Sean Oliver - The Business of Kayfabe: Turning Wrestlers Secrets Into a Million Dollars

IT DOESNT MAKE a damn bit of difference how good you are at business, directing, or talent relations. Wrestlers, and the wrestling business, will consistently find ways to circumvent your talents and abilities. The best-laid plans are subject to turn on their heads, due to the nature of this minefield industry. Youll eventually question whether you can get anything at all done without a migraine.

And Jim Powers was making my head pound like a Tommy Lee drum solo.

The weekend was all set and despite plans to start production on a brand new series, the schedule was easy-breezy.

Several months prior, we were breaking down the set of Breaking Kayfabe with Scott Raven Levy, when Vince Russo called me. Vince is the controversial former writer for WWE, WCW, and TNA and hed just started a podcast. On it, he was recapping past episodes of wrestling TV for which he wrote and those recaps of classic WWE RAW episodes were doing great downloads for him. He thought of his old pal in New Jerseythe guy that scooped him up after the implosion of his stint at TNA and set him on his feet again with our brilliant YouShoot: LIVE! and pitched me a show that he envisioned as the video compliment to the audio podcast.

With some tweaking, we came up with Vince Russos Attitude, wherein Vince would host and sit with a member of the WWE roster from the era when Vince was writing its TV. We knew his trips down memory lane would be fun as he sat with the guys and gals from the era that saved wrestlings biggest federation from certain doom at the hands of plumbers, pig farmers, and hockey goons in their ring. We would fly him out and shoot a few episodes of the show to pilot.

We booked the first two guestsKen Shamrock and Terri Runnels. After slating the new show for release and having Anthony research Vinces time writing for both Ken and Terri, we sent it all to Vince and put it all on the shooting schedule for a Friday and Saturday.

Then I got a call from a talent booker that we sometimes used named Nick, who offered us Paul Roma for one of our shows. Id heard Paul on shows before and knew him to be outspoken so I made an offer for him to appear on our show Breaking Kayfabe. I thought we could talk to Paul about his time in WWE and his issues with them, as well as the not-so-friendly break-up with his Young Stallions tag team partner Jim Powers.

Nick called me and said Paul rejected the offer out of hand, solely on the money. I forget the words exactly and I dont want to put any in Pauls mouth, but I know I was pissed because it was dismissive. Apparently the money offer offended the former member of the Four Horsemen.

Well, that was that. Mr. Roma and I were clearly on separate sides of the universe regarding his drawing power in the wrestling aftermarket. I wasnt moving on the money. I thanked Nick for reaching out and got to work coordinating flights for Terri and Vince so they could land in Newark at roughly the same time. Then Nick called me again.

Hey since it didnt work out with Paul, he began, how about booking Jim Powers for the other side of that story? I was intrigued. Jim was another very honest interview guest who Id never worked with before. Well, unless you count his spontaneous appearance on Ring Roasts when he tried to wrangle Scott Hall out of the ballroom after he disrupted the entire event and attacked a comedian on stage. But hey, that would be something to talk about on camera.

I made an offer through Nick that was accepted, and just like that Young Stallion Jim Powers was booked. The plan was to shoot Terri Runnelss edition of Vince Russos Attitude on Friday afternoon, that would wrap around 5 oclock and she would be whisked away to an appearance for that night. Russo could go up to his room and watch the San Francisco Giants and read the Bible while we shot Breaking Kayfabe with Powers, then on Saturday we would put the second Vince Russos Attitude in the can.

Though Id never worked with Powers, he reached out to us back in July of 2010 and said he loved our work. I sent him some DVDs and he emailed me back the following:

Sean,

First of all I would like to thank you very much for sending me the 3 DVDs. They were very entertaining as well as insightful.

I do not remember what I had shipped to him, but clearly it wasnt Missy Hyatts Pajama Party. Back to the email

When you get a chance please call me personally so that we can discuss doing something together in the near future. Your product is the most professional and classy thing out there and I would love to be attached to that. Thank you in advance.

Sincerely,

Jim Powers

Well as I said, that was in July of 2010 and though I didnt ring his phone, I did book him for a KC show a mere seven years after reading his email. Seven years. Arent I great?

After booking Jim for the Breaking Kayfabe appearance in October 2017, Nick reached out to me a few days before the shoot. Seems theres a problem with the schedule. Jim has asked if he can shoot either earlier on Friday (Answer: No, because I have Vince and Terri coming in and we have to nail that show before Runnels is taken from my set to make an appearance somewhere else.) or Saturday (Answer: No, because we have Russo at a convention appearance Saturday morning and then as soon as Shamrock is done signing, we are shooting his editions of Vince Russos Attitude ).

Nick called back. Powers was upset that we werent rearranging our schedule to accommodate him on Friday.

Ill retype that.

Jim Powers, who agreed to a slot on Friday night that I created when his promoter called and asked me to book him, was now angry we werent juggling the production schedule of our new series that covers the explosive Attitude Era with its head writer and the stars of the WWE. I told Nick, rather succinctly, that we have a slot on Friday night if he wants it. If not, thats it.

I was putting the eighth coat of red exterior paint on my front door so I was already frustrated when I saw an email from Powers. It said: Call me and other than the fact that it was sent from his Verizon Samsung Galaxy smartphone, it offered me no other information. I put the roller down and prepared for the kind of phone call unique to producers of entertainment. The talent was about to create a problemnot the set design, not the writing, not the crew, not the flights, not the promoters, not the money, not the showbut person that should be most flattered and appreciative that weve taken a chance on them.