Originally posted by HokienauticAre you able to provide the "elevator speech" version of how Vince screwed him so bad?
I've seen a couple stories where Kamala claims that his PPV payoffs were always drastically lower than that of his opponents. One story I remember that he told says that after a main event PPV match with the Undertaker, another wrestler who's name escapes me now approached him and started talking about what some of the other guys were paid for the event. Kamala told this guy that he didn't believe anything he was saying, and the other guy proved he knew what he was talking about by accurately stating what Kamala made at the last PPV, then told Kamala what the Undertaker had made for wrestling against him, and that figure was 2-3 times more (maybe even higher?) than what Kamala made. Turns out that this nameless guy got his hands on some sort of WWF memo that listed out what everyone was paid for the event.
That's the one specific story I remember reading once upon a time. I also remember reading something about him possibly suing Vince at one point for discrimination, but Vince basically shut him up by boosting his payoff for action figure sales or something. I don't remember too many details about that one.
Originally posted by KevintripodJericho in one of his books told a similar story where he found out he was being paid less than what his opponent got.
He barged into Vince's office to confront him about it. Vince just cut him a check right then and there to shut him up.
If I was a wrestler and heard these stories, I would be asking my opponent what he made after every PPV event.
(edited by Kevintripod on 18.6.15 1630)
This has always puzzled me about the independent contractor status because I am one that similarly works with one company. When I do a job, I know my pay ahead of time. How do they not know their payoffs, or at least their share of the gate?
I believe the stucture of the contracts are different now, VS when it was WWF and the Attitude Era had not begun. From all the books I've read, your actual nightly pay was directly related to your place on the card, and the house numbers, with PPV money being pretty much whatever the hell Vince wanted it to be. I remember seeing a shoot interview with Nash where he was talking about the days when HBK would go around bragging about his payout for each PPV, and when word got around to the office about it, they had to come up with a definite structure. I think Shawn said he was paid like $75K for the PPV and whoever he wrestled got about $30K and when they talked about it, the other guy called the office and bitched Pat Patterson out.
As for "how Vince screwed Kamala", there's been stories forever about how he was pretty much the lowest paid "star" of the era in WWF, and in the video he talks about Ultimate Warrior basically letting him stay in HIS hotel room, because they weren't paying for Kamala's rooms, but were paying for suites for Warrior.
Originally posted by HokienauticAre you able to provide the "elevator speech" version of how Vince screwed him so bad?
I've seen a couple stories where Kamala claims that his PPV payoffs were always drastically lower than that of his opponents. One story I remember that he told says that after a main event PPV match with the Undertaker, another wrestler who's name escapes me now approached him and started talking about what some of the other guys were paid for the event. Kamala told this guy that he didn't believe anything he was saying, and the other guy proved he knew what he was talking about by accurately stating what Kamala made at the last PPV, then told Kamala what the Undertaker had made for wrestling against him, and that figure was 2-3 times more (maybe even higher?) than what Kamala made. Turns out that this nameless guy got his hands on some sort of WWF memo that listed out what everyone was paid for the event.
That's the one specific story I remember reading once upon a time. I also remember reading something about him possibly suing Vince at one point for discrimination, but Vince basically shut him up by boosting his payoff for action figure sales or something. I don't remember too many details about that one.
I don't know how true it is, but his claim was that for Summerslam 1992, he was paid $13,000 for his match, and the Undertaker (his opponent) was paid $500,000.
oddly enough, i think it is a good move. they are going back to basics, 3 mens belts Raw title Smackdown title Tag titles just like back in the day when they had the World, IC, and tag belts rumor has it that SD will have their own tag titles...