Former WCW Star P.N. News On WCW's Extreme Travel Schedule, The State Of Wrestling Today
P.N. News had a brief run in WCW in the early 90s where he had a rapper gimmick and feuded with "Stunning" Steve Austin. News talked about his WCW days and their hectic travel schedule in an interview with VOC Nation.
"I never saw my front door for the first 90 days I was on the road with WCW," revealed News. "...I'd wrestle 320, 330 days a year. You were always traveling; you were always on the road ? it was not the easiest life. Just as much damage has been done to my body riding in cars for 10 or 12 hours a day than anything I've ever done in a wrestling ring... It's an eat or be eaten world; if you take the time off then somebody is going to step into your place... Out of sight out of mind."
A big difference between WCW and WWF in the 90s was that Ted Turner was handing out guaranteed contracts to talent. That's why so many wrestlers jumped ship from WWF to WCW but News discussed why he missed out on those big-money deals.
"When WCW first opened up right before I got there, they were offering ridiculous guaranteed contracts. Then Jim Herd took over and those big guarantees went out the window. That's when I went in there, Austin went in there, Johnny B Badd, that whole crew... Then when I left WCW, all of a sudden those big money contracts started popping up when Bischoff took over," said News. "So, there was Herd and then there was Watts, and then when Bischoff got in there, that's when it started looking up for those big money contracts. I was just in the right place at the wrong time... that's just pure timing and happenstance."
WCW was brimming with talent in the early 90s yet many of those stars would later become superstars at other places. News talked about all of the talented performers he had a chance to work with or see up close.
"Brian [Pillman] was becoming a tremendous talent before he died. Austin, you could tell he was talented right away. You could see that he had the attributes, the timing, the athleticism, he could talk on the microphone, all those things were crucial. When he finally got the opportunity with the right gimmick for him, he ran with it," stated News. "Shane Douglas obviously was a good talent, he found his niche... I've been very, very fortunate to work with some tremendous talent that you could pick up and learn stuff from."
News lasted less than a year with WCW before being released in early 1992. It wasn't just a situation where the company didn't have anything for him as he says he was unfairly blamed for stealing money from other talent.
"I was railroaded out and blackballed; there was nothing I could really do," News said of his WCW release. "Basically, we were over in England during the first tour of England and some money went missing in somebody's bag. There had been money missing every once in a while at TVs; they were noticing at TVs that money was missing from people's bags and stuff like that... Well by the time we got back to Atlanta a few days later, for some reason I got blamed for stealing all the money. That's how the whole thing started. There's nothing I can do about it. I just know that God is my witness; I have a lot of sins that I'm going to pay for but that's not one of them."
After departing WCW, News wrestled all over the world and also had a brief stint with ECW in 1999. Much in the business has changed since his heyday and he talked about the current state of professional wrestling.
"These younger kids today, they're probably a hell of a lot more athletic. But the actual ring psychology and ring knowledge that you gain from working with guys like [Austin, Pillman, Douglas, etc.] night in and night out is just amazing. When I was in wrestling, they used to say that if you can't get your crap over in two minutes, then you ain't worth talking about. Nowadays you turn on the TV and all they do is talk," said News.
"I think that using enhancement talent and telling a good story in the ring is really important. They kinda cut that psychology out of the industry and the fact that they're doing pay per views every month kind of rushes everything. There's no time to build up any good story angles or anything like that, or build up that anticipation."