Vincent J. McMahon

You can argue, argue the Ultimate Warrior.

He was Vince's pet project.

They were booing him on every house show because he was destroying the Andre the Giant in a minute and a half.

And they were pushing water uphill with him as well to a point.

So was Bruno, how was he paid? Was he paid a salary?

salary?Maybe he was paid as a percentage on the gate, I think it was.

That he'd get a certain percentage, and then I think later years he accused Vince Sr of, uh, fudging the numbers-

Mm-hmm

And, you know, you add to that, you know, he had, he had points in Puerto Rico.

He was certainly one of, uh, Vince McMahon Sr.'s confidants, uh, as well.

But generally, I think people are voting based on, you know, his, his commentary work during that, that '80s period with Ventura and with Heenan.

His supporters are-

Bruno found out about it from Bill Watts.

Bruno went to Vince Sr. with it, and it never happened.

And Bill Watts was rewarded for his loyalty for not going along with this plan or feeding into it by eventually getting to turn heel for real and getting a big money program with Bruno Sammartino, which he did.

Now, when this was shared, Dave Meltzer posted something on Twitter about how he wasn't sure if this had really ever happened because he had spoken to Bruno about it and Bruno had never mentioned any story like this.

The WWWF.

Vince McMahon Sr.

He understood the importance of representation.

Vince's territory was New York.

We identify with people who look like us, sound like us, come from similar backgrounds as us.

It's human nature.

And Vince McMahon Sr. knew that.

However, Vincent Kennedy McMahon, VKM, eventually, when he took the company national, focused less on individual ethnic enclaves He then started to focus on the only culture he cared about saturating.

It's, most of it's behind the scenes, under the radar.

Well, the thing is, you have to understand that with V- even going back to Vince Sr., ticket prices and the shows were geared towards families.

And prices were, you could say reasonable, depending on the era and what money was worth at that point.

And, and Vince Jr. basically kept that still all on that same lines.

I don't know if that's the case today because everything is big events, very few house shows anymore, or major cities.

Uh, it went all the way back to Vince Sr.

And then Vince Jr. wanted d- uh, carry that forward.

Just remember, uh, what, you know, when we did television taping and when merchandising was just coming out, you know, we papered the first two rows around the ring in Allentown and Hamburg.

In 19- in 1969, he's in a mid-card s- situation in the AWA, jobbing and drawing with Larry "The Ax" Hennig and the Vashons, passing through Houston on early matches in October.

The Blackjack Mulligan character, black hat, claw, Western menace, does not lock in until the early '70s when Vince J. McMahon puts him in the WWWF and pairs him up with a guy named Jack Lanza as the Blackjacks under the management of Bobby Heenan.

That team is the national version of the heat Hart had been building in Dallas with other men.

The Texas payoff comes later.

The next day, he said in the paper, it said Dusty Rhodes defeats superstar Billy Graham, the new WWF champion.

And he said he looked over at Vince as he put the belt on, Vince Sr., and he said he gave him that look like, you son of a...

Adrian said, okay.

He got the pictures done, took the belt off, and told the referee, grab it, take it.

I didn't realize that until today.

No, I, I, you know, I knew when, when, when Vince made that decision because that, that doesn't happen unless the steroid trials.

That's, there's so many butterfly effect things-

Yeah

And, and that, that, that decision I understand, but I, I, I don't think anyone knew that that was going to be a statement on the old guard versus the new guard.

It, it, everything changed after that.

And it was butterfly effect, 'cause you had the WCW pressure, which started leaning on Vince, and which forced you over there.

You meet a guy like Eric, who's like, "Yeah, fucking go crazy, bro.

If it wasn't created by Vince, he wasn't going to push him.

But now we look at his father, Vince Sr., who brings you in.

And Dan, you can eliminate that picture at this point because we're going to move on to a topic that I think is really important.

you're brought in not as an enhancement talent or as somebody who's going to, you know, start at the bottom.

You are immediately placed in a position where you are considered a serious threat to Bob Backlund, who is the world champion.

So I have to ask if Vince Sr.'s audience was already familiar with the Masked Superstar, or did you have to kind of introduce the character from scratch?

Well, you know, I don't know if they knew of me from... ted turner's channel or not uh you would know i mean did you get that up there at that time channel what was it uh

yeah well i mean i was so i was still too young to be watching but i mean that's how i learned about nwa in like 88 89 was wcw saturday night on tbs so yeah