Quote:
Originally Posted by kane
I watched a documentary a while back where they followed a guy named Tony Atlas who used to be a huge name in wrestling ( I haven't watched it since the 80s when I was a kid, but he was pretty big back then). In this movie he was broke and living in a tiny little apartment and wrestling at little shows in school gyms or wherever in front of maybe 50 or 100 people. There were a bunch of guys who I recognized from the 80's who were all in the same boat. At one point they were going to do a show at a gym and it got shut down because there was no legal promoter so Atlas spends the day jumping through some hoops to get a special promoters license so the show can go on. Eventually he does, but they have to move the venue and the end up putting on the show for about 30 people.
It was kind of sad. These guys were pretty short sighted when they were making big money and it looks like a lot of them were never able to make the transition into a normal life afterward. You hear a lot of stories of drug overdoses and suicides and stuff like that.
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I remember that, it was actually an episode of MTV True Life: I'm a Professional Wrestler from back in '99 when pro wrestling was going through a huge boom period. It was when WWE developed the "Stone Cold" Steve Austin character, WCW had the NWO and Goldberg, and both companies were doing huge ratings on Monday night TV every week.
Oddly enough, Tony Atlas is back working with WWE again, working as an on screen manager and also doing public appearances for the company. I think Vince McMahon has a soft spot for Atlas, because every time he is down and out McMahon comes to the rescue and gives him a job.
I think the whole pro wrestling business in general is in for some tough times ahead, as they are having a really tough time developing new stars. Back in the day a collegiate amateur wrestler, a college football player that wasn't quite good enough for the NFL, or any of a number of other high level athletes ended up gravitating to pro wrestling to make a living when they had no other options. Now those same guys have the option to train and try to make a living in MMA, and it really shrinks the talent pool to try and develop new pro wrestling stars...