HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY

To all the lovers out there - Happy Valentine’s Day! I celebrated last night with my lovely wife of seventeen years by giving her five sexy outfits that were too small. I know what size she is, why didn’t the clothes fit?

It kind of ruined the spirit of the holiday, but there’s always next year! Maybe gift certificates would be a better choice. Cash is always good.

Before I get to my sermon, am I the only man that’s about fed up with Hallmark, Mars candy, or any other retailer out there that guilt’s me into buying way too much because of the heat they put on me through some slick advertising campaign? Man, the pressure! “Buy her a diamond, one month’s salary isn’t too much to pay.”  It is if you don’t have it and then the babe you’re trying to impress hears all this and of course…believes it! Oh, the pressure. Whatever happened to expressing open honest emotion?

When speaking of something that’s open and honest the first image that comes to most people’s minds is  – professional wrestling. Right? No, I wonder why that is? I have so much respect for Kevin Sullivan as a creative genius, but more as a fortuneteller. Kevin was the second established star to actually take an interest in me and tell me things. Not just about the business, but also about people, the world, and life. Steve Keirn was the first and I’ll always love and remember him for it.  

Kevin told me in 1981 that someday there would only be one wrestling company and the only people working there would be family and friends of the owners. Wow, was he ever right on the button. He told me many things I thought were crazy, but I never said anything. I just listened. When I started, the new talent knew not to speak unless spoken to or a lesson in humility would be taught in the ring - in front of the live crowd. The old timers knew many ways to embarrass, humiliate, and hurt young inexperienced wrestlers and it was mostly done before the “greenhorn” knew what had happened to him. We knew our place. I knew when Kevin spoke to listen and not interrupt.

The most important lesson Kevin taught me was –

THE BUSINESS IS BUILT ON DECEPTION – DON’T BE DECIEVED!

That sounds simple enough, doesn’t it? It is the truest thing I’ve ever heard in this business. Forget the business, that’s the truest statement I’ve ever heard and it applies to all walks of life. If we change the word “business” to “world”, we can see just how clearly the statement really applies to all of us.

Please don’t think of this as negative because we’re going somewhere with this and sometimes we have to hurt before we heal.

I came into the wrestling business 23 years ago as a fan. I remained a fan for twenty-two years, but then something happened. What was it?

I was deceived.

I allowed myself to believe in something that didn’t exist. I believed an underdog could overcome all odds, if given a chance. I was in WCW when the world laughed at us going head to head against the WWF’s “Raw” on Monday night with Nitro. I was there when WCW won the first Neilson rating over Raw! I was there in the trenches writing Nitro and Thunder when WCW won 84 consecutive weeks in the ratings. We were a part of something magical. We were told we couldn’t slay Goliath, but we did.

In 1999, I left WCW because I saw what was happening behind the scenes. The talent has always deceived the writers, writers have deceived the talent, and of course, the talent has deceived each other. During this time upper management put some active wrestlers on the creative staff and as one can imagine this makes for a huge conflict of interest. This meant a person performing in the ring could have input on the outcome of their matches. This is horrible for morale.

I went to work for the wildly successful WWF who had already started a string of wins over WCW in the now famous “Monday Night Wars.” Again, I was fortunate enough to be a part of the creative team and also talent relations. This meant I helped write the storylines and field the next team of WWF superstars to play out those stories. This was a dream come true. I was doing the job I had waited my whole life to do.

And then – it was over. I was unemployed. What happened? Vince McMahan called me into his office and told me he was sorry, but it looked like I didn’t work out there. The other agents (wrestling producers) didn’t like me and felt I wasn’t a team player. Vince had to make a decision. Fire me and placate 4 or 5 long time employees who Vince knew were loyal or keep me and have those same people spending every minute trying to run me off. Thus, ruining Vince’s life, my life (could you imagine working under circumstances where every move was dissected trying to find a mistake to report to Vince?), and the morale in general would suffer. I think Vince made the right choice with the given set of circumstances. I admire him for doing it himself and not putting it off on someone else.

As I prepared to leave that meeting, I knew a huge chapter in my life had just come to a close. Vince, Linda McMahon, and I cried and said our good-byes. Linda was gracious enough to say the door would always be open for me to return and I believe her to this day.

We had just spent 2 ½ hours hashing out everything, the lies told about me, what he thought, and since I knew I was leaving I let go with everything that I thought was wrong. I was so far from politically correct – you could never get back to it. I told him the truth. I wasn’t just another “yes man” he was so used to having around him changing their opinions to match Vince’s. Vince respects honesty, he respects a man who stands by his convictions and he told me exactly that. The last thing Vince said to me chilled me to the bone.

Vince said, “Terry, this is the real world. Your problem is you’re too honest.”

Maybe I should have listened to Kevin.

Take care until next week,
Terry Taylor