• Old School WCW Referee Celebrates His Birthday
Old School WCW Referee Nick Patrick celebrates his 59th birthday today.
He started working for WCW’s predecessors NWA Georgia Championship Wrestling (GCW) and Jim Crockett Promotions in 1980 and later also continued his job after GCW folded in 1984 and JCP was sold to Ted Turner, who renamed it World Championship Wrestling.
Nick Patrick is remembered for being one of the very few ‘Heel Referees’ in pro wrestling history, and probably the most famous one as well (him and Danny Davis), after he joined the nWo ‘New World Order’ heel faction in 1996.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY NICK PATRICK!
• Mean Gene Okerlund Recalls Vince McMahon Getting Attacked By WWF Veteran Over Pay Issues
In this flashback article, we take a look at an old shoot interview with WWE Hall of Famer “Mean” Gene Okerlund, where he talked about WWF Veteran Nailz attacking Vince McMahon.
Below are the highlights:
Interviewer: Were you there when Nailz attacked Vince? What are your memories of that?
Okerlund: I heard a lot of screaming and shouting. I think it opened up with: “Are you kidding me? (You’ve) given Big Boss Man $25,000 and given me $8,000? Take this check back!” And then it got into a squabble. Nailz was wrong on that. That was the end of the road for him.
Interviewer: Were the guys happy about that, as far as like one of the boys touching Vince?
Okerlund: I never heard too much. I know Jim Duggan was one of the guys that went in to break it up. Vince is a tough guy though too. However, Nailz is a real, real tough guy. He’s a pro.
Interviewer: How did Vince change over time with the success of the WWF?
Okerlund: He knew that he didn’t have all the answers. Vince was not a marketing guy. He was not a legal guy. The way he changed is he surrounded himself with the best people from the financial world, from the legal world.
I never negotiated my contracts after a while directly with Vince. I would do it with somebody else from the office. And today done by the legal people. I’m sure they pass it by Vince and Vince says take care of this guy or here’s what I think would be a real number we should pay this guy. But all the work is done by the legal beagles.
