Well, it wasn’t quite as dramatic as if Vince McMahon would do it to you on air, but I was let go in a cost-cutting move at TNA along with Pat Kenney. I’d heard rumblings about 8 weeks ago that they were looking to chop agents, so it didn’t come as that much of a surprise.
To put things into perspective, when I was at WCW, we had a 3 hour Nitro, 2 hour Thunder, and WCW Saturday Night. Arn Anderson and John Laurinaitis and Finlay were the only agents. At TNA sometimes we had five matches and five agents. Just way too many.
It was a great job getting paid for what I was getting paid to do. Way too little work to be an agent for one match. But it was a lousy job for providing you with actual work. It was inhibiting me from doing other things, like overseas tours, because at best I could only miss one taping.
It’s my understanding that they’re also looking to cut talent, which makes sense. I believe TNA has sixty wrestlers on the payroll, if I’m not mistaken. Do the math. It’s a pretty simple business move.
I was really surprised that they let Pat go. He was the only agent, other than Dutch who really isn’t an agent, that had house show experience. Savio works with the girls , so they needed to keep him, and BG James was born for this type of work. Very passionate and very knowledgeable. TNA won’t miss a beat from a production standpoint because Glenn Gilbertti couldn’t be the agent for a three minute match between Curryman and Sonjay Dutt.
I don’t have anything bad to say about the company, other than stating the obvious. TNA has a quality creative team and some outstanding wrestlers and talkers at the bottom and top of the card, and these days especially at the top. Now it’s time for upper management to step it up and start spending the time and money to advertise and promote the product. The pieces are in place, now it’s time for them to do their part. There’s no reason that a show with Sting, Kurt Angle, Nash, Booker T and AJ and Joe shouldn’t have more mainstream exposure. That’s just a fact.
It was great finally getting a chance to hang around Jim Cornette, one of my all-time favorites, and getting to meet and get to know Kurt Angle. Cornette’s knowledge of the business is second to no one, and Kurt is just a natural. The other day I was asking him how he picked up so many of the little nuances of this business so quickly, like timing, for a guy that had never watched wrestling before, in such a short period of time. He gave the answer that everyone in this business that wants to be a main eventer should use as a guide. All he watched was tapes of Austin, HHH, and Shawn Michaels, and The Rock. That’s how he learned so quickly. It shouldn’t bear repeating.
In January I had two new opportunities that were coming up career rise, that would have compromised my work status with TNA. So I’ll be fine.
When I got the call that I was being let go, I didn’t get the chance to say, “You can’t fire me, because I quit!” Damn.
