..../part 2 of

Tape 3

"Pin me and pay me ....but you'll never make me quit"

Throughout the summer, Anderson continued his efforts to force out Zenk and the other young talent contracted by Jim Herd in the hope of replacing them with ring veterans (guys who 'owed' Ole) plus 'green and cheap' workers recruited on a limited or no contract basis.

The Observer (8/13/1990) confirmed that, under Anderson, there would be "no more guaranteed money contracts for wrestlers when the current pacts expire, sometime next spring or summer.... Without guaranteed money contracts and being paid on the houses ...all but a few wrestlers would probably want to make the switch [to Titan]. I expect early next year that some of the guys under contract will be phased down and out while greener and cheaper talent will be brought in for the same spots. In fact one could make that assumption just looking at the 9/5 Clash line up." The Clash of Champions XII card included new and cheap talent in almost all the main event matches.

In solo matches Zenk was being booked against veterans like Buddy Landell, Dutch Mantell and The Iron Sheik or green talent like Zan Panzer (the son of Gene Anderson - Ole's former partner in "The Minnesota Wrecking Crew"). He was tagged with the newly recruited Tim Horner and Brad Armstrong, while Pillman was teamed with Tommy Rich. Rich was still receiving a greater push than either Zenk or Pillman, despite his proven failure with the fans.

Anderson also brought in a series of 'monster heels' - Sid Vicious, Mark Callas, Vader, Stan Hansen, etc and booked the contracted workers, particularly Zenk and Pillman, to put them over. Zenk was booked to lose to Vader through August 1990.



The Japanese promoters wouldn't permit either Vader or Hansen to be defeated in the US. In booking Zenk for defeat by Vader and Hansen, Anderson was not only removing heat from Zenk in the US but, at the same time killing the reputation he had made for himself in Japan.  A letter in The Observer in August  (8/13) questioned Anderson's booking practices - in particular "Letting the dull Van Vader squash Zenk was ..a surprise. Vader is all hat and no skill." Others were equally skeptical -  "Big Van Vader is nothing but pure WWF" and " I don't think Vader will get over in the NWA".
 
 On 8/6, Anderson temporarily reconvened the tag team of Zenk and Pillman -  but only as a vehicle to put Sid Vicious over.  A title match was arranged between Zenk and Pillman and the Midnight Express and 'abandoned' mid-match when Vicious ran in, attacking everyone in sight.  Though Sid denied Zenk the finish, the men in the ring seemed to take exception to Sid's push and instead of 'fleeing the ring'  Eaton can be seen standing toe to toe, hammering Vicious, as the show goes to a commercial (Tape 3 Match 1).

Before Sid's arrival, TV audiences had a momentary glimpse of what they might be seeing if Anderson were pushing NWA's real talent - "A solid three and and a half star match" (WON 8/30)."Match was real good until it was halted" (WON 8/13). 
 

   
Anderson booked the match to put Sid over, but things didn't turn out that way. (Below) Sid denies Zenk the finish; the men in the ring appear to take exception to Sloppy Sid's push and (below right) instead of 'fleeing the ring' Eaton hammers Vicious, as the show goes to a commercial.
   
 
(Tape 3 Match 2) Clash of Champions XII (7/7/90) - Another of Anderson's 'monster heels'  was his old school friend, Stan Hansen. Initially Anderson had booked Paul Orndorff against Hansen for Clash of Champions XII (9/5). Hansen was already a millionaire through his work in Japan  -"the most miserable millionaire in the world" -  but had little profile among US fans. Among wrestlers, Hansen was notorious as a stiff worker and brawler. Despite playing heel, Hansen rarely called a match. His opponents were forced to work as best they could with little co-operation from him. Orndorff refused to job for Hansen on TV and quit. Instead of choosing one of WCW's innumerable jobbers, Anderson booked Zenk for another humiliating squash.

The Observer (9/17) protested - "Stan Hansen pinned Tom Zenk in 3:18 with a lariat. Hansen worked fast and stiff. It was fine given the time limitations since it was all action, but for the life of me if I had a guy who was under contract to earn $156,000 per year (like Zenk is) who is a pretty decent worker, I'd have at least made this a competitive match. Hansen obviously needed to get over in the end, but if he got a clean win, having a good match and winning would help him just as much. And destroying Zenk in this fashion when he can mean more in a tag team with Pillman (which they are putting back together again) - and given his contract - is about as smart as throwing $3,000 each week into a furnace .... Tom Zenk filled in for Paul Orndorff who was taken off the card either because he wasn't going to do the job for Hansen on television.....or [they] just filled Zenk in, in the place."

By September, it was clear to wrestlers, wrestling journalists and, increasingly, WCW's executives that Anderson's appointment as chief booker had been a disastrous mistake. "Less people are going to house shows.... Cable ratings have been good not because of improved booking but because Herd has been able to get TBS to keep the shows' time slots more consistent." In house shows, the "B" team to which Zenk and Pillman had been 'relegated' were bringing in consistently better houses than Anderson's "A" Team.
 
Serious disagreements began to develop among senior WCW management. The Observer reported  "Jim Herd and Ole Anderson aren't seeing eye-to-eye about usage of older talent like Bob Armstrong, Buddy Roberts, Ivan Koloff and even Stan Hansen."

Following publication of the card for Halloween Havoc 1990 - The Observer again protested  "The line-up for the 10/27 PPV makes it more than obvious that the NWA is trying to phase down the guys under contract and replace them with cheaper and less experienced talent. For example, on this card, the Midnights who have contracts, are phased down to the opener with mainly non-contract guys in the second through seventh match. Pillman and Zenk aren't even on the show... The idea is obviously with the exception of Sting, Luger, Vicious, and to a lesser extent Flair, Steiners, Doom and maybe Arn Anderson, to make sure the contract guys don't get hot or have any noticeable following so when they are cut loose at the end of their contracts it isn't a loss. So this is the business reason for these unknowns being pushed, simply because even though the NWA is committed to paying the other guys anyway, the new guys will work cheaper in 1991.. This is the same recipe Verne Gagne used for his great success [in] the latter part of the decade". (WON 9/24/90)

Herb Kunze in Canada was among those wondering aloud at the 'logic' behind the booking for the Havoc card, informing his readers (October 1990) that, for some reason " they seem to be jobbing out Tom Zenk."
 

 

A job too far

Tom Zenk, after years of hard work and independence, having finally scored one of wrestling's glittering prizes -  a secure two year contract with a six figure salary - now found his career actively and arbitrarily undermined for reasons unrelated to his talent or work rate.  After the job to Hansen,  he decided if he had to leave, it would be on his own terms. Accordingly, he instructed his attorney to take action to have WCW either honor their pre-contract negotiations or buy him out. 

In the subsequent exchange of legal letters (between Zenk's attorney and TBS) Anderson's misuse of Zenk was not contested by TBS. Nor did TBS contest that Anderson had withdrawn Zenk from television which was a key element of the pre-contract negotiations. Instead TBS claimed that the contract gave them the right to use Zenk as they "saw fit", even in a manner not beneficial to his career. This was an extraordinary claim for a company to make. A wrestler employed at $3,000 a week didn't expect to do the work of a $100-a-night wrestling-jobber.  An employer normally has an obligation to use a performer at a level equivalent to the level at which he or she is initially employed. The alternative - of  underusing or misusing a performer's talent - thereby undermining their future career prospects - could, as Zenk's attorney contested, be regarded as a breach of contract. On that basis, Zenk's attorney requested Zenk's buy out from his WCW contract.
 
 

In an exchange of legal letters, between Zenk's attorney and TBS, Anderson's misuse of Zenk was not contested by TBS.

 

In reality, WCW Executives were more than satisfied with Zenk's work and refused to buy him out. Instead, Herd called Anderson in and instructed him to make better use of Zenk's talent.  But since Anderson's targetting of Zenk was part of his wider campaign against Herd himself (see Summary below), he continued to ignore Herd's request. Instead, in September, 1990 he booked Zenk for a series of straight losses to the unknown 'Master Blaster Steele' in bouts booked to last less than two minutes. The Observer concluded "Basically .. they are trying to get Zenk to quit and he hasn't yet so they are turning up the pressure"  (10/8/90).

Denied a buy out and with Anderson flagrantly defying Herd's instructions,  Zenk's motto became "Pay me and pin me .....but you'll never make me quit."

In August, September and November, Anderson was again under pressure from low ratings and record low attendances, and responded by re-forming the tag team of the Z-Man and Flyin' Brian (Tape 3 Matches 1, 5,and 6).  Each time they hit the ring, Zenk and Pillman turned out 3 and 4 star performances. And each time, as the team began to gather heat, Anderson disbanded it, jobbing out Zenk and Pillman.  The Observer (10/1/90) reported Pillman tagging with Alan Iron Eagle and Zenk tagging with Tim Horner (Tape 3 Match 3) or still jobbing to Vader!

Having disbanded Zenk and Pillman,  Anderson introduced a new replacement babyface tag team, The Renegade Warriors (Mark and Chris Youngblood), plus the unknown JW Storm (Jeff Warner) whom Zenk was booked to put over (Tape 3 Match 4). El Gigante completed Anderson's stable of new ' talent.

In October, 1990, one of the WCW wrestlers wrote anonymously to The Observer - "They are bringing in and pushing guys who have never worked on live national television. They had the Indian guy (Alan Iron Eagle) laying in the hallway two minutes before his television match teaching him how to do an Indian Deathlock. He has had only 23 matches in his entire career. Tony Zane went out in the parking lot after doing an angle with Sting and got busted. They handcuffed him and towed away his car in front of a lot of fans. ..... If the Detroit Red Wings weren't winning, would they bring back Gordon Howie? If the Lakers weren't winning would they bring back Wilt?  If the Red Sox weren't winning, would they bring back Yaz? No, and it doesn't work that way in wrestling either. Guys who are too green, too old or are simply 6-foot-8 or more seem to be the only guys getting a push here."

By mid-October, Jim Cornette and Stan Lane had had enough and quit. Bobby Eaton chose to stay with 6 months remaining on his contract. Cornette and Lane's decision came after an argument with Anderson over booking Eaton to work three times at a TV taping. "Ironically the Midnights were ...the company's most consistent act nightly on the road but at the same time were given virtually no push and almost treated as glorified jobbers ...Cornette was one of Anderson's biggest supporters when he was first named booker, although that changed 180 degrees."

By November, The Observer was reporting (11/19) that "Ole Anderson's position [is] anything but stable"  The pressure on Zenk lifted slightly as Anderson fought to shore up his own position. The Observer reported "Tom Zenk is getting a renewed push."  A further sign that Herd was reasserting his authority came with the news that The Renegade Warriors and some of Anderson's  'cheap and green' workers, including Jeff Warner (JW Storm) were on their way out. Despite The Observer's premature claims about a renewed push for Zenk, the quality of his opponents barely improved throughout November and December. An exception was the under-rated Barry Horowitz (Tape 3 Match 7).
 
 

  Zenk does what he can with Ole's cheap 'talent' - in this case, the 350 lb Motor City Madman.  
   

At Clash of Champions XXIII "Thanksgiving Thunder" (Jacksonville, Florida 11/20) Zenk's talent was again wasted against the inexperienced Brian Lee (Tape 3 Match 8).  "Tom Zenk pinned Brian Lee in 3:10 after a dropkick off the top rope. Decent paced but you could tell they had never worked together because of timing problems. Still it was decent enough except for Zenk missing a flying bodypress off the top rope while Lee was still in Tallahassee or somewhere." (WON, 12/3/90). Lee oversold a throw and missed  the only high spot he had to remember.The scheduled finish had to be abandoned. Zenk was wild but called the match through to a new finish, climaxed by a dramatic flying drop-kick.
 
 

	Making the best of a bad job  Under Anderson Zenk's motto became "pin me and pay me"  - yet Zenk managed to remain professional throughout. At "Thanksgiving Thunder," November 1990, Brian Lee missed the only high spot he had to remember.The scheduled finish had to be abandoned. Zenk called the match through to a new finish, climaxed by a dramatic flying drop-kick (below left).

 

In early December, the Observer (12/3/90) reported that "Most of the [WCW] wrestlers seem to be excited" over the news of Ole's impending departure....The thought is that the promotion has hit rock bottom with Ole Anderson at the helm." On the other hand there were rumors of Dusty Rhodes coming in as a replacement. "The thought is that Rhodes will be a good booker so long as he himself isn't an active wrestler. Of course with his son naturally going to be brought in, that has to be almost as bad."  (Meltzer uses the word 'naturally' with only faint irony - suggesting that, even among journalists, nepotism was wrestling's accepted modus operandi). It was a sign of how far things had deteriorated under Anderson that Rhodes - who had helped bankrupt several federations - was regarded as a viable successor, incapable of doing further damage to the promotion.

In the first week of December 1990, NWA confirmed Ole Anderson's sacking and the release of road agent Bob Roop.  An interim committee was appointed comprising Jim Ross, Tony Schavione, Kevin Sullivan and Ric Flair. The new committee began to discard the workers recruited by Ole - in particular JYD , Iron Sheik, Night Stalker (Bryan Clark) and Rocky King (WON 12/10/90). At last the contracted workers began to be pushed again. However talk of Zenk getting a push proved premature when the booking sheets for January showed him booked against the Iron Sheik for the 1/11 Meadowlands show.
 
Tom Zenk wins the TV Title -  Finally, in December, a brief push arrived with Zenk booked to win the TV belt, revitalizing a title that had lost much of its status during Arn Anderson's tenure.

"A television taping on 12/4 at Center Stage in Atlanta before a sellout crowd was headlined by Zenk winning the TV title from Arn Anderson after a dropkick off the top rope. Told it was a great match. They are doing a gimmick where Zenk has a 46 match winning streak so he's getting a big push now with the new booking team."

Anderson appeared for the match with a bandaged wrist and plastered forehead, feigning injury as an alibi for his impending loss. He led the match, as the 'heel' should, but had obvious difficulty keeping pace for the full period (17 minutes), resorting to frequent rest intervals.  Zenk was in great shape, physically and mentally, motivated again after a demoralizing year. His win over Anderson was popular, with solid crowd support throughout the match (Tape 3 Match 8).

After the Zenk-Anderson title switch was aired WON reported (1/8/91) -  "An old-style match which lasted 17 minutes. Slow builder but tons of heat for the finish which was most impressive ......" The match drew a 3.4 rating, the best rating for the WCW Saturday show since February 1990. The entire Center Stage crowd was on its feet for the finish and the new champion.

But the momentum gained by Zenk's title win was quickly wasted through the booking committee's incompetence.

The mismanagement began with WCW's claim of a 45 (sometimes 46) match winning streak for Zenk prior to winning the TV title - as if the last 7 months of Zenk's downcarding by Ole had never happened.

Matches were being taped and broadcast out of chronological order - which wasn't unusual - but the announcing team's continuity seemed to fail them when it came to putting Zenk over, as the sheets were quick to pick up -
 

"In the commentary on the Zenk-Anderson match they talked of Zenk having a 45 match streak coming into the match. At Starrcade it was 35, but he was pinned at Starrcade" (Meltzer, WON 1/8/91).
 
Meltzer fails to mention that the Starrcade match  (Tape 3 Match 17) against Eaton - where "Zenk wasn't acknowledged as TV champion" (WON 12/24/90) - came after the title change but was broadcast first - a familiar booking practice about which he, later, was to make a very great deal!

For an increasingly bemused Zenk, it was business as usual in WCW's mismanagement of his career - with the TV belt itself just another weight to be carried around in his sportsbag. No extra pay came with the belt and his booking schedule for 1991 offered little more than a three-way program for the TV title with Zenk (face) Eaton ('tweener) and Anderson (heel)  - and Anderson booked to regain and retain the title indefinitely (WON 1/14/91).

Zenk's "push" had lasted just over three weeks.
 

 

Summary - Vol. 11 - 13
 
The story told in these tapes, the story behind the matches, is NOT the story of one booker (Ric Flair) succeeding and another booker (Ole Anderson) failing to recognize Zenk's talent and push it.

On the contrary, Ole Anderson knew exactly what he had in Tom Zenk, both as a singles wrestler and as one half of the team of "The Z-Man and Flyin' Brian."

The proof came in the second half of 1990, when Anderson regrouped Zenk and Pillman to help rescue the company from low ratings and historically low house attendances.  Each time "The Z-Man and Flyin' Brian" hit the ring, in July, August, September and November 1990,  they turned out 3 and 4 star performances that brought audiences back to the WCW.  And each time, as they began to gather heat, Anderson disbanded them.

In TBS there was never any doubt about Zenk's ability, his workrate or his work ethic. He had been head- hunted by Flair and given favorable contract conditions and payment, well in excess of Pillman, Douglas and other 1989 entrants to WCW. Yet - as revealed in the legal exchange in September 1990 - while WCW's senior management  were confirming their satisfaction with Zenk's work and declining his lawyer's request for a buy-out, WCW's chief booker Ole Anderson was doing all he could to push Zenk out of the promotion.
 

 Ole Anderson argues with WCW Executive Vice President Jim Herd at the Great American Bash, 1990  
The explanation was that Zenk's career had become mired in a dispute between divergent management cultures, generated by the 1989 amalgamation of TBS with an old-fashioned southern wrestling promotion.

On one side stood Jim Herd, advocating a modern style of management  based on merit and skill.

Lined up against Herd was the booking committee of old wrestlers and ex-promoters immersed in the internal politics, cronyism and favoritism of the old-style promotions. Their 'management  skills,' in so far as they had any, had been derived from promotions where personal 'loyalty' and subservience to the promoter were the key to wrestling longevity. Anderson (and later Rhodes and Watts) sought to resuscitate the old culture within the new WCW, stacking it with middle aged wrestlers, who were cheap, expendable and above all 'knew their place'. In this context, younger wrestlers like Pillman and Zenk, who owed Anderson nothing and hoped to get on through talent and hard work (rather than patronage and cronyism), were regarded as 'too independent', 'too expensive', 'troublesome', even 'rebellious.'  The old wrestling establishment wanted rid of them.
 
One of the tactics employed by the old guard in their struggle against the new TBS management culture was to book the wrestlers, contracted by Jim Herd, to an endless series of humiliating squashes against the wrestlers hired by Anderson, Rhodes and Watts. In this way they sought to 'prove' that the wrestlers Herd had contracted - on generous salaries and long term contracts - were a 'waste of money' compared to the 'green and cheap' talent recruited by the committee. This, it was argued, was further 'proof' of  the 'unsuitability' of Herd and the other 'suits', to the wrestling business.

Most of the wrestling press swallowed the bookers' line.  Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer Newsletter was a notable exception. Meltzer argued that booking committee members were blaming WCW senior management for their own inadequacies. It was the bookers, not Herd, who were responsible for booking the matches and managing the talent. Instead of making good use of the talent, they were 'sacrificing' it to an internecine war within the company itself.  The inevitable result was the poor ratings and low house attendances that now threatened the survival of WCW and the careers of the wrestlers involved.

Herd refused to "pursue any discussion relating to 'buying out' Mr. Zenk's contract."   Instead, he called Anderson to account.  He instructed him to improve the booking.  Anderson ignored him and continued to bury Zenk.  Finally, Herd took action, sacking Anderson in the first week of December, 1990. For a few weeks, conditions improved until Dusty Rhodes arrived in January 1991 and the struggle between WCW management and the booking cliques resumed.
 

It goes a long way to explaining Zenk's capacity to withstand Anderson's onslaught (and Anderson's consequent anger and frustration) that Zenk never regarded wrestling as a matter of life or death. If Anderson refused to recognize his talent and instead "beat him like a rented mule"  Zenk was prepared to take it on the chin and smile, as long as the checks kept coming in,  If he needed reassurance about his ring abilities, he could turn to veterans in the business like Race, Herd and Barnett. Or simply listen to the decibels from the crowd as he entered an arena.  And after the matches there were always the parties. He may not have been NWA's current pushed 'star' but in the bars and at the parties, the crush was always around him and around Pillman -  not Flair, and never Anderson. He and Pillman could still put up more numbers than any of the 'pushed' wrestlers.

There was, after all,  more to life than wrestling.
 

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