Marc Mero Recalls Getting WWE’s First Guaranteed Contract And Signing Bonus

Pro wrestling veteran Marc Mero appeared on an episode of The ARN Show, where he discussed various topics, including signing with WWE.

Mero said, “Like I write in my book, I was the first one to get a guaranteed contract. Because three years before this, I went — Vince flew me to his home at Stanford, and I had dinner with him. And at that time, he said, ‘What’s it gonna take to come to the WWE?’ And I said, ‘Well, I gotta have a guaranteed contract.’ I already had one waiting for me at WCW. And he says, ‘We don’t offer guaranteed contracts, we offer opportunities.’ I’ll never forget that. And three years later, now my contract is up again, and the business has changed a lot. And I think he thought we were going to be able to get something like the Johnny B Badd character. And this is back when lawsuits started going back and forth. Because there’s the Fake Diesel and there’s all kinds of stuff going on. But anyways so when I get there, they he asked me, ‘What’s going to take to come to WWF?’ And I said, ‘Well, Vince, I got to have a guaranteed contract.’ And he looks at me, goes, ‘Done’. He goes, ‘What else?’ I go, ‘I got to have a signing bonus.’ And he goes, ‘How much?’ And I told him. He said, ‘Done.’ And he goes, ‘Is that it?’ And I go, I did one more thing. This is what blew him away. I said, ‘I would like my wife to travel everywhere I travel.’ Now the reason I said this is back then, everybody in the business was getting divorced. I mean it was so hard to have a relationship in that business when you’re away from your family that much. And so he said, ‘Well, I have never heard that one before.’ And he agreed to bring in my ex-wife.”

On his Wild Man gimmick not working out in WWE:

“It didn’t resonate with the audience. It was a very tough thing. But you know, like Arn said, you put trust in the creative. Like you — this is the machine. They created Undertaker, they created these big stars. I’m thinking, ‘They must know something I don’t know. Okay, I’ll be Wild Man Marc Mero.’ And as we all know, it was not the ending to my career I would have hoped for. But you know, like I said guys, I wouldn’t want to change nothing, man. Because it all led to this, and it’s the best.”

You can check out the complete podcast in the video below.

(H/T to 411Mania.com for transcribing the above quotes)