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Missing announcers

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Hey Scott, this is CM Gentleman. I have kind of a weird question pertaining to editing announcers on WWE DVDs. It always pisses me off when they edit out Jesse Ventura's announcing on their DVD releases. I'm vaguely familiar with why, he sued them in some way so that they have to pay him extra whenever he's on a release. My question is, why haven't people like Tony Schiavone, who is now completely out of wrestling, or Mike Tenay, who works for another company, done the same thing? It seems like they would want to get some of the money being made off these DVDs, or are they just happy to be on them so that people will remember them? Thanks.


Jesse's contract originally stipulated a portion of home video proceeds because he had Barry Blaustein as an agent and Blaustein was a SHARK.  Guys like Schiavone would have had standard contracts, but Jesse was smart enough to get a piece of the future pie written into the original deal, and when Vince tried to renege on that deal, Jesse sued his ass off.  If you can find the original legal discourse on the web it's pretty fascinating stuff, actually.  


Comments

  1. kirkNovember 22, 2013 at 11:07 PM

    If anyone finds that discourse they should post a link

    ReplyDelete
  2. parallax1978November 22, 2013 at 11:13 PM

    Stuff like that is why I love layers/agents.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Pat Patterson Prolapsed!November 22, 2013 at 11:14 PM

    Hopefully Michael Cole has the same contract as Jesse.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Louis IzzoNovember 22, 2013 at 11:18 PM

    The world needs a talking Michael Cole doll, with choice gems such as...
    VINTAGE!
    "The Dog Poop! The Dog Poop!"
    "You can get a finger caught in there!"
    "That's ironic."
    "You know what's trending on Twitter?"

    ReplyDelete
  5. AustinBurton206November 23, 2013 at 2:14 AM

    Unrelated, but does anyone know why WWE never uses Goldberg's original WCW theme music? I get that when Goldberg joined WWE they'd want to remix his theme to make it their own, but I'm watching the Goldberg DVD set and they even planted his WWE-ized theme in his old WCW matches. Seems like it'd be less trouble to just leave the WCW matches/entrances intact.

    ReplyDelete
  6. nwa88November 23, 2013 at 3:45 AM

    Generally speaking, the big issue with WCW music was that while some of it was actually property of the company, most of it was property of Turner Entertainment who maintained a library of music (a lot of which was actually used across other television shows on Turner Networks). So when the WWE purchased the rights to WCW, the themes were not included in that package.

    Now why they could use a theme so damn similar to Goldberg's and get away with it, I'm not sure, but I suppose if you make enough changes you can avoid getting sued.

    ReplyDelete
  7. OfficerFarvaNovember 23, 2013 at 5:48 AM

    Good question, I always assumed it was a royalty issue by never bothered asking for confirmation. Good to know

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  8. Scream09_HartKillerNovember 23, 2013 at 8:33 AM

    Blaustein bitches, FTW!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Scream09_HartKillerNovember 23, 2013 at 8:35 AM

    I assume the case went something like this.


    The plaintiff has a contract with the defendant that clearly states that he is to receive royalties from home video releases using his likeness. The defendant doesn't feel he has to pay the plaintiff these royalties because he doesn't want to - and fuck you.

    ReplyDelete
  10. ScottyflamingoNovember 23, 2013 at 8:37 AM

    Vince McMahon = Legal Genius


    Seriously, how in the HELL did he manage to get out of the steroid thing??

    ReplyDelete

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