Post by BJ Sturgeon on Aug 21, 2013 17:30:57 GMT -5
Not sure if anyone is interested, but I just found an interview with Otto Wanz who turned 70 a few weeks ago in a magazine and translated the parts that some might find interesting:
In the early 1980s you were touring the USA with Hulk Hogan and one of the top stars of the wrestling scene. Have you never considered staying in America?
In was on tour with the Battle-Royal-Tour for two months. We were sold out four days a week, all arenas of 15.000 to 20.000. At the closing banquet the big clash between Verne Gagne, the boss, and the Hogan crew happened. Hulk asked me: "Otto, how about staying here? You fit in well." It came out of nowhere for me. At the end I said no. Over there I was in demand as lederhosen and gamsbart guy, but one injury later it would have all been over. Also, the taxes in America eat you up. In Europe however I was undisputed and could earn more over time. Hogan didn't want to understand that and just said: "You're going back for peanuts? You f*ing idiot!" Had I known I'd be divorced two years later I might have considered otherwise.
Hogan is ten years younger than you and to this days is considered the figurehead of pro wrestling. His private life however is about as turbulent as in the ring. Despite a no-marriage-pledge he married for a third time in 2010.
I've always said he is the Michael Jackson of pro wrestling. We even used to tag in the ring - and I was the boss, as I had the title. That hurt him the most. However: had I eaten as much as him I would have burst. He downed bowls of chicken with rice. But he also trained with iron determination. Of course he's a phenomenon. With his stupid foam fingers alone he made three and a half million dollars in two years. Every kid bought that thing. Still: All in all he made hundreds of millions, but following his last divorce he's broke again. At least for American proportions. When someone like Hogan has only 30 millions all of a sudden, he's out of the loaded league.
WrestleMania, the annual highlight of the muscleheads, drew 80.676 fans into the MetLife Stadium of the New York Giants at the beginning of April. The event managed to register its highest ever grossing at 72 million dollars worldwide.
America is a different world, this wouldn't be possible over here. Those guys, that are fighting nowadays, didn't exist back then. Nowadays everyone's a great athlete. It's more circus acrobatics and only 30 percent wrestling. But they sell it terrifically. The stories they come up with alone, everything's staged perfectly. Americans enter the arena and right away are like "Great show!" At our tourneys the first day was always the worst. Bidden guests only in the first five rows. There was Mr. Manager with his wife who asked herself "What am I doing here?" But after the second, third match she leaned there askew shouting "You jerk!" That's when you knew you had her.
Two years ago you had to decline the induction into the WWE Hall Of Fame for health reasons. Japan, where you also were very popular, was your last big trip abroad.
Tokyo Dome, 67.000 fans, and throughout the whole arena they ran the marquee "We welcome Big Otto from Austria." Not bad, I thought. As promoters the Japanese were my best business partners. They were always painstakingly correct. When you ordered a fighter with a mustache and one without a beard showed up, you could send him back on their cost.
Little is being reported about the shady sides of the wrestling business: many of the in ring heroes die very young, the mix of painkillers and steroids carries off most of them between 40 and 50.
From my generation nine out of ten peers are dead. I'm the absolute loner. Most of them threw in all the crap ad nauseum back then. Everyone had around 220 pounds and wanted to grub themselves up to 350 pounds. However: none of that was real. Everyone wanted to be big and mighty and did that the artificial way for the most part. Of course it's putting a big strain on the heart. I never took a single pill my whole life to gain weight, but rather take care it doesn't get too much. I ate my three, four fried eggs for breakfast, with sausage and cheese - they wouldn't even touch that. Of course it's like that: once you're injured you're ditched. Many started doing coke then and almost killed themselves. There's so many cruel lapses in there, where you'd say, I never would have thought of him, that he'd fall from grace like that. When you're a top tier fighter - of course it's not a life. On a plane six out of seven days, in the night you're going from the airport to the hotel by taxi, the next morning you're picked up, then it's to the arena, training, sauna, a nap in the afternoon, the fights in the evening and afterwards a capital dinner. When you're doing that for years, no marriage or relationship will last. But when you stay healthy you can earn a fortune.
A few notes:
Wanz seems like a guy who is still living kayfabe. In another interview I heard a few weeks a go he was talking about how he and his opponents (specifically Baby Bull / Vader) hated each other and wanted nothing to do with each other outside the ring in a not too serious manner. Of course, they may have legit heat with each other.
I have NO idea what the HOF part is all about. I could imagine Otto Wanz being VERY low on WWE's list of possible HOF candidates.
Also, he seems to be fond of exaggerations.
In the early 1980s you were touring the USA with Hulk Hogan and one of the top stars of the wrestling scene. Have you never considered staying in America?
In was on tour with the Battle-Royal-Tour for two months. We were sold out four days a week, all arenas of 15.000 to 20.000. At the closing banquet the big clash between Verne Gagne, the boss, and the Hogan crew happened. Hulk asked me: "Otto, how about staying here? You fit in well." It came out of nowhere for me. At the end I said no. Over there I was in demand as lederhosen and gamsbart guy, but one injury later it would have all been over. Also, the taxes in America eat you up. In Europe however I was undisputed and could earn more over time. Hogan didn't want to understand that and just said: "You're going back for peanuts? You f*ing idiot!" Had I known I'd be divorced two years later I might have considered otherwise.
Hogan is ten years younger than you and to this days is considered the figurehead of pro wrestling. His private life however is about as turbulent as in the ring. Despite a no-marriage-pledge he married for a third time in 2010.
I've always said he is the Michael Jackson of pro wrestling. We even used to tag in the ring - and I was the boss, as I had the title. That hurt him the most. However: had I eaten as much as him I would have burst. He downed bowls of chicken with rice. But he also trained with iron determination. Of course he's a phenomenon. With his stupid foam fingers alone he made three and a half million dollars in two years. Every kid bought that thing. Still: All in all he made hundreds of millions, but following his last divorce he's broke again. At least for American proportions. When someone like Hogan has only 30 millions all of a sudden, he's out of the loaded league.
WrestleMania, the annual highlight of the muscleheads, drew 80.676 fans into the MetLife Stadium of the New York Giants at the beginning of April. The event managed to register its highest ever grossing at 72 million dollars worldwide.
America is a different world, this wouldn't be possible over here. Those guys, that are fighting nowadays, didn't exist back then. Nowadays everyone's a great athlete. It's more circus acrobatics and only 30 percent wrestling. But they sell it terrifically. The stories they come up with alone, everything's staged perfectly. Americans enter the arena and right away are like "Great show!" At our tourneys the first day was always the worst. Bidden guests only in the first five rows. There was Mr. Manager with his wife who asked herself "What am I doing here?" But after the second, third match she leaned there askew shouting "You jerk!" That's when you knew you had her.
Two years ago you had to decline the induction into the WWE Hall Of Fame for health reasons. Japan, where you also were very popular, was your last big trip abroad.
Tokyo Dome, 67.000 fans, and throughout the whole arena they ran the marquee "We welcome Big Otto from Austria." Not bad, I thought. As promoters the Japanese were my best business partners. They were always painstakingly correct. When you ordered a fighter with a mustache and one without a beard showed up, you could send him back on their cost.
Little is being reported about the shady sides of the wrestling business: many of the in ring heroes die very young, the mix of painkillers and steroids carries off most of them between 40 and 50.
From my generation nine out of ten peers are dead. I'm the absolute loner. Most of them threw in all the crap ad nauseum back then. Everyone had around 220 pounds and wanted to grub themselves up to 350 pounds. However: none of that was real. Everyone wanted to be big and mighty and did that the artificial way for the most part. Of course it's putting a big strain on the heart. I never took a single pill my whole life to gain weight, but rather take care it doesn't get too much. I ate my three, four fried eggs for breakfast, with sausage and cheese - they wouldn't even touch that. Of course it's like that: once you're injured you're ditched. Many started doing coke then and almost killed themselves. There's so many cruel lapses in there, where you'd say, I never would have thought of him, that he'd fall from grace like that. When you're a top tier fighter - of course it's not a life. On a plane six out of seven days, in the night you're going from the airport to the hotel by taxi, the next morning you're picked up, then it's to the arena, training, sauna, a nap in the afternoon, the fights in the evening and afterwards a capital dinner. When you're doing that for years, no marriage or relationship will last. But when you stay healthy you can earn a fortune.
A few notes:
Wanz seems like a guy who is still living kayfabe. In another interview I heard a few weeks a go he was talking about how he and his opponents (specifically Baby Bull / Vader) hated each other and wanted nothing to do with each other outside the ring in a not too serious manner. Of course, they may have legit heat with each other.
I have NO idea what the HOF part is all about. I could imagine Otto Wanz being VERY low on WWE's list of possible HOF candidates.
Also, he seems to be fond of exaggerations.
