He was the voice of WCW... At least he was the voice of WCW you heard in the background when Tony Shavone read off upcoming events.
Regardless, David Penzer has had a fantastic career in the world of wrestling calling matches for WCW for many years and viewing the
rise and fall of that company first hand. And, he takes us through that and so much more in our exclusive interview with the one and only David Penzer!
- Click Here to listen to our 2015 interview with David Penzer
DAVID PENZER
-- David went to the University of Florida and said he "majored in partying". He ended up with a C+ average, but never went to any of the lectures - just took the notes off others. He said one day he'll go back.
-- Global Wrestling Alliance from South Florida (the first company to go on the stock market) was where Penzer got his start. His father knew somebody inside and found out they needed a ring announcer. David owned a mobile DJ company through college (doing weddings, sweet 16's, etc) and Global hooked him up.
-- He began working with WCW doing the running for all of the enhancement talent ("job guys"), bringing them up to the shows and receiving $25 of their booking fee, meaning if he brought up 5 he'd make $125 for the night. He then got involved in running more people for things such as the syndicated interview shows, before they needed a ring announcer.
-- Tony Schiovane came up to David and asked if he was the guy who did all the running for the job guys, and David said yes. Tony said that they needed a ring announcer� so would David mind running him up from one of the Florida promotions next time too? It was right then that Penzer mentioned about his ring announcing, both guys receive a tryout, and Penzer got the job.
-- Gary Michael Capetta was David's mentor, teaching him the ropes and giving him tips. In 95/96 Gary said that he didn't think he was going to be re-signed, and low and behold, he wasn't - and David was promoted to the fulltime ring announcer.
-- It was Eric Bischoff's final decision to give the job to Penzer. David feels that even before he was running WCW, Eric was never a people's person; it wasn't a matter of ego that was just him.
-- An open challenge is set out to prove him wrong, but Penzer thinks that he is the only person to attend every single Monday Nitro, from the start to the finish.
-- At one point he was in charge of all of the syndicated interviews, as well as ring announcing and being on the booking committee.
-- David felt that the nWo really was a cancer for WCW, as the company went from a group of guys who went from seeing 800 people a week to seeing 20,000 people to a group of guys all looking after number one - themselves.
-- He then tells a story of an unnamed friend of his currently under WWE contract who hasn't been on television in a while, who always wanted to make the jump for the number of years he was in WCW, but never could.
-- David then gives us the way he would've wrapped up the nWo angle on television.
-- He feels Bill Busch was a good guy who knew how to cut costs but not the wrestling business.
-- The Vince Russo era in WCW felt to David as a kind of "WWE Lite" product, doing somewhat WWE was doing mixed with the WCW style. He likes Russo as a person though, against what most people seem to think.
-- Next, a question David really wanted us to ask him - who was to blame for the downfall of WCW. Some people say it was Bischoff, Russo or Hogan which Penzer certainly doesn't think it was. If people want to blame somebody blame Brad Siegel.
Siegel brought in Jamie Kellner who then went over Ted Turner's head to get WCW canned. Once WCW was off the air, there was nothing anybody could've done except sell it off. Quote: "Brad Siegel is the reason that WCW no longer exists".
-- The problem with the XWF was they recorded shows without a place to air them and believed that the opportunities would open. They didn't perceive that the cable networks would have such little interest though they came close with Fox.
-- When they shopped around the tapes, places would say they loved seeing Curt Hennig. Curt was in WWE. They then said well you have Gene Okerlund, the dean of wrestling. Gene had gone back. They had said well we loved seeing Hulk, and Hulk had gone back. So, it was like going to a studio and having a television show pilot bought with the cast of Friends, having the networks love it and then saying, "Yeah, but we only have three of the cast members left." They should've signed people to deals since they expected it would take off.
-- They tried to do their best with it by doing things like a Puerto Rican invasion but it just didn't catch on.
-- Dave was involved in the Roddy Piper book tour. Another company was involved as well but dropped the ball so Penzer picked it up and ran with it. Piper said to get all the media he could for him. Penzer says Piper must not have known what he was getting himself in to because Penzer got him everywhere and eventually Roddy said "That's it, 10 interviews max!"
-- The "Pipervision" Internet pay per views were fun to do. Piper's emotion during the "Piper Gets Pissed" shoot interview one was 100% real. Piper had asked to keep his personal childhood out of the interview but his son became fair game. It was true emotion.
-- The WWA Reckoning pay per view and tour was a low budget one except for Jarrett, Sting, and a few others. Most of the guys were young and hadn't been seen over there but really got over. He points at guys like Chris Sabin and Joe Legend in that vain.
-- InYourFaceBookings.com is David's current project. "It's basically a complete one stop shop to book wrestling talent." Some names available through his list are AJ Styles, Jeff Jarrett, Shane Douglas, Raven, Saturn, Trinity; the list is endless and available on his site. He says if there is a free agent wrestler out there that isn't on his list, ask for him because he probably can get that person for you too. He says that it costs you nothing extra to go through him and it's easier because he's the door to so many and you don't have to contact them separately.
-- In Your Face was the XWF catch phrase. That's where it stemmed from. The company started because XWF really wasn't running shows and the guys deserved to be able to work so he was finding them jobs.
-- The future of David Penzer is in question. No matter if he becomes a wrestling announcer again or not, he will always love the business and will continue to run his booking company. He thanks the independent groups are keeping wrestling alive and helping create the stars of tomorrow.
-- He is trying hard to get the National Anthem down as well as Lillian Garcia. He just can't seem to get it down though. He hopes she realizes what she has and the opportunity she has.
PLUS a huge 20-minute long word association segment with names like Roddy Piper, Hulk Hogan, Eric Bischoff, Vince Russo, and so many more.
AND a huge after-show run-down on a great new feature and some of Vince McMahon's more recent strange behavior.
FOR more information about David Penzer or his booking company, head over to InYourFaceBookings.com.