The greatest cons in wrestling history

[Loss]

Where did the "I am a wrestler and I will kill you if you don't shut up" quote from Tanaka come from? And what was the exact quote?

[Strummer]

Eric Bischoff cons the WWE into Producing the Girls Gone Wild PPV: Bischoff has a financial stake in the project and gets the WWE to use it's Grad A Production crew to run the show (with I believe Kevin Dunn and "Big" John missing TVs for that week). First of all Panama City backs out due to the controversy. Strike 1. The show is a complete disaster that sees WWE backing out of doing nudity due to the fear it would hurt Torrie Wilson's Playboy sales. The show is a complete embarrassment that the company never mentions again on their television. The plan to run separate adult themed "Diva" PPVs is dropped as a result. All of this so Bischoff could make a few bucks.

[khawk20]

The ultimate con for me was the con perpetrated by the WWF that they were the "only game/best game/only thing that mattered in wrestling" starting in 1984.

 

Consider first that this con was aimed IMO at non-wrestling fans. It did work beautifully on casual viewers in this regard. Think about something as simple as a News station giving credit to all pro sports brawls in hockey, baseball, et al as "looking like something out of the WWF!". Now think of every sports station in the country making a claim along those lines, which did develop over time, for years on end, continuing to this very day.

 

That's just one example, but the brainwashing was brilliant as it begun in the news media and used them as a tool to implant the idea of "WWF" into the mentality of people everywhere, regardless of their love or hate of Pro Wrestling.

 

After 1984, everyone I ever talked to that despised pro wrestling always referred to the WWF while dissing wrestling.

 

Vince said "we're the best" over and over and over until everyone believed it, true or not. Promoting at it's best, some would say. but the target audience was not the wrestling fan as it existed pre-1984, it was the non-fan, and the development of the WWF as the representative symbols for pro wrestling as a whole in ALL situations, good or bad.

 

THAT is in my mind the greatest con ever perpetrated in pro wrestling history.

[Jingus]

I think that's beautifully proven true by this: how many times have you heard a non-wrestling-fan refer to something as "just like something out of the WWF", despite the fact that the company hasn't been called that in years? (Whether that says more about their previous marketing skills or their current abysmal brand-building ability is up for debate.)

[Jingus]

Here's a new one:

 

Pac-Man Jones cons TNA into signing him.

I guess someone's favorite Mania event ever was LT vs BBB.

[sek69]

Wow, this is why TNA needs to never go out of business. Just to keep bringing the awesome carny.

[Cox]

Dave Meltzer takes advantage of the Benoit situation, starts writing two Observers a week: I like Meltzer and I like the Observer and all...but c'mon, did we really need two Observers the past two weeks? Nothing significant has broken on the Benoit thing since the toxicology report has been released. He couldn't cram the past four issues into two 18-page issues?

[Johnny Guitar]

Bret "Hit them up for as much money as possible, man" Hart: Despite never being more than a modest draw at best, and never earning more than high 6 figures a year. Bret Hart works the WWF and WCW into a huge multi million dollar bidding war for his services, and ends up taking Vince for a million and Bischoff for 9 million.

[jdw]

Dave Meltzer takes advantage of the Benoit situation, starts writing two Observers a week: I like Meltzer and I like the Observer and all...but c'mon, did we really need two Observers the past two weeks? Nothing significant has broken on the Benoit thing since the toxicology report has been released. He couldn't cram the past four issues into two 18-page issues?

He's been doing the double issue spot for a while this year - before Benoit.

 

I'd have to go back and look to see which of the Benoit issues that I could do without. It's more likely that I could do without the entire backend of the WONs (Mexico section, Japan section, MMA Promotion sections, TNA section, WWE section) than any of the Benoit stuff.

 

I thought his long easy on what might/could be done to the business was a good read. It's Dave's writing style, so if one wants to knock it they can. But there was a lot of thought there that was worth reading.

 

I've found the coverage of the story, and this stretch of the WON, more interesting that a long "quiet" stretch of WWE and UFC PPV's. I confess to letting my sub lapse from time-to-time when getting bored by what's going on with this month's Smackdown! PPV.

 

John

[Loss]

Bret "Hit them up for as much money as possible, man" Hart: Despite never being more than a modest draw at best, and never earning more than high 6 figures a year. Bret Hart works the WWF and WCW into a huge multi million dollar bidding war for his services, and ends up taking Vince for a million and Bischoff for 9 million.

I wouldn't say that's completely accurate. I mean, yes, that's what happened, but Bret would have initially gone with the higher WCW offer if he was only out to get more money. Vince told him he was going to intentionally breach his contract and to go to WCW, which is the reason he got that deal back.

 

Bret was never a huge US draw, but he was the key draw in most of the WWF's international tours from 1992-1996 or so. And while he obviously doesn't deserve sole credit, Summerslam '92 was huge with him and Davey Boy on top.

[kjh]

I'd say it was Vince who was the one doing all the conning. I'm very sceptical that Vince ever intended to fulfill the terms of the 20 year contract that he gave Bret. Given that Vince conned Bret's father Stu in a similar manner over the sale of the Stampede territory, Bret really should have known better than to trust Vince to abide such a lengthy contract. When Vince decided to kick Bret to the kerb, he orchestrated things so Bret could fleece WCW for as much money as possible and then lured a gullible Bret into the Montreal screwjob.

[Guest STAN]

That would be accurate with the least amount of revisionist history involved.

[Bix]

How the hell did I forget this?

 

Konnan solicits a kidney donation via his MySpace: Seriously.

[Cox]

How the hell did I forget this?

 

Konnan solicits a kidney donation via his MySpace: Seriously.

Is it really a con if it's necessary for survival?

[Bix]

How the hell did I forget this?

 

Konnan solicits a kidney donation via his MySpace: Seriously.

Is it really a con if it's necessary for survival?

 

If you get it via your MySpace with help from Rob Feinstein then it's a con.

[sek69]

Ronnie P Gossett's passing marked Dave's remembrance of one of the great cons when Ronnie sold half of Memphis (that he didn't own) to some unsuspecting money mark. He went to jail for it, so I guess he didn't learn how to finish it properly like Lawler did.

[Guest *FH*]

Kevin Nash cons WCW for his release: From a shoot interview with Nash. Nash was working as Vinnie Vegas and wanted to get out of his WCW contract and go to the WWF. He was friends with Barry Windham who, at the time, was tight with WCW management. During a road trip, a "sullen, quiet" Nash confided to Windham that he his wife was going to leave him unless he got out of wrestling. Word of Nash's predicament got to Ole through Windham and Anderson immediately signed Nash's release, I guess because he wanted to save Nash's marriage. Nash walked right out of Ole's office and faxed the release to then WWF head of talent relations J.J. Dillon.

[Johnny Sorrow]

Kevin Nash cons WCW for his release: From a shoot interview with Nash. Nash was working as Vinnie Vegas and wanted to get out of his WCW contract and go to the WWF. He was friends with Barry Windham who, at the time, was tight with WCW management. During a road trip, a "sullen, quiet" Nash confided to Windham that he his wife was going to leave him unless he got out of wrestling. Word of Nash's predicament got to Ole through Windham and Anderson immediately signed Nash's release, I guess because he wanted to save Nash's marriage. Nash walked right out of Ole's office and faxed the release to then WWF head of talent relations J.J. Dillon.

That's all kinds of spectacular.

[Cox]

Pacman Jones cons TNA into thinking he's going to make a difference: TNA signs Jones to a contract, not thinking that maybe the Titans would seriously object to Jones actually wrestling when he might get hurt, when they're already losing out on him for a year. The Titans get a restraining order against Pacman wrestling, then negotiate a deal where Pacman can't do anything physical while in TNA, which all parties make sure to make as public as possible, killing any interest non-wrestling sports fans may have in this. Of course, there's evidence that nobody ever cared to begin with, as TNA's ratings actually dropped for Pacman's first episode of Impact. But hey, at least people were mentioning TNA's name!

[S.L.L.]

Pacman Jones cons TNA into thinking he's going to make a difference: TNA signs Jones to a contract, not thinking that maybe the Titans would seriously object to Jones actually wrestling when he might get hurt, when they're already losing out on him for a year. The Titans get a restraining order against Pacman wrestling, then negotiate a deal where Pacman can't do anything physical while in TNA, which all parties make sure to make as public as possible, killing any interest non-wrestling sports fans may have in this. Of course, there's evidence that nobody ever cared to begin with, as TNA's ratings actually dropped for Pacman's first episode of Impact. But hey, at least people were mentioning TNA's name!

So true. And along those general lines....

 

Vince Russo cons himself into thinking that being talked about is more important than (or at least equal to) actually making money: He's certainly not the only wrestling power figure ever to do it, but he may be the only one to more or less build his entire booking philosophy around it. Years after WCW went out of business, he still insists the David Arquette winning the WCW Title was a rousing success. It got WCW on the cover of USA Today! Clearly, that kind of mainstream publicity is way more important than actually making money. Right? I mean, in a lot of ways, it's just an extension of the Monday Night Wars mindset, where winning the weekly ratings battle was deemed more important than most everything else, even though there's not much money to be made in TV ratings compared to PPV, touring, and merchandise. But Russo really epitomized the worst excesses of that mindset, and he really didn't even drive up ratings that much.

[Bix]

Russo's mind was probably further warped by his contract with WCW specifying that he'd get bonuses based off ratings increases. Not increases in buyrates or overall revenue, just ratings.

[Cox]

I was thinking about this one recently:

 

Gabe Sapolsky cons Dave Meltzer into thinking Ring of Honor is a good wrestling promotion: Ever notice how Meltzer will receive ROH's biggest shows almost immediately after they happen (Kobashi vs. Joe and the first Manhattan Center show come immediately to mind), but how Meltzer will almost never review almost anything else? In particular, other than the recent PPV show, I can't remember the last Ring of Honor show Dave talked about in the Observer, during a time period where everybody is saying how bad ROH has been. It's become clear that Gabe picks and chooses which shows he sends to Meltzer, the shows he knows are good, so that way he can get the money quote in the Observer so he can sell DVD's based on the quote. Meltzer doesn't see the really awful stuff, so the bad ROH shows don't get negative reviews in the Observer (which would probably turn off a good part of the core ROH viewing audience) and Gabe can somehow win the Best Booker award in the WON after Meltzer puts over the hand-picked shows Gabe has sent him. It's almost shrewd of Gabe, although giving away ROH booking plans for Dave to print in the Observer kills any benefit of that. Seriously, Gabe worked for Paul Heyman for years, didn't he ever learn about the idea of using the Observer for misdirection and lies?

[kjh]

Seriously, Gabe worked for Paul Heyman for years, didn't he ever learn about the idea of using the Observer for misdirection and lies?

Isn't that what he uses the more gullible Wade Keller for?

[Bix]

Seriously, Gabe worked for Paul Heyman for years, didn't he ever learn about the idea of using the Observer for misdirection and lies?

Isn't that what he uses the more gullible Wade Keller for?

 

I thought that was what he uses Mike Johnson for.

[maxpower]

I was thinking about this one recently:

 

Gabe Sapolsky cons Dave Meltzer into thinking Ring of Honor is a good wrestling promotion: Ever notice how Meltzer will receive ROH's biggest shows almost immediately after they happen (Kobashi vs. Joe and the first Manhattan Center show come immediately to mind), but how Meltzer will almost never review almost anything else? In particular, other than the recent PPV show, I can't remember the last Ring of Honor show Dave talked about in the Observer, during a time period where everybody is saying how bad ROH has been. It's become clear that Gabe picks and chooses which shows he sends to Meltzer, the shows he knows are good, so that way he can get the money quote in the Observer so he can sell DVD's based on the quote. Meltzer doesn't see the really awful stuff, so the bad ROH shows don't get negative reviews in the Observer (which would probably turn off a good part of the core ROH viewing audience) and Gabe can somehow win the Best Booker award in the WON after Meltzer puts over the hand-picked shows Gabe has sent him. It's almost shrewd of Gabe, although giving away ROH booking plans for Dave to print in the Observer kills any benefit of that. Seriously, Gabe worked for Paul Heyman for years, didn't he ever learn about the idea of using the Observer for misdirection and lies?

Actually, on the figure four site podcast, Meltzer has stated that he watches almost all of the ROH DVDs, and that it's his favorite promotion to watch. I can't recall the actual quote but he stated that he feels most of their shows are very good, especially the main events. Guess Meltzer is just a ROHbot.