW. That could be why WWE is happy to pay disgruntled employees to stay home or get squashed rather than allowing them to leave to find work elsewhere. Neville was hardly a blip on the radar. PAC is pretty damn cool. Oh, and Jon Moxley is a hotter ticket than Dean Ambrose.
Is this good or bad business? I suppose that as long as Vince can afford it, why not pay someone to get rusty instead of watching him go somewhere else and make money for the competition? But I don't think this a good long-term plan. Contracts are definitely better than the days of "opportunities" which consisted of ten dates at $150 a pop. But wrestling is entertainment, and entertainers thrive when they are in the public eye. Getting paid to stay home today could have an adverse effect on the money a wrestler can earn later. I believe there may come a point when wrestlers will avoid lengthy contracts because of what those contracts may do to their careers in the future. Could WWE begin to incorporate non-compete clauses in their contracts, if they haven't already? Would tomorrow's stars be willing to sign that for a shot at the big time?
Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard were not paid what they were promised during their criminally short stint in the WWF. They approached Vince with an ultimatum: cut us a cheque for the difference, or we're leaving. When the parties couldn't reach an agreement, The Brain Busters dropped the belts back to Demolition. Rumors abound about why Tully left first, but Arn finished his dates against Demolition and the Rockers with Haku and Bobby Heenan sharing duties for the missing Blanchard. Suddenly, Anderson's cheques grew! He was paid more per appearance and received all of the back salary he was owed! Anderson felt this was Vince's way of saying, "See? Look at the money I could've made you if you'd've stuck with me." Anderson's point was, "Why didn't you just pay me what you owed me from the very beginning?"
Vince is eccentric and peculiar to say the least. No one but Vince knows why he does certain things. Is holding wrestlers to their contracts business or personal? Does it make good long-term sense? Has anyone tried Kevin Nash's trick to get released when he told Ole Anderson he wouldn't wrestle anywhere else?
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