WRESTLINGOBSERVER.COM INTERVIEW WITH ANDREW MCMANUS
By Alex Marvez
E-mail: alex@wrestlingobserver.com
Source: http://www.liveaudiowrestling.com/wo/news/interviews/default.asp?aID=4301

The World Wrestling Federation is facing its first potential competition since obtaining a virtual wrestling monopoly with last March's purchase of World Championship Wrestling. The World Wrestling All-Stars will hold its first live pay-per-view show February 24 from the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas. The WWA also has tours planned for Europe and Australia later this year featuring some of the industry's biggest names currently not under contract by the WWF. In the following interview, WWA founder Andrew McManus discusses his decision to form the promotion, the company's direction and the talent situation. McManus, 40, is serious enough about the WWA making a go of it that he recently moved from Australia to Los Angeles.

Q: How did the WWA get started?
McManus: "It basically come from being a project which was a hobby to a completely full-time operation, which necessitated me to close my touring company in Australia and fully commit to this and move to Los Angeles on Sunday. To be a viable operation, it's going to take a full-time concerted
effort by me and everyone surrounding it. It just exploded and I couldn't be happier with it."

Q: Why did you decide to get involved?
McManus: "Approximately two years ago, I was approached by a couple of scalawags out of Los Angeles to do a wrestling tour of Australia. Unfortunately, they were completely inept and just had no idea and were very green. What they put together was a real veteran tour with names like the Road Warriors and Public Enemy and Tatanka and guys who had not been on TV for a while. They felt that because the Australian cable (television) industry was still in the embryo stage and a lot of old matches were still being shown that they could got away with it ... They added Dennis Rodman to the mix. It was a very, very difficult tour. But in all the negatives, I did see some great positives. I suppose the first month after, I never wanted to know about wrestling ever again. But I got a call from Vince Russo, and basically he was throwing around some ideas around. We talked for three or four months. I really enjoyed the conversations I had with him. He had some fresh ideas, plus he could bring some fresh names to the table. We decided to try a seven-date Australia tour. A month and a half before that, Vince was locked in a battle with Hulk Hogan and WCW on certain contractual and legal court cases, which became more of a tidal wave to Vince. He decided it was best he not be involved, so I paid Vince out and we left on good company. But in the interim, he introduced me in Atlanta to Jeremy Borash. Jeremy has stepped up to the plate and now is probably the jewel in the company crown and our biggest asset. Jeremy jumped into the driver's seat and co-wrote the Australia shows with Jeff Jarrett, helped manage the shows with me, and did commentary with Jerry Lawler in Australia and Disco Inferno in the U.K. Great vibes came out of it. As we went along, I noticed more and more of the same thing, that every time we had a show, we got so much more reaction ... I thought we've got something here that can grow. The wrestlers all came to me, like Scott Steiner and Randy Savage. They said, 'We'll sign on with you, but we have to know you're committed to us.' So I decided to go into this full time."

Q: What did you think about the first pay-per-view show you ran on January 6?
McManus: "The WWF does 15,000 (pay-per-view) units in Australia. We came out and did 9,000 in our first show, so that's pretty good. From a production point of view, we made a lot of mistakes. I'll be the first one to admit it. It was from not having a more experienced wrestling-type person on the TV side of it. The people we used were more basketball-oriented. I was very disappointed with the lighting, but the matches were terrific. They guys put 110 percent effort. We lost some points in production but we gained some points in performance."

Q: What makes optimistic run at making inroads in U.S.?
McManus: "Realistically, we're not trying to take on America. Our approach is to go to territories that don't get live wrestling on a grand scale. When I say live wrestling, I mean a product that's equally produced in talent to a WWF show. That's why it's important to maintain a presence in the marketplace by using top guys. What we're trying to do is appeal to guys concerned about their lifestyle along with offering a good package. We just went head-to-head with Vince (McMahon) over Kevin Nash. Kevin decided for whatever reasons to go the WWF because it offered more exposure. God bless him. That's fine. But other guys that we'll hopefully announce within the next couple weeks are names of similar caliber that prefer to take a percentage in some other aspects of the business for a lesser salary. And we're only doing 70 shows a year, which appeals to people with lifestyles with families. We'll run America once or twice a year just to keep our brand value. But the overall percentage of our shows will be 95 percent outside of America. We're doing five shows in Australia in April and eight in the U.K. and Europe. We have the opportunity to do different pay-per-views from different territories.

Q: What are your exact plans for America?
McManus: "You've got to crawl before you walk. We're in this for the long-term, not a short-term basis. We're not trying to come into America too often, probably twice a year because we're doing eight pay-per-view shows. When we do one show, we want to have it as a convention-style event around where the kids meet the wrestlers and do an autograph signing. Make it a two-or three-day event. Maybe in Sept or October we'll do something similar from the other side of America or Orlando. But the emphasis is more outside the U.S., such as the U.K., Europe, Australia, Canada, and to a lesser extent Asia."

Q: What is the situation with getting a syndicated or cable television deal?
McManus: "At this point in time, we're just getting our ducks in a row. I believe that will come in the not-too-distant future once we start talking to whoever is right. At this point in time, we're negotiating with Channel 5 in the U.K. What they're looking at doing is coming on the road and filming
events to give them a weekly show for 16 weeks. Once the 16 are completed, they would basically be back in October and shoot for another 16 weeks. It would give them the opportunity to run a weekly show and give the WWA branding and value in the U.K. and European market. Trying to come into America without TV is difficult. We all understand that. However, the opportunity is there. I'm not saying we will have a weekly show in 2003 or 2004, but obviously our objective is to try and end up with a weekly TV show. Whether it's two or three years, I can't say honestly. It would require a change in philosophy from the company being 95 percent offshore.

Q: What is the talent situation right now and what do you have for the card on February 24?
McManus: "Randy Savage, Scott Steiner and Jeff Jarrett have signed on for the next two years. Randy will be the booker and he will wrestle whenever it's deemed necessary. Otherwise, he will be the commissioner. We've got a very good relationship with Bret Hart, but he does not want to do a whole 70-show tour. So we'll have Bret come in and do 30 or 40 dates, especially since he can't wrestle. Bret is a great ambassador and can do the publicity and press. That's where you get brand value. We've signed Road Dogg Jesse James, Disco Inferno, Grand Master (a k a Brian Lawler), Kronic and Eddie Guerrero. Randy is working out a budget for other names. I've asked for that. I'll probably take six of the 10 names he sent me but their all former WWF names And then there's one major name that I don't want to say at but I hope to be able to announce soon."

Q: How concerned are you that Vince will be bringing back guys with some name value like Curt Hennig and Dustin Rhodes?
McManus: "It's blatantly obvious he's doing that, but I'll weather the storm because of the core of guys that I'm tying up, especially if I get this superstar I was talking about. We have to tidy up to the point that on the pay-per-view side of it, we have the caliber of wrestlers that realistically will be strong enough for me to do a live crowd of 7,000 to 8,000. The beauty of the World Wreslting All-Stars is that it's the All-Stars. I can add names as Vince drops talent or someone becomes available. I hear D'Lo Brown's contract is coming up. I might grab four or five new names for the tour of Australia. Sid Vicious, once he starts getting healthy, might take the UK dates. You may see one group on the first 16 shows but the next 16 shows you may not, You may see instead a Rick Steiner. On the flip side, I don't want to be seen as a guy people will use when going to bat for Vince. We won't do that. We can't do that. But if a guy wants a good lifestyle and a good living, we're the place to come."

Q: Quite honestly, fans have rejected the kind of booking that was in WCW toward the end. Judging by your first pay-per-view show, it seems to be heading in the same direction. What makes you think the WWA will have any more success than WCW did with that booking?
McManus: "I suppose a lot of that was the Vince Russo influence. But from the reviews I've read and everything I've seen on the internet, 95 percent of the fans were very supportive. I admit it took me by surprise getting so much positive press and feedback, but I know we can do much better. I'm learning a lot about pay-per-view and a lot of those influences on the first show came from Vince Russo. Vince wrote the original script before he left and we went along with it, although we chopped some of it and changed some things. I don't think having a comedic side is bad. But the way I would like to see our position is as having a little bit of everything. We want to have a little bit of comic relief. When the WWF tries to bring comedy, they fall flat on their face, whereas we have some really lighthearted guys like Disco (Inferno) and Grand Master. We really have got the foundation to be able to bring some comedy across, more so for the younger generation and younger audience."

Q: Were you a wrestling fan growing up?
McManus: "Completely. When I went to boarding school in Australian, everyone in the main dormitory would get around the TV on midday Sundays and watch World Wrestling out of Syndey or Melbourne. I saw King Curits and King Kong Bundy and Abdullah the Butcher. I loved it as a kid and grew up following it."

Q: What was your background before getting into wrestling?
McManus: "I was a concert promoter for many years. I actually managed a band prior to getting into the promoting side of it. I managed a band called the Divinyls in 1990. I left them in 1994 to create International Touring Company in Australia. We've had shows with everyone from Natalie Cole to Tony Bennett to America to Belinda Carlisle and culminated last year with
the farewell tour of Kiss."

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