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I wish some WWE stories would get leaked out like those 
Wrestling Thread Aug 4-10 | 8/7 Breaking WWE News - Alberto Del Rio FIRED
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WCW outdoing WWF in stupid segments and stuff like that makes people forget alll the stupid stupid stuff that WWF did
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there are plenty of stories out there.. please everyone post some that you have heard or know. I've heard so many but so many of them are probably not true.I wish some WWE stories would get leaked out like those
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Some more fun stuff about WCW. An article from What Culture.
10 WCW Wrestlers Who Were Ridiculously Overpaid
10 WCW Wrestlers Who Were Ridiculously Overpaid
10. Tank Abbott – From Bad Fighter To Worse Professional Wrestler
A mixed martial arts fighter who made his debut at UFC VI, David Lee “Tank” Abbott was one of the biggest stars of the early UFC era. Actually a fairly good amateur wrestler, he was marketed as a “Pit Fighting” (read: street fighting) legend from southern California. His opponent, John Matua, proudly represented the ancient Hawaiian martial art of Kapu Kuialua by stiffening up and going into convulsions when Abbott knocked him out seconds into their fight.
Abbott made it all the way to the finals of the night’s tournament, getting choked out by Oleg Taktarov, but he worked the Russian so hard that Oleg needed to wear an oxygen mask as soon as the fight ended. Tank become one of the UFC’s top attractions in its early years, parlaying his fame into an appearance on Friends in the episode where Monica’s boyfriend, played by Jon Favreau, decided to start fighting in the UFC after the barest minimum of martial arts training.
In 1999, he ended up in WCW, where he went from a potential Goldberg opponent to Vince Russo’s choice for WCW Champion when every main eventer was injured to pulling a knife on his opponent live on pay-per-view to a comedy wrestler who had a strange fascination with 3 Count, the wrestling boy band.
Cost: $650,000 per year guaranteed, with no appearance fees for individual events.
9. Dustin Rhodes – A Great, Great, Wrestler At His Absolute Worst
Dustin Rhodes is awesome. He’s been awesome since he was a rookie. It took some time for the hardcore fanbase to realize it, since they saw him as a beneficiary of nepotism, but by the time he was fired from WCW in 1995 for blading even though his direct superior had instructed him to do so, he was rightfully seen as a talented wrestler who got screwed by politics.
When the WWF picked him up several months later at the time time that they hired guys like Al Snow and Chris Candido, the reaction was that Shawn Michaels would have a number of fresh opponents to have great matches with. Snow and Candido got prelim gimmicks, while Rhodes completely reinvented himself as Goldust. Being a heel didn’t play to his strengths in the ring, but he did a brilliant job navigating the waters of a character that could have killed the career of a lesser performer.
In 1999, though, he left the WWF amidst personal problems and rumors that he asked Vince McMahon to buy him breast implants to somehow transform the Goldust character. He found a job in WCW right before Vince Russo was hired. Initially set to portray a new horror movie villain style character named Seven, he cut one of those newfangled “shoot promos” in his debut and became Dustin Rhodes again.
He was far from the top of his game, though, a disappointment in and out of the ring, just a guy in the middle of the card. He disappeared from TV after less than six months, only to return when WCW had a month left to live for a fun program where he teamed with his dad against Ric Flair and Jeff Jarrett. Then WCW went out of business with Vince McMahon telling the breast implant story on the last Monday Nitro. WWE didn’t pick up Dustin’s contract.
Cost: $500,000 in the first year plus a $50,000 signing bonus, $600,000 for the second year, and $700,000 for the third year. It’s not entirely clear if Time Warner continued to pay him. If so he got two full years out of the deal before returning to the WWF as Goldust and going on a tear. For comparison, Ric Flair made $500,000 per year guaranteed plus $4,000 per house show, $5,000 per TV taping, and and $12,500 per pay-per-view event.
8. Disco Inferno – Because Prelim Comedy Heels Get All The Money
Disco Inferno was exactly what you’d expect him to be: An Italian guy who started in WCW during the influx of new talent around the launch of Monday Nitro in 1995. He wasn’t a bad in-ring wrestler, and could even be very good at times, but he was a guy with a ceiling, thanks in large part to the gimmick, and he was wildly inconsistent.
His comedy could range anywhere from awful (carrying around a plastic duck) to inspired (losing matches for weeks because he couldn’t remember how to apply “Disco Inferono’s New Leg Hold” without a cheat sheet), and his in-ring work was similarly all over the spectrum. His tag team with Alex Wright could be very solid and he had surprising chemistry with some of the top cruiserweight wrestlers, like Juventud Guerrera, Billy Kidman, and Dean Malenko, but for some reason Bret Hart could barely get anything out of him in a TV main event.
Over time, he befriended guys like Kevin Nash, which led to him becoming an associate member of the nWo Wolfpac when Nash was the booker. He was also a favorite of Vince Russo, so he was guaranteed plenty of TV time pretty much regardless of who was in charge. Still, like I said earlier, he was a guy with a ceiling.
Even Disco Inferno at his most serious as TV Champion and Cruiserweight Championship contender was still an overachieving comedy wrestler. Plus, when he left the company for a spell in 1997, the WWF had no interest in him in spite of the rumors at the time, so it’s not like WCW was bidding for his services.
Cost: After making money in the $100,000 per year range for a few years, he jumped up to $300,000 per year on his last contract, and would have made $350,000 in year three if WCW stuck around. Being that he was working for high profile promotions like the World Wrestling All-Stars overseas tours, it seems unlikely he was among the wrestlers still being paid by Time Warner after WCW was sold, but it’s hard to be sure.
Also, he somehow owed the company 94 cents in merchandise royalties in 2000. For comparison, the more talented and versatile Norman Smiley was never contracted for more than $120,000 per year, though he made about $175,000 in 2000 with royalties and bonuses thrown in.
7. Ernest “The Cat” Miller – “World Karate Champions” Don’t Work For Free
Back in the day, before there was such a thing as DDP Yoga, Diamond Dallas Page was often the butt of jokes because this sort of sleazy-looking middle-aged guy was getting such a big push in WCW. As Eric Bischoff’s neighbor, he was considered something of a crony until he worked so hard and got so over that it was a lot harder to criticize him. Well, criticize him for that. There were still a lot of DDP jokes. Ernest Miller, however, was literally hired because he was Eric Bischoff’s son Garett’s (yes, the one from TNA) karate instructor.
With zero wrestling experience, he was introduced as some vaguely defined “three-time world karate champion.” The actual governing body was never mentioned, it was point karate (basically karate as a game of tag) as opposed to full contact, and he was not any kind of known quantity to the major karate and kickboxing organizations like the International Sport Karate Association.
It’s not as if Miller was even a big name in that world, but WCW treated him like one, using him to give credibility to the attempted “martial arts” feud between Glacier and James Vandenberg’s duo of Wrath (Bryan “Adam Bomb” Clark) and Mortis (Chris Kanyon). Eventually he became a comedy character doing a goofy but somewhat amusing discount James Brown shtick. He was a recognizable name, but never anything resembling a main event level name or talent.
Cost: He made close to $150,000 in 1997, but the number dropped in 1998 as he was used less. In 1999, he signed a deal that escalated to $400,000 guaranteed for the last year of WCW’s existence and eventually $450,000 in the event he was still being paid by Time Warner after WCW folded. Like Disco, he somehow owed about a dollar for merchandise.
For comparison, Chris Kanyon was on a $240,000 per year deal, Glacier earned in the $160,000 per year range, and Bryan Clark topped off at about $225,000 per year for year between his guarantee and appearance fees.
6. Swoll – Yes, I Realize That You Have No Idea Who This Is
In 1999, WCW got in the habit of paying way too much for various bands and other musical acts to appear on Nitro. Megadeth (performing “Crush ‘Em,” which briefly became Bill Goldberg’s entrance music), KISS (to introduce the KISS Demon wrestling character), and country singer Chad Brock (who had wrestled in the past, doing jobs at WCW TV tapings) all performed, as did rapper Master P. For some reason, WCW had bigger plans for Master P, who was paid $200,000 per appearance to….I’m not sure, exactly. In theory, he was endorsing the No Limit Soldiers stable, which was named after his label, No Limit Records.
The No Limit Soldiers consisted of Rey Mysterio (Jr.), Konnan, Brad Armstrong as a gangsta rapper named “B.A.” (really), WCW Power Plant alumnus Chase Tatum, northeast indie worker worker Teddy Reade as 4×4, and some guy named Randy Thornton as Swoll. I always figured Swoll was just Master P’s actual bodyguard, and I guess he was, because otherwise I don’t see how he ended up getting the type of money that you’re about to learn he made if he had nobody going to bat for him.
However, in Googling for Swoll photos and Swoll information for this article (having never done so before, because, well, why?), I discovered that he had some wrestling experience, working a small AWA show right as that promotion died before going to New Japan Pro Wrestling with a boxer gimmick to wrestle Shinya Hashimoto and Masashi Aoyagi. I suppose it’s possible this is some other Randy Thornton, but none of it is online unless some kind soul uploads the Hashimoto match.
But anyway: Swoll was just a guy. There was no reason to sign him to a big money deal, but being that WCW was WCW and did WCW things, they did
Cost: He was signed to a deal that paid $350,000 for the first year in addition to a $50,000 signing bonus. He’s shown as having been paid $30,890.41 in payroll, not listed on the WCW roster as of May 23, 2000, and only wrestled six matches in two months during the Summer of 1999 before disappearing, so it’s likely he was cut not long after being taken off TV.
Still, that’s a hell of a lot of money for some random guy in six matches, all but one of which were at regular TV tapings. For comparison, others mentioned in the same new contracts and trainees memo from June 9, 1999 include Billy Kidman at the height of his stardom in the cruiserweight division for $300,000:
And A.J. Styles as a trainee for $20,800:
5. Kevin Wacholz – The Beneficiary Of Pure Incompetence
A journeyman from Minnesota who was previously best known as Kevin Kelly in the AWA, Kevin Wacholz was hired by the WWF in 1992 to portray Nailz, a former inmate who (falsely?) accused the Big Bossman of abusing him. That set up a feud, which culminated in a nightstick on a pole match at Survivor Series that year. Nailz was set to move on to a feud with The Undertaker and an angle was shot, but they only had a handful of matches on house shows. Why?
Wacholz thought his SummerSlam payoff was too low, attacked Vince McMahon in the locker room, and then told the police that he was defending himself because Vince tried to sexually assault him. Really.
Then-WWF spokesperson Steve Planamenta was quoted in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter as saying “The discussion was about money. I guess he wasn’t happy with his pay. What happened after that is he jumped on Vince. Police came and then we have a police report that alleges Vince did things that were a fabrication.”
Earl Hebner added that “He launched across the room, grabbed him by the throat and threw him down. Kevin ran to the phone and called 911 and told the police to come down because he’d been sexually assaulted. Not a chance. There’s no way. He couldn’t have pulled out a gun as fast as Nailz was on him.”
Wacholz was immediately fired for unprofessional conduct and did indie shows for a few years as well as having one match in WCW, working as “The Prisoner” and losing to Sting. He returned to WCW for a house show match on April 17, 1998, defeating fellow Minnesota native Barry Darsow in the opener. He was signed to a contract and never used again. However…well, I think you can guess were this is going.
Cost: He was paid to do nothing, “earning” $144,360.85 in 1998 and $100,393.03 in 1999, with his contract being terminated on May 28th of the latter year. Since Steve McMichael was being paid about $250,000 each year, it’s likely that Wacholz’s contract called for about $200,000 to be paid in each one year term.
4. Big Vito – The Bonus Machine?
Vito Lograsso was, for years, best known as WWF TV job guy and northeast independent wrestler Skull Von Krush, doing sort of a tongue in cheek take on the German gimmicks that exploded post-World War II. For years, he couldn’t catch a break, but he started to build out more of a career in the late ’90s in ECW as well as a tour of All Japan Pro Wrestling. As if right on time, one of his old friends from the indies got a lot of power in WCW: Vince Russo.
Russo and Vito went back to Russo’s days portraying his “Vicious Vincent” character, hosting his own wrestling radio show on Long Island and occasionally working as a manager on independent shows in the area. One young fan even got his parents to book Russo and Vito for his bar mitzvah. So it’s only natural that with Russo in power, his old buddy got a job. The compensation is where it gets a little weird.
I’ve got nothing against Vito. He was a talented wrestler who could be fun on promos and was especially good in tag team matches with Johnny the Bull as the Mamalukes. Having said that, he was signed off a run as a opening match level comedy wrestler in ECW. He was not an in demand wrestler, and he should have been paid at the level of other journeymen in the company. Instead, he got a lot of bonuses that were unusual for his spot.
Cost: Well, his annual guarantee was reasonable for his spot at $125,000 for the first year escalating to $130,000. However, he also received various bonuses that took him up over $243,000 in 2000, his only full calendar year with WCW. For comparison, Brad Armstrong made the same $125,000 with no bonuses even after many years in the company.
Anyone else at that level should have had the same opportunities. It’s not that Vito was a colossal waste the way others on this list were as much as he’s an odd choice to have gotten those bonuses written into his contract.
3. M.I. Smooth – Everything I Said About Big Vito Only More So And Less Nice
In 1993, someone in WCW had a fairly unique idea to introduce a newcomer named Ice Train. They would do a single-camera shoot of his last independent match and air it on TV, showing how he was a hero to his local community and how beloved he was that there would be such a nice turnout for his farewell before heading to WCW. As much as it was a cool idea, he didn’t really go anywhere and disappeared in early 1994 after coming out on the losing end of a feud with former friend Ron Simmons.
He returned in 1996 after touring with Otto Wanz’s CWA in Hannover, Germany in 1995. He returned in 1996 to team with Scott Norton as Fire and Ice. After a fun feud with the Steiner Brothers, Norton turned on him just like Simmons did, and the Train was derailed again, quickly relegated to B-shows before disappearing again around late 1997.
He was re-signed on May 26, 1999 and sat at home collecting a paycheck for close to nine months, getting a win over Bobby Walker on Worldwide in February 2000 before disappearing AGAIN. Why did this guy vanish so often, anyway?
He finally showed back up as a regular that June, reinvented as Ernest Miller’s limo driver M.I. Smooth, usually just standing there looking scary and only wrestling occasionally. Sites like WrestlingData.com have no matches of his recorded after the death of WCW.
Cost: $150,000 guaranteed for the first year escalating to $200,000 in year two and then $250,000 in year three. For ICE TRAIN. He was not a star in the least, sat at home for the year, made no impact…he was just a guy. For comparison, Crowbar made $75,000 per year with no escalations.
2. Stevie Ray – How To Get Rich On The Back Of Your Brother’s Talent
As much as he seems like a really cool, funny guy in real life, Stevie Ray was always a below average pro wrestler at best. Every which way that Booker T was fast, graceful, and clearly physically gifted, his brother was slow, clumsy, and hard to watch. Still, as a brother tag team, they were a package, and Booker T carried his brother well enough that Harlem Heat turned into the legendary WCW tag team of the Eric Bischoff era and beyond, holding the tag titles ten times.
They split in 1997 while Stevie was injured, with Booker ascending the ranks as a singles wrestler, mainly TV champion. Stevie joined the nWo upon his return in 1998, but he didn’t feud with Booker, which was refreshing to see. By 1999, Booker was able to convince Stevie to abandon the nWo, on the way to their tenth and final tag title reign.
When they split again and then feuded, it was arguably the worst feud of 2000. Stevie was never any great shakes, but he had slowed down even more, and a ton of ridiculous angles that included Stevie being award the rights to the letter T. That was the end of Stevie in the ring, as he transitioned into color commentary, before finally losing a retirement match to Scott Steiner that November.
His commentary, which alternated between hilarious and surprisingly insightful, was one of the few highlights of WCW as the company went down the drain. He even had his own interview segment dubbed “Suckas Gots To Know.”
Cost: So as you can see, when Stevie signed his new deal three months before this roster printout was generated, his pay was pretty reasonable for his spot on the card. That was actually a huge pay cut.
He was in parity with his brother until that 2000 contract. Booker’s contract started exactly a year earlier than Stevie’s, so Stevie was likely renegotiated in 2000. Stevie Ray was, at best, an upper mid-card talent throughout his time in WCW, peaking as a member of the nWo’s B-team but if he had the same $700,000ish contract as Booker, which it appears he did, he was making more guaranteed money than Ric Flair and that’s insane. On that note…
1. Booker T – Great, But Was He Worth It?
Booker T is/was great. But when he signed that contract in 1999, he wasn’t even close to main event level. It was clear from 1998-on that he had potential as the next babyface to be elevated to the main event/world title level.
Having said that, WCW didn’t push him at that level until about 17 months after he signed this contract, and it came out of nowhere without any buildup:
He was at the TV championship level when he signed this deal. That’s the third tier heavyweight singles title. Later on, in 2000, when Stevie Ray took the letter T from him, he was repackaged as G.I. Bro, basically a comedy gimmick that he had used as a rookie in Texas.
How is that worth $700,000 or more per year guaranteed? Cynics suggested that his and Stevie’s pay was inflated to somehow help combat the ever-present threat of racial discrimination lawsuits, if just because there weren’t many good explanations. For comparison, fellow TV Title level star Fit Finlay made $250,000.
A mixed martial arts fighter who made his debut at UFC VI, David Lee “Tank” Abbott was one of the biggest stars of the early UFC era. Actually a fairly good amateur wrestler, he was marketed as a “Pit Fighting” (read: street fighting) legend from southern California. His opponent, John Matua, proudly represented the ancient Hawaiian martial art of Kapu Kuialua by stiffening up and going into convulsions when Abbott knocked him out seconds into their fight.
Abbott made it all the way to the finals of the night’s tournament, getting choked out by Oleg Taktarov, but he worked the Russian so hard that Oleg needed to wear an oxygen mask as soon as the fight ended. Tank become one of the UFC’s top attractions in its early years, parlaying his fame into an appearance on Friends in the episode where Monica’s boyfriend, played by Jon Favreau, decided to start fighting in the UFC after the barest minimum of martial arts training.
In 1999, he ended up in WCW, where he went from a potential Goldberg opponent to Vince Russo’s choice for WCW Champion when every main eventer was injured to pulling a knife on his opponent live on pay-per-view to a comedy wrestler who had a strange fascination with 3 Count, the wrestling boy band.
Cost: $650,000 per year guaranteed, with no appearance fees for individual events.
9. Dustin Rhodes – A Great, Great, Wrestler At His Absolute Worst
Dustin Rhodes is awesome. He’s been awesome since he was a rookie. It took some time for the hardcore fanbase to realize it, since they saw him as a beneficiary of nepotism, but by the time he was fired from WCW in 1995 for blading even though his direct superior had instructed him to do so, he was rightfully seen as a talented wrestler who got screwed by politics.
When the WWF picked him up several months later at the time time that they hired guys like Al Snow and Chris Candido, the reaction was that Shawn Michaels would have a number of fresh opponents to have great matches with. Snow and Candido got prelim gimmicks, while Rhodes completely reinvented himself as Goldust. Being a heel didn’t play to his strengths in the ring, but he did a brilliant job navigating the waters of a character that could have killed the career of a lesser performer.
In 1999, though, he left the WWF amidst personal problems and rumors that he asked Vince McMahon to buy him breast implants to somehow transform the Goldust character. He found a job in WCW right before Vince Russo was hired. Initially set to portray a new horror movie villain style character named Seven, he cut one of those newfangled “shoot promos” in his debut and became Dustin Rhodes again.
He was far from the top of his game, though, a disappointment in and out of the ring, just a guy in the middle of the card. He disappeared from TV after less than six months, only to return when WCW had a month left to live for a fun program where he teamed with his dad against Ric Flair and Jeff Jarrett. Then WCW went out of business with Vince McMahon telling the breast implant story on the last Monday Nitro. WWE didn’t pick up Dustin’s contract.
Cost: $500,000 in the first year plus a $50,000 signing bonus, $600,000 for the second year, and $700,000 for the third year. It’s not entirely clear if Time Warner continued to pay him. If so he got two full years out of the deal before returning to the WWF as Goldust and going on a tear. For comparison, Ric Flair made $500,000 per year guaranteed plus $4,000 per house show, $5,000 per TV taping, and and $12,500 per pay-per-view event.
8. Disco Inferno – Because Prelim Comedy Heels Get All The Money
Disco Inferno was exactly what you’d expect him to be: An Italian guy who started in WCW during the influx of new talent around the launch of Monday Nitro in 1995. He wasn’t a bad in-ring wrestler, and could even be very good at times, but he was a guy with a ceiling, thanks in large part to the gimmick, and he was wildly inconsistent.
His comedy could range anywhere from awful (carrying around a plastic duck) to inspired (losing matches for weeks because he couldn’t remember how to apply “Disco Inferono’s New Leg Hold” without a cheat sheet), and his in-ring work was similarly all over the spectrum. His tag team with Alex Wright could be very solid and he had surprising chemistry with some of the top cruiserweight wrestlers, like Juventud Guerrera, Billy Kidman, and Dean Malenko, but for some reason Bret Hart could barely get anything out of him in a TV main event.
Over time, he befriended guys like Kevin Nash, which led to him becoming an associate member of the nWo Wolfpac when Nash was the booker. He was also a favorite of Vince Russo, so he was guaranteed plenty of TV time pretty much regardless of who was in charge. Still, like I said earlier, he was a guy with a ceiling.
Even Disco Inferno at his most serious as TV Champion and Cruiserweight Championship contender was still an overachieving comedy wrestler. Plus, when he left the company for a spell in 1997, the WWF had no interest in him in spite of the rumors at the time, so it’s not like WCW was bidding for his services.
Cost: After making money in the $100,000 per year range for a few years, he jumped up to $300,000 per year on his last contract, and would have made $350,000 in year three if WCW stuck around. Being that he was working for high profile promotions like the World Wrestling All-Stars overseas tours, it seems unlikely he was among the wrestlers still being paid by Time Warner after WCW was sold, but it’s hard to be sure.
Also, he somehow owed the company 94 cents in merchandise royalties in 2000. For comparison, the more talented and versatile Norman Smiley was never contracted for more than $120,000 per year, though he made about $175,000 in 2000 with royalties and bonuses thrown in.
7. Ernest “The Cat” Miller – “World Karate Champions” Don’t Work For Free
Back in the day, before there was such a thing as DDP Yoga, Diamond Dallas Page was often the butt of jokes because this sort of sleazy-looking middle-aged guy was getting such a big push in WCW. As Eric Bischoff’s neighbor, he was considered something of a crony until he worked so hard and got so over that it was a lot harder to criticize him. Well, criticize him for that. There were still a lot of DDP jokes. Ernest Miller, however, was literally hired because he was Eric Bischoff’s son Garett’s (yes, the one from TNA) karate instructor.
With zero wrestling experience, he was introduced as some vaguely defined “three-time world karate champion.” The actual governing body was never mentioned, it was point karate (basically karate as a game of tag) as opposed to full contact, and he was not any kind of known quantity to the major karate and kickboxing organizations like the International Sport Karate Association.
It’s not as if Miller was even a big name in that world, but WCW treated him like one, using him to give credibility to the attempted “martial arts” feud between Glacier and James Vandenberg’s duo of Wrath (Bryan “Adam Bomb” Clark) and Mortis (Chris Kanyon). Eventually he became a comedy character doing a goofy but somewhat amusing discount James Brown shtick. He was a recognizable name, but never anything resembling a main event level name or talent.
Cost: He made close to $150,000 in 1997, but the number dropped in 1998 as he was used less. In 1999, he signed a deal that escalated to $400,000 guaranteed for the last year of WCW’s existence and eventually $450,000 in the event he was still being paid by Time Warner after WCW folded. Like Disco, he somehow owed about a dollar for merchandise.
For comparison, Chris Kanyon was on a $240,000 per year deal, Glacier earned in the $160,000 per year range, and Bryan Clark topped off at about $225,000 per year for year between his guarantee and appearance fees.
6. Swoll – Yes, I Realize That You Have No Idea Who This Is
In 1999, WCW got in the habit of paying way too much for various bands and other musical acts to appear on Nitro. Megadeth (performing “Crush ‘Em,” which briefly became Bill Goldberg’s entrance music), KISS (to introduce the KISS Demon wrestling character), and country singer Chad Brock (who had wrestled in the past, doing jobs at WCW TV tapings) all performed, as did rapper Master P. For some reason, WCW had bigger plans for Master P, who was paid $200,000 per appearance to….I’m not sure, exactly. In theory, he was endorsing the No Limit Soldiers stable, which was named after his label, No Limit Records.
The No Limit Soldiers consisted of Rey Mysterio (Jr.), Konnan, Brad Armstrong as a gangsta rapper named “B.A.” (really), WCW Power Plant alumnus Chase Tatum, northeast indie worker worker Teddy Reade as 4×4, and some guy named Randy Thornton as Swoll. I always figured Swoll was just Master P’s actual bodyguard, and I guess he was, because otherwise I don’t see how he ended up getting the type of money that you’re about to learn he made if he had nobody going to bat for him.
However, in Googling for Swoll photos and Swoll information for this article (having never done so before, because, well, why?), I discovered that he had some wrestling experience, working a small AWA show right as that promotion died before going to New Japan Pro Wrestling with a boxer gimmick to wrestle Shinya Hashimoto and Masashi Aoyagi. I suppose it’s possible this is some other Randy Thornton, but none of it is online unless some kind soul uploads the Hashimoto match.
But anyway: Swoll was just a guy. There was no reason to sign him to a big money deal, but being that WCW was WCW and did WCW things, they did
Cost: He was signed to a deal that paid $350,000 for the first year in addition to a $50,000 signing bonus. He’s shown as having been paid $30,890.41 in payroll, not listed on the WCW roster as of May 23, 2000, and only wrestled six matches in two months during the Summer of 1999 before disappearing, so it’s likely he was cut not long after being taken off TV.
Still, that’s a hell of a lot of money for some random guy in six matches, all but one of which were at regular TV tapings. For comparison, others mentioned in the same new contracts and trainees memo from June 9, 1999 include Billy Kidman at the height of his stardom in the cruiserweight division for $300,000:
And A.J. Styles as a trainee for $20,800:
5. Kevin Wacholz – The Beneficiary Of Pure Incompetence
A journeyman from Minnesota who was previously best known as Kevin Kelly in the AWA, Kevin Wacholz was hired by the WWF in 1992 to portray Nailz, a former inmate who (falsely?) accused the Big Bossman of abusing him. That set up a feud, which culminated in a nightstick on a pole match at Survivor Series that year. Nailz was set to move on to a feud with The Undertaker and an angle was shot, but they only had a handful of matches on house shows. Why?
Wacholz thought his SummerSlam payoff was too low, attacked Vince McMahon in the locker room, and then told the police that he was defending himself because Vince tried to sexually assault him. Really.
Then-WWF spokesperson Steve Planamenta was quoted in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter as saying “The discussion was about money. I guess he wasn’t happy with his pay. What happened after that is he jumped on Vince. Police came and then we have a police report that alleges Vince did things that were a fabrication.”
Earl Hebner added that “He launched across the room, grabbed him by the throat and threw him down. Kevin ran to the phone and called 911 and told the police to come down because he’d been sexually assaulted. Not a chance. There’s no way. He couldn’t have pulled out a gun as fast as Nailz was on him.”
Wacholz was immediately fired for unprofessional conduct and did indie shows for a few years as well as having one match in WCW, working as “The Prisoner” and losing to Sting. He returned to WCW for a house show match on April 17, 1998, defeating fellow Minnesota native Barry Darsow in the opener. He was signed to a contract and never used again. However…well, I think you can guess were this is going.
Cost: He was paid to do nothing, “earning” $144,360.85 in 1998 and $100,393.03 in 1999, with his contract being terminated on May 28th of the latter year. Since Steve McMichael was being paid about $250,000 each year, it’s likely that Wacholz’s contract called for about $200,000 to be paid in each one year term.
4. Big Vito – The Bonus Machine?
Vito Lograsso was, for years, best known as WWF TV job guy and northeast independent wrestler Skull Von Krush, doing sort of a tongue in cheek take on the German gimmicks that exploded post-World War II. For years, he couldn’t catch a break, but he started to build out more of a career in the late ’90s in ECW as well as a tour of All Japan Pro Wrestling. As if right on time, one of his old friends from the indies got a lot of power in WCW: Vince Russo.
Russo and Vito went back to Russo’s days portraying his “Vicious Vincent” character, hosting his own wrestling radio show on Long Island and occasionally working as a manager on independent shows in the area. One young fan even got his parents to book Russo and Vito for his bar mitzvah. So it’s only natural that with Russo in power, his old buddy got a job. The compensation is where it gets a little weird.
I’ve got nothing against Vito. He was a talented wrestler who could be fun on promos and was especially good in tag team matches with Johnny the Bull as the Mamalukes. Having said that, he was signed off a run as a opening match level comedy wrestler in ECW. He was not an in demand wrestler, and he should have been paid at the level of other journeymen in the company. Instead, he got a lot of bonuses that were unusual for his spot.
Cost: Well, his annual guarantee was reasonable for his spot at $125,000 for the first year escalating to $130,000. However, he also received various bonuses that took him up over $243,000 in 2000, his only full calendar year with WCW. For comparison, Brad Armstrong made the same $125,000 with no bonuses even after many years in the company.
Anyone else at that level should have had the same opportunities. It’s not that Vito was a colossal waste the way others on this list were as much as he’s an odd choice to have gotten those bonuses written into his contract.
3. M.I. Smooth – Everything I Said About Big Vito Only More So And Less Nice
In 1993, someone in WCW had a fairly unique idea to introduce a newcomer named Ice Train. They would do a single-camera shoot of his last independent match and air it on TV, showing how he was a hero to his local community and how beloved he was that there would be such a nice turnout for his farewell before heading to WCW. As much as it was a cool idea, he didn’t really go anywhere and disappeared in early 1994 after coming out on the losing end of a feud with former friend Ron Simmons.
He returned in 1996 after touring with Otto Wanz’s CWA in Hannover, Germany in 1995. He returned in 1996 to team with Scott Norton as Fire and Ice. After a fun feud with the Steiner Brothers, Norton turned on him just like Simmons did, and the Train was derailed again, quickly relegated to B-shows before disappearing again around late 1997.
He was re-signed on May 26, 1999 and sat at home collecting a paycheck for close to nine months, getting a win over Bobby Walker on Worldwide in February 2000 before disappearing AGAIN. Why did this guy vanish so often, anyway?
He finally showed back up as a regular that June, reinvented as Ernest Miller’s limo driver M.I. Smooth, usually just standing there looking scary and only wrestling occasionally. Sites like WrestlingData.com have no matches of his recorded after the death of WCW.
Cost: $150,000 guaranteed for the first year escalating to $200,000 in year two and then $250,000 in year three. For ICE TRAIN. He was not a star in the least, sat at home for the year, made no impact…he was just a guy. For comparison, Crowbar made $75,000 per year with no escalations.
2. Stevie Ray – How To Get Rich On The Back Of Your Brother’s Talent
As much as he seems like a really cool, funny guy in real life, Stevie Ray was always a below average pro wrestler at best. Every which way that Booker T was fast, graceful, and clearly physically gifted, his brother was slow, clumsy, and hard to watch. Still, as a brother tag team, they were a package, and Booker T carried his brother well enough that Harlem Heat turned into the legendary WCW tag team of the Eric Bischoff era and beyond, holding the tag titles ten times.
They split in 1997 while Stevie was injured, with Booker ascending the ranks as a singles wrestler, mainly TV champion. Stevie joined the nWo upon his return in 1998, but he didn’t feud with Booker, which was refreshing to see. By 1999, Booker was able to convince Stevie to abandon the nWo, on the way to their tenth and final tag title reign.
When they split again and then feuded, it was arguably the worst feud of 2000. Stevie was never any great shakes, but he had slowed down even more, and a ton of ridiculous angles that included Stevie being award the rights to the letter T. That was the end of Stevie in the ring, as he transitioned into color commentary, before finally losing a retirement match to Scott Steiner that November.
His commentary, which alternated between hilarious and surprisingly insightful, was one of the few highlights of WCW as the company went down the drain. He even had his own interview segment dubbed “Suckas Gots To Know.”
Cost: So as you can see, when Stevie signed his new deal three months before this roster printout was generated, his pay was pretty reasonable for his spot on the card. That was actually a huge pay cut.
He was in parity with his brother until that 2000 contract. Booker’s contract started exactly a year earlier than Stevie’s, so Stevie was likely renegotiated in 2000. Stevie Ray was, at best, an upper mid-card talent throughout his time in WCW, peaking as a member of the nWo’s B-team but if he had the same $700,000ish contract as Booker, which it appears he did, he was making more guaranteed money than Ric Flair and that’s insane. On that note…
1. Booker T – Great, But Was He Worth It?
Booker T is/was great. But when he signed that contract in 1999, he wasn’t even close to main event level. It was clear from 1998-on that he had potential as the next babyface to be elevated to the main event/world title level.
Having said that, WCW didn’t push him at that level until about 17 months after he signed this contract, and it came out of nowhere without any buildup:
He was at the TV championship level when he signed this deal. That’s the third tier heavyweight singles title. Later on, in 2000, when Stevie Ray took the letter T from him, he was repackaged as G.I. Bro, basically a comedy gimmick that he had used as a rookie in Texas.
How is that worth $700,000 or more per year guaranteed? Cynics suggested that his and Stevie’s pay was inflated to somehow help combat the ever-present threat of racial discrimination lawsuits, if just because there weren’t many good explanations. For comparison, fellow TV Title level star Fit Finlay made $250,000.
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WCW decided to issue a random drugs test. Scott Steiner claimed to have injured his back and didn't attend. It's speculated he was tipped off by WCW management, fully aware Steiner would fail, about the testing. In his next match against Scott Norton, the WCW fans started chanting "Steroids!" "Steroids!" and Bobby Heenan said he had "never heard a crowd so pumped up in his life"
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Heenan was the best ever .. No one can prove different
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That. And also, the IWC knew that the belt was going back to Cena @ WM 29.
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Is it basically set in stone that Brock is winning the belt?
...So
formerly beyondmeasure
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T0INE
formerly toine2983
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No damns given by Billionaire Ted.
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But doesn't the IWC know that the belt is going to go back to Cena no matter what?..Cena's bones will be headlining WM CMXCIX for a chance to win the title..
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I think this is Cena's last title reign. If Daniel Bryan didn't get hurt and need surgery he wouldn't even be in the title picture. I just don't see how they can take away Ric's record. But then again he was an NWA/WCW guy and we all know how Vince feels about that.
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I was never on the reigns bandwagon. If he wins I want Rollins to cash in the raw after mania and win. I don't want the Samoan Cena to be the face of the company for the next 10 years.
He's def gonna get it. I say he ties flair with 16 in 2016 and breaks the record 17 at mania 2017. You know Vince wants that on a sports entertainer he created.
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I know I'm going to feel legit anger when Cena ties, then breaks, Flair's record..I'll be in denial and start claiming Flair's unofficial total to be 21..
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I'm taking time off wrestling again until he retires. And if reigns has next I may not watch as much as I do now.
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Saw this on another forum, Flair is unofficially a 20x world champ.
1 - NWA World Heavyweight title defeating Dusty Rhodes (September 17, 1981)
2 - NWA World Heavyweight title defeating Harley Race (November 24, 1983)
3 - NWA World Heavyweight title defeating Harely Race (March 24, 1984)
4 - NWA World Heavyweight title defeating Kerry von Erich (May 24, 1984 in Japan)
5 - NWA World Heavyweight title defeating Dusty Rhodes (August 7, 1986)
6 - NWA World Heavyweight title defeating Ron Garvin (November 26, 1987)
7 - NWA World Heavyweight title defeating Ricky Steamboat (May 7, 1989)
8 - NWA World Heavyweight title defeating Sting (January 11, 1991)
9 - NWA World Heavyweight title defeating Tatsumi Fujinami (May 19, 1991)
10 - WWF Heavyweight title by winning the Royal Rumble (January 19, 1992)
11 - WWF Heavyweight title defeating Randy Savage (September 1, 1992)
12 - NWA World Heavyweight title defeating Barry Windham (July 18, 1993)
13 - WCW World Heavyweight title defeating Vader (December 27, 1993)
14 - WCW World Heavyweight title defeating Ricky Steamboat (March 24, 1994)
15 - WCW World Heavyweight title defeating Sting (June 23, 1994)
16 - WCW World Heavyweight title defeating Randy Savage (December 25, 1995)
17 - WCW World Heavyweight title defeating Randy Savage (February 11, 1996)
18 - WCW World Heavyweight title defeating Hulk Hogan (March 14, 1999)
19 - WCW World Heavyweight title defeating Jeff Jarrett (May 15, 2000)
20 - WCW World Heavyweight title defeating Kevin Nash (May 29, 2000)
1 - NWA World Heavyweight title defeating Dusty Rhodes (September 17, 1981)
2 - NWA World Heavyweight title defeating Harley Race (November 24, 1983)
3 - NWA World Heavyweight title defeating Harely Race (March 24, 1984)
4 - NWA World Heavyweight title defeating Kerry von Erich (May 24, 1984 in Japan)
5 - NWA World Heavyweight title defeating Dusty Rhodes (August 7, 1986)
6 - NWA World Heavyweight title defeating Ron Garvin (November 26, 1987)
7 - NWA World Heavyweight title defeating Ricky Steamboat (May 7, 1989)
8 - NWA World Heavyweight title defeating Sting (January 11, 1991)
9 - NWA World Heavyweight title defeating Tatsumi Fujinami (May 19, 1991)
10 - WWF Heavyweight title by winning the Royal Rumble (January 19, 1992)
11 - WWF Heavyweight title defeating Randy Savage (September 1, 1992)
12 - NWA World Heavyweight title defeating Barry Windham (July 18, 1993)
13 - WCW World Heavyweight title defeating Vader (December 27, 1993)
14 - WCW World Heavyweight title defeating Ricky Steamboat (March 24, 1994)
15 - WCW World Heavyweight title defeating Sting (June 23, 1994)
16 - WCW World Heavyweight title defeating Randy Savage (December 25, 1995)
17 - WCW World Heavyweight title defeating Randy Savage (February 11, 1996)
18 - WCW World Heavyweight title defeating Hulk Hogan (March 14, 1999)
19 - WCW World Heavyweight title defeating Jeff Jarrett (May 15, 2000)
20 - WCW World Heavyweight title defeating Kevin Nash (May 29, 2000)
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which ones are unofficial?
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If you look at wiki, they say that he could loosely be considered a 25 or 26 time champion..I'll B.S. anyway I can to not recognize Seener at the all time champ..
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Cena is a **** head
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So I've read
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There's an Attitude Era vol.2 dvd coming out on Nov 4th.
http://www.wrestlingdvdnews.com/wwe-attitude-era-vol-2-dvd-confirmed/70390/
http://www.wrestlingdvdnews.com/wwe-attitude-era-vol-2-dvd-confirmed/70390/
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meek meals
Banned
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Haha Bray Wyatt on this Paul Heyman doc talking like a regular dude.
Also, they would have made sooo much money if they did the Invasion angle right.
Also, they would have made sooo much money if they did the Invasion angle right.