The SmarK DVD Rant for Guest Booker with Greg Gagne
– Another one from kayfabecommentaries.com, this one a 100-minute interview with Greg Gagne about the attempts to create opposition for Vince McMahon in the form of Pro Wrestling USA, as he attempts to come up with a new strategy to tackle Vince.
– Greg sets the stage by talking about Vince’s talent raids at the time and how he would also steal the TV time from them, thus contradicting his stance about not trying to put anyone out of business. Well, I don’t think that’s a shock to anyone.
-So the plan is to do rotating TV shoots, moving from AWA arenas to JCP to Memphis to Georgia and so on. Verne used is connections with the old Dumont network to get onto WPIX in New York, which was a major hurdle jumped right there. Vince fired back by buying up all the dates in St. Paul’s arena for the following three years, which probably wasn’t legal, he notes in hindsight.
– First problem with the venture: David Crockett would go around at the joint shows signing up all the AWA’s talent because Jim Crockett got it into his head that he would go it alone. I’ve heard that story before and it’s pretty funny, actually. So Greg notes “Fuck Crockett, we’ll do this without him” and they brought in Jerry Jarrett and the Von Erichs instead. However, Jarrett decided to keep his share and tell his guys that Verne was supposed to pay them. That experience made him a little bitter towards the Southern promotions. He’s pretty sure he just talked himself out of a TNA position, too.
– Bill Watts was involved a little bit, but Bill got on Verne’s nerves and the relationship disintegrated.
– Greg talks about Vince’s attempts to buy the AWA in 1983, as Verne tried to buy out his partners to put the deal together, but Vince got impatient and declared “I don’t negotiate”, leaving the deal on the table and signing away Hulk Hogan instead. Hulk went to Japan and never came back to the AWA, quitting via telegram (which Verne thought was a rib by Eddie Graham). Greg says Hulk has never explained why he wouldn’t fill his dates before leaving.
– Greg formally rebukes the dumb story about Verne asking Iron Sheik to break Hogan’s leg, calling it bullshit and laughing about it.
– So after 30 minutes of background, we move onto the actual point of the DVD, as Greg attempts to book their opposition attempt, pretending like promoters didn’t have gigantic egos and everyone was able to play nicely. We’re pretending as well that everyone is going to defer to Verne and thus Greg gets the head booker spot with no questions asked.
– After talking about the differences in booking from territory to territory, they assemble the talent roster. From Mid-South he’d take Ted Dibiase, Steve Williams, Butch Reed and Kamala. From the indy scene he’d take Harley Race, the Funks, Sgt. Slaughter and Tony Atlas. From World Class he takes Kerry Von Erich, Jim Cornette (but not the Express, because he doesn’t think they get over nationally) and the Freebirds (despite some grumbling about them, to say the least), plus Jake Roberts. From Memphis, the Rock N Roll Express, Randy Savage and Jerry Lawler. From the AWA, Jerry Blackwell, Nick Bockwinkel, The Road Warriors, The High Flyers, Billy Robinson, Baron Von Rashke. From Crockett he takes Ric Flair, Dusty Rhodes, Magnum TA, Ole Anderson, Arn Anderson, Tully Blanchard, Ivan and Nikita Koloff. Well that’s quite the roster if you can convince anyone to lay down. From these, the champion is either going to be Flair or Bockwinkel according to Greg, but the interviewer says it’s gotta be Flair, hands down. Tag team champions are Rock N Roll Express, but Greg over-rules and says it’s Tully and Arn, managed by Jim Cornette.
– So the idea is to go from October 83 until April 84. Tully & Arn v. RNR takes us to December, with Ole adding to the heel side and the RNR bringing in Kerry Von Erich as their partner. Meanwhile, we want to book Flair an opponent, so Greg suggests Flair v. Bockwinkel as their end point. I know Greg is biased here, but was Bockwinkel REALLY that big of a deal on a national level? Anyway, the idea is that Flair escapes by the skin of his teeth for months while Bockwinkel goes over strong, so Flair does a draw with Dibiase and then Bockwinkel beats him in 20. Then Flair draws with Magnum and Bockwinkel beats him cleanly as well. Greg mixes Lawler in there but grumbles that no one knew him nationally at that point. Um, David Letterman ring a bell? Anyway, this turns into a lot of thinking and dead spots, as this really could have used some editing. The end result is Flair v. Bockwinkel for the World title, a cage match with Dusty & The Road Warriors v. Horsemen. And that’s the buildup.
– So now we assemble the supercard. Flair v. Bockwinkel, the cage match, Jake Roberts v. Sgt. Slaughter, a Bruiser Brody squash, High Flyers v. Rock N Roll Express, a Kerry squash, Ted Dibiase v. Butch Reed, and the Russians v. Martel & Hennig. Greg runs down the times and who goes over, and that’s it.
I’d call it interesting, but hardly entertaining, as it’s kind of fan-wankish at points, failing to take into account that people get hurt or leave or whatever. Greg freely acknowledges that none of it could ever happen, but it’s a neat look into the creative process. Given some of Greg’s pent-up anger against the business that seems to creep through here, though, I have to wonder if a standard shoot interview with him might not be more fun. Mildly recommended.
