From: vincent@Micor.OCUnix.on.ca (Victor W. Wong)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.pro-wrestling
Subject: Re: Two Questions
Date: 12 Sep 92 22:44:03 GMT
Organization: M.B. Cormier INC.

mjenkins@alfred.carleton.ca (Michael Jenkinson) writes:

>>Two questions here that have been bothering me for a long time. 
>>These have probably been discussed at length sometime in the past,
>>so my apologies in advance for boring you. :)

I haven't seen these discussed at all, but I can probably make a 
couple of educated guesses.

>>1) When Sgt. Slaughter and Ultimate Warrior held the WWF title, the
>>color of the strap kept changing, from black, to white, to blue, and
>>perhaps a couple of others. Why? When Hogan held the title, the 
>>color of the strap never changed. Ditto with Flair and Savage. It 
>>was always black.

My guess is that this was a stipulation of the Warrior's contract, 
that the backing of whatever belt he wore had to be color-coordinated
with his ring attire.  (You may recall that prior to WM6 the Intercon-
tinental belt was a light tan.)  This would have been only moderately
expensive, since the metallic parts of the belt would be gold-plate 
rather than solid gold and the leather backings are cheap to come by.
Slaughter, of course, won the violet-colored belt at the Royal Rumble;
shortly afterwards the belt was given its normal black backing.

UW's stipulation did cause some minor havoc with what comics and soap-
opera fans call continuity.  Hogan did in fact wear a white-colored 
championship belt (probably borrowed from the Warrior) for a WWF post-
er--which came out about a month before UW lost his title.

>>2) When the WWF signs a wrestler, what comes first, the image, or 
>>the person? Does the WWF sign Scott Hall and then say, well, what 
>>image should we make for you? Or do they say, hey, let's create a 
>>greasy latino character, now who should we sign to play him? And how 
>>much veto power does a wrestler have over what character he will 
>>play?

More than likely it's a combination of both.  I remember a few years 
ago watching a Journal (CBC news program) documentary of the making of
a professional wrestler, featuring Bam Bam Bigelow during his WWF 
stint.  I saw, in a professional wrestling school, the instructor dis-
cussing with the student wrestler the type of persona the wrestler 
should be presenting.

Apparently, in WWF recruitment a jobber must already have a "persona" 
that will impress the promoters enough for them to be put on the card.
Usually it's not much more than a choice of face or heel.  If the guy
is imaginative enough to do a "special character," though, I imagine 
it would be discussed through some sort of refinement process, in 
which Vince will have some input, after which a "push" campaign would
result.

Of course sometimes Vince may get an idea for a character specifically
for the marks, and then persuade a veteran wrestler to act it (e.g.,
Repo Man, IRS).  The probable selling line is that the wrestler in 
question would be easier to push--especially if he'd be a boring 
wrestler otherwise.

What's more, the wrestler does seem to have some input on his persona
--for example, Tito Santana COULD have degenerated into a cartoon once 
the "Matador" gimmick got started.  That he didn't is entirely to his
credit.  (This does not affect my opinion of his wrestling, however.)

>>Much thanks for any responses.

>>Michael
>>"I am oooozzzzing machismo...the rest of you just ooozzzzing."

The Bandwidth Mountie
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                            VICTOR WONG
                     vincent@micor.ocunix.on.ca
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            "Closed minds lead short lives."--Anonymous
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Newsgroups: rec.sport.pro-wrestling