Current Events > According to Hillbilly Jim this shitty match cost WWE $20,000 ($50,000 today)

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCnS2F0PiIw

According to Jim, Uncle Elmer had held WWE up for more money. They refused so he said he was going to no show.

As a result WWE booked Jim a last minute charter flight from Fresno California to Providence Rhode Island, with a last minute hotel and a car to pick him up from the airport and take him to the arena which cost about $20,000 at the time (So about $47,000 today?) Just so he could fill for Elmer and do the match.

Then when he arrived, the driver took him to the hotel instead of the arena and said "Elmer showed up while you were on the plane."

Then WWE fired Elmer and Jim had to take over Elmer's dates.

What I don't get is... Why not just not have the match?

Either send out Steve Lombardi or just give Bundy a night off. Was there really that much demand to see two fat guys for 3 minutes that you had to spend that much to fly in Jim??

Hell is there not a single fat guy in Rhode Island that you couldn't pay $240 to wear blue overalls, be booked as "Ma's Boy Billy Reb" and claim to be Jim's nephew or Elmer's brother or something? Not like the match would take 3 years of wrestling school to perform.

Gotta be the most expensive shitty match in wrestling history

Crazy for such a small time match. I get the spectacle cause you weren't gonna get anyone the size of Elmer, but I doubt they'd have to refund any fans' tickets for that change to the card.

Hopefully Hillbilly had a nice flight at the very least.

I can see why they would think that match would help King Kong Bundy.

The WWE tried for a while to make the hillbillies a thing. Hillbilly Jim, Uncle Elmer... the other one. Uncle Elmer even got married on live television. (Not that anyone really cared.) But, yeah. The booking team probably thought the hillbillies were loved by the audience. Uncle Elmer's gimmick was that he was nearly invulnerable, but if he went off of his feet, it took him forever and a day to get back to his feet and his opponent could wear him down that way. They probably legitimately felt that having King Kong Bundy beat the "beloved" big man would solidify him as both the top massive wrestler in the company and as the hated heel who beat Uncle Elmer and drove him out of the WWE.

That's a ridiculous amount of money to burn on that lousy match, but that fit the mindset. It's not $20,000 to see Uncle Elmer. It's $20,000 in promotional material to make King Kong Bundy that physically massive heel who beat the physically massive goody-good. If this was prior to WrestleMania, where Bundy fought Hogan in the main event, they could have legitimately viewed it as part of the build up to the biggest show of the year.

That's a good point. If this was 86 before Mania 2, I get the effort to really put a spotlight on Bundy. Would put things into a more understandable perspective.