Bruno and other legends news

[Guest Astro]

At Dave's request, I called up Bruno last Monday to get the full details on his meeting with Vince and the Flair rumors which apparantly are totally untrue

 

Mike: Bruno tell us everything that was going on, leading up to this second 2004 meeting with WWE that in fact was requested by WWE who is well known to have been actively pursuing you for various purposes.

 

Bruno: Mike, let me say first that it's WWE and Vince's people who've been approaching me regularly this year. Not me, I have no use for them. Despite what Mark Madden has been putting out there and let me tell you he's not a journalist, but a 400 pound nothing, I've not contacted them, not pursued them, this is all their doing; and I'm giving them a few more weeks to put down on paper exactly what they are proposing to me, what they want us to do, what money will be involved for my attorney to consider and review. I'm not really interested, I don't want any of my fans to think I'm selling out; and I'm just politely listening to their offer rather than discounting it and being seen as bitter. If McDivett hadn't pursued me after the deposition in the Larry Zbysko case; that would've been the end of it this year as to any ties between myself and WWE. I've never really wanted anything to do with them while the current product still has some problems.

 

But we usually talk frequently and since I recently got back from a whirlwind filming trip for our life story documentary in Italy, I've been extremely busy. We shot in Rome, a crew from Milan wanted to do a story on me which seemed to happen at least once daily while we were there less than a week. We shot from early in the morning until late in the afternoon, and also filmed in Fazzo, Pizzaferatu(my home town where they erected the statue in my honor some years back which you know) , montecasino which is a beautiful town, Sorento, Amalfi, Capra---oh my, it was really HOT, the heat over there was incredible.

It was always in the 90s, with major humidity. But we got thru it. Italy is so beautiful no matter what time of year you go. When we got back that Saturday, it was me and Koloff in my attorney/agent's office and Dom(Denucci) also flew in from Jersey to meet with us. But McDivett had been calling on my attorney's cell phone repeatedly while we were there. He kept asking us to come before RAW basically less than 48 hours after we got back and my attorney finally convinced me to keep an open mind and at least listen to what Vince wanted to propose.

 

I'll tell you at the meeting around 2 pm that Monday, nothing really happened. And you know Mike, this was my 2nd only meeting, despite all this nonsense I hear about on the internet. Marty and McDivett did all the talking after I said my peace and left the room. And Flair snuck away from me like a thief in the night. We were staring right at each other, and he took off before I could reach him. All I wanted to do was talk but I guess he's afraid of me.

 

So you know nothing much happened at the first meeting about 7 weeks ago where McDivett and Ross(who was very respectful towards me) flew up from Miami RAW up here to Pittsburgh. That was meeting one. Then with all of McDivett's calls, my attorney said we gotta do CBS KDKA affiliate tv here anyway with local guy-dave krawley here, who are doing a special on me, and wanted to interview me near a ring, So he said let's just go to the arena anyway to shoot with Krawley then shoot something for our own documentary in the ring. We can walk away from Vince if we're not interested or he turns you off, he told me. So I agreed to keep an open mind, which you keep telling me to do, with them. Ok.

 

McDivett said he really wanted me to meet with Vince-I said fine, but he knows how I feel about the man . Not a phony like let's meet and see if anything interests us or if we can break some ground with WWE. We went to arena about 1 pm, met with the local tv crew met with Vince at 2 pm or maybe a bit earlier. Got there at 1:45, and with both of us, McDivett and McMahon we went into the room almost immediately. First tho, Vince acted like we were long lost buddies, came right up to shake my hand as if we were always friends the same deal he did with Billy Graham after he got Graham to do whatever he did. Vince tried to be very cordial, he said come meet my daughter, Steph; my son Shane and my son in law HHH. HHH was very, Very respectful, said it was "an honor to meet you sir, heard so much about you", etc. Vince says, let's go into the room-and there was a 5th guy, a small African-American man taking notes and I think he was Vince's assistant. I stood up and said, Look, before anyone starts, there's a couple things I want to say and get off my chest, directed at Vince. You can imagine what I said. I said "I really don't see the purpose of these meetings or why you're pursuiing me, but my atty tells me /convinced me we should meet, keep and open mind and listen to what you want to present. 6 or 7 weeks ago was the first meeting, and since that time, there's been no movement, nothing's happened. As you know Vince, we've been working on a few documentaries and most recently my life story. The Italian media interviewed me on natâl tv-a 4 part story shown over 4 weeks, they say they want to turn my book or translate it into Italian, distribute it and maybe even do a screen play from it for a movie.

 

Vince, there's other things coming out-like that movie "Big Like Sammartino"-they finally raised the money, and start shooting in Sept. Vince, the point is this-we have many projects and things going on. 6 weeks have gone by since McDivett and Ross flew up to meet with us, so what is it you think I can do with you guys. Within the next few weeks, if there is something,if you're serious, let us know or else don't even bother. You really don't need me Vince and I don't need you either" I told him. You should've seen the look on his face. I don't think that many people speak to him in that way. I was standing, he was sitting. I said "since you guys have requested these meetings, tell us what this is all about." McDivett began "Vince has great respect for the oldtimers" And I stopped him and said "-no! If he had respect for the people who grew this company for his dad and himself, he's never shown it--he used people like Killer Kowalski, Domenic, Albano, Blassie all for his own purposes. He threw $1500 for Denucci to do that little show with Mick Foley on ppv, that shows great disrespect to me for someone who busted his ass for the WWWF. The Rewards were small then and they still are now. On the other hand however Vince, you gave a convicted rapist like Mike Tyson over 3 million to do that Wrestlemania, and you gave a disgraced Pete Rose over 400K. That tells me a lot about you. But I'm going to give you another month say, if you draw up something in writing that's tangible, we'll read it-but don't show me the same respect you showed those other wrestling legends, show me the same respect like the people who didn't deserve your financial respect."

 

Vince tried to interrup and say "but Bruno, I had the utmost respect for you always, I learned so much from you," and I didn't let him finish. I said "is that why Vince on that 2 hour A and E cable documentary you made sure I was left off that?"

 

Vince said "I had nothing to do with that." I shot right back "I differ with you- A and E wanted to do a story on me for this documentary but after it was completed, they leveled with me and said that they got lots of flak from you and were told in no uncertain terms--no Bruno-they say they were told a choice of either me or you Vince-and that you said if they even mentioned my name you wouldn't give them any WWWF or WWF film clips. So you had me completely ignored and my peers like Pedro and Ivan. it came right from them Vince. You intentionally didn't want me in it and forced me out of it." Vince looked down and didn't answer. They were all quiet. It felt good to say what had been on my mind so long.

 

I hadda say what I hadda say. Then I got up and said, "Vince that's all I have to say, the lawyers can talk about whatever they wanna talk about, if you want to do something , put it on paper-if we can live with it and it's proper, we'll have more meetings and discuss your interest in me. If it's something not acceptable or decent, I'll tell you to forget it and we'll go our separate ways again. I don't want you however, telling me that I can't attack you on all the drugs and steroids, I must talk about what I choose to talk about- for example, there's a survey that says there's over 5ooo U.S. kids on steroids. I want to continue to go around the country and talk out against the dangers of drugs and steroids, a real cancer in this country. I won't point out you or your wrestlers specifically, I don't even know any of these guys(WWE wrestlers) now really other than Angle, Benoit, Eddy Guerrero. I won't verbally attack your wrestlers, but I will talk about the dangers of these drugs anytime I want. I'll continue to talk about this-so as long as you can live with that as a prerequisite, that's how it's going to be. Now If you'll excuse me, I have a local Pittsburgh tv crew out in the ring. I'm leaving." The room was quiet.

 

After I walked out of that room, I went down to the ring, and Kenny Brown was right there, who's also shooting for our documentaries--you haven't met him yet Mike. A Bunch of the WWE wrestlers came out and shake hands-they were going over their matches in the ring and immediately stopped what they were doing to come right up to me, with the utmost respect. Bautista, a very big guy was very respectful. Orton came up and talked to me about he and his dad respecting me, Steve Regal was a very nice young man. And here's where Flair snuck out like a thief in the night. He entered the building, and a Woman who works for Vince, or an Arena person called his name and we all looked up and saw Ric flair 20 feet away from me. I called out his name and said "good-now I'll finally speak with you". I Excused himself from the wrestlers who were still around me and began walking right toward him. He proceeded to take off like an idiot. I couldn't believe it, becuase Flair had always been respectful to me the few times we'd been around one another. I understand Bret Hart, Mick Foley and a few others are upset with him too. Bucky Polermo an old ref pal of Vince's and mine-still comes backstage to all their shows(he always brings his son Eugene who's a little retarded with him. I hope that's not where they came up with the name for their character because that would be in awfully poor taste ). Anyway, Bucky told me after I left a few hours before RAW even started that Dave Hebner said Flair told him that he went up to greet me and that I turned my back on him. That's just nonsense and there was all of those wrestlers and the film crew that saw what I say is true. That Flair was some 20 feet away from me and ran away when I called out and went up to him. I'm not as fast as I used to be and there were still all these young wrestlers around me. Flair is spreading those rumors to make up for himself being a coward. And that Mark Madden, I don't know how he got into that book but he was trashing me again on his show. Making a fool of himself-both Flair and Madden.

 

ML: Bruno, you told me that Vince and the others asked you to stay awhile and watch some of RAW

 

BS: Mike, you know I'm smarter than that. We have no deal in place, they've made no formal and proper offer to me yet whatsoever. And you know if I stayed, they would've had a trained camera on me and would've aired that so they could show me being there for their own purposes.

I Wouldn't stay, I refused to be seen at ringside. So I left an hour or two before it started and didn't stay. My attorney-agent and I left the arena and went to a nearby restaurant, discuss what happened. His cell phone rang and it's Vince saying HI. Uh huh. Yeah. I'll talk to him, right now can't say. He said, "Bruno, Vince said he wanted to talk you into making at least an upcoming MSG appearance. I said with Vince able to hear me on the phone, no way after you kept me off the MSG Hall of Fame. you tell him what we're doing. When we were still in the room basically having me vent, Vince did mention 24/7 just very briefly, a few words...he said we want to do many things with you Bruno that could be profable for everyone. On 24/7 or on a DVD you could Talk about your matches, what happened, who you had heat with, the whole thing,

 

I again repeated "put the whole package in writing and see where it leads us Vince, he didn't elaborate on 24/7 at all but I didn't give him an opportunity, because I said what was bothering me for so long, and I walked out of the room before he could barely talk. I felt VERY RELUCTANT to being in that meeting and even being around him. I said "Actions speak louder than words" so document what you want me for.

 

I know you're friends with Flair and all of that. You and Meltzer like him, and that's fine. But he behaved like an ass to me in person, and was an ass in his book. And once we've given Vince the promised time to come up with something in writing--either way; then I'll do radio and go after Flair and defend myself. You don't trash someone publicly and get away with it.

 

And since that meeting before RAW, we've heard nothing concrete yet but it's only been a week to the day Mike.

 

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[Guest Astro]

Bucky Polermo an old ref pal of Vince's and mine-still comes backstage to all their shows(he always brings his son Eugene who's a little retarded with him. I hope that's not where they came up with the name for their character because that would be in awfully poor taste ).

 

 

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Isn't this the 2nd "special" person credited with inspiring Eugene, plus that comedy act group that said they evented the character a decade ago or whatever....

[Guest JericholicEdgeHead]

It's weird watching an old episode of Championship Wrestling (with Vince & Bruno doing commentary) knowing the problems that exist now.

[Promoter 0]

Bruno's comments to Vince in the meeting with Vince staying silent says it all. Bruno called him on the bullshit. It's sad someone of Ric Flair's stature kisses Vinnie's tail so much. I think Bret Hart is in the same vien as Sammartino.

[Markme123 0]

Bucky Polermo an old ref pal of Vince's and mine-still comes backstage to all their shows(he always brings his son Eugene who's a little retarded with him. I hope that's not where they came up with the name for their character because that would be in awfully poor taste ).

 

 

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Isn't this the 2nd "special" person credited with inspiring Eugene, plus that comedy act group that said they evented the character a decade ago or whatever....

3rd if you believe the rumors that Dinsmore created it himself to get on TV.

[Guest Dynamite Kido]

Good for Bruno. Sometimes I think that Bruno is bitter, but I'll be damned if I don't like Vinny Mac getting a good ass reaming every once in a while.

[jester 0]

Good for Bruno. Sometimes I think that Bruno is bitter, but I'll be damned if I don't like Vinny Mac getting a good ass reaming every once in a while.

If the story is as Bruno tells it, Vince sooo needs a guy like this as an advisor. Somebody who isn't a yes man (and is independently wealthy so he doesn't care if he gets fired). Maybe this would kill more things like the Diva search and Katie Vick before they got off the ground.

[Toshiaki Koala 0]

Despite what Mark Madden has been putting out there and let me tell you he's not a journalist, but a 400 pound nothing, I've not contacted them, not pursued them, this is all their doing;