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One of the biggest problems with the wrestling business from behind the scenes has always been the credibility of the promoters and the talent. One of the reasons why I have retained the relationships that I have in the business is because I have been lucky enough to become friends with very credible people. It is important to maintain credibility in the personal aspect of the relationship as well as the business aspect.
In the next few weeks Greg Price will be running another one of his fan conventions in Charlotte NC. It has come to my attention that two of the attendees scheduled to appear, Superstar Billy Graham and Tony Atlas, will not be attending. In the case of Superstar Billy Graham, the story goes that Greg and Billy had an agreement on air travel. I understand that Billy then tried to change the deal. It is no secret that Greg Price and I have had our differences in the past. In this case, however, what is right is right. I have had my own dealing with Billy in the past and I can tell you that he has zero credibility with me. He has cancelled out on me as well, after pleading with me to put him on an event. I think that Billy believes that he means a lot more to an event than he really does. I can tell you when we had to announce that Billy Graham was not attending there was not one complaint. I have been made aware of other appearances that Billy has made and most of them were very poorly attended. At this point he has had enough changes and cancellations in schedule that you can’t blame anyone for not being willing to take the chance on him. In fact, the WWE brought him on a loop of major arenas in the northeast including Madison Square Garden. The response for Billy was lukewarm at best at MSG. What do you think would happen if Bruno Sammartino was brought on the same loop? I believe the building would be shaking as he was introduced. Now that is the difference between being over and not being over.
In Billy’s career he was larger than life and probably ahead of his time. The plain and simple fact is this that Billy, as a champion in the WWF, was given a very difficult task. The first thing he had to do was continue to draw in the same way that Bruno Sammartino did for numerous years. That wasn’t going to happen. If you look closely, Billy was a very one dimensional champion and the WWE didn’t have any babyface’s that meant enough to challenge him for the title and draw big crowds. In the months that Billy was champion Madison Square Garden held its own but Vince Sr. had to bring Bruno back in to work with Graham. I believe he brought Dusty Rhodes in as well who was being given a big push at the time. The other clubs in the territory were slowly failing so although Billy was a longer transitional champion then some. All in all he was a transitional guy and did nothing during the transition to change Vince Sr’s mind.
So the WWWF went out and got Bob Backlund. I'm sure that you have heard of the saying “out of the frying pan and into the fire". The idea of putting the belt on Backlund came about for one reason and that was because Billy Graham wasn’t drawing. So they tried to move on. Well, here it is thirty years later, and he still doesn’t make that big a difference. I can live with that. What I can’t live with is a guy whose word means nothing.
Whatever deal Billy made with Greg Price, like it or not, he should have lived up to it. There are too many situations that have come up with Billy Graham involved to not take the side of Greg Price in this situation. If I was Greg Price, and I had a signed contract with Billy Graham, I would scan it and post it online for the world to see.
That brings me to Tony Atlas and his lack of credibility. In nineteen ninety two Tony was supposed to headline a show in New Hampshire for Rob Russen's IWA. I was the booker for the show. It was one of my first appearances as The Big Cheese I actually wrestled a kid on that show who I knew would make it. His name was Scott Taylor who went on to fame as Scott Too Hotty. I had attempted to book someone who was unknown to me at the time ... a young man named Tazz. He was being handled by “The Boston Bad Boy” Tony Rumble. I asked if Tazz could actually work because all I had to go by was this picture of a wild looking guy. I realize now what a dumb question that turned out to be. I accepted Tony on the show and Tazz. At a later time Tony requested that he had to have a hotel room too. I said "listen this show is only a couple of hours from where you live in Charlotte we would drive that". He said, "Well the show isn’t in Charlotte" and he refused to do the show without a room. I told him we would get someone else. Rumble then proceeded to get Tony Atlas to cancel on me as well. I replaced Atlas with Chief Jules Strongbow (Francis Huntington) who had a good name in that part of the country. He was a former co-holder of the WWF Tag Team Championship with Chief Jay Strongbow. It turned out to be very ironic because the town we were in hadn’t had wrestling in the last twenty years. The last time that wrestling was held in that town Chief Jay Strongbow was the headliner.
A few days before the event Atlas contacted me acting like he was still coming to the show. I told him that we got his message of cancellation from Billy Silverman. I knew Billy through working with him on shows for Afa “The Wild Samoan”. His word was good and I knew he had done exactly what Atlas told him to do. I can tell you I was always a Tony Atlas fan. I personally never had any problems with him. He was part of the main event in the first WWE show I promoted and we did turn away business. At some point he made mistakes that hurt him in this business he made life decisions that hurt him period. One day as has happened in the past the WWE will cut him loose or he will leave and the same promoters he burned now are the people he will be looking to so he can make a living.
I don’t know what Greg Price could have done better in this situation. What I do know is that all most promoters have in this business is there credibility. It doesn’t pay to book people, especially good names, and then have to announce that they aren’t coming. What happened here is that Billy was being typical Billy and Atlas found a job with WWE so Tony didn’t need Greg any longer. There is no way that anyone can blame WWE for Tony’s non appearance they are allowing Michael Hayes to do the event and he is being allowed to induct Buddy Roberts into Greg’s Hall of Heroes.
At WrestleReunion, when we ran into an issue with Matt Hardy, the WWE was very respectful of our signed agreement and totally supported Matt appearing. That appearance wasn’t for just an autograph session it was for an actual match. If things are done right, and you deal with people with credibility, these things wouldn’t happen. It’s not just bad for Greg Price; it makes it difficult for all of us
I don’t know where this Mike Adamle thing is going. It could easily be a mini me version of Eric Bischoff. On the other hand it could be a different direction. I don’t care what they do they picked the wrong guy for this one. One more time I wonder how in the hell these idea’s come up. You take a guy who the people detest and put him in a high profile role. It’s a ridiculous move. Where in the world is Ric Flair? This is his job give it to him get some return on your money.
Finally I can appreciate that Freddie Prinze Jr. is a wrestling fan and truly loves the business. I was a fan of his dad’s growing up regularly watch Chico and the Man. However, this move of putting him on WWE creative is kind of like that old saying you stuck the knife in my back now go ahead and twist it. They say that forgetting what you already knew is the hardest thing about learning a new process. All of us “old timers” and or people who believe in the old way really better get started forgetting what we knew if we ever want to be happy.
The picture from this article is of Dlo Brown taken at WrestleReunion 2 in Valley Forge PA. I found Dlo a pleasure to work with and I am glad he is back with WWE if there it is where he wanted to be.
