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DAVID PENZER INTERVIEW ONLINE |
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!
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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.
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