[1996-01-15-WWF-Raw] Billionaire Ted

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

More pettiness than before, complaining about WCW signing away WWF wrestlers, saying it fits Ted Turner's business model of buying old assets and repackaging them as new assets (i.e. colorizing Casablanca).

[KB8]

Going through the listings for this, these skits were things I was really looking forward to seeing again, pretty much just for the petty hilariousness of it all. I mean, it's not like I noticed there was a Billionaire Ted skit on the set and that sold me on buying it more than something like Savage/Finlay from Nitro, but still.

[Tim Evans]

Man these get more and more hateful as they go on. Especially the Mean Gene stuff. I didn't think he left on bad terms?

[Loss]

Man these get more and more hateful as they go on. Especially the Mean Gene stuff. I didn't think he left on bad terms?

My understanding is that Gene and Vince always had a bit of a love-hate relationship, with Gene getting in shouting matches with Vince and quitting every so often, only to finally come back.

[Cox]

Man these get more and more hateful as they go on. Especially the Mean Gene stuff. I didn't think he left on bad terms?

My understanding is that Gene and Vince always had a bit of a love-hate relationship, with Gene getting in shouting matches with Vince and quitting every so often, only to finally come back.

 

And on that note, from the November 15, 1993 WON posted today:

 

Okerlund made comments on his Hotline debut that really ruffled some feathers in Titan Sports. Okerlund categorized himself as the anchor announcer for the WWF for the past ten years and said that he had philosophical and intellectual differences with Vince McMahon and that for the past three years the two were barely on speaking terms. He then criticized Titan's recent hirings, mentioning by name Jim Ross, Boni Blackstone (who is no longer with the company), Jim Cornette, "Bruce Prichard's brother" and Todd Pettingill and noted WWF TV ratings have declined over the past three years. At this point Gene fell into fiction claiming when he hosted All-American Wrestling that they got no production budget but the ratings were excellent, and that Vince used the money that should have been spent on All-American for Vince's Monday Night Raw show, which Gene claimed has struggled in the ratings. The comment that struck the nerves was when he called the WWF a cottage industry and called TBS a multi-billion dollar conglomerate. Cottage industry is a term Vince McMahon has used for years as a derisive term for everyone else in the wrestling business.

[Kronos]

I was mildly amused at Nacho correcting Ted, saying he'd been wrestling since the 70s.

 

These are important, I suppose, but history has not been kind. They're very cruel.

[Jack_Briscoe_Is_My_Hero]

I am jumping on the cruel bandwagon. This skit in particular seems to be where the whole idea derails. The comments about the three (Hulkster, Macho, and Gene) just go overboard. It is very amusing that WCW does the exact thing that this skit is claiming would never happen. WCW buys two big stars from the New Generation and it along with a fresh idea completely revolutionizes WCW almost putting WWF out of business.

[goodhelmet]

When you get to Hall debuting in WCW, you can tell he pulled a lot of material from these skits. Hall more than anyone was always making references to Scheme Gene, Nacho Man, Billionaire Ted, etc. It almost seems that WWF was suing WCW for referring to the characters from the skits and not because Hall and Nash were portraying WWF employees.

[tomk]

And on that note, from the November 15, 1993 WON posted today:

 

Okerlund made comments on his Hotline debut that really ruffled some feathers in Titan Sports. Okerlund categorized himself as the anchor announcer for the WWF for the past ten years and said that he had philosophical and intellectual differences with Vince McMahon and that for the past three years the two were barely on speaking terms. He then criticized Titan's recent hirings, mentioning by name Jim Ross, Boni Blackstone (who is no longer with the company), Jim Cornette, "Bruce Prichard's brother" and Todd Pettingill and noted WWF TV ratings have declined over the past three years. At this point Gene fell into fiction claiming when he hosted All-American Wrestling that they got no production budget but the ratings were excellent, and that Vince used the money that should have been spent on All-American for Vince's Monday Night Raw show, which Gene claimed has struggled in the ratings. The comment that struck the nerves was when he called the WWF a cottage industry and called TBS a multi-billion dollar conglomerate. Cottage industry is a term Vince McMahon has used for years as a derisive term for everyone else in the wrestling business.

 

1) This is fascinating

2) When did the WWF hire Boni Blackstone and what did she do there?

[Boondocks Kernoodle]

She was in for a few months in '93. She just did live interviews on Superstars and Challenge.

[fishbaugh]

Despite hating the Braves of the mid-90s, they never bought a World Series -- San Diego gave them McGriff, Maddox was a castoff, and the rest of their stars were home grown. If you are going to diss Turner, at least be accurate about it!

[Kevin Ridge]

Vince probably got himself some fans for taking a dig at Turner for colorizing old movies. Starting to get more personal. Savage joking about starting in the 70’s is funny since so did current WWF champion Bret Hart.

[soup23]

These arent overly offensive to me but they arent funny and don't make the WWF look great either so a fail all around.

[PeteF3]

Turner's bought a World Series (Jim fuckin' Poole...but anyway) and a classic movie library (and colorized a few of 'em), but can't buy the WWF. He directs his board to go out and buy some of them WWF New Generation superstars. Whoops, that got a little eerily prescient.

[dawho5]

Not funny, but we did get a Vince Russo cameo.