Former-WWE Hardcore Champion Tommy Dreamer shared an incredible story about his days in Talent Relations. During an episode of the House of Hardcore podcast, Dreamer talked about trying to book King Kong Bundy for a segment with Randy Orton.
Transcriptions via Ross Kelly at Wrestling INC.
“ECW goes out of business and this is when I am doing Talent Relations for WWE. This is when Randy Orton is doing the ‘Legend Killer’ gimmick and he is going into a feud with The Undertaker,” said Dreamer. “For Atlanta, GA they wanted someone from The Undertaker’s past to come and do something and show up, and Randy Orton to go out and do something with them. The person had to be a heel. We are all thinking, and Creative would shoot an email to Talent Relations asking if there were any suggestions. So, I am going through my Rolodex of ideas and I’m thinking of guys like Ted DiBiase, King Kong Bundy, Jimmy Snuka and I don’t remember the rest. It came back and they thought that King Kong Bundy would be a great idea, do you have any information for him? I said that I could get it.”
Dreamer then goes on to wait for a response from Bundy, after no word, Dreamer is pressured by John Laurinaitis to get word. Dreamer goes on to describe the voicemail he finally received:
“‘Hey Dreamer, it’s Chris King Kong Bundy. How are you doing? Congratulations on the spot. Hey man, this is not on you, always been cool and friends with you so I need you to relay this message to WWE, especially to Vince McMahon. Number one, you need to tell him that he needs to pay me the money that he owes me. Number two, unless there is a creative idea for me winning the title I have no interest in it because he promised me the title when I put over Hulk Hogan and he never delivered so please go tell him to go f–k himself. Tommy, I love you, remember when I wanted to be your brother? Take care. I will see you later.’”
After much pressure, Dreamer had to then deliver the message, word-for-word, under duress, to Vince McMahon. This led to Dreamer being harangued by Laurinaitis.
“I want to say that within four minutes of sending that email here comes Johnny Ace as my boss, he is running down from the Talent Relations office, he’s like, ‘What the hell is wrong with you? Why would you send that?’ I was like, what? They kept asking me. You are in the chain of emails. He’s like, ‘You just told Vince McMahon to go f–k himself!’
“I said that I did not tell Vince McMahon to go f–k himself, King Kong Bundy said to tell Vince McMahon to go f–k himself. Johnny said to me, ‘What am I going to do with you?’ That was money to what John would say to me or the other question he would ask is what is wrong with me. Look, when someone asks me a question, I have to do it, and the reply was from Chairman Vince McMahon, he replied back saying, ‘Moving forward.’”
House of Hardcore Podcast