• Old School WWF Employee Worked Without A Contract For 15 Years
Famous Old School WWF/E music composer Jim Johnston was recently interviewed on ‘Insight with Chris Van Vliet’, where he revealed that he worked without a signed contract for the first 15 years of his career.
Here’s what Johnston said:
“For the first 15 years, maybe longer, Vince and I just had a handshake agreement, I wasn’t an employee.
It wasn’t like he didn’t want me as an employee or I didn’t want to be, it’s just we were fine with the way things were.
It wasn’t until the company went public and it was, ‘bring on the lawyers.’ They come in and do risk assessments.
They are like, ‘This guy can just walk out and work for the NFL tomorrow, that wouldn’t be a good thing.’ So then I got a contract and became an employee.
In my admiration for Vince, I think we would have worked until my last day with a handshake, and both be perfectly happy.”
Also Read: Jim Johnston Says Randy Orton Hated His WWE Entrance Theme Song
WATCH: Revealing Videos Of Former ECW/WWE Diva Dawn Marie (Part 2):
• ON THIS DAY IN WWF HISTORY (April 29, 1999) – WWF SmackDown! (PILOT EPISODE)
On this day in 1999, the World Wrestling Federation aired the pilot (stand-alone) episode of their future weekly TV show ‘WWF SmackDown!’.
This episode was pre-taped at the New Haven Coliseum in New Haven, Connecticut and featured matches, interviews & storyline segments on the road to the ‘WWF No Mercy 1999 (UK)’ PPV.
Here’s the match-card:
– Val Venis vs. Jeff Jarrett
– “The Big Show” Paul Wight vs. Test
– Droz vs. D-Lo Brown
– Tag Team Title Match: The New Age Outlaws vs. Kane and X-Pac
– No DQ: Ken Shamrock vs. Bradshaw
– Mankind vs. The Big Boss Man
– The Undertaker & Triple H vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin & The Rock
