Forgiven: One Man's Journey from Self-Glorification to Sanctification (13 page)

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Forgiven

their goals. I want to help them make it. I just thrive on challenge —

what can I say?

With the in-ring experience now under my belt, it was time to get serious. I knew that sports entertainment was the field I wanted to be in, I just didn’t know in what capacity. Was it radio, magazine writing, or perhaps a position more monumental than that. I had no idea what lay ahead for Vicious Vincent, but I was soon to find out.

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Chapter 17

STEROIDS —

HOW THEY CHANGED MY LIFE FOREVER

Between wevd and our biweekly newsletter, John and I were on a roll.

Whereas my money and drive were helping to create a following, his controversial opinions were creating a stir — one that would eventually lead to our split.

To this day, there is no question in my mind that John Arezzi loved the wrestling business. I never questioned his dedication, but I did question his approach. If I was the pot, John was the kettle, and like me, John was always looking for that one story, that one angle which, from a journalistic viewpoint, he could revel in and make his own —

much like my Creighton Burns story in college. John seemed to thrive on controversy and, I guess you could say, on the spotlight as well.

Still, that’s not much different from this author. What I didn’t understand was why John Arezzi wanted to be the guy to take down the mighty Vince McMahon. To this day I still don’t really get it. It either 84

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had to be a sincere gesture of righteousness, or a severe case of ego —

your guess is as good as mine.

Part of me was skeptical about John wanting to “do the right thing.” Early on in our relationship, I began to hear stories about how many people John had allegedly attempted to con before me. The unsuspecting souls he allegedly owed money to on Long Island read like a list of Elizabeth Taylor husbands. But, again, this was based on rumor and hearsay. But
if
it was true, I could be the next name on the list. I was determined to be smarter than that. If John was going to use me for my money, then I was going to use him to get my foot in the door of sports entertainment. Though I had a plan, it wasn’t going to be easy. Our philosophies were completely at odds. We were both trying to get to the same place, but John was looking to take a shortcut — a shortcut that would inevitably have been the downfall of us both.

The reason why I never quite understood John’s determination to take down Vince McMahon was because, in my opinion, without Vince, there would have been no wrestling, no sports entertainment business. But if Vince was indeed guilty of foul play involving steroids, as John suggested, should he have paid the consequences regardless of his position?
Sure, but remember, you’re innocent until proven guilty.

The bottom line was, without Vince there would be no us —
do the
math!
Add to that the fact I was a huge fan of Vince — he’d given me years and years of enjoyment growing up — why would I want to lead a witch hunt to bring him down? At the time it seemed ludicrous, but it was John’s M.O. No doubt we had a problem on our hands. I wanted to do a fan-friendly wrestling radio show that would complement the World Wrestling Federation, while John wanted to do a
 Minutes
exposé-type thing that would clearly smear the business.

At the time that the partnership between John and me formed, Vince McMahon was being indicted on steroid-trafficking charges by the federal government. The feds claimed Vince was illegally distributing steroids to his wrestlers. Of course, those charges opened up the 85

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Vince Russo

floodgates for the mass media. Everybody from Phil Donahue to Geraldo Rivera jumped on the bandwagon. What started as a steroid scandal soon became a three-ring circus, as individuals came out of the woodwork accusing Vince McMahon of rape and a series of other outlandish charges that would later turn out to be false. One of my favorites was a story concerning Vince and a television announcer showering together, which made Vince a blatant homosexual.
Please!

You have no idea how a light dust of
Enquirer
-style gossip can snow-ball into a deadly avalanche with the help of the media unless you’ve experienced it yourself. And, John was in the middle of all of it, constantly feeding all his “insider” dirt and gossip to a
New York Post
reporter by the name of Phil Mushnick. From there, Mushnick would print all of John’s info in a paper read daily by millions. Wow! — this was my first experience with journalism outside of college. This wasn’t the kind of integrity Mr. Vance talked about in class, but then again, this was the real world. The situation seemed to be getting out of control and because of my relationship with John, I found myself smack in the middle of it. The lid was about to be blown off this story — it was just a matter of when, and where.

The breakdown was going to occur sooner rather than later. In the winter of 1992, John booked a show based on McMahon’s legal problems, steroids and all the other controversy that the media was in a frenzy over. Actually, it wasn’t going to be a “show,” but rather a Barnum and Bailey spectacular, with John as ringmaster. His mission was to put anyone who would join in his crusade to take down Vince McMahon and the World Wrestling Federation on air, while having no one on the other side to defend the accused. Again, I had to ask myself, over and over again —
why?
Why would you want to crucify the man who’d made your career possible? Without Vince McMahon, there would be no John Arezzi. But you know what? I was just as much to blame as he was. I let it happen . . . I even paid for the show! But believe me, I wasn’t proud of it. I guess at the time, for selfish reasons, I felt like I had no choice. I mean, I was banking on Arezzi to get me into the business. It would have done me no good to sever our relationship that early on.

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But still, that’s a poor excuse. I should have killed the idea from the get-go, packed up the big top and silenced the clowns.

The “Crucify Vince” panel was set to do the
Phil Donahue Show
on Monday, so we had the distinct honor of having them on our radio show the night before. In the studio was newsletter writer Dave Meltzer, and former wrestlers Barry O and Superstar Billy Graham. Joining the show via Ma Bell was “living legend” Bruno Sammartino and Lord Littlebrook, a midget with a beef. John appeared to be in his element.

This was his
 Minutes
and he was Morley Safer. John thrived on this controversy; this is what it was all about to him. Me? I’d be lying if I told you it wasn’t exciting. I was a part of something that was about to mush-room into the biggest story the wrestling business had ever known, perhaps ever will. But I was nowhere near sold on the idea that Vince was guilty. Unlike Phil and Geraldo, who seemed to be dying to roll over (more Geraldo than Phil), I had to be
convinced
that Vince was guilty.

McMahon’s accusers had a field day. From Vince raping a female referee in the back of his limo, to Pat Patterson violating ring boys, the tall tales and allegations flew like gossip in a nail salon chock-full of yentas. They talked about sexually abusing midgets, a wwf referee with a foot fetish — everything imaginable. This show made the
National Enquirer
look like the
New York Times,
but in his mind, John had earned the Pulitzer Prize that night. Immediately following the show, he called Phil Mushnick and delivered the goods. Arezzi was Mushnick’s “Deep Throat,” and you knew it all would be in the
New
York Post
the next morning — and it was.

For those of you out there who aren’t familiar with the business, the

“real” news of professional wrestling is distributed to hardcore fans through a somewhat underground channel called the “newsletter.” The boys in the business refer to it as the “dirt sheet.” Again, two years ago, when I first wrote this book, this was the part where I lambasted every person who ever had anything to do with the writing of a wrestling newsletter. However, today, after being shown the light by my father, I see things differently.

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Based on experience, there is just something about being a journalist. . . . I know in my case anyway, reporting the “straight news” just wasn’t where it was at. Every writer thrives on controversy — the danger of the story, if you will. And, in the end, I really don’t think it’s about how many people will read it, but about beating everybody to the punch in dishing the dirt. From a professional standpoint, I really don’t have a problem with this — under one condition — you at least back up your story with
reliable
sources. If you do your homework, legitimately, I’m cool with that. That being said, here is my problem with wrestling newsletters.

When something goes down, the newsletter writers very rarely seem to go to the source. Why? To be honest with you, I’m not quite sure. It would have been like me writing the Creighton Burns story in college without ever talking to Creighton Burns. Now, the reason I say this is because over the past 12 years, there has been much written about me

— much of it deeply hurtful. However, over that 12-year span, during which literally hundreds, maybe even thousands, of stories have been written about me, I personally have been contacted only once or twice.

So, the truth is, the people writing the stories are getting them second-hand. And who are the second-hand sources? Well, there are a few. First there are those inside the business who have an axe to grind with me (which was the real reason for me being labeled a racist). But then there are also those who want to stay in good favor with the newsletter writer, to ensure that they don’t have anything negative written about
them
.

This has always been my problem with the newsletters. Yes, the writers have to make a living, and I support that, but if you’re going to write about somebody — especially if it’s going to be negative — at least show a bit of integrity and try to get the other side of the story.

My second pet peeve with newsletters is that many times they present their opinion as fact. “Opinion” and “fact” are two very different things. “Vince Russo is an imbecile,” and, “In my opinion, Vince Russo is an imbecile” are two very different things. Many times you confuse the reader when you state your opinion as fact. I greatly disagree with this practice. If something is a fact, back it up with facts; if you don’t have 88

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facts — preferably first-hand — then it’s simply your opinion. Just state that, and I’ll never have a problem with a story.

The Crucify Vince Tour continued the next day on the
Phil Donahue
Show,
the only difference being that the smut was presented in more of a pg version. John had asked me to go to
Donahue
with him, but I wanted no part of it. After the fiasco the previous night, I had seen and heard enough. In that studio there was such ill-feelings toward Vince McMahon, it was impossible for him to get a fair shake. On top of that, there wasn’t a single soul representing the other side. I claim full responsibility for that. I should have assured that the mock trial was going to be fair. But I didn’t — there was no one there to defend him, no one there to tell Vince’s side of the story — and it was wrong.

Seeing John on the
Donahue
panel that day distanced me more from him. I could barely even watch. Is this what he had worked his whole life for? Five minutes of fame? Watching John, I knew our little business venture was over. This whole thing was wrong; this wasn’t what I wanted to get into the business for. I wanted to give something back to the industry that had given me so much while I was growing up.

The last thing I wanted to do was screw it over. First of all, I didn’t believe the story; secondly, if Vince was truly innocent — what was the point?

While I’m thinking about it, you know what used to drive me nuts about John? He used to wear these shaded glasses, and you could never look into his eyes. I’m not talking about the kind that lighten up when you go indoors — these were
permanently shaded!
John looked like a “shady” character to begin with, but not being able to look in his eyes made matters even worse. And, that’s the way he came across on the
Donahue Show
. Here was a guy with questionable sources, spinning tales about Vince McMahon through black-shaded glasses. Are you going to buy a life insurance policy from this guy?

The day after his “Hollywood minute,” John came to the video store to give me the lowdown. He told me everything had gone great, except for Superstar Billy Graham getting some heat with the rest of 89

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the panel. Apparently Graham came “off-script,” so to speak. You see, the Superstar was on the panel to jab the steroid finger at McMahon, but apparently when the conversation turned to the sexual abuse and harassment of wwf ring boys, Graham became an authority on that subject, too. In my view, it came across like Graham was talking out of school — because he was. The fact was, he knew nothing about that part of the scandal; he was simply adding fuel to the fire. But part of the panel’s agenda was about twisting the facts. It was all about saying whatever you had to say to bring Vince down.

I’ll never forget that during that week, the wwf announced that Vince McMahon was going to hold a steroid symposium to lay out the new steroid testing policy he was going to mandate. Vince invited everybody to the symposium except John Arezzi . . . I don’t know, must have been the glasses. My point is that he even invited Phil Mushnick and Dave Meltzer (writer for the
Wrestling Observer
Newsletter
). I know for a fact he invited Meltzer, because that week on the phone Dave told me himself he had an “open invitation” to attend the symposium, but he’d graciously declined. He told me that whatever Vince did or said would be nothing more than blatant lies to cover up his guilt. Man, did I have a problem with this! Here’s
the
wrestling authority declining to attend a major press conference that was part of perhaps the biggest story in the history of the business! Again, I’m sure Dave had his reasons, but I just questioned his choice. Did the press conference not matter? Or had everyone on the other side already made up their minds?