BILL APTER TALKS DUSTY RHODES IN THE WWF, VINCE MCMAHON OWNING GIMMICKS & MORE

Bill Apter on Vince owning gimmicks, getting ribbed on the road, and more

On the latest episode of Wrestling with History on VOC Nation, Bill Apter talked about Vince's quest to own gimmicks, getting ribbed by Wahoo McDaniel on the road, too many high spots in modern wrestling, and more. Here are some highlights: On Vince caring more about owning a new intellectual property than he did about a wrestler’s name recognition:  “Vince is looking – and this is not in defense of Vince, I know in terms where he wants to take his business.  He wants to trademark a Tony Atlas, change him into a character, make merchandise with him on it – he can’t own the Tony Atlas person but he can own Saba Simba.  He can own Akeem (instead) of One Man Gang, etc.  So his plan moving forward was to create cartoon like characters that he could not only have wrestle, but merchandize as well.” On Dusty’s polka dot gimmick:  “With Dusty, as much disrespect as there was in that, that whole polka dot gimmick to him was in that whole cartoon vein of selling merchandise and branding it that way.  He didn’t really care about the wrestling fan, he was trying to rebrand wrestling as entertainment.” On getting ribbed by Wahoo McDaniel on the road:  “I used to leave my camera bag in the safety of the dressing room, and I’d come back to the dressing room and my camera bag (was) gone.  Everyone was like ‘somebody must have stolen it’.  Then I’d go to the next town and Wahoo (McDaniel) just happened to have found it every time we went some place.  All the time, all the time.” On the amount of high spots in modern wrestling:  “It’s nothing special anymore now.  When you watch wrestling on TV, it used to be that one person per show would do (acrobatics).  Now every match, everybody does the dive over the ropes to somebody on the floor.  Everybody does the top rope (dive).  I remember the first time seeing Pedro Morales or Mil Mascaras jump off the top rope; it was spectacular because I hadn’t seen it on a show before.  Now everybody does the same things.” Wrestling with History featuring Bill Apter and Ken Resnick drops on all major podcast platforms every Wednesday under the VOC Nation Wrestling Network feed.   Link to the show here: https://vocnation.com   VOC Nation takes you behind the scenes of the greatest moments in pro wrestling history. Notable show hosts include legendary pro wrestling journalist Bill Apter, former WWE/TNA star Shelly Martinez, former WWE and AWA broadcaster Ken Resnick, former WCW performer The Maestro, former TNA Impact talent Wes Brisco, Pro Wrestling Illustrated’s Brady Hicks, independent pro wrestling and Fireball Run star Sassy Stephie, and more! Since 2010, VOC Nation has brought listeners into the minds of the biggest stars in pro wrestling and entertainment.  Subscribe to the podcasts for free on most major directories, and visit vocnation.com for live programming.

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