The greatest cons in wrestling history

[Bix]

Perhaps more accurate would be Vince McMahon cons Vince McMahon into thinking that the mainstream media is out to get him?

That is closer to a natural reaction. I think Vince McMahon knew at some point on an intellectual level that Ted Turner wasn't out to get him, but I don't think he knew in the same way about the mainstream media.

[tomk]

1. IIRC, the old Memphis pay scheme was that the regulars did TV for free, but the jobbers were indeed paid, like $40 or thereabouts.

Yeah but supposedly there was a point where Jarrett started charging jobbers for TV time which I always thought was one of greatest cons ever. Better than a wrestling school con cause you dindn't even need to put together the infrastructure of a school.

 

I should point out that my favorite wrestling school con game was when KC James was going to work Corino in James' fed. James said Corino would run a wrestling seminar where students would pay James to submit video tapes which Corino would handle deliver to Hashimoto. I don't remember for sure if James actually even bothered with advertising a seminar so much as just said if you pay me to give Corino the tapes, I will. Fucking brilliant and really between that and his IWA Puerto Rican racist sotherner with black manservant Karlitos, get the sense that James understands wrestling better than majority of the WWE locker room.

 

other fun wrestling school hustle: http://board.deathvalleydriver.com/index.p...c=26733&hl=

[Loss]

I don't know what tops Kevin Nash becoming a millionaire by framing an elbow, dying his hair, getting wasted and standing around making funny faces.

[Jingus]

I should point out that my favorite wrestling school con game was when KC James was going to work Corino in James' fed. James said Corino would run a wrestling seminar where students would pay James to submit video tapes which Corino would handle deliver to Hashimoto. I don't remember for sure if James actually even bothered with advertising a seminar so much as just said if you pay me to give Corino the tapes, I will. Fucking brilliant and really between that and his IWA Puerto Rican racist sotherner with black manservant Karlitos, get the sense that James understands wrestling better than majority of the WWE locker room.

Well, James learned from the best, actually being Rapada's replacement as Bert Prentice's top guy/alleged mancrush. And Prentice is the carniest carny who ever carnied. The Tennessee indy scene is full to the brim with stories like that.

 

I don't know what tops Kevin Nash becoming a millionaire by framing an elbow, dying his hair, getting wasted and standing around making funny faces.

Kinda like Andy Dick... except Nash never had Jay Sherman kick his ass.

[Bix]

I don't know what tops Kevin Nash becoming a millionaire by framing an elbow, dying his hair, getting wasted and standing around making funny faces.

Kinda like Andy Dick... except Nash never had Jay Sherman kick his ass.

So Nash is to the NWO as Dick is to Newsradio?

 

That works.

[Guest KCook]

Not sure exactly how we’re defining con here as entire point of wrestling is that it’s a con. “Ted Turner is out to get me†is a good rhetorical device but I always assumed that Vince knew it was nothing but rhetoric… this is the first I’ve heard of it being an actual Vince delusion. I want to hear more.

McMahon (per today's WON) told Dave that Turner was paying wrestlers and writers to trash him, and wanted to know if Dave would write this story when the truth came out. Dave just told him that Turner was not actually doing this, which Vince appears to have taken as proof of Dave's lack of integrity or balls or something. Seems like normal cokehead stuff to me.

[Phil Schneider]

Do we know exactly how much the ROH show cost to put on? Main added expense would be plane tickets, but Briscoes, American Dragon, Davey Richards, Rocky Romero, Nigel, Jimmy Rave,Sydal and Jack Evans were already on either NOAH or DG tours before or after the show, so I assume trans was paid by the Japaneese promotions. So they flew over Delerious, Strong, Whitmer and some office guys. They drew pretty well in both places, and I assume they sold a bunch of merch, so why do we think they lost much money at all?

[Guest teke184]

Not sure exactly how we’re defining con here as entire point of wrestling is that it’s a con. “Ted Turner is out to get me†is a good rhetorical device but I always assumed that Vince knew it was nothing but rhetoric… this is the first I’ve heard of it being an actual Vince delusion. I want to hear more.

McMahon (per today's WON) told Dave that Turner was paying wrestlers and writers to trash him, and wanted to know if Dave would write this story when the truth came out. Dave just told him that Turner was not actually doing this, which Vince appears to have taken as proof of Dave's lack of integrity or balls or something. Seems like normal cokehead stuff to me.

 

Sounds like normal Vince-logic, which does tend to coincide with cokehead logic.

 

 

If someone doesn't believe the wild story I tell them, they're on the take.

 

If they think my story idea sucks, then they're obviously here sabotaging my company.

 

Putting myself over all the wrestlers is a good idea, even though I only wrestle maybe twice a year.

[Bix]

Do we know exactly how much the ROH show cost to put on? Main added expense would be plane tickets, but Briscoes, American Dragon, Davey Richards, Rocky Romero, Nigel, Jimmy Rave,Sydal and Jack Evans were already on either NOAH or DG tours before or after the show, so I assume trans was paid by the Japaneese promotions. So they flew over Delerious, Strong, Whitmer and some office guys. They drew pretty well in both places, and I assume they sold a bunch of merch, so why do we think they lost much money at all?

The plan always involved losing money and shit's really expensive in Japan. I had no idea the tours lined up like that, I just had it in my head from the original idea that they'd be losing money.

[Phil Schneider]

Do we know exactly how much the ROH show cost to put on? Main added expense would be plane tickets, but Briscoes, American Dragon, Davey Richards, Rocky Romero, Nigel, Jimmy Rave,Sydal and Jack Evans were already on either NOAH or DG tours before or after the show, so I assume trans was paid by the Japaneese promotions. So they flew over Delerious, Strong, Whitmer and some office guys. They drew pretty well in both places, and I assume they sold a bunch of merch, so why do we think they lost much money at all?

The plan always involved losing money and shit's really expensive in Japan. I had no idea the tours lined up like that, I just had it in my head from the original idea that they'd be losing money.

 

Shit being expensive in Japan would include wrestling tickets and wrestling DVD's, so I imagine their gate and merch sales were bigger too.

[Guest KCook]

Not unless Silkin has business in Japan. The dollar is weak like a clean Rey Mysterio.

[sek69]

Of course, you would think somebody like Gabe, who worked for Paul Heyman for all of those years, would realize that the ultimate goal of a con is to make money, not live out some mark fantasy. Then again, I'm not sure Gabe realizes how badly he was conned by Heyman yet.

 

Heyman never seemed to grasp the ultimate goal of a con either.

 

However you have to admit becoming Jim Jones to the ECW mutants, preaching against the evils of the Big Two companies, all while WWF money kept them afloat has to rank up there with the most awesomest cons ever. I remember being personally shocked when I found out how long Vince was giving them money.

[ohtani's jacket]

What's the difference between ROH doing a show in Japan and CMLL?

[sek69]

CMLL could afford it?

[Bix]

CMLL was also not promoting those shows, just lending their name. CMLL Japan was promoted by Macho Pump.

[Jingus]

TNA cons anyone into listening to anything they have to say, ever: too many examples to name, but here's a new whopper.

 

Total Nonstop Action Wrestling says less than five percent of its grapplers have suffered in-the-ring injuries.

[kjh]

I don't know what tops Kevin Nash becoming a millionaire by framing an elbow, dying his hair, getting wasted and standing around making funny faces.

That reminds me of how Nash and Hall both got huge pay rises from Eric Bischoff in September 1996 because he was genuinely worried that they were returning to the WWF, even though they were under WCW contract, when the WWF started the whole fake Razor Ramon and Diesel angle. He also had a clause in his contract which stated that he had to be the second highest paid wrestler in the company behind Hogan (though out of the goodness of his own heart he did let Bret be paid more than him), guaranteeing himself several raises for doing sod all and his spot as a headliner.

 

What I admire the most about Nash though is how everyone by now should know that he's a carny con artist, yet he's still able to pull off cons like making TNA management believe he was willing to job for Chris Sabin and Wade Keller believe he's being completely honest in his shoot interviews with him.

[Loss]

Hulk Hogan cons WCW: There are plenty of examples of this, but my favorite is basically using the debut of Monday Nitro on TNT to hype his Pastamania restaurant and show off the menu, since the show took place in the Mall of America. Valuable air time, and WCW got nothing from it in return.

[Loss]

I don't know what tops Kevin Nash becoming a millionaire by framing an elbow, dying his hair, getting wasted and standing around making funny faces.

That reminds me of how Nash and Hall both got huge pay rises from Eric Bischoff in September 1996 because he was genuinely worried that they were returning to the WWF, even though they were under WCW contract, when the WWF started the whole fake Razor Ramon and Diesel angle. He also had a clause in his contract which stated that he had to be the second highest paid wrestler in the company behind Hogan (though out of the goodness of his own heart he did let Bret be paid more than him), guaranteeing himself several raises for doing sod all and his spot as a headliner.

 

What I admire the most about Nash though is how everyone by now should know that he's a carny con artist, yet he's still able to pull off cons like making TNA management believe he was willing to job for Chris Sabin and Wade Keller believe he's being completely honest in his shoot interviews with him.

 

Nash is great for being able to pull things off like this obviously, although with the favored nation thing, Hogan wasn't even paid for under WCW budget. He was technically an employee of Turner Home Entertainment. They moved him over so Bischoff could claim a (very, very small) profit for WCW in 1995, the first profitable year in the history of the company. Somewhere in there, there is at least one great con, probably two.

[Loss]

Brian Pillman cons the conmen: For one reason or another, booker Kevin Sullivan, possibly in league with Eric Bischoff, becomes enamored with the idea of tricking everyone - including the boys in the back - into thinking that his feud with Brian Pillman is a SH00T~!. Pillman gets in on the fun, calling Sullivan "bookerman" on a live PPV broadcast, and generally drawing the worked shoot ire of Eric Bischoff. To further work everyone who wasn't in on the angle, Pillman convinces Bischoff to give him a real release from his contract to make it look like Bischoff really fired him over his SH00T~! antics on TV. Bischoff complied, thinking this would really hammer home the notion that this was a SH00T~!. Having received his release from his WCW contract, Pillman immediately jumps ship to the WWF. Amazingly, Bischoff and Sullivan are never totally dissuaded from the notion that this particular brand of worked shoot angles are a bad idea, and Sullivan immediately gets to work on another one. As an indirect result, Chris, Nancy, and Daniel Benoit are dead. Oops.

I somehow missed this post before, but what an awesome post. 100% true.

[Boondocks Kernoodle]

Hulk Hogan cons WCW: There are plenty of examples of this, but my favorite is basically using the debut of Monday Nitro on TNT to hype his Pastamania restaurant and show off the menu, since the show took place in the Mall of America. Valuable air time, and WCW got nothing from it in return.

Would you really call that a con? To me, it just seems like a case of "Hey, guys, promote my restaurant." "Sure, Hulk!" I doubt there was much deception involved.

[Loss]

Hyping the restaurant is one thing, but it was a valuable hour of TV and they went pretty far with it.

 

Did WWE ever build a RAW entirely around Fozzy?

[Boondocks Kernoodle]

They didn't build the show around it. It was a promo that couldn't have lasted more than two minutes. The show featured Pillman beating Liger, a Sting-Flair match, the return of Luger, Hogan beating Big Bubba, the setup for the next week's Hogan-Luger match, a Sabu promo, a V.K. Wallstreet promo, Scott Norton brawling with Randy Savage, and Mean Gene announcing some dude as a contest winner. All of this was given more attention than Hogan promoting shilling for PASTAMANIA, BROTHER.

[kjh]

Did WWE ever build a RAW entirely around Fozzy?

Actually Chris Jericho stringing TNA along by allowing them to air a Fozzy music video wasn't a bad con.

[shoe]

Here's another Nash one. Nash becomes booker. He does the bannana peel finish for Misterio. He uses this as example that he the booker does jobs so the rest of the boys should do business. He eventually takes Rey's mask rendering him Mini Konnan and then putting himself over Goldberg to end his streak. He conned a lot of the other wrestlers that he the biggest of the big would do jobs for the smallest of the small. Reality was that he put himself over even more in the end.