BellaOnline Forums Sports Wrestling Q & A for Patty

I heard, I think it was from Bobby Heenen, that WCW decided to not tell the announcers the finishes, so they could act suprised. Heenen hated that because you couldn't prepare for things, and it backfired because sometimes the annoucers sounded awkward. Don't know how true it is though.

~Chris <img src="/images/graemlins/king.gif" alt="" />

That is true but only lasted a really short time. Then they were told what to say like WWE's guys are now via headsets, which is when Larry Zbyszko made the famous announcement that Foley was winning the belt on Raw and added "Yeah that outghta put butts in the seats"....

Eric was behind that and told him to say all that thinking it would stop people from bothering with Raw. But it backfired big time and millions turned the station to see Foley win the belt. Eric must have just about died when he saw the 15 minute ratings breakdown the next day.

But yeah, for a while, the announcers were not briefed on anything and the announcing suffered.

Patty, you mentioned in the hazing post that Ric Flair doesn't have problems with the rookies, its the veterans that he has problems with. Scoop? Gossip? Please?! Someone maybe unexpected that he doesn't quite like? I know about Foley and Hart, but not sure about anyone else.

Thanks!

Cat <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Hi Patty,
Thanks for the insight into the backstage stuff. As much as we all love wrestling I think it's fair to say that the stuff that happens behind the curtain also holds our fascination. I personally think it does translate one way or another into the ring. In spite of some nay sayers who say they dont care about the "stories" people are into the subculture of what fame and fortune does to a person. If that weren't true there wouldn't be any National Enquirers. And you know enquiring minds want to know.
Now Patty that comes to my next comment and question. Would you be interested in writing a book? A compilation of road stories maybe without even naming names, let the fans guess whos who? And any chance a wrestlers wife would do a tell all? I think that would be the ultimate a wrestlers wife telling her survival story. And I mean the soon to be Mrs. Flair or former Mrs. Hall. Can you imagine?

Umm, soon to be Mrs Flair?

Is this wife No.3 or hasn't he married his 2nd one yet?

Patty, anything more on the Bischoff/Russo day would be great. Flair went from being pro Bischoff to very Negative. Any insider scoop or opinions that won't get you into too much hot water?

Tikus

Ummm, Patty, it looks like you opened up a can of worms by telling us a few outside stories! lol. You should ad a section to your site, Wrestlingonthefringe.com, entitled "Storytime archives!

~Chris <img src="/images/graemlins/king.gif" alt="" />

I thought about writing a book. The things I saw were shocking and also some was very touching. I would never use names for many reasons. Plus, I am not sure I am ready to expose things that are considered private by many.

Flair hates Bischoff because of the way he was treated in WCW. Bichoff felt Flair was over the hill and he did everything he could to humiliate Flair. The heart attack angle, the psycho ward angle, jobbing him to jobbers, dissing him in the back. Much of that stemmed from the fact that Eric was real close with Hogan and it seems that he was as much of a mark as some fans. He thought of Hogan as the top veteran and Flair as a nobody. Clearly he wasn't thinking with his wrestling brain. Then again, he was messed up for a while on certain substances which clouded many of his actions.

Flair really despised how he was treated and how he was talked about by Bischoff to the other guys. At one meeting, I remember Bischoff said only two or three guys in the company drew any fans and he named them - leaving Flair out which was ridiculous because Flair was way way over in WCW even with lame storylines.

After beating Flair down mentally, Flair was starting to doubt himself and was going to retire but ended up in WWE where he got a lot of confidence back. When Flair and Bischoff were backstage, they nearly came to blows more than once in WWE.

I think, by the time Eric departed as GM, some of the hatred for each other had died down but I don't think Flair will ever respect or like Eric and he won't ever forget the [censored] Eric put him through.

I think Flair talks some about this in his book. He makes no bones about how awful his last WCW run was and how terrible he thought Eric was as the President of the company.

It is true. Eric was a real jerk to Flair. Then again, he was pretty much a jerk to almost everyone but his close buddies.

For the record, Ric will be marrying wife #3 once his divorce from Beth is finalized. His new wife is something like 24 years younger than him. You could see her at the Hall of Fame Ceremony looking big busted and very BLING!

Flair does go over that stuff in detail in his book, which is very good. It effected him so much that he was having a breakdown of some sort, and he would second guess everyone and everything, he even took to pinching himself. But he went to a sports psychologist (Spell?) and he claims that helped him a lot. Once Flair was in WWE and Bischoff came along, he locked himself inside a room with Eric and tried to fight him, but Eric ran around like a scared puppy.

For those of you who have not read his book "To Be The Man", I highly recommend it!

~Chris <img src="/images/graemlins/king.gif" alt="" />

I read the book and Flair has a very selective memory. Eric is a black belt and NEVER ran away from anyone. I love Flair but parts of his book are his versions of what happened but not the real versions.

I guess they were real to him. Ioften wonder about Eric B.
He seems to have been made the scapegoat of all WCW problems. And yet I have to agree with a comment he once made that he took a struggling business that was losing money and made it into a multi $$$ company. To some degree that was true. But, was that just Ted's money?

Tikus