So "The Franchise" Shane Douglas and Ric Flair still can't stand each other. Well at least we know that's true for Shane. Not sure how much is work or shoot and trust with every wrestler there is always some work in there. We also find out that Mr. Douglas hates everything else and is a little delusional. If we see Shane in TNA anytime soon then we know what it is....
Shane Douglas appeared on Busted Open on Sirius Radio this week, discussing a number of topics, including the following highlights:TNA Hardcore Justice: "They invited me, and offered such a ridiculously low sum of money, that I said “shove it up your backside." When I had wrestled Chris Daniels at the PPV up in Auburn Hills, between the 2 televisions and the PPV itself, I made close to $12,000 dollars for those 3 appearances. They offered me for the, a meet & greet. They wanted me to open the PPV with a “Cut the F’n Music” promo in the vein of ECW, and then they wanted me to work a match. So, basically two days of work, and they offered me an embarrassing amount of money. My comeback to Terry Taylor at the time was, “Look, if you pay Hulk Hogan $35 grand a night, and you pay Ric Flair $17,500 a night, and you have no problem paying that, clearly they must not have a problem with it because they had a chance 2 or 3 weeks ago to let their contracts expire, and they re-signed both, all 3 of them, Bischoff included, and I said in the world of ECW, in that world, I’m bigger than Hogan, and I’m bigger than Flair. So, we’ll talk in those ball parks,” and the number they offered me; I wouldn’t work for somebody in the independent scene for."
TNA's Dixie Carter: "For somebody who’s grown up in a billionaire’s household obviously with a silver and golden spoon up her backside, and in her mouth. To offer these guys the poultry amount of money, and she offered most of these guys an absurdly low sum of money. Shame on her! A, for the fact that it was the highest grossing PPV they had last year; She offered them nothing additional, and offered them such a low sum of money, it seemed funny to me for the woman who told me, “Why would I want to copy ECW after all they’ve failed,” and suddenly she’s begging the ECW alumni to come back and try to dig them out of their hole. I was gonna’ have no part of it. I wanted no part of..I’m very selective in where I allow the ECW legacy to be used, taken advantage of, and I’m not going to let somebody like Dixie Carter who has no respect for our business, and no, more to the point, no respect for the guys that built that company, and that’s evident in the pay that she gave. I have no interest in giving her any props or ups, or any under-handed pitches to allow her to prostitute the ECW legacy for her gain, as the guys don’t make a thing. My intent, clearly I wanted to send Dixie the message that I have no interest in allowing her to capitalize on what we had built, and she has no respect for. And I spoke to most of the guys afterwards, either immediately or afterwards at shows down the road. My intent was not to in anyway, undermine their ability for that show to succeed. And I have no interest in trying to make TNA destabilize. To the contrary, I see incredible possibility for TNA. Last year when they did, if it’s a misnomer, The Monday Night Wars; My 5-year-old was watching it, and so to keep myself entertained, I just sorta scribbled some notes to myself, and after 5 or 6 weeks, I had 27 pages of hand-written notes. I then wrote up in format form, Television format form that Dixie or anybody in TNA would be familiar with; I had 41 pages of single-spaced segments, and it was 41 pages, and I was gonna’ fax it to her free of, I wasn’t gonna’ ask for a dime. I didn’t want a job; I just wanted her to see what vision somebody else could have for her talent, her company, and the future of that company. I couldn’t even get the woman to call me back (And that’s amazing to me for a person in wrestling that has spent the 10’s and dozens of millions of dollars of her gas money, and her dad’s company’s money; For the poultry return that they’ve gotten on that, they she wouldn’t want to at least take a look..She could read it, and call me up afterwards, and laugh in my face, and say, “I think that’s the biggest pile of garbage I ever read,” but to not even return the call seems to me that their there to show you that Dixie Carter clearly is not the person to be running TNA."
Ric Flair: "Ric was the reason I got into the business. I idolized him, and when I met him, he fell so far short of my expectations. Not as a wrestler, but as a man. Embarrassing the things that I’ve watched him do, pulling out his privates in front of children, in a bar full of children. Running up and down hallways naked. Things that to me, and just as a man, I don’t equivocate with being a man or a champion of a company, and the politics between us, and that I’ve watched him to do hold down all the young talent that came up. Look, no one was going to take Ric Flair’s spot. He’s The Nature Boy, Ric Flair! He’s an icon, but he was so worried looking over his shoulder at young guys coming up the ladder, you know, that I think if I tried from his career in later years, and I for one called him on it. For better or for worse, and then..and there’s been a lot of worse to it. I speak my mind, but nobody can come back and say, “You’re a liar, or you twisted the truth,” or whatever. These are the things that I witnessed and I watched, and to me, it’s all part and partial. ..You know wrestling didn’t come to this bad bottom point by accident or by one or 2 accidents. It’s been a quilt of bad decisions, and bad moves, and tough breaks, and whatever else. And when I met Ric Flair as a young guy coming up that ladder with stars in my eyes. I mean, I was a young, green..greener than goose crap kid coming up, and when I met him, I was so enthralled. Nature Boy Ric Flair, the greatest wrestler in the history of our business, and then sat back night after night, week after week, month after month , watching him act like a total jerk, and treat people like a total jerk. It didn’t work for me. It was like meeting your hero, and suddenly finding out he’s an idiot or a jerk, and then..for all those things. And I called him on it. I called him on it, and I guess he didn’t like it. Oh well! You know you got 2 choices, shut up or put your fists up, and he chose not to do the latter."
Still to this day whenever I pass by a grocery store magazine section I have to look for the wrestling magazines. So I wondered the other day, does anyone else still read the wrestling mags?
Back in those days there were a lot of regional promotions that were very popular in their respective markets. The promoters respected each others boundaries and their television shows rarely crossed markets. So for a performer to build up a buzz in other areas, he or she had to get his or her name in the magazines. Also for the fans to know what was going outside of their area they read the magazines. If you lived in the New York area then you may not have seen too much Ric Flair in 1982 but if you saw him in 3 different publications then you knew he was a player. Unlike today's day and age the books also kept the kayfabe alive where today's publications may talk the sport in real terms. 
