As the year comes to an end my story has been the same I can’t wait for 08. I do want to reflect on the people who helped me through out the year from the business.
This weekend was the anniversary of the Wendi Richter Madison Square Garden screw job. I was very close to Wendi Richter at the time. She stayed at my parents’ home and we went to several towns together. In those days Wendi’s popularity really was skyrocketing. She was given a great rub by Cyndi Lauper’s involvement in her angle. I am constantly being told that timing is everything. At the time Wendi was actual the main event on many B show’s for WWE for the women that was something far from normal. I know that she was not happy with what she was being paid. I have heard stories over the years of different talent that were being poorly paid in comparison to other talents. The women in our industry never were paid all that well period. In the old days I remember the girls that worked for Moolah telling me that they were paid the best by Verne Gagne. Who knows if Vince wasn’t paying more because he was still giving money to Moolah too for Wendi’s work? The bottom line is that she was being treated like a second class citizen for no reason. She worked hard like many of Moolah’s girls did. I have my own opinions of Moolah as a person and I won’t share them. As a worker I thought that she was as kick ass heel. She knew how to piss people off. She was a shrewd business person who almost always had the upper hand. I don’t believe that screw job finishes help anyone and they should make you wonder about Vince McMahon. It is his company and certainly should be run as he sees fit. If you don’t like the way someone is conducting business then just strip them of the title. I do not see the reason for these ridiculous phantom pins everyone knows they are a joke and it just kills the business. I want to thank Wendi Richter for coming out of a self induced exile from the business to appear in our WrestleReunion events. I had to track her down and our mutual friend Rob Russen reached out to her. It was great having her back.
Well Ric Flair is back as usual he makes for interesting TV. Instead of having that pointless little segment in the back wouldn’t it have been nice especially in Horseman country to have Double A and Barry Windham come down to ringside to support Flair. It would have made the finish they used even more of a swerve. I am sure everyone would have been waiting for one of the Horseman to make their move.
Is Melina getting worse as a worker and is it just me or is Mickie James just sizzling hot?
How about the fact that two of the more entertaining people in WWE are less than six feet tall Hornswoggle and Santino Marella? I don’t believe either one will ever draw you a dime but they at least don’t bore me to tears
I am a big Ron Simmons fan and consider him a friend but something has to be done to spice up his segments a change is in order or consider that horse has been beat to death.
Its really a crime that the tag team division is treated the way that it is. They could really have a quite a division. Well what do I know I’m sure creative knows best, or Vince, or Stephanie btw who is it that really writes this crap?
One night I was refereeing in Baltimore for the NWA and I was to run down and count a pin when Lex Luger did a sunset flip from the outside on the World Champion Ric Flair. As far as I knew it was a straight DQ, you see Flair has thrown Luger over the top rope shortly before. I hit the ring Tommy Young was down from some bump that he took. When I counted the pin the place erupted and it was packed. I went over to check on Tommy Young and he told me to have the announcer announce Lex Luger as the winner and the new World Champion I said, Huh are you kidding? Well Tommy and I didn’t really see eye to eye and he said would you just go do it. So I went over there and Gary Michael Capetta looked at me, like are you sure? I said yeah that’s what he told me. Well, he announced it and the people went nuts again. Then Tommy leaped up and reversed the decision. I was a WWE guy and wasn’t used to these Dusty type finishes yet. The people hated Tommy and on the way back and for a few minutes I was the best referee in the NWA at least to the people in the crowd. I have another of these kinds of stories for you in the near future
I was sitting in an IHOP this morning and I look out the window and who is walking up to the door but “The Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase. I approached Ted and reintroduced myself from the WrestleReunion event in Tampa. I knew the chances of him recognizing me with my Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake hair style was very slim. We sat down and had a long chat. I reminded Ted of our initial meetings when I first started in the business and of his matches that I watched when he was a young baby face and the North American Heavyweight Champion. At the same time a guy names Jim Allen who Ted actually went to school with stopped by the table too. It was amazing for Ted picked a restaurant at random and run into two people you know hundreds of miles from where you live.
In my Nov 16th article I referenced the Matt Hardy situation that we had at WrestleReunion. When I spoke to Matt, he made it clear that the office said that he couldn’t make our show. What was really frustrating about this was once again they waited until the last minute to address the situation. I asked Matt if it was ok with him if I spoke to Johnny Ace myself. He said that it was fine. I had known Johnny long ago when he was the Sheepherders flag bearer. I was able to work things out with Johnny and the WWE agreed to let Matt appear. I appreciated WWE doing the right thing and not forcing Matt to back out on his commitment. Hmmm maybe Jerry Lawler should have spoken with Matt and found out how to conduct yourself when you made a commitment to appear somewhere.
The picture with this article is my friend Stan Lane and the late Larry Latham “Moondog Spot”. I am not sure where it was taken but I found it and thought it might be good to run. I know the Fab’s and The Moondogs had a quite a run and I got a chance to work with Spot a few times over the years and drive up and down the road with him
This has been a piece of my mind
“The Big Cheese” Sal Corrente
This weekend was the anniversary of the Wendi Richter Madison Square Garden screw job. I was very close to Wendi Richter at the time. She stayed at my parents’ home and we went to several towns together. In those days Wendi’s popularity really was skyrocketing. She was given a great rub by Cyndi Lauper’s involvement in her angle. I am constantly being told that timing is everything. At the time Wendi was actual the main event on many B show’s for WWE for the women that was something far from normal. I know that she was not happy with what she was being paid. I have heard stories over the years of different talent that were being poorly paid in comparison to other talents. The women in our industry never were paid all that well period. In the old days I remember the girls that worked for Moolah telling me that they were paid the best by Verne Gagne. Who knows if Vince wasn’t paying more because he was still giving money to Moolah too for Wendi’s work? The bottom line is that she was being treated like a second class citizen for no reason. She worked hard like many of Moolah’s girls did. I have my own opinions of Moolah as a person and I won’t share them. As a worker I thought that she was as kick ass heel. She knew how to piss people off. She was a shrewd business person who almost always had the upper hand. I don’t believe that screw job finishes help anyone and they should make you wonder about Vince McMahon. It is his company and certainly should be run as he sees fit. If you don’t like the way someone is conducting business then just strip them of the title. I do not see the reason for these ridiculous phantom pins everyone knows they are a joke and it just kills the business. I want to thank Wendi Richter for coming out of a self induced exile from the business to appear in our WrestleReunion events. I had to track her down and our mutual friend Rob Russen reached out to her. It was great having her back.
Well Ric Flair is back as usual he makes for interesting TV. Instead of having that pointless little segment in the back wouldn’t it have been nice especially in Horseman country to have Double A and Barry Windham come down to ringside to support Flair. It would have made the finish they used even more of a swerve. I am sure everyone would have been waiting for one of the Horseman to make their move.
Is Melina getting worse as a worker and is it just me or is Mickie James just sizzling hot?
How about the fact that two of the more entertaining people in WWE are less than six feet tall Hornswoggle and Santino Marella? I don’t believe either one will ever draw you a dime but they at least don’t bore me to tears
I am a big Ron Simmons fan and consider him a friend but something has to be done to spice up his segments a change is in order or consider that horse has been beat to death.
Its really a crime that the tag team division is treated the way that it is. They could really have a quite a division. Well what do I know I’m sure creative knows best, or Vince, or Stephanie btw who is it that really writes this crap?
One night I was refereeing in Baltimore for the NWA and I was to run down and count a pin when Lex Luger did a sunset flip from the outside on the World Champion Ric Flair. As far as I knew it was a straight DQ, you see Flair has thrown Luger over the top rope shortly before. I hit the ring Tommy Young was down from some bump that he took. When I counted the pin the place erupted and it was packed. I went over to check on Tommy Young and he told me to have the announcer announce Lex Luger as the winner and the new World Champion I said, Huh are you kidding? Well Tommy and I didn’t really see eye to eye and he said would you just go do it. So I went over there and Gary Michael Capetta looked at me, like are you sure? I said yeah that’s what he told me. Well, he announced it and the people went nuts again. Then Tommy leaped up and reversed the decision. I was a WWE guy and wasn’t used to these Dusty type finishes yet. The people hated Tommy and on the way back and for a few minutes I was the best referee in the NWA at least to the people in the crowd. I have another of these kinds of stories for you in the near future
I was sitting in an IHOP this morning and I look out the window and who is walking up to the door but “The Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase. I approached Ted and reintroduced myself from the WrestleReunion event in Tampa. I knew the chances of him recognizing me with my Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake hair style was very slim. We sat down and had a long chat. I reminded Ted of our initial meetings when I first started in the business and of his matches that I watched when he was a young baby face and the North American Heavyweight Champion. At the same time a guy names Jim Allen who Ted actually went to school with stopped by the table too. It was amazing for Ted picked a restaurant at random and run into two people you know hundreds of miles from where you live.
In my Nov 16th article I referenced the Matt Hardy situation that we had at WrestleReunion. When I spoke to Matt, he made it clear that the office said that he couldn’t make our show. What was really frustrating about this was once again they waited until the last minute to address the situation. I asked Matt if it was ok with him if I spoke to Johnny Ace myself. He said that it was fine. I had known Johnny long ago when he was the Sheepherders flag bearer. I was able to work things out with Johnny and the WWE agreed to let Matt appear. I appreciated WWE doing the right thing and not forcing Matt to back out on his commitment. Hmmm maybe Jerry Lawler should have spoken with Matt and found out how to conduct yourself when you made a commitment to appear somewhere.
The picture with this article is my friend Stan Lane and the late Larry Latham “Moondog Spot”. I am not sure where it was taken but I found it and thought it might be good to run. I know the Fab’s and The Moondogs had a quite a run and I got a chance to work with Spot a few times over the years and drive up and down the road with him
This has been a piece of my mind
“The Big Cheese” Sal Corrente
