The following interview with Bill Banks, conducted by Ryan Nation, aired this past weekend on WTTU 88.5 FM in Cookeville, Tennessee. Please send any feedback to crn0668@tntech.edu.

RN: Joining me on the phone right now is a man who I’ve had a lot of trouble finding information on, but is no stranger to the wrestling world. Ladies and gentleman…Bill Banks. Bill, how are you doing?

BB: I’m doing good sir, how are you?

RN: I’m doing fine. Well Bill, let’s get right down to it. You are now with NWA:TNA, how did that come to be?

BB: Just to give you a little background since you say you don’t have much. I started out in the WWF back in about 96. I was going through college and I was looking for an internship. I got an offer from ESPN and the WWF. So I decided to go with WWF. I had always been a long time fan and I started out working on their website, which was on AOL at the time. Then we moved to a website and I started writing for the magazines. Then Vince Russo kind of took me under his wing and helped him out with the TV writing and such. From there, 1999, I went to WCW, which was one of the more interesting experiences in my life. After that, I kind of stayed out of the business for about two years. I got a call from Vince and Jeremy Borash basically saying hey come on down, we need you and that’s basically where I am today.

RN: Can you explain your role in TNA right now?

BB: Well basically what I am doing is kind of a jack-of-all-trades. Mainly, I am helping out Jeremy Borash wherever he needs help, helping out Vince with interviews, and the day of the show I try to handle all of the live shots. I’m going to be working with entrances, lighting, music, and things of that sort as well as the website. I’ve started with some of the guys on the website already. Slowly but surely we’re going to be improving that. Just wherever you can help, you help. That’s what is happening right now.

RN: Speaking of the website, is there anything that you can tell us that’s in the works or elaborate on that’s being updated? The big things on there are Jeremy’s column, Bob Ryder’s column, and then Mike Tenay’s Q & A session, but that’s really about it. Are there more columns to come?

BB: Yeah there are more columns to come. Actually the big thing with the website is you need content. Right now there’s not enough hands to offer content. And that’s going to be my job, to start coming up with columns. I’ve talked to Don Callis already; I’ve talked to Jim Mitchell about doing a column. A lot of the younger guys are excited about doing interviews for the website. I’m going to start doing live interviews with them at the shows and then provide a transcript on the website. So slowly but surely you’re going to see more things on the website, more galleries. It’s just a matter time, you just got to get more people involved with it.

RN: Okay, let’s start in the past. You mentioned it earlier with the World Wrestling, at the time, Federation. How did the internship come to be? Did you apply for it and get selected?

BB: Well, basically I sent in a letter. Since I was a kid, one of the things I’ve always learned is you have to stay on people if you want something. I just kept sending them letters and finally I got a call back from their HR department and they had an opening. I guess the opening was created based on what I had told them. I had been writing for my school newspapers and doing movie reviews and things of that sort. So I had a really strong writing background. They needed somebody to do results and content for their website on AOL at that time. That’s how that came to be. It was three of us at the time who were running the AOL website. My boss at the time was Jim Monsees who I believe is still at WWF. He’s a great guy. Again, we started off small and we grew it into one of the top websites that was on the net.

RN: What was it like being with the WWF during their rise to stardom so to speak back in 98 and 99 until you made the jump to WCW?

BB: When I first started there was when WCW first started picking up steam. I was there the night at MSG where Nash and Hall left and it just went very downhill from there. WCW had the momentum at the time and things were rough at WWF. But again it was that pulling together and that team atmosphere that started in 1998 that brought the company together. To this day it was one of the greatest feelings when we started beating Nitro again in the ratings. It was almost as if you had won a war. It was a great experience, I can’t lie to you. When Vince Russo and Ed Ferrara left, it was tough. WCW made me an offer. Probably the way I left WWF wasn’t very good. That’s one of the things I do regret was the way I left there. As far as any regrets since then, I don’t think I have any.

RN: Wasn’t it a result of you guys jumping that they made a no compete clause in the contracts for the writers? Were you one of the last to leave who didn’t have to sign one of those?

BB: Correct. There was a week or so after Vince left that they were pressuring me to sign this. The clause was one of the reasons I left but it was also the fact that I had been put into a situation that I wasn’t comfortable with at the time. To be honest with you, I was ready for a change and that’s what happened.

RN: How demanding is Vince McMahon?

BB: I didn’t really work with Vince directly. I worked with Russo and Ed. Ed and Russo worked with Vince. You’re basically at Vince’s beckoning call 24/7, which understandably for a businessman like him who has to run a successful company. You can understand that, but it takes a great toll on your employees. There were some of the people at TV at WWF that would just sleep there at night because they just worked 24/7. You got to respect it but it’s a tough, tough job.

RN: You jumped to WCW, can you compare and contrast the atmospheres?

BB: Wow, I wasn’t really prepared for what happened in WCW. Going in, it was exciting to be in a new atmosphere working with new talent and new people. After a while, I started to see the problems in WCW and they were very big problems from the locker room to management to everything. After being in the WWF, living the dream, and working there; less than five years later I was hating the business. I didn’t want to be in the business anymore because that’s what WCW did to you. I tell you, everyone in that company wanted WCW to succeed but our hands were tied with everything from TV mandates and problems with management. The other problem was that it was already a sinking ship. You had guys who were getting paid millions upon millions of dollars to sit home and do nothing, then show up at TV with attitude problems and give everyone else problems when we were trying to succeed. I got to tell you from my point of view it was doomed from the start.

RN: Now did you ever have to rewrite things because of people totally disagreeing or well, just being asses?

BB: It’s understandable that at a point of where something is sinking you want to protect yourself. You want to make sure you are looking out for yourself and again, that’s understandable. But for some guys it became a weekly negotiating process. I’m not going to mention any names, but it’s the names you’ve all heard. At that point it stops being fun and that was my problem with it.

RN: How do you work around situations like this to where you got some people not wanting to cooperate, people who don’t show up, and all the odds and ends that made WCW, well WCW?

BB: Well, you just bite your lip and go and that’s what I did for over a year with that company. Again the people that I worked with: the talent, the production people, across the board I had fun working with and they were driven. It became a bad job after a while were you didn’t want to go to work. You didn’t want to be there at Nitro and Thunder because you didn’t know what was going to happen. After a while it just became chaos. I read reports where people blame Vince Russo for the downfall of WCW. The plain fact is that management and people who ran that company destroyed it well before we got there and that was what happened.

RN: I’ll get to Russo in a minute, but were you there till the very end?

BB: Yes I was.

RN: Were you there the night of the very last Nitro?

BB: I was actually at the go position, which is where they send the wrestlers out, for the very last match. I was there that night and it was a very interesting day. We go there early that morning and we knew Shane, Bruce, and I think it was Jerry Brisco were coming in. It may have been Jack, I’m not sure. Anyway, we knew they were coming in. When they go there, we all had the talent meeting. Shane was my boss when I worked at WWF. I had Shane as far as working on the website and then there was Russo with the magazine and TV writing. I made it a point having left there the wrong way to go to Shane and say hey I’m sorry for the way I left, I apologize and wish you success. He understood and I was very happy that I did that. At the end of night just watching Ric and Sting in that final match, it was an emotional moment. Knowing that was the last time I was going to see a lot of the talent, it was a very tough night.

RN: After that night was over, did you think you would ever be involved in the wrestling business anymore?

BB: I lived in Atlanta at the time and my home is in Connecticut. The very next day I was planning to get out of there and go home. I wanted nothing to do with the business anymore. I had washed my hands of it and I just wanted to get out of it. I went home and got a marketing job in an office for two years. I was bored out of my mind. Once you’re in this business, in the backstage running around all day, and you get in that creative process; you can’t sit behind a desk. It just doesn’t work. I always kept connections with Vince Russo. I always talked to Jeremy and Bob Ryder online. Just reading the reviews of the shows for TNA, I got interested again. I started watching and I got that bug again.

RN: You mentioned Vince Russo, let’s talk about Vince. Vince is the golden boy of the internet. You either hate him or you love him, there’s no middle ground with him. I think Vince is a little too harshly criticized especially with the downfall of WCW. What do you have to say the all of the people who are detractors of him?

BB: Vince is a guy who gave me my spot in this business. For that, I’ll be forever grateful to him. Vince is a creative guy. I think he’ll admit that the wresting aspect of this business, when agents lay out the matches, that he’s not that kind of guy. He’s the creative guy. I read columns from a lot of the former wrestlers who Russo used to work with at WWF who continually bash him. I’d like those guys to ask themselves, the success that came to them from Russo writing the shows back during that period, do they ever think about that? Again, Vince is outspoken and he’s a New Yorker. When you’re a guy like that of course you’re going to get into wars. Vince loves the business and that’s all you can ask.

RN: Vince is a risk taker and sometimes they pay off, sometimes they don’t. I think sometimes that people may be a little jealous of that.

BB: I think so too. Everywhere you go whether it was WCW, WWF, or even here…if people are going to say things about Vince, it’s because he knows what he’s doing, he’s done it for years. He’ll continue to do it the way he knows it and that’s not a bad thing. It’s a continual learning process and Vince loves the business. I think the one dynamic that NWA-TNA has is Russo, Jarrett, and the whole creative process. Those guys can walk in there and argue all day. When they come out at the end of the day, it’s a hell of a show.

RN: Let’s talk about someone else who was with you along the way and is no longer with TNA and that’s Ed Ferrara. What was it like working with Ed?

BB: Ed came in towards the end when we were with WWF. Just getting to know Ed, he’s a like a big grown up kid. He likes comics, video games, and he’s just a very entertaining funny guy. I spent a lot of time with him at WCW. Ed loved working with the talent and I can appreciate something like that. He wasn’t one of those guys who didn’t give a rat’s ass about the talent or what they had to say. Myself, Ed, and Vince all prided ourselves on working with these guys, trying to come up with creative stuff, and trying to help these guys as opposed to just go out there and work a match. Me and Ed, we used to travel a lot. He was a great guy to work with. I kind of lost contact with him after WCW. We would talk online sometimes but from what I understand he’s living up in Chicago now. I talked to him a couple of weeks ago online and he seems to be doing good.

RN: Do you see Ed ever getting back into the wrestling business?

BB: I don’t think so, I really don’t. Because he did experience that emotional roller coaster ride in WCW and because he got burnt out too at the end of WCW, I just don’t think he would want to get back into it again. I know he stays in contact with a lot of the guys still and I’m sure he still maintains friendships like I did. I really think in his mind, he’s probably walked away. But I said the same thing, and look where I am.

RN: I have to agree. Right now he’s pursing other avenues and best of luck to him. TNA just recently celebrated their one-year anniversary and they are now working on year two. I know it’s the question asked constantly, but do you see a television deal happening within this year?

BB: I hope so, I really do. I’ve heard things here and there. Everything I’ve heard has been positive. It’s a small company right now but we’re making good head way. We’re getting the name out there. I’m sure there’s interest, there’s got to be. I hope that we get one.

RN: What it’s like working with Jerry Jarrett, Jeff’s dad?

BB: To be honest with you, this past week was very first time I got to meet Jerry. He’s a very quiet and reserved guy. I would actually like to sit down with him and talk to him some more. He seems like a great guy. Working with Jeff, he’s such an educated guy as far as the business goes. Jeff Jarrett grew up in this business. He knows what to do and what he’s doing. From everything I’ve heard about Jerry, he’s the same thing.

RN: Let’s go up north for a moment. Have you had a chance to watch Ring of Honor?

BB: I have not actually but I’ve read a lot of the internet reports. Just from reading the reports, it sounds very entertaining.

RN: What’s been some of the proudest moments that you’ve experienced in the wrestling business?

BB: That’s a good question. I got to say when I first started writing TV with Russo and Ed. Just to see some of my ideas come out on screen live. One of the first things I pitched to Vince was when Rock threw Austin’s title off the bridge. Just to see something that you thought of on that television screen, it gives you a lot of pride. There’s been a lot of things that I’ve been proud of. When you can go home at the end of the day and collapse on the couch. You’re sweating, you’re hyper, and you’re just tired. Just to know that hey I put something together that was seen by millions of people today, that’s a great feeling.

RN: What was your proudest moment in WCW?

BB: Well…proudest moment in WCW. Hmmm, I got to think on that a second.

(laughing)

RN: Were there any positive moments in WCW?

BB: Yeah, there were a lot of positive moments. Working with talent like Booker T, Hugh Morris, Kidman, and Konnan…I made friends with a lot of the talent. A lot of them were great guys. They would take the shirt off their back for you. It was just a pleasure to work with guys like that. On the other hand there were guys who weren’t so much a pleasure to work with. Probably the friendships I made in WCW were the things I came out of WCW appreciating the most.

RN: What did you think about the invasion angle that kind of flopped?

BB: I got to be completely honest with you. After WCW closed, I tried not to watch WWF. Of course when I was flipping through from time to time, I would catch it. If a guy like Booker was working, I would be sure to watch. Or if a guy like Chavo or any of those guys were working, I’d watch. But I didn’t really pay attention to anything they did after that. From everything I read, it kind of seemed like they were treating WCW like the country bumpkin federation. I don’t know if there ever was a way to do that angle correctly. Vince soured a lot on the WCW concept. I don’t think he ever had an idea or the drive to do anything like that.

RN: Have you been watching their product lately?

BB: No, I haven’t really. When I first left WWF and things got miserable in WCW, it was kind of like the girlfriend you wished you had back and now she’s with another guy and you can’t stand seeing her with him. That’s kind of how I felt at the time. I don’t feel so much that way anymore. From what I’ve read, it’s not very entertaining to watch the shows anymore. Again if I’m flipping through it and I happen to see the guys I worked with and know, I’ll watch their match and see how they’re doing.

RN: When do you see the next big wave of popularity coming back to wrestling?

BB: I’ve always believed that this business works like a roller coaster. You have your peaks and valleys. A lot of it has to do right now with the economy, with the war we’re in. After 9/11, you had war on everyday on your television. You had real life violence on your television whenever you wanted to watch it. For some people, that was their outlet. I think the WWF and the business in general got hurt because of that. But again, when WCW folded there was no competition and that’s the other thing. You have to have competition. That’s what created the wrestling boom in the late 90s between WWF and WCW. When Vince bought WCW, he became the top dog. Well there’s problems to being the top dog. You have to realize that. He tried to make the competition within the WWF between WWF and WCW. Again it just faded away until we came along.

RN: Do you see TNA within the next year being some hard driving competition? Before I let you answer that, the reason that I asked it is because so many people didn’t think TNA would last a year. They thought this concept is ridiculous and well, here TNA still is.

BB: Like I said, everything I’ve heard has been positive. Being there that first week, I remember that bite I had for the business. Just this last week, Shane Douglas and I were talking in the back. I looked at him and said Shane isn’t it good to be having fun again? And that’s the way it feels right now. That’s the way it feels in the back with the talent. I hope it feels that way in the back. To me it does. You’ve got the veterans working with the younger guys. It’s a company where everybody is there to bust their ass. There’s no problems that I’ve encountered so far. Hell, I hope that a year from now we got a TV deal and we’re doing greater Pay Per View numbers. The potential is out there for this company. We’ve just got to grow and it’s going to happen.

RN: What do you, Bill Banks, bring to the table for TNA?

BB: (laughing) What do I bring to the table eh? For me, I’m like Vince Russo in the way that I’m not the wrestling guy. I’m not the agent who can get in there and help these guys and tell these guys ring psychology in a match. I recognize ring psychology but I can’t tell a guy how to do it. I’m not a wrestler. What I try to do is make TNA look like the NBA or the NFL. You turn on an NBA game, it’s a spectacular, it’s color, it’s lights, and it’s entertainment. That’s something for me. One of the good things in WCW was that I got to work with the ring entrances, music, and things like that. That’s something that I enjoy doing. I also enjoy working with the website. Just in a creative design role where I can help the talent with their characters. I can help them develop their characters whether it be lighting, music, or entrances. That’s something I enjoy doing.

RN: Transformers or Voltron?

BB: (laughing) Definitely the Japanese version of Voltron. We had talked before that I have a Voltron shirt, which everybody seems to like. I was always a big fan of those shows like Thundercats and Voltron. The 80s cartoons were the best.

RN: A lot of 80s cartoons are coming back. In 2004 there’s going to be a new Voltron. Will it live up to the hype though?

BB: I do not know. If I can find it, I’ll watch it.

RN: In closing, if you can give advice to someone who wants to break into the wrestling business in a role similar to yours as a writer, what would it be?

BB: My advice would be to first and foremost, I always got this question from these people on how do I get in and what can I do, is to get your education first. Go to college, don’t be one of these guys who gives his life up and thinks he’s going to do it by working backyard wrestling matches. That doesn’t happen. You need to get your education first. From there whether it’s TV production, writing, or if you want to be a wrestler, start working your way up. It’s a long road. Fortunately for myself, I got lucky. A lot of people have been busting their ass in this business for years to be where they’re at. I respect people like that. Again like I said, make sure you get your education first.

RN: An additional question that I want to throw in for posterity’s sake. Would Kamala versus Bill Banks draw?

BB: (laughing) Would what?!

RN: Would Kamala versus Bill Banks draw?

BB: No, because I can’t do crap in the ring. As some people probably saw when I tried to save Bob Ryder and Jeremy Borash from Tank Abbott on WCW, I ended up face down on the canvas. Kamala would probably beat me in about two seconds and I would be his lunch.

RN: Yeah, literally. Thank you so much for doing the interview Bill.

BB: No problem. Harmonics darn popularity hypermetrical megalith dermology adipometer entd alstonite hemisyncline nonspecialized documenting meadow immateriality operand. Loathingly bonne, mechanize.
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