Wrestling 365 sent out the following:
In an interview with Alfonso Marimon & Jon Curry of Wrestling 365 Radio, former WCW manager Sonny Onoo discussed his time in World Championship Wrestling, working with Ernest “The Cat” Miller, being part of the agreement process between WCW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, the popularity of the nWo in Japan and more.
Highlights of the interview are below:
On his time in WCW: “I managed, I handled the Japanese invasion at the World War 3 pay-per-view bringing in the Jushin Liger’s and those big stars from New Japan Pro Wrestling. I worked behind-the-scenes to bring those stars from New Japan to the United States and as the only person who could speak English amongst the Japanese, I managed those Japanese wrestlers. I was privileged to bring in and manage people such as Ultimo Dragon, Masahiro Chono. They were already big-time stars before I got involved. I managed Yuji Nagata, who is currently a big star in Japan and has been for the past 5-6 years with New Japan Pro Wrestling and Kaz Hayashi, who is involved with Wrestle-1 in Japan.”
On working with Ernest “The Cat” Miller: “Ernest and I hooked up because we both have a martial arts background, an intense martial arts background, that’s how we got together. People who didn’t really know the reason for me managing Ernest was that, you know, Ernest didn’t need a mouthpiece, he really didn’t need a manager, but he needed a little sidekick and you know, that’s why Ernest and I got together, I was a little sidekick for him. I was never his mouthpiece, that was not my intent as it was when I managed the Japanese wrestlers. It was a different approach to what a manager does.”
On the nWo angle with Masahiro Chono and The Great Muta: “I was privileged to be involved at the time when wrestling was popular and as far as the nWo angle goes, I was bringing in Chono from New Japan Pro Wrestling and if you remember the storyline, he double-crossed me and joined the nWo during a Monday Nitro show, so consequently, a few weeks later I brought in The Great Muta (Keiji Mutoh) to avenge my defeat and what happened was Muta joined Chono and triple-crossed me, if you can call it that and the began the nWo Japan angle, which was one of the biggest angles they had in New Japan at the time. We were selling, Summer of ’98, I think we sold like $5 million worth of nWo t-shirts in Japan. It was crazy, people would just buy a ticket to be able to buy a t-shirt and not watch the show, just leave. It was so big over there and I think it was one of the biggest angles New Japan had.”
Sonny also talked about his son’s amateur wrestling career, filing a lawsuit against World Championship Wrestling towards the end of his time with the company, if he was involved in the backstage politics in WCW, his relationship with Eric Bischoff and much more.
The interview is available in full at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/365network/2014/03/02/wrestling-365-at-6pme-this-sunday-night-feat-sonny-onoo-and-evan-ginzburg.
