Below is the first part of a transcript of an interview government officials conducted with Stephanie McMahon Levesque on Friday, December 14, 2007 largely regarding steroid use in World Wrestling Entertainment. McMahon also goes into great detail on the behind the scenes aspects of WWE.
But first, here are the main points coming out of the interview:
– Scripts for television shows are constantly being changed up until and on the day of the show.
– Stephanie now oversees John Laurainitis because “he needed some management.”
– Stephanie calls Vince and Linda “Vince” and “Linda” at work. However, she calls them both mom and dad at home.
– They are in the midst of capitalizing on ECW’s strong following, but they want to change its image and clean it up.
– Vince doesn’t believe in appealing to a certain demographic – they appeal to a “cross-section of Americana.”
– Only issue of a wrestler not wanting to switch brands was with Shawn Michaels (Stephanie doesn’t specifically state his name though) because Tuesday is his day of worship.
– WWE want everyone to be a main-eventer because it means more money for everyone.
– Stephanie calls Hulk Hogan a terrible wrestler from a technical standpoint, but he has incredible psychology and is incredibly charismatic.
– WWE talent relations gave Chris Benoit four months off after he said he was having a very difficult time and needed some time off to go home.
– Main eventers can make between $150,000 to $200,000 per pay-per-view event. They can also make up to $1,000,000 at a WrestleMania event.
— Wrestlers are compensated with 25% of the revenue for licensed merchandise (like T-shirts only available at K-Mart with the tag saying Fruit of the Loom for example) and 10% for WWE brand merchandise. Stephanie said Vince made his contracts that way because he believes his performers should be part of the company’s revenue stream and deserve to be treated as fairly as possible.
– The typical WWE contract runs from three to five years. If they want to keep a three-year contracted performer employed, they usually start negotiating one year before the original contract is set to expire.
– Stephanie doesn’t name the wrestler, but at the time, they had a a person in the developmental program that creative wanted to call up, saying he has amazing charisma. However, he wasn’t ready to be called up because his ring skills weren’t up to par. She says while charisma will probably take you the farthest, you still need to be able to wrestle at least somewhat decently.
– Road agents always meet with the wrestlers after their televised matches to explain what worked and what didn’t work.
– During the provision in which suspended talent could still work television tapings and house shows (if need be), they’d get a $200 per day salary for food and road expenses.
– WWE is hoping MVP will be a main-eventer one day.
– Stephanie doesn’t agree that the WWE stars of today are more “muscular” (in general terms) than wrestlers during the Eighties.
– Said the average weight of the wrestlers on the WWE roster was in the high 100s, which surprised her. Although it should be noted that females likely factored into the average, thus bringing it down.
– The Chris Benoit tragedy made the company look at how they could be treating their employees better. They asked them if they had any financial planning or health insurance, which a little over 60% of the wrestlers have.
– They also implemented seminars for the wrestlers, including “exit strategies” such as life-skills type seminars for when they are done in WWE.
– Only Stephanie and John Laurinaitis decide who gets called up to the main roster from developmental. Although of course, Vince can decide to call someone up if he really wants to. Stephanie also noted that they have called up certain talents to add more ethnicity to the brands.
– Said they don’t hire wrestlers they think are on steroids. She doesn’t give a specific name, but they brought someone in recently and didn’t hire him based on a positive drug test.
– Said she has never heard of an experienced creative team member or agent or anyone telling any worker they needed to be bigger to be signed or called up to the WWE roster.
– The only time she recalls telling a person to change their body was telling some of the female performers to lose weight, which she says isn’t easy. She also brings up a recent story regarding Beth Phoenix as she told her to change her hair because she looked too similar to another female talent they have.
– Said Chris Benoit was supposed to be ECW champion, but “didn’t show up at the pay-per-view because he was dead.”
– Said workers might be more prone to concussions because of their line of work. Said Chris Nowinski had multiple concussions and they no longer wanted him to work in the ring.
– Said they are looking to do proactive impact testing for concussions or for workers that may be prone to concussions.
You can also read the interview in PDF file form at the following link.
Here is the transcript of the interview in its entirety:
Mr. Leviss. Good morning. This is a transcribed interview of Stephanie McMahon Levesque by the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
The Chairman of the committee has sought this interview as part of the committee’s investigation into allegations regarding the abuse of steroids and illegal drugs in professional wrestling. Would you please state your name for the record?
Ms. Levesque. Stephanie McMahon Levesque.
Mr. Leviss. On behalf of the Committee on Oversight and
Government Reform, I thank you for joining us today.
I am David Leviss. I am a senior investigative counsel with
the majority staff of the committee.
I am going to ask everyone to introduce themselves, since
there are so many of us here today.
Mr. Cohen. I am Brian Cohen. I am a senior investigator
with the committee.
Mr. Buffone. Sam Buffone, staff, majority.
Ms. Despres. Sarah Despres, senior health counsel, majority
staff.
Mr. Chance. Benjamin Chance, Republican staff.
Ms. Safavian. Jennifer Safavian, Republican staff.
Mr. Leviss. While you know your attorneys, I would ask for
the record that they ??
Mr. Koch. George Koch, Kirkpatrick Lockhart & Gates.
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Mr. O’Neil. Mike O’Neil, K & L Gates.
Mr. McDevitt. Jerry McDevitt, K L Gates.
Mr. Leviss. Thank you.
Let me just go over some general ground rules we have for
these interviews. Typically, the majority staff will begin by
asking questions. Several of us may chime in at times, but we
will try to only ask you one question at a time. The minority
will also have the opportunity to ask questions. We try to go by
general topic areas to keep some order to it, but, if necessary,
we may jump around a little bit.
As you can see, we have an official reporter who is taking
down everything we say so that we have a written record of this
interview. So it is very important that you give verbal, audible
answers to every question. Do you understand that?
Ms. Levesque. Yes.
Mr. Leviss. Great.
The court reporter may interrupt us if we are talking over
each other or if he can’t hear an answer or question, and that is
because we have asked him to do so so that we have an accurate
record. Please wait until I finish my questions or any questioner
finishes a question before beginning your answer. And we, in
turn, will try to wait until you finish your answer before
starting a new question. Understand?
Ms. Levesque. Yes.
Mr. Leviss. Great. You are required by law to answer
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questions from Congress truthfully. If you fail to testify
truthfully, you could be subject to criminal prosecution. Is
there any reason why you would be unable to testify truthfully
today?
Ms. Levesque. No.
Mr. Leviss. Great.
We try to take a short break every hour or so, but let us
know if you need a break earlier. Our hope is that we can finish
with you in just, you know, a couple, few hours this morning. So,
just to give you a sense of what is to come. But, again, if you
feel you need a break, please do let us know.
Ms. Levesque. Okay.
Mr. Leviss. Okay. Do you understand these guidelines,
rules?
Ms. Levesque. Yes, I do.
Mr. Leviss. Okay. Any questions before we begin?
Ms. Levesque. No.
Mr. Leviss. Great.
EXAMINATION
BY MR. LEVISS:
Q I am going to start with just some background questions
about your role at WWE. I understand that the corporation hasn’t
always been known as WWE, that there was some predecessor
corporations. But if I refer to it as WWE, will you understand
that I am referring to both the present company and its
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predecessors?
A Yes.
Q Okay. What is your current position with WWE?
A My current position is executive vice president of
creative writing, talent relations, and live events. They are
working on shortening it, but that is what it currently is.
Q That is a lot for one business card. How long have you
held that position?
A For the past couple months.
Q Okay. Have you held other positions with the company?
A Yes. I started ?? well, not all the way back, but most
recently I was the executive vice president of creative writing.
Then about a year ago I added talent relations, and a couple
months ago I added live events. And that is live event promotion
and booking.
Q Okay. And prior to that position, did you have any
other positions with the company?
A Yes. Prior to that position, I worked as an account
executive in our New York sales office. Prior to that, I had a
unique internship with both the chairman and the CEO. And prior
to that, I held a number of internships, including switchboard
operator when I was 13. I worked in media relations, dot?com, our
production studio, a variety ?? live event marketing. I have
worked in a variety of assets in our company.
Mr. McDevitt. They didn’t make her put up rings.
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Ms. Levesque. No, my brother did, though, yes.
BY MR. LEVISS:
Q Family operation. How long have you been affiliated or
working for WWE?
A Pretty much all my life, but really, consistently,
interning since I was 13, and once I got out of college I became
full?time.
Q Okay. So around what year did you start consistently?
A Full?time?
Q Yeah.
A ’98.
Q Tell me, if you will, about your present roles and
responsibilities in the organization, starting with creative
writing.
A Okay. Starting with creative writing, I am in charge
of ?? we have three different shows. We have Raw, SmackDown and
ECW. It is basically 5 hours of fresh programming every week,
52 weeks a year. We have no reruns. And I am in charge of all of
the script writing that goes on for every show.
Q Okay. I assume you have a staff of writers who work
with you?
A I do.
Q How many people are on that staff?
A We are pretty understaffed. It is about 10 people now.
Q And if you could just tell me in brief how the
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script?writing process works. I mean, does the staff prepare
drafts? Are you involved in original drafting? Are you more of
an editor?
A Here is pretty much how it happens.
Q Sure.
A It is not a real wonderful process, because we don’t
have a lot of lead time. You know, we are week to week.
Q Sure.
A So my staff, I have a lead writer, and underneath him he
has writers, associate writers, writers’ assistants.
And the team works throughout the week. What happens is they
bounce ideas off me creatively throughout the week, and then we
have a meeting with Vince, Vince McMahon, who is the chairman and
also the head creator of everything. The company is his vision in
all aspects, make no mistake. And so then we present him with our
ideas. And he gives approval or disapproval. We discuss, we come
up with what creative work we are going to do, and then we go and
draft the scripts.
On occasion, we do have drafts of the scripts to present to
Vince at that meeting, but that is not always the best practice
because they change so frequently.
Q And then, I guess, how far in advance of production are
the scripts completed?
A Literally being processed the day of. I mean, they are
produced that week, and then they are constantly changing
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throughout the day up until the show goes on the air.
Q When you begin drafting a script, do you know what
talent it is going to involve?
A For the most part, yes. We know our main?event talent,
or the main?event talent that we want to feature. Because our
business is very unique. We know where we are going for
pay?per?views. We have right now 15 pay?per?views scheduled in
’08. It is either 15 or 14. We were at 16. So that is roughly a
pay?per?view every 3 weeks.
That is where we make a lot of our money. So what we do is
we gear toward the pay?per?view. So we know where we are headed
for pay?per?views, long term. And then we back into the story
writing to get into those pay?per?views.
So if we know we have a 3?week promotion and we know our
main?event match is ?? I will just say two superstars. I am not
sure how familiar you guys are. But say it is Randy Orton versus
John Cena. We know we have 3 weeks to make that match as
compelling as possible to hopefully intrigue the buyer to want to
pay to see the match. So that is what we try to do.
Q And who comes up with the list of talent for a given
match?
A Well, it is not necessarily a list of talent for a
match. The way that it is determined is we have our main?event
players, the guys who are the most ?? in our business the parlance
is “over,” which means the most respected, most ?? “respected” is
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the wrong word because sometimes they are bad guys and they are
not respected at all. But the ones people really want to see.
Mr. McDevitt. Just for the record, you mean “bad guys,”
script?wise.
Ms. Levesque. Yes, yes. Thank you. Within our vernacular,
we have “babyfaces” and “heels,” babyfaces being the good guys,
heels being the bad guys.
Mr. McDevitt. Would you like to guess which side you guys
are on?
Mr. Leviss. I will wait for the script.
Ms. Levesque. I am not writing this one.
So, yes, so, basically, the main?event players are the ones
who draw the most money, the ones the people want to pay to see
either win or lose, depending on their role.
Mr. Leviss. Sure.
Ms. Levesque. So we try to base our pay?per?views,
obviously, around the guys who are going to draw us the most
money, around our main?event guys.
BY MR. LEVISS:
Q Okay. Are the talent involved in developing the script?
A They are involved in their individual storylines. And,
again, the main?event talent; not so much the lower?level talent.
But main?event talent are called. We talk to them about the ideas
we have, especially for their program, which is what that 3?week
window would be.
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Again, I am sorry to use the parlance of our business, but
the program would be the 3 weeks leading up to the pay?per?view
and sometimes beyond, because we do have so many pay?per?views, we
have to book the same match. And we have to make the stories
different within each program, which is challenging in and of
itself. So the talent do like to contribute.
Q Uh?huh.
A And quite frankly, it is a better product when they do,
because, you know, the talent are engaged and they are involved in
the storylines. Sometimes it is their ideas. And, inherently,
they perform better when it is their idea.
Q Okay. Before I get too deep into this ?? and it is
actually a fascinating process ?? I should find out a little bit
more about your other responsibilities.
A Okay.
Q Talent relations?
A Yes. Basically, John Laurinaitis is the ex?VP of Talent
Relations, and he now reports to me. So I now basically oversee
John and all of his responsibilities, which include developmental
talent, our developmental talent system; they include booking all
of the travel for the talent; the third?party appearances for
talent, if talent are involved in any marketing or promotion
outside our company or within our company. If talent are doing
movies or any outside projects, it all comes through Talent
Relations.
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Basically, anything and everything talent?oriented ?? talent
contracts, et cetera ?? all comes through Talent Relations.
Q And before John Laurinaitis was involved, did you
oversee that process directly?
A No. John oversaw it, and he was the sole person in
charge. And then it was deemed that John needed some management.
Q I see.
A So that is where I came into play.
Q And around when did that happen?
A That was about a year ago.
Q And your third area of responsibility was live events?
A Yes. Live?event ?? it is actually two separate
departments. Live?Event Booking is the actual booking of arenas
around the world for our shows, because we have, God, over 300
shows, easy, a year.
Q Okay.
A And internationally, globally, everywhere. So it is the
actual physical booking of those buildings.
And the routing is just a nightmare, because we also have not
only our televised shows every week, but we also have a lot of
nontelevised shows.
So we tour our two different brands. Raw tours Friday,
Saturday, Sunday, Monday in America, domestically. And when we do
international, it is different. SmackDown/ECW, we combine those
two brands for touring. They tour Saturday, Sunday, Monday,
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Tuesday. The live show for Raw is Monday. The live show for
SmackDown and ECW is Tuesday. And ECW’s live Tuesday; SmackDown
airs Friday. But it is pretty much live to tape.
So there is a lot of arenas, a lot of booking.
And then the Live?Event Marketing portion is the promotion of
those buildings, the promotion of the event.
Q Promotion of the buildings, you said?
A Yeah, promotion of the event at those buildings.
Q Okay. Is that basically a summary of your
responsibilities? Not that it is not enough, but ??
A I would say so.
Q Okay. And what aspect of your work changed? You said
that your title changed over the last few months. Is that because
you acquired new responsibility?
A Yes. Because the live?event portion is new. It’s a few
months old. And now my title is just so long that they are
looking to change it.
Q And prior to that change, were you working primarily in
creative writing and talent relations?
A Yes.
Q Okay. Great.
Outside of those areas, are there any other significant
responsibilities you have had in the company in your time since
’98?
A Nothing really significant. These are my most major
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roles.
Q Okay.
A I mean, I suppose switchboard operator is vital to the
company.
Q It would break down if people couldn’t call.
A I still have extensions memorized.
Q I’m sure.
You mentioned Mr. McMahon. Tell me about how your
responsibilities and your decision?making authority are, in
relation to Mr. McMahon?
A I report to Mr. McMahon. I call him Vince in business,
so please don’t be deterred by that. At home he is Dad. And
Linda is the same way; in business she is Linda, and at home she
is Mom.
Q Understood.
A But so, I do report to Vince. So a lot of my, you
know ?? I am certainly free to make decisions, but if it involves
a major decision within the company, I will pretty much run it by
my boss and get the okay or the nay. So, in essence, I guess, to
answer your question, however normal corporations work, I have to
run, you know, my decision?making through my boss.
Q Do you report to anyone else besides Vince?
A No.
Q You spoke a little bit about Raw, SmackDown and ECW.
First of all, does ECW stand for something?
15
A Extreme Championship Wrestling. But we are in the
process of changing the image.
Initially, before we bought WCW, actually, before it almost
went bankrupt, in the ’90s, in the end of the ’90s, there was a
lot of competition within our organization. There was WWE ?? it
might have been WWF at the time, I forget ?? and there was WCW,
and then there was a fledgling group called ECW. And WCW was sort
of the alternative to the big league wrestling. They used a lot
of hardcore tactics, a lot of blood, a lot of thumb tacks and
barbwire and all this bizarre stuff.
And we are looking to change that image. We own the brand.
It had a cult following. We are looking to capitalize on the
following but change the product. So we are in the process of
doing that.
Q Okay. How did the other divisions differ? Tell me
about Raw and SmackDown.
A Raw and SmackDown, the main difference between the two
is the talent. You can only see certain talent, for the most
part. There are some caveats to that. But for the most part, you
can only see certain talent on Raw, which airs on the USA Network
Monday nights, 9:00 to 11:00, and you can only see certain talent
on SmackDown, which airs 8:00 to 10:00 on the CW Network.
Q And who determines how talent is divided among the
divisions?
A The writing staff and Vince.
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Q And how do you make those decisions?
A Well, it just depends creatively on where we want to go.
A lot of it ?? like, for example, if ?? I should backtrack for a
second as well.
We have a draft. And we have had a draft semi?annually, we
have had it biannually, we have had it a number of different ways.
But this draft enables us to have talent cross over to the
different brands. So it is a creative loophole, if you will, to
get our talent over to the other brands and engage viewer interest
at the same time.
But so, if you are looking at these programs that I was
talking about ??
Q Uh?huh.
A ?? say Randy Orton is a main?event guy who draws a lot
of money. You know, you want to feature Randy Orton on a certain
show, but he has wrestled against almost all of the other good
guys. Well, now you have to do something, because Randy either
needs to go to another brand or you need to bring over some new
blood to face Randy.
So that is part of our decision?making process, to keep the
programs fresh and interesting so the viewer will want to keep
seeing them.
Q And do you need a new draft to bring him over, or can
you bring him over, I guess, mid?season?
A It depends. The cleanest way to do is in the draft
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show.
Q Uh?huh.
A But if we need him, if there is an injury and we need
somebody to make a jump, we certainly creatively get around it.
Q Are there any other ways that talent are brought between
programs or between divisions?
A Yes. Again, at WrestleMania, which is our Super Bowl of
pay?per?views, we often have cross?promoting matches. So you
might have a guy from Raw versus a guy from SmackDown, or girls.
And when that happens, it actually increases our viewership,
because there is roughly 70 percent ?? it might be a little more
now ?? are nonduplicated viewers for each brand. So now if you
have a storyline that is on both brands, you get that much more
audience intrigued in the storyline and wanting to pay to watch
WrestleMania.
Q Nonduplicated viewers, you mean a unique audience?
A Yes.
Q Okay. What are the, sort of, target audiences for the
brands?
A Well, it is funny, because Vince has never taken a
stance of we only market to 18 to 49, or we only market to, you
know, whatever it is. Vince’s feeling and his company philosophy
has always been, well, we are a cross?section of Americana.
And if you come to one of our live events, that is what you
see. You see some teenagers, you see grandfathers with grandsons,
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you see grandmothers with granddaughters, you see college kids,
you see all different walks of life. And that is really what our
product is.
Our network partners promote to the ?? and they sell, because
they sell their own advertising ?? I believe it is the 18 to 49
demographic.
Q Uh?huh. But when you spoke of the viewers, I am
blanking on what your phrase was, but sort of the unique
audience ??
A Uh?huh.
Q ?? how do you make that assessment? You must have some
criteria to determine, you know, who is watching SmackDown, who is
watching Raw.
A Again, it is unusual. I would say we pretty much go
with what the network wants us to do. So, for the most part, we
target 18? to 49?year?olds, but, really, we listen to our
audiences.
Our audiences are like a live question?and?answer period
right in front of us. It is a live focus group every night we
have a show. Our fans tell us what they want, what they like,
what they don’t like.
And that goes from what the product is in the ring to out of
the ring. They are buying T?shirts, they are buying merchandise.
We have people on?site asking questions. So we have the ability
to get a lot of information from our fans.
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And, again, we are not only targeting the 18?year?old male
when we are asking those questions. We are asking all of our
fans.
Mr. McDevitt. I think you wanted to ask her how she
determines the nonduplicative nature.
Mr. Leviss. Thank you. I was thinking ??
Ms. Levesque. That is through our marketing research.
BY MR. LEVISS:
Q Is there crossover of talent from ECW to Raw or
SmackDown?
A On occasion, because we are trying to make that ECW
brand stronger. It currently airs on SciFi on Tuesday nights,
live at 10:00, and that is not a well?watched network. So if we
give the stars from ECW exposure on the other brands, it gives
more interest. Hopefully, we will get some of our bigger
audiences to watch the SciFi Network.
Q So there is crossover, but ??
A There is some.
Q ?? it is less frequent than ??
A It is less frequent. Actually, right now we have a
storyline going where the ECW general manager and the SmackDown
general manager have struck a deal, and they are currently
cross?promoting. So it is more SmackDown and ECW cross?promotion.
Q Okay.
A But we don’t feel that conflicts with our WrestleMania
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storylines ?? it gets very complicated ?? because it is not the
main?event guys, for the most part, involved in those stories.
Q How do talent find out that they are going to move
between divisions?
A Often either myself or the lead writers or Vince will
notify them ?? or John Laurinaitis will notify the talent.
Q Do they have any say in the decision?
A Certainly. If someone really has a problem with it, you
know, you can’t force someone to do something that is against
their will.
Q Sure.
A So they do have a say.
Q Do the talent typically care about, you know, which
division they are featured in?
A No. There was only one issue that we had, and that was
with a top star who had on Tuesday was his religious day with his
family. He is a born?again, and I am not sure of the right words.
Those are my words.
Q Sure.
A So he is very, very religious, and he felt that he could
not do the Tuesday show because he needed to be at home with his
family. So we did not make that switch, even though it would have
really helped our product.
Q Is there a financial difference for the talent in
appearing in a match for one division versus another?
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A No.
Q I guess I sort of asked you this, but who is part of the
process of determining whether to switch someone over? It sounded
like it was you, Talent Relations, the rest of Creative Writing
and Vince?
A Yeah.
Q Anybody else?
A No. That is it, for the most part. And talent.
Q And the talent themselves?
A Right.
Q Okay.
A And it is more of the main?event talent, you know, that
speak up and that we solicit more ideas from, in terms of
creative, et cetera.
Q Roughly, what percentage of your talent qualifies as
main?event talent, in your view?
A I would say probably about 30 percent. Maybe a little
less, maybe 25.
Q And those are sort of the headliners?
A Yes.
Q Are there any other ways you have of distinguishing
among the remaining 70 percent or so of the talent?
A What do you mean?
Q Well, I mean, do you have any other terms for them? Is
it just the main?event talent and the rest of the talent, or are
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there other ??
A You will often hear ?? well, you won’t, but in my
business you often hear the parlance of there is main?event and
there is mid?card.
Q Okay.
A And mid?card would be, you know, what it sounds like,
middle of the card. And then the other ?? there is no lower end.
So there is, really, I guess it is like an “other” category. We
really don’t have a term for them.
Q How does talent get to become main?event talent?
A Basically, hard work and perseverance and overwhelming
the audience. It is really up to the talent.
Stone Cold Steve Austin tells this story all the time. I
don’t know if you are familiar with Stone Cold, but he was
probably one of the biggest superstars that we ever had, bigger
than Hulk Hogan. I am sure you have heard of Hulk Hogan.
Mr. McDevitt. Hulk would disagree with that.
Ms. Levesque. Of course. But Stone Cold, I mean, huge.
At any rate, Austin, when he first came in, was Stunning
Steve Austin, not Stone Cold Steve Austin. And he was ??
actually, when he first came in, he was a character called The
Ringmaster, which was not getting over, as I explained to you
before. The crowd wasn’t into it. They didn’t really care.
BY MR. LEVISS:
Q Is he a good guy or a bad guy?
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A At the time, he was a bad guy.
Q Okay.
A But they didn’t care to boo him either. They didn’t
really care if he lost. They didn’t really want to ?? it was our
worst?case scenario.
And Steve was sitting in the back, and he was with Vince, and
he was watching another match. And he said, “You know, that kid
out there, he has really got something. You should push him,”
which is another parlance of our business, which is, you know,
putting someone in that main?event spotlight.
And Vince looked at Steve and he said, “Well, I will give him
all the opportunity in the world, but it is up to him. He has to
do it on his own.”
And Steve always says that that conversation clicked
something in his head, because from that moment on, he changed his
character. He knew it was up to him to make the difference, and
that is what he did.
Q Uh?huh.
A And Austin rose in the ranks. He was a real self?made
superstar. We gave him opportunity, but he took the ball and he
ran with it.
There is oftentimes ?? because we need to build talent along
the way. We need more main?event guys. You know, we are
constantly trying to cultivate more main?event guys as part of our
developmental system. We want everybody to be a main?event guy.
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It means more money to all of us.
Q Sure.
A So we constantly give the opportunity. It is just, who
is able to take the ball and run with it?
Q What can talent do to improve the character? I mean, if
it helps, you know, you can use Steve Austin as an example. What
does he do that makes him a stronger character?
A Well, a lot of it has to do with charisma, which is the
“it” factor that you can’t teach, that you are either born with or
you are not born with. And that is basically the ability to
connect with the audience.
When someone walks out on that stage, they either connect
with the people or they don’t. If you walk out on stage and
nobody cares and you don’t have any presence, you are never going
to be a main?event guy. But if you walk out and you make the
people notice you, you can be a main?event guy.
You really don’t even have to be a good wrestler. Hulk Hogan
was a terrible wrestler, and he still is.
Q For the record, I am sure he would disagree with that
too.
A I am sure he would disagree with that. I forget this is
all public. But, you know, he was. He was a terrible wrestler.
But what an incredible psychologist and what an incredible
charismatic person. There is no denying Hulk Hogan is one of the
biggest stars in the history of our business and will always be
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perceived as such. But he was not a great wrestler, not a great
technician.
