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This is a touchy question and I will understand if you don’t want to answer it and I will try to be as respectful as I can because I respect you and the site. You have a peer who is around your age. Over the last few years he has lost all of the respect that I used to have for him because it has become it seems to me that since he can’t break the news the way he used to, he has become a promotional tool for one promotion and killed what was left of his credibility. I have stopped paying for his site after decades of being a member. My question is have you thought about how you will handle the natural progression of aging so that you don’t turn out like him? I know you have too much integrity to ever become a cheerleader for any company but I am curious how you will handle that time when it comes. I am a day one Elite and will be here as long as there is a site. I love what you and the team do.
First off, thanks for your support of the work we do here. You were a subscriber here from day one and also with us over at 1Wrestling.com. I can’t tell you how much decades of support from people like you mean to me. You folks are the reason we are here and get to do what we do.
I have no problem answering your question. In fact, I think as a paying member of the site you have every right to ask it. As you know, this site has never been about me or my ego. It’s been about doing everything humanly possible to bring the readers the truth and report the whole story, not just things that match our personal feelings or agenda. I never planned to become a wrestling reporter. As I have said many, many times I only got into this business because there was a prominent outlet that was reporting things that I knew for a fact were not true. That made me wonder if he was wrong about those things, what else was he wrong about? Who else was working him? So, that led me to start The Wrestling Lariat newsletter. That got the ball rolling and the wrestling reporting business called me, and I answered. The beauty of that was that I never had the ego that some others in this business had. I never saw myself as infallible, in fact it was just the opposite. My number one rule here has always been if we get a story wrong, we post a retraction and then report the truth. We never double down and say we were right after we have been proven wrong. To me, it’s always been about having integrity and building trust in the reader/listener. The beauty in that is that I hated being wrong so much, I went above and beyond to make sure what I was reporting was the truth. And Mike Johnson does the same thing (and hates to be wrong as much as I do).
That leads me to the second part of your question. As I said above, it was never about ego to me. I didn’t have any need to be looked at as the guru of news or anything like that. Case in point, for a while I was arguably the top reporter in the business. Then Mike Johnson came along and passed me. I have already dealt with what the person you refer to is going through now. As Mike was passing me, I would work on stories only to have Mike beat me to the punch most of the time. The writing on the wall was pretty clear to me so Mike took over my role as the news breaker, and I am damn lucky to have him here doing that. If there was going to be any kind crisis like the one that you mentioned for me, it would have been then. It never happened. What did happen was I moved into the support role for Mike, using my contacts in the rare times that he wanted more information on a story.
My role changed here at that time, in a lot of the ways for the better. I majored in business in college and minored in journalism. When Mike moved into the lead reporting role, I spent more time on the business of the site, which was a godsend because as time went on, the challenges of running a profitable site changed and I was able to address them as they happened. Since Mike was working the phones to break the news, I could put out the fires knowing that the most important aspect of the site was covered. I was also lucky enough to have Paul Jordan come along and become a major part of the site. With those two filling the site with news, it allowed me to move into the role of doing more commentary, which is what I really love to do. Analysis has always been my favorite part of what we do here and now it’s my lead role. I can’t ask for anymore than that.
So with that said, here are bullet points to answer your questions:
*Yep, we all age. It happens. Even if Mike were not here, I would never do what the person you are talking about is doing. Do I have my feelings about what I like? Absolutely, and I will always share that but I will never report my opinion as fact. I will never tell lies of omission, such as leaving out Hangman Page and The Elite’s roles in the CM Punk situation just so I could paint Punk as the only one who was wrong in that situation. I will never blindly do the bidding for anyone in the wrestling business, no matter who they are. My credibility matters more than pushing my agenda or making sources happy or whatever would make someone do that. With that said, I have already handled the aspect of someone overtaking me as being the one who breaks the most news and I am happy to cede the crown to Mike Johnson because he’s better at it than I ever was.
*My future here will continue to be what it has been. I have no plans to go anywhere. I plan on doing this as long as I have the capacity to do it. I love running the business aspect. I love what I contribute to the site. I love the team we have here that does the best job of any wrestling site around. And, I truly love doing audios where I share my views on the business, and sometimes life itself. One thing I can say that as I have gotten older, I have definitely gotten wiser and I will gladly share what I have to offer with people that are receptive to hearing it, like the veterans have tried to do in AEW. I don’t need a pat on the back or any other kind of ego boost. The support of the people like you is all I need. When I finally do move on to the next dimension, it’s written in my will that the site will go to Mike Johnson so it will continue on after I am gone. Until that day comes, you guys and girls are the reason I do what I do and get excited to come to work every day. Thank you!
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