On a recent edition of his “The ARN Show” podcast, WWE Hall of Famer Arn Anderson reflected on his time working on the WCW booking committee in the 1990s, and more.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On Hulk Hogan working with his old rivals from WWE early in his WCW run: “The only way to benefit a guy working with Hogan is, he needs to have heat. I can’t remember and put my finger on anybody who would have had heat at that particular time. Is there anybody you can think of with the company that was hot? Say, a Rick Rude, that would have been hot at the time. You could have put him in an angle done properly with Hogan, I think. It’s got to be — I don’t know, it’s just booking matches. You can book matches this guy against this guy, this guy against this guy. And you can put it in a town, it doesn’t mean it’s gonna draw. But you can have two or three matches that the audience cares about. And sometimes that’s enough to draw you a house. I thought it was just all rehash.”
On joining the WCW booking committee in 1994: “Well, Ric [Flair] brought me in. He brought me in to be part of the booking committee. And then [laughs] he loses his match [against Hulk Hogan with retirement stipulation], and he takes off. So, ‘Okay Arn, I want you to come in. You’re a smart guy. I want you to lend your expertise. You can help me, you can help Kevin [Sullivan], you know, you guys are a great idea guys.’ And then he left. And that left me and Kevin and Jimmy Hart sitting in there, we were the booking committee. So I was learning on the job.
“But basically what I offered, and the reason that he brought me in, I got a way with finishes, making stuff make sense, things of that nature, I could be, maybe consider myself the voice of reason. In a crazy business where we do a lot of haywire stuff, somebody had to be there to reel you back in and go, “Hey, wait a minute, that might be a little too far. How about this?”
On not enjoying the process: “I didn’t necessarily enjoy it, because it just meant more hours at the office. You gotta remember now, I’m still wrestling. And I’m still wrestling in a spot, the last three matches of the night every night. So if I went to a house show, I would be responsible for going around, laying out all the finishes for the entire show. And putting my match together as well, which I could have been on last night or second, the last or third to the last, but I still had to be available for questions, people want to make changes, all those things that go on during the show. And I’ve still got a main event match or at least the top match to wrestle.”
