Arn Anderson on Bill Watts' mismanagement of WCW
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 21 ต.ค. 2024
- Nobody had a career like Arn Anderson. For more than three decades he has been the epitome of “old school.” Hear him as you’ve never heard him before every Tuesday at 6am Eastern as you gives you a peak behind the curtain for the first time ever. Each week Conrad Thompson will examine Arn’s days in the territories, becoming an Anderson, creating the Four Horsemen in the NWA, becoming a Hall of Famer, and being a producer behind the scenes for years for WWE proving “The Enforcer” has a story unlike anyone else. Known for his trademark Spinebuster and incredible “promos” in front of the camera, it’s his timing and wit that has kept “the boys” in stitches behind the scenes. Hear for yourself why ARN is the new “symbol of excellence” in professional wrestling podcasting exclusively on Westwood One Podcast Network, Tuesdays at 6am Eastern.
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I remember being eight years old or so and watching Eric watts beating Arn and other guys in complete disbelief . The guy didn't fit the picture .
And from what I've heard in interviews over the years, is that guys would be pissed (understandably so) over his getting the push, even though it wasn't his doing, and he was actually a pretty nice guy. And because if it, he gets ostracized from a lot of boys.
Watts should have sent his son to NJPW to improve overall.
I think Eric had potential but his dad while trying to help him actually did the opposite and killed the kids career before it started
i don't believe you had that level of understanding at eight, that most adults in 1992 didn't have. that sounds like retcon memory tbh
@@grawakendream8980 yes I absolutely did .
Watts was used to being an OWNER...when you're the man, you can be a bully like that, but he was ill suited to run a corporate wrestling company like WCW...especially one with goofy accounting like Turner had.
that saturday night logo at the time was 🔥
Also loved the jazz into theme.
The game had past Watts. He peaked in mid south from 81 thru 84
A trick : you can watch movies at Flixzone. Me and my gf have been using them for watching all kinds of movies these days.
@Drew Sam Definitely, have been using Flixzone for years myself :D
@@drewsam6387 spam?
I’d say 81 to 87. UWF was fire
Reminds me of Cornette telling the story about Nick Gulas’ kid telling his opponent in the ring “Daddy said sell for me!”
Whenever I hear that story, I always think of Junior from Smokey and the Bandit lol
@@karlepaul6632 lmao
@@0tt0z 😆👍
And proof why we should take Corny's analysis with a grain of salt. Jim Herd's WCW was demonstrably superior to Bill Watts. Any objective metric, shows that Jim Herds wrestling business mind was superior to Bill Watts, period...but Corny will still say Watts is a genius and Herd a moron.
@@karlepaul6632 to
Watts was right though. WCW's mismanagement of money ended up putting them out of business. I have no doubt though Watts was a prick about it.
Bill Watts also has said that no one inside Turner Broadcasting wanted anything to do with wrestling. They wanted to replace WCW with a movie. Kevin Nash has also said that.
He was right in a sense, but there were better ways to do it. I think Bischoff when he came in demonstrated that.
Bill Watts was brought in to be a clean up man. WCW at the time was a mess. It was poorly managed, the wrestlers were out of control and, there was too much overhead. It was bloated. Cleaning up a company is never pleasant and Watts may have gone too deep in the cuts of both money and talent. But, the company did sometime after Watts.
That Arn story about getting time off is classic
Watt’s cutting catering reminds me of the scene in Moneyball where the free agent player is shocked to realize that In the Oakland Club house players have to bring dollar bills and quarters if they want a bottle of cold Gatorade/Powerade from the machines.
Given that rules require that bother locker rooms must have the same level of amenities provided by the host team this means that whenever this player came in before while on a visiting team the equipment manager on that team must have gone out of his way not to let his players have to deal with this.
Watts did what most business owners do they always try to incorporate their family into the business even if they have talent or not. Vince did it also in WWF/E and Verne Gagne did it in AWA along with Fritz in World Class Stu Hart in Stampede
Luckily for Vince his kids got charisma. Linda's another story
@@Tony-fq5bn Yeah Stephanie for sure
The difference is, Shane was able to take insane bumps and Stephanie is a good annoying bitchy heel. Erik Watts was useless
@@dibslin985 Useless? Some may disagree
@@dibslin985 , Ol' Stephanie could take a few bumps, OOOOH YEEEAH!
The problem with Watts is that he was an '80s Mid-South booker in '90s WCW, you need the right person in the right environment at the right time.
azapro911, Well said. 1992 WCW was cartoonish and Bill Watts' style didn't mesh well with it. Except the part when he brought Doc and Gordy to battle the Steiner Bros. That was a good little tag team war there.
That and the Sting/Vader fued were the only things Watts did right
@@wesleymorris2699 I don't even know how I forgot to put that at the top of my list of what I was saying. That was a great polar opposite feud for Sting. Vader was such a great draw. Loved the big man. I think he should have had a much longer run as World Champion. Because he was the perfect dominant heel. Even though Roman Reigns has become really good at it.
Bill Watts was out of his depth. The rules were stupid (no managers ringside, no going over top rope) and cutting people's pay for no real reason basically alienated the entire WCW roster.
the great American bash 1993,pure eric watts kind of booking
Yeah, he cut people's pay for NO reason. SMH
He was brought in to get costs under control there for people took pay cuts
@@chrischar9428 true, except Brian Pillman anyway
@Jean0987654321, The rule of no managers ringside was stupid if for no other reason, when Bill Watts ran his own company, he had managers like Cornette & Skandar Akbar ringside, not just for matches at tv tapings, but also at the live event shows.
Had Watts survived he probably would have eventually brought himself back and put himself over Vader on tv
Hollering laughing
Vader would get beat so bad by Watts , 1,2,3! 🙂🤞
Tremendous!!! 💯 😆 🤣 😂
When you hear Arn talk about cutting catering and the box lunch , it reminds me of videos I have seen (and my own personal experience) of day 1 reception at the Air Force basic training facility compared to my own experience at reception at Fort Leonard Wood. We got food, good food on plates with knives and forks etc at bench tables in a for real cafeteria. The air force cadets got a room temperature shoebox lunch full of prepacked food where the freshest thing was a cold cut hard roll sandwich that could have been wrapped up in cellophane half a week prior. And you are forced to sit on a chair typical of a convention center with your meal on your lap.
Your not gonna get sick on either of these, it’s fuel for the engine but them shoebox eaters just looked so depressed
Serving up shitty food is a great way to kill morale
Saw it with my own eyes back in the 90s
Lol we had an All You Can Eat Smorg kinda giant cafeteria in The Canadian Forces but you gotta scan a card you're given because every meal you eat there is 10$ off your Pay....and you have to eat 3 times a day no matter what. 600 is taken off your pay also for rent for living on the base....despite you signing your life away to serve there. I was in Infantry despite qualifying for everything on the aptitude and I was in the Army but it was a pretty much guarentee you'd get it because they needed to send us to Afghanistan in the Mid 2000's to uhh....Peace Keep and Smoke Opium. Was bs just to get Rothschild World Central Banking Systems in Afghan, brother!
George W Bush when being told about the terrorist attacks was reading an upside down Children's Book while impatiently checking on the time giving it all away and that hilarious thing he does that is nowadays meme worthy was so forced. The upside down children's book and him constantly looking at his watch and then back at his security was a dead giveaway. F them all.
WCW at this time was a prime example of the business quote “you can’t cut your way to prosperity”. The company cutting costs makes sense because they were losing millions of dollars and needed to slow the losses somehow. But with him it seems like his entire focus was on slashing costs however he could without any thought on the full consequences of doing so. Slashing everybody’s pay substantially and eliminating something like catering which isn’t even a huge cost saver basically does little but tank the morale of your company. You aren’t going to see your company put on incredible shows when everybody working for you is miserable and just showing up to do the least they can to collect their check while they can. Controlling costs is wise but you have to focus on top line growth at the same time to ever improve the company’s situation and have a chance to actually succeed in the future. For all the flack Bischoff gets his cost cutting strategies at the beginning actually made sense. Stop running money losing shows, branch out for outside business relationships, shoot the show in a contained cost format and then when top line began growing they went back out to tour. He actually focused on both sides instead of pure cost cutting.
Schiavone and David Crockett will always be the best voices of tbs( nwa). Jim Ross had his place in mid south and uwf
David Crockett was a horrible announcer. He added nothing. I liked Tony and JR.
His son should've been brought in as part of the varsity club I think he did college wrestling but put him in with Sullivan , Rontando , Steiner, DR DEATH and they all wear their college outfit and you don't have him beat ARN no way no how
The guys weren't drawing what they were being paid.
JCP/WCW never had a chance with Turner executives in charge. I truly believe WCW would still be around if they had full support from Turner/AOL.
True. Conceivably they could have remained forever because AOL and Time Warner had the cash to support it.
Arn Anderson needs a new microphone
Seeing Arn on the ground like that makes me think of the Family Guy bit where Peter falls, grabs his knee, and does the "sssssAhhhh.....sssssAhhhhh....."🤣 But the shit that was happening behind the scenes, that really, REALLY, sucked!
The bottom line was this as far as Erik Watts was concerned: You were going to make Papa Bear Bill's little cub look good or you were gone. Erik had a run-in with Rick Rude in New Orleans and afterwards, he confronted Bill in his office saying that he was NOT going to be a GD babysitter anymore. He also had a gun on him because Bill kept one in his drawer. He also fired Paul E. Dangerously (Heyman), accusing him of overspending, plus Scott Steiner for dropping opponents on their heads. Plus there were allegations of racism from Watts. He wanted to sit down with Ted Turner and talk with him, but his door was locked, or his aides shunted him away from Bill, or Bill Shaw was standing in his way. So Watts finally blew up at Shaw and quit. He reportedly said that WCW would die without him. Thankfully, both Arn and Bobby got on with Smokey Mountain for a while.
Just imagine in ANY WORKPLACE where the guy in charge has cut everyone's salaries by 50 percent. Do you think your workers are going to go the extra mile? Heck no. You've basically poisoned the entire environment. And getting rid of catering is just petty. Is it any surprise that Watts was gone by early 1993? The knives were out on day one.
The reason to cut everything was because Watts got paid what he saved instead of WCW paying an additional salary to him, meaning he would effectively get 50% of every wrestlers salary, it was a selfish as fuck move but no wonder he pushed for it
Partly....but that wasnt Watts fault. That was Turner Broadcasting fault. Thats the payscale they offered. When the operating manager is paid on net mainly. You have an anemic run operation. You get massive cuts and lay off, shut downs and furloughs. A healthy body need some fat to perform at peak...TBS management got the desire result. But it wasnt the best for business. They own the company. But never understood how it ran. They never did. But TED knew it drew great numbers and he did not want it to fail.... WCW was lost the day it lost the protection of TED TURNER. His influence whine in time-warner and he was a after thought to aol.That company library was sitting there worth 10s of million in untap revenue all these so call entertainment people had access too that could be monetized but no one thought of it cept me i guess. My friends nitro parties we alway discuss why they didnt promote more tape sales and features back in the day..wcw was mishandle from back in crockett days
@@cjjonez Watts said in an interview it was his idea, I'm sure he did...
@@drexlspivey5828 ive seen it.
How about the mismanagement in general?
I liked Watts’ IDEAS. It was different from WWF for once, but his execution of taking managers away from ringside absolutely killed heat from the heels. Also no top rope was a good idea, except he didn’t use it to gain heat for heels...he just cut it altogether
Again, I liked the sport aspect, and Steiners and Miracle Violence Connection was amazing. Problem was he tried going back to 1977-1984 and times had changed
lol wait, how was no top rope a good idea when such a rule made the product more outdated? It was 1992, not 1962. Even Verne Gagne on his worst day wouldn't have made such a laughable call.
@@jonathanturbide2232 My point was I get his original explanation, which was that, but he never used it in a storyline, so it just made the product look archaic
I think bill watts was good with territories , who understood that booking in mid south was different then Georgia , and better than that he never put himself over guys who could make money , ala dusty or the von Erich’s who killed every heel whoever worked for them
Also believe Verne Gagne was not given enough credit , he put a lot of these wrestling gimmicks and personalities together to only have Vince steal them from him
@@williamortiz8142 Vince didn't steal anyone from Verne, he just offered them more money + better opportunities and all these wrestlers jumped on the offers without thinking about it twice. If Verne and the other promoters would have known how to keep their wrestlers by paying them correctly or by offering them better opportunities then the wrestlers would have remained loyal to them, it's only logical that they followed the money and went with the guy having the best resources. Don't blame Vince for that, Verne should have known how to keep his talents happy, otherwise they would have all stayed in the AWA instead of jumping ship in a heartbeat.
Benoit started out well for them then after Watts left was jobbed at will.
Benoit NEVER DREW A DIME !
Ole Anderson didn't like "little" guys like Benoit
"Little" being short in this case
@@bentheisraelite easy there Mike Graham 😅
Benoit jobbed to Erik Watts, so did Arn, Eaton, Cactus Jack, Barbarian, DDP, Nash, Orndorff etc. etc.
Watts had no idea the present business even in 1992 was about television. He wanted to take it back where the guys were paid off the house. The problem was the houses were so bad in 92 you couldn't even do the old formula where the main event got 3% etc. They were losing money on every show they ran.
You never play with peoples money
Watts was terrible period...
Fines are essential. I assume you've never been in a position of leadership or management before and have always been a worker bee. You wouldn't understand.
wrestling has always been playing with money until vince. who reserves his playing for the xfl
@@mikethaysenjr6653 nah Watts sucked around this time. Coming from Arn himself
@@grawakendream8980 And that's why so many top stars jumped at the chance to work for Vince and why he ended up the last one standing.
Bill Watts was tough. It was like 1970's Kayfabe. Family members had to purchase tickets, no more catering, heels & babyfaces could no longer room together or ride to the gyms together, and salaries were reduced.
Let's not forget him punching Shane Douglas.
Bill Watts had few friends, but you need a guy like him to run a tight ship.
Especially if you want to run that ship into the ground
Especially if you are trying to pull a Titanic with said ship.
I think one of the best minds for the business was Arn Anderson. Granted I am being partial cuz arn has been my childhood idol since I was 14yrs old when I first saw him come to JCP. I'm now 50yrs old an still havnt met this man in person. Arn has the mind for financial gain in the business an knows how to help younger talent find their inner horseman attitude deep inside them an helps pull it out of them. WWE gave arn his chance. WCW still be in business today if Arn had his chance at financial part of the company, not booker... Arn knows what I mean.
Watts was right these guys were stale, and weren’t drawing, so he had to try something.
Erik was the answer
WCW was loosing millions of dollars a year. You can't have it both ways. Guaranteed contracts or not, if the company doesn't cut money somewhere they will not make a profit and it will go out of business. Watts rules were not all that great. But on the financial side of things, you have to make stuff decisions.
I agree with this in a sense. I agree that wrestlers couldn't reasonably expect the highest pay or raises when the company is in the red. That said I think it's an absurd idea to come in and try to strong arm people who have a contract to cut their money in half.
I think Bischoff of all people demonstrated the path to profits wasn't simply cutting costs, although he did that with the travel program overhaul and cutting back house shows, but creating new sources of revenue which Watts never did. And cutting something like catering is such a tiny expenditure in the big picture it just seems petty.
All of that said WCW was losing money, but they also had a billionaires financial backing who knew they'd lose money. So not really the same as let's say a WWF losing money back in the day.
Watts got a huge bonus for keeping costs down.
That’s why it happened.
Arn sounds like Terry Funk.
He really does lol 🤣
Well atleast Bischoff was smart enough to grown WCW. Business
Erik Watts was a good shooter, but his dad tried to ram him down people’s throats and it just made things worse. If he had taken his time with him it wouldn’t have been so bad.... maybe.
I don't know what kind of wrestler that watch was but he was a good athlete being a former Louisville Cardinals quarterback
You were going to make Papa Bear's little cub look good or you were gone.
Bill wanted Steve Austin to put Erik over right off the bat and Austin pretty much told Bill to stick it up his ass, knowing he may have very well poisoned his career
Really Watts cutting cost
Bill Watts would fit right into the present government we have🙄
We need people in government that don’t spend money willy nilly
As bad as Bill Watts was with WCW, he'd still be better than Vince with WWE today
No he wouldn’t
@@kingrama2727 he definitely would....
The Mid South Watts yes but not WCW Watts
Bill Watts is better than Jim Herd
Vince runs a multi billion dollars corporation while Watts failed in a much smaller version of WCW than what Bischof had to run.
Talk about Mr. Wrestling Tim Woodd
Couldn't do moves off the top rope, couldn't throw anyone over the top rope, if WCW didn't have the talent they had Watts would of killed WCW
Is it just me or did Cowboy look a lot like Rush Limbaugh in the thumbnail?
I’ve always wondered how he was able to slash peoples money since they had contracts that guaranteed whatever amount they were making. Can’t imagine he could actually have forced people to take cuts if they had contracts - hence the Pillman story about being the worlds highest paid jobber. So I am guessing everyone basically got ultimatums of take less money and be used well on the show or keep the same money and be used badly or kept off of the show to drive down your future value whenever your deal ended. And maybe the risk of burning your bridge with WCW if Watts was around long term where you’d be worried if you didn’t take it then he’d just send you packing whenever your deal ended and then you’d be stuck with only one real option to work and have to negotiate to go there after being trashed all over the show for however long leading into that.
I understand that there had to be immense pressure from Turner to bring costs down to try to contain what was pretty big losses coming out of the company. So trying to find a way to get them down makes sense but Watts genuinely took the worst approach possible in how he cut costs for any chance to succeed long term. But you can’t simply cut your costs to long term prosperity. You can absolutely work to manage your expenses to the best degree possible but you have to do things to increase your top line too if you want any sustained success. I can’t remember what number Bischoff has said WCW had been pulling in during this time but if I remember right I think it was something like WCW was doing revenue of around $20M while losing around $10M.
The issue with that is if you don’t grow that top line substantially just how much expense can you truly cut to even try to turn a profit on that revenue number? If you were to assume there’s a roster of 30 people and they all made what seems to be the lowest contract of $156K a year that’s still an expense of nearly $5M a year, or a quarter of your revenue, and that’s assuming that you pay everybody on the roster bottom dollar. Then what does the cost to even produce everything run? Travel to even have talent in? All your other staff that keep things operating? So obviously expenses are important but what chance is there to find a profit if the revenue pie doesn’t grow? That’s the issue with a Watts approach. The idea that you’re gonna destroy everybody’s morale to cut costs doesn’t make sense considering the revenue pie wasn’t big enough to even cut your way to profit.
Ted Turner need jim cornette or jim ross help company been better long run
Lol Cutting catering was probably so bad for morale. I'd be heartbroken 😂
Smart man
Watts may have gone about it the wrong way. But, the company had huge problems. It was bloated, mismanaged and the wrestlers were out of control. Watts was brought in asba clean up man. Cleaning a company up is never oleasant. Watts made several misteps by cutting the pay of the wrong people and bringing in questionable talent. But, the company did lean out. Cleaning up a company is never pleasant
Watts ruined WCW by having mats removed from ringside and getting rid of the U.S. tag-team titles and thought WWE should create intercontinental tag-team titles
i liked maxx payne
Bill Watts is better than Jim Herd Watts brought back Flair
Pretty low bar there
Don’t get between a wrestler and his lunch.
If it were up to me Bobby Eaton & Arn Anderson should have been paid millions. But someone needed to take control of WCW because it was a mess from the day Crockett sold it to Turner. Watts had solid ideas and if he had sole authority I bet he would have turned WCW around. But corporate control ruined that. Also...Erik Watts....If his last name wasn't Watts I'd still have certainly signed him. He was a big good looking kid. Maybe wouldn't have pushed him so hard before he was ready. But there is a lot of unfair criticism directed at him. He had an opportunity and he took it. In a healthy wrestling business I bet he would have went a lot further than he did.
Problem with that is, you pay your top guys millions. Neither of them was ever top guy material.
Is bill watts rush Limbaugh?
Arn what about Japan ?
Arn has stated that he wasn’t a fan of going to Japan
Many, many rasslers made a whole lot of money over there in Japan.
9 ads
Bill Watts had a type..... Do say so Arn ;)
Watts was a dinosaur already in that era
I put Arn on when I have insomnia
Ouch lol 😅
Watts was past it and his son was an oxygen thief in the business
he cut there pay to make the company to make a profit
Bill watts shouldn't position no business run wcw Bobby eaton and arn anderson two best worker u cut money half bullshit then cut talent Brian Pillman shinning star should push worlds heavyweight champion never got push .
Bill Watts was right 🤷🏻♂️
Arn wasn't a main event solo.star. Didn't look like a million bucks WHAT DID HE EXPECT? Nothing lasts forever Arn
The enforcer is a Legend
Arn looked better than either Watts
Bill Watts never drew a dime! 💵💰👎...
Not true at all--big star in the 60's & 70's--sold out MSG vs Bruno, was big in Florida & Georgia, then was the #1 guy in the LA/OK/MS area for years
Arn is old news.
Well atleast Bischoff was smart enough to grown WCW. Business