WWE Confidential Report 6-15-02
Submitted by Chris Fothergill-Brown on Sunday, June 16, 2002 at 3:09 AM EST



What do *I* think about the Steve Austin situation? I’m playing wait and
see. Last time a crop of main eventers disappeared at the same time, people
predicted doom – and things turned out better than okay. Judge the
federation by the quality of feuds, who’s main eventing, and not who’s
missing.

That said, I’m betting WWE really wants us to pick sides. We’ll see…

Sleazy music.

TONIGHT: Steve Austin took his ball and went home. He’s a
coward, and no one saw it coming.

Gene Okerlund is back, and looking REAL happy with all the dirt around him
this week. Steve Austin walked off the job on Monday night, and have left a
lot of people scratching their heads. Are his days with the WWE over? Jim
Ross and Vince McMahon will answer that later. But first…

Bobby “The Brain” Heenan! He’s one of the most recognized faces in Sportz
Entertainment history. Hulk Hogan even credited him as a key factor in
Hulkamania’s success. Bob Costas called him the smartest man in wrestling.
Unfortunately recently, he found himself in a situation he couldn’t talk his
way out of.

A clip of WWF Primetime is shown – where he tells Monsoon next week the show
is his and he’ll never see Gorilla again!

Bobby Heenan’s here. And noticeably lisping. He’s got cancer from his right
side all the way to underneath his tongue. After the doctors told him he had
an 80% chance on making it, he decided not to waste his time feeling bad.
He’s got other things he wants to do. He took his medicine, he took his
chemo, and is actually on a feeding tube. He hasn’t had a solid meal since
last August or September.

He still wants to travel, do commercials, and he has a good coming out. He
never had time to write the book before because he was always on the road,
and is happy he had a chance to do it. He’s been part of the biz since 1961.
He always wanted to be a manager, but wrestled because there was more money.
His style was simple: He snuck doing everything he did and took hard bumps
to keep the people happy. He patterned himself after Buddy Rogers, Ray
Stevens, and Pat Patterson. But as far as stand up guys went – Jack Lanza
and Gorilla Monsoon were the guys he looked up to.

Arn Anderson says Bobby Heenan does NOT hand out compliments real easily,
and he thought as much of Gorilla Monsoon as anyone else on the planet.
Bobby agrees, saying he didn’t have as much fun as doing Primetime with
Monsoon. The chemistry was just there. Steve Lombardi remembers the fact
that you never knew what Heenan was going to say. Arn says he’s as funny as
anyone he’s ever heard. Heenan says they didn’t rehearse anything – they
just did it and Vince likes it that way.

He was in town for a baseball game when the WWF came to the Garden. He went
to work there and met Vince – and he made you feel like you’d found the job
you wanted for the rest of your life. He’s demanding, but you knew it was
going to take off and be the biggest thing ever.

Vince went right to the Garden with Wrestlemania. When Mr. T came out, he
knew it was the greatest thing he’d ever seen. Backstage, he toasted Vince
with a beer and told him “here’s to Wrestlemania 2!”. Vince told him “no,
here’s to Wrestlemania 102!”.

When you work for the WWF, it’s a different feeling. It’s like being called
up from Toledo to the Yankees. If you’re no good, you’re right back to the
minors. The number one promotion had the number one talent.

Arn felt that Bobby Heenan was so over with the fans that he often
overshadowed the wrestlers he managed because he was so hated.

In 1988, for some reason he was inducted on to the All Madden Team despite
never having played football in his life. His name is right there under
Coach.

He had a great run in the WWF. His daughter was going to university so he
wanted to be a little closer to her down south, then WCW called. All he had
to do was sit there and talk. The production was poor, but he was paid. He
didn’t feel they knew how to produce a wrestling show, and they especially
didn’t know who Bobby Heenan was. They just wanted him to be an announcer.
Nobody there cared. (HAH! Great clip for that comment – as they show Bobby
freaking out at Halloween Havoc 1995 when The Giant fell off the roof only
to have Tony sit there like a dumbass and tell him the show has to go on.
They couldn’t have picked it any better!) He took his cheque every two weeks
and went home, but he lost his creative juices.

When they went under, he called the WWF, and they asked him to come to
Wrestlemania for the Battle Royal. It was a world of difference to him.
Everyone asked him how he was, and it was like he’d never left. He hated to
leave when it was over that night. He loved being with professional people
and people who care.

He can’t talk as well anymore, but he wouldn’t trade his life for anything
in his life.

STILL TO COME: Vince McMahon bashes Steve Austin.

BEFORE THEY WERE SUPERSTARS

Kurt Angle grew up in Pittsburgh. The one thing the city took pride in was
the sports. In the 70’s they won 4 Superbowls, and 2 World Series titles.

When the referee raised his hand in Atlanta, his first thought was relief.
He finally accomplished his dream. He held his gold medal and started
crying.

David Angle, Kurt’s brother had to contain his mother. She couldn’t walk
down the steps her legs were so numb.

He was a very lovable kid, always had a smile. He was very affectionate and
didn’t want to hurt anyone. His brothers wanted him to be tougher, which
helped push him to be a better athlete.

David recalls Friday Night Fights. Eric and Kurt would put the gloves on and
duke it out until one of ‘em wound up crying. Kurt and his dad would play a
game called Machine, where his dad would tie him up in knots until Kurt had
enough.

His first wrestling memory was when he was 7. At his first tournament, he
walked in and played with the other kids before the tournament. In his first
match he got pinned. He learned that if he was going to continue, it would
be a slow process.

He never enjoyed the practice, but he looked forward to it because he knew
he’d be better. They’d take him through some gruelling practices – but it’s
the way he wanted it.

Kurt points out a building his dad built. The building behind it was the one
he died at – when he fell off the crane and landed on his head. Kurt was
determined from that day forward to be the best at wrestling, which is what
the family took the most pride in.

In college he went from 214 pounds to 199. In the finals he met a guy who
was 6’7” and 270 pounds – and actually managed to beat him to win his second
college championship.

He shows off his sheets from one month of training. He’d run up steep hills
with a partner on his back. He worked 253 hours in a month. He did this to
build his stamina and help his dream come true.

The Olympics was what he meant to do, but the WWF was his calling. There’s
nobody more legit than him, since he’s an amateur turned pro. And it’s been
the time of his life.

Alright kids, here’s what you’ve been waiting for. The cover story’s up
next.

Two weeks ago, Steve Austin went on Byte This to vent his frustration. But
it didn’t end there. Just hours before RAW went on the air, Austin took off.
Fans may have believed this is part of the show, but it’s not. And the Stone
Cold era may be done.

Clips are played from Steve Austin’s appearance on Byte This where he
sounded off about the direction, followed by Vince’s appearance where he
said that Austin can be difficult to work with at times, but that’s just
Stone Cold. Then at RAW, Flair states Austin didn’t show…

Vince: “Austin for whatever reason was hell bent on not showing. He got on
the plane and went home. He took his ball and went home, and obviously, I’m
pissed off.”

JR: “He was the lead performer advertised to be at that event at a major
venue, and he didn’t fulfill his obligations. He decided to go home. That’s
wrong.”

Vince: “I had a phone call from JR, who’s in charge of talent relations at
about 10:00, 10:30 Sunday night, informing me that Austin wasn’t terribly
excited about the creative that we had set for him on Monday.”

JR: “He mentioned on Sunday that he wanted things changed or he wasn’t
coming to work, and I said you know that’s not the way you handle your
problems, that’s not the way you do business, and that’s not the way we do
business. So I asked him to talk to Vince, and he said no, and I asked him
how come, and there was just a lot of aversion there, he was very
uncomfortable about talking to the owner of the company about his issues.
He’s never been in the past until the past few months.”

Vince: “I then immediately called Austin on his cell phone and told him no
matter what hour it was he got this message to call me. So about 2 o’clock
in the morning he called me, so that began my Monday. I went through the
entire creative process with him, explaining how this was good for him and
good for the company, and he said alright. So in any event, not that I
needed his approval, but it’s always important when you’re working with
talent to have them buy in to what it is you’re trying to do because they
feel a lot better about it – they feel a part of the creative process, and
that is what I attempted to do and thought I had done.”

JR: “When I got to the Phillips Arena on Monday, I was informed through our
travel service that he had independently made a call. And he booked himself
and his wife flights home.”

Vince: “He tried to do this in a way that no one would even know that he
wasn’t going to be at the event.”

JR: “At that point I started calling him again, and left several messages
and I finally got through to him when I think he was boarding the plane.
‘Cause I heard flight attendants talking with him ‘how you doing’ and I
heard him sit in his seat, so we had a very frank conversation. He made a
mistake, he screwed up. And he had no business going home. I did most of the
talking in that conversation. In our other talks over the past two or three
weeks over this situation, he’s done most of the talking. And I’d listened
long enough.”

Vince: “He had done this once before, and both myself and JR had the
conversation that you can’t ever walk off the job like this. This is the
only unpardonable sin perhaps that there is in our business, because fans
are expected to see you. When you don’t show, it’s the worst thing that can
happen. So we had the history of this happening the day after Wrestlemania,
and I just chalked it up to burnout. That’s what he said, and I had to take
him at face value.”

JR: “That’s not the Stone Cold that I know. It hurts. He made a big mistake.
He didn’t admit he made a mistake, but I said it to him more than once. I
told him to get his ass off the airplane and come to work. Face the man eye
to eye, go into a closed room, I’d go in there if I was asked or needed or
wanted, and would help expedite out a conversation to help settle his
issues. If at the end of that conversation we were not able to come to a
mutual understanding, clear the air, then he should get his ass home and
stay home. He made the biggest mistake of his professional career.”

Vince: “From a business standpoint, I look into the mirror firstly when
things like this happen and say what could I done to change this, what could
I have done not to have this happen. And I don’t know that answer, I’ll
accept whatever blame I can put on myself in terms of lack of communication
or whatever, but when someone won’t speak to you, when someone won’t come to
work and discuss intelligently how to get out of something, my hands are
tied then. Here before whatever disagreement he and I had, we always sat
down and always worked it out. We always say eachother’s point of view, we
always worked that way. When someone won’t sit down with you, they refuse to
show up, they’ve screwed you.”

JR: “Being senior vice president of talent relations and being Stone Cold’s
friend theoretically was I guess a conflict of interest. That’s my fault.
Vince talked about looking in the mirror, I’ve got no problem looking in the
mirror, I’m the guy that’s responsible for talent. Me. If you can’t solve a
problem, you’re eliminated. Stone Cold eliminated himself from the solution
without giving us a chance to solve the problem. He took himself out of the
game. Vince McMahon didn’t, JR didn’t, Jim Ross didn’t… Steve Williams took
Steve Austin out of the game, and put him in San Antonio. I’m gonna take a
lot of responsibility for this deal. And there’s gonna be a lot of things
written, you know half the crap you read is wrong. Didn’t want to do this,
didn’t want to do that, people have active imaginations that just want to
stir crap. Bottom line is, he’s got some issues that maybe someday will be
revealed, maybe someday will really be explored by the public because that’s
what the public wants. That’s why I’m doing this interview now, because
people want to know. And quite frankly, this company wouldn’t be where it is
today without our fans. On that night there were kids in Stone Cold
t-shirts, there were people there that had posters, those fans had made him
a very, very wealthy man.”

Vince: “You know when you have an investment like we had in Stone Cold Steve
Austin, it was a tremendous investment, hours and hours of hard work on his
part as well as ours. I don’t know you can’t calculate the loss of this
investment for the long term. 10 years from now Austin would not have been
in the ring, but 10 years from now Stone Cold Steve Austin as a part of
World Wrestling Entertainment would have been making speeches, personal
appearances, things of that nature. He would always be Stone Cold Steve
Austin, and so that investment we made, he took that and flushed it down the
toilet.”

JR: “This is a very unique business, I think maybe sometimes the things that
go on behind the scenes are more intriguing and more thought provoking than
what we broadcast. I don’t know what his problems are, I don’t know why
someone who could be the biggest name in the history of sportz entertainment
could say I’m not going to come to work, I’m not going to talk things out
with the people who have helped me because I’m pissed off, I’m unhappy,
because I can’t take it anymore. And I’m not big on psychiatrists, getting
on the couch time, I’ve gotta have a sabbatical, and I’ve gotta have time,
and all that bullshit. A man’s a man, and he’s always been a man’s man. He
was the first man in the building, and the last man to leave. And why all of
a sudden we can’t be trusted, and the people who have spent hours and hours
with him on a lot of tough situations let me tell you, a lot of tough
personal situations, why we’re not trust worthy now. I’m gonna go home. I’m
very disappointed. I’m damn sure disappointed. He’s been in my home many
many times, I’ve been in his home many times. I was the only person in this
company who was invited to his wedding. I felt that to be a very big
privilege, I was honoured to be there and I’d do it again. But we’ve gotta
re-evaluate where we are as human beings. As Jim Ross and Steve Williams.
Not Good Ol’ JR with the black hat which I’m not wearing today because I’m
not Good Ol’ JR, and Steve Williams my friend that’s been affected, and I’d
like to see it someday put back to where it was. But I don’t know how in
god’s name how that’s gonna happen, because I don’t know when I’m gonna see
him, I don’t know when he’s gonna communicate. I don’t know what’s wrong
with him, I don’t know how you can just turn your back and go home. I
couldn’t do it. I wouldn’t do it, I don’t care how bad things are. We’ve all
done things here that we’re uncomfortable doing. I’ve had pig shit poured
all over me in a pig pen, I’ve kissed Mr. McMahon’s ass, I’ve been beat up
by a woman…I’ve had a lot of things happen here. And it’s because we want to
entertain people, it’s a thing we all believed we were going to do in that
program and we did it as a team effort. You win here as a team and you lose
here as a team. But you don’t just turn your back and say I won’t do this
and go home. Maybe someday the real story is going to come out as to why he
made this decision. Only he knows. I don’t know.”

Vince: “I’m personally hurt. Steve was a friend of mine. I have no idea what
motivation, what could possibly motivate him to walk off the job like a
child, take his ball and go home. I’m angry about it. At the same time from
a professional level, I always feel like I’ve failed when something like
this happens. I always thought I went the extra mile for Stone Cold, more
than anyone I’ve ever worked with. I’ve always felt I bent over backwards
for him. And this hurts. But he did what he did knowing the consequences.
This is not a publicity stunt, this is something that’s sad, and that’s what
we’re confronted with, this is sad. Just walking off, he spits in the face
of everyone who ever supported him, he spits in the face of everyone in this
organization who helped him become the talent that he is. It’s sad.”

Vince: “Whenever there is hardship, whenever something occurs in life that
you don’t expect, those that are the survivors try to take something
negative and turn it into something positive. That’s what we’ve always done
here in World Wrestling Entertainment. Where there’s an opportunity like
there is now, Austin was a huge superstar, as such he meant so much to our
company. Without him here, notwithstanding the devastating effect on our
company, it makes room for other superstars here y to go to the top.”

JR: “It’s time for the players to play. We’re gonna find out who is gonna be
main event level stars. I believe we have a lot of potentially great ones.
And we have some established stars who need to get back to the top of their
game too. But it’s gonna create opportunity. And I believe the benefactors
of it will be our fans, because they’re gonna see new situations, new
rivalries, new stars, different opportunities to live their dreams just like
Stone Cold Steve Austin lived his dream in this company. I think the WWE is
gonna be just fine. I hope Steve Williams is gonna be just fine.”

Vince: “The door is not open for him to return, and I’ll tell you why.
Because again, I have a responsibility to our stock holders, a
responsibility to our fans, and I too have to look in the mirror. And when
someone walks out on you without even telling you as he did the day after
Wrestlemania, and I chalked that up to burnout, and all of the sudden they
do it again, especially when I talked to that person that same day, the
morning of that same day, and they intentionally walk out without informing
you or anybody else in the organization that they’re not gonna be there,
then as a business man how could I trust that man to come back, to build him
up again, then what, just so he can walk out for a third time? So I never
say never in this business, but I don’t know how I could do business with
him.”

JR: “I just don’t know how anybody could trust him, because what’s gonna
happen in the next bump in the road? Gonna go home again? I think that goes
for anybody on our roster. If you don’t want to be a part of the team, and
take this company to the promised land, then you can take your ass home.
Don’t waste anybody’s time. Pack your bag, and go. But be professional
enough about it to do it the right way. I got kicked in the guts. I was sick
all day Monday. I was physically ill. You’re damn right. Hell to me he was
John Wayne. He never, never retreated. He broke his god damn neck and fought
back to come back and be the top guy here. (Near tears) That’s guts,
conviction, belief in what he does for a living. He’s gone through a
horrendous divorce. Injuries, personal problems in that regard, and he came
back and pulled the wagon. All of a sudden, the wagon got too heavy in his
mind’s eye, and he went home. It’d be like John Wayne becoming a coward in a
big fight, and you’d never see it coming. I didn’t see this coming. And it
hurt me. Most people probably won’t give a damn about me, because I’ll be
back on TV Monday night kicking ass because I love my job. With or without
Stone Cold. Would it be better if he were there? Yes. Stone Cold ain’t gonna
be on RAW Monday night. Stone Cold ain’t gonna be on RAW again as far as I
know.”

WWE SNICKERS REWIND: 1993 – Gene Okerlund, Bobby Heenan, and
some poor camera man (who they don’t acknowledge!!!) are trying to hitch a
ride.

Gene and Bobby Heenan are on the March to Wrestlemania in 1993 – and Gene
finds the Executive Office. He tells Heenan to go in and take a look while
he guards. Okerlund laughs up a storm, pulling off the sign to reveal the
women’s bathroom. Dig the evil laugh!

Okerlund takes us in to a series of classic Bobby Heenan one liners and
sketches.

Here’s a look at the Warrior / Bobby Heenan Weasel Suit Match. Heenan gets
knocked out cold and is forced to wear the suit. Pat Patterson says he was
laughing so hard watching Heenan trip and fall all over trying to get out of
the suit. Arn calls him the ultimate bad guy that people loved to hate.

Bobby wonders how many people got the chance to do the wonderful things he’s
done – and calls himself lucky.

Gene plugs Heenan’s book “Bobby The Brain – Wrestling’s Bad Boy Tell’s All”
is going to be out in September.

NEXT WEEK: A far lighter topic as we get up close and personal
with Stacy Keibler.

You’re welcome. Goodnight!

Chris F-B
chriscfgb@hotmail.com
http://cfgb.freeservers.com








*NEW GALLERY* Hot Shots of WWE's Other Milena, Milena Roucka! WOW!

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