Post by Steve Sinclair on Jan 1, 2019 22:44:09 GMT
2005…….
Brooklyn, NYC
Nanook started ESM out of a old warehouse that Nanook found in a shady part of town. He swept in and scooped it up in a tax auction. The place used to make be apart of US Rubber as one of it’s storage building for raw materials in the 30’s and 40’s and was abandoned and left to rot in the 70’s when all of New York was forgotten about. The part of Brooklyn that it was in was so bad, even the rats wouldn’t call it home. Nanook looked past the grime, the busted windows, the hole in the roof and the mountain of trash inside of the building to see nothing but potential.
And a future payoff when commercial property prices would skyrocket in 10-15 years. Which is where Nanook made a bulk of his net worth from property flipping.
With some elbow grease, couple of dumpsters and some money, Nanook was able to make the building functional for now. He built a ring, a gym and some offices inside the place, though you couldn’t tell from the house side of the building. Nanook then started pitching to a couple of wrestlers he knew that he could get them better deals, bigger payouts then they were currently getting. The hardest part was landing that first client, and getting him paid. After that, finding and signing clients would get easier. Eventually Nanook did land his first client, A kid who was bouncing around for 5-6 years finding work but not really sticking anywhere. He lacked the skills to work the backstage politics that Nanook excelleled at. Nanook just about begged this kid to let him speak on his behalf, Let him do the negotiations for a contract from a promotion that was making noise out of ST. Louis called the XWA and was looking for talent to keep the machine going. They brought in this kid, gave him a try out, couple of matches on TV and offered him a deal, which Nanook told him, was a low ball offer and that he could get him double that. Nanook pretty much did it for free, but he got the kid a deal for twice the money. After that, he didn’t have to call and make a pitch to other guys to let him be their agent. They were calling him.
Nanook plugged away for the next 6 months, signing guys up, getting them work all over the country and getting them paid, which in turned, got him paid. Next he was looking to sign guys who wanted to break in the sport. Provide some training, fine tune their raw skills and make sure they got the opportunities that other newbies might not get. All the while, while getting paid for this. And Nanook thinks he found a kid just raw enough to be his crown jewel in this new venture of his. A kid he plucked from the family farm in Kentucky who started his own backyard wrestling fed and was putting on shows out in the cow pasture to basically a handful of people who would show up after milking was down for the night. Nanook found him as this kid named Nick was selling tapes for the “events” in the back of the dirt sheets. He bought a tape, watched it, drove out to Kentucky to see this for himself, and convinced the kid to move to NYC.
It took a couple of weeks but Michael finally made the trip from Japan to NY, home for at least the holidays. After fighting off the jet lag, Michael made his way to the city and to the address Nanook gave him over the phone. At first Nanook was a tad upset that Steve didn’t allow Michael to come home right away and stalled in allowing him for a week, but the timing would end up working in Nanook's favor.
It was end of the year and the company, aka Steve, handed out the bonus checks to everyone. The company was riding high and everyone got a nice fat check. Well, almost everyone.
Michael pulled up in his Caddy, one of the boats from the 60’s, one that he moved the front seat back a couple of inches and extended the steering column a couple of inches to accommodate his seven foot three inch frame. In the 60’s there were fewer cars on the road bigger than a Caddy. The huge overhead door was open and Nanook was leaning against the wall on his phone listening to his messages and making notes in his notebook. In the ring, Nick was working with Joe Jones, who was trying to put his career back on track after getting sidelined with a knee injury that required some time off. Joe was getting some work in, taking bumps and what not while also showing Nick a thing or two, it was a win win for both Nanook and Joe. Nanook gets a free trainer and Joe gets a sparring partner.
Michael slams the door on his Caddy and makes his way into the warehouse, Michael forever stuck in the 70’s rocking some bell bottoms, plaid dress shirts and mutton chops with his check in hand, glaring at it almost in disbelief.
“Did you see this shit?” Michael says as he walks up to Nanook.
“See what?” Nanook says pretending not to know anything. He already knew what the problem was as Nanook saw each check before they were mailed out. Michael’s check was the lowest one, by a mile.
“New TV deal. 52 sold out shows! Merch is through the roof! You know how much merch I pack and ship just in Japan!” Michael says as he also ran the merch dept in Japan. This cut down on cost, and shipping time from NY to the fans in Japan who had to have that Slipstream Tee. “I’ve seen the gate numbers from that tour in Japan! I know what we did for those 2 weeks there! I made that happen! Without me!”
“Here we go…” Nanook thinks to himself.
“None of that would have happened! This! This is all he can spare? Bullshit!” Michael says as he tosses his check on the table, a stack of pallets Nanook was using. Nanook glances at it, acting like he never saw it before in his life. He could tell you the check number, routing number, account number without even looking at it actually.
Nanook puts on a puzzled look. He scratches his chin. “Huh!”
“I know right! Fucking cheap bastard!”
“I wouldn’t say that, but why is your check so light?”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s light.”
"How so? How much was your check?"
“Like, ten times that.”
“WHAT!”
“Here. Look.” Nanook says as he digs in his pocket and pulls out his deposit slip and hands it to Michael.
Michael’s jaw hits the floor. His blood just boils instantly. “What the fuck! How? What? This for real?”
“Yeah man, everyone got one just like that. You sure that isn’t your paycheck?”
“NO! Look!” Michael says as he digs in his pocket and pulls out his paycheck. “I got two checks today. Look, this one! Says Bonus in the memo!” Michael says as he points it out. Nanook looks at it again, again acting like he’s never seen it before.
“Ah yeah. Huh! I wonder why you’re is different.”
Michael snatches up the 2 checks and stuffs them in his pocket. He could just explode right now, he is right there. “I’M GOING TO FIND MY BROTHER! FUCK THIS SHIT! THAT ASSHOLE ISN’T GETTING AWAY WITH THIS! I’LL FUCK HIM UP!” Michael yells which causes Nick and Joe to stop training and look at him wondering what in the yell is going on. Michael storms back to his Caddy and climbs inside of it and takes off like he’s the 3rd member of the Duke Boys. Tire smoke, Tires begging for mercy and everything.
Nanook wanders out of the warehouse and out of view from Nick and Joe. He reaches in his pocket and pulls out another check. When Michael’s Caddy is out of sight, Nanook holds it up.
“Time to make this disappear.” He says as he pulls out a zippo and lights it on fire.
This check, is Michael’s actually bonus check, which was for the same amount as everyone’s else's check. Nanook took a check that was cut to cover airfare home for Michael and had Bonus stamped on it and pocketed his actual year end bonus check…………..
Brooklyn, NYC
Nanook started ESM out of a old warehouse that Nanook found in a shady part of town. He swept in and scooped it up in a tax auction. The place used to make be apart of US Rubber as one of it’s storage building for raw materials in the 30’s and 40’s and was abandoned and left to rot in the 70’s when all of New York was forgotten about. The part of Brooklyn that it was in was so bad, even the rats wouldn’t call it home. Nanook looked past the grime, the busted windows, the hole in the roof and the mountain of trash inside of the building to see nothing but potential.
And a future payoff when commercial property prices would skyrocket in 10-15 years. Which is where Nanook made a bulk of his net worth from property flipping.
With some elbow grease, couple of dumpsters and some money, Nanook was able to make the building functional for now. He built a ring, a gym and some offices inside the place, though you couldn’t tell from the house side of the building. Nanook then started pitching to a couple of wrestlers he knew that he could get them better deals, bigger payouts then they were currently getting. The hardest part was landing that first client, and getting him paid. After that, finding and signing clients would get easier. Eventually Nanook did land his first client, A kid who was bouncing around for 5-6 years finding work but not really sticking anywhere. He lacked the skills to work the backstage politics that Nanook excelleled at. Nanook just about begged this kid to let him speak on his behalf, Let him do the negotiations for a contract from a promotion that was making noise out of ST. Louis called the XWA and was looking for talent to keep the machine going. They brought in this kid, gave him a try out, couple of matches on TV and offered him a deal, which Nanook told him, was a low ball offer and that he could get him double that. Nanook pretty much did it for free, but he got the kid a deal for twice the money. After that, he didn’t have to call and make a pitch to other guys to let him be their agent. They were calling him.
Nanook plugged away for the next 6 months, signing guys up, getting them work all over the country and getting them paid, which in turned, got him paid. Next he was looking to sign guys who wanted to break in the sport. Provide some training, fine tune their raw skills and make sure they got the opportunities that other newbies might not get. All the while, while getting paid for this. And Nanook thinks he found a kid just raw enough to be his crown jewel in this new venture of his. A kid he plucked from the family farm in Kentucky who started his own backyard wrestling fed and was putting on shows out in the cow pasture to basically a handful of people who would show up after milking was down for the night. Nanook found him as this kid named Nick was selling tapes for the “events” in the back of the dirt sheets. He bought a tape, watched it, drove out to Kentucky to see this for himself, and convinced the kid to move to NYC.
It took a couple of weeks but Michael finally made the trip from Japan to NY, home for at least the holidays. After fighting off the jet lag, Michael made his way to the city and to the address Nanook gave him over the phone. At first Nanook was a tad upset that Steve didn’t allow Michael to come home right away and stalled in allowing him for a week, but the timing would end up working in Nanook's favor.
It was end of the year and the company, aka Steve, handed out the bonus checks to everyone. The company was riding high and everyone got a nice fat check. Well, almost everyone.
Michael pulled up in his Caddy, one of the boats from the 60’s, one that he moved the front seat back a couple of inches and extended the steering column a couple of inches to accommodate his seven foot three inch frame. In the 60’s there were fewer cars on the road bigger than a Caddy. The huge overhead door was open and Nanook was leaning against the wall on his phone listening to his messages and making notes in his notebook. In the ring, Nick was working with Joe Jones, who was trying to put his career back on track after getting sidelined with a knee injury that required some time off. Joe was getting some work in, taking bumps and what not while also showing Nick a thing or two, it was a win win for both Nanook and Joe. Nanook gets a free trainer and Joe gets a sparring partner.
Michael slams the door on his Caddy and makes his way into the warehouse, Michael forever stuck in the 70’s rocking some bell bottoms, plaid dress shirts and mutton chops with his check in hand, glaring at it almost in disbelief.
“Did you see this shit?” Michael says as he walks up to Nanook.
“See what?” Nanook says pretending not to know anything. He already knew what the problem was as Nanook saw each check before they were mailed out. Michael’s check was the lowest one, by a mile.
“New TV deal. 52 sold out shows! Merch is through the roof! You know how much merch I pack and ship just in Japan!” Michael says as he also ran the merch dept in Japan. This cut down on cost, and shipping time from NY to the fans in Japan who had to have that Slipstream Tee. “I’ve seen the gate numbers from that tour in Japan! I know what we did for those 2 weeks there! I made that happen! Without me!”
“Here we go…” Nanook thinks to himself.
“None of that would have happened! This! This is all he can spare? Bullshit!” Michael says as he tosses his check on the table, a stack of pallets Nanook was using. Nanook glances at it, acting like he never saw it before in his life. He could tell you the check number, routing number, account number without even looking at it actually.
Nanook puts on a puzzled look. He scratches his chin. “Huh!”
“I know right! Fucking cheap bastard!”
“I wouldn’t say that, but why is your check so light?”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s light.”
"How so? How much was your check?"
“Like, ten times that.”
“WHAT!”
“Here. Look.” Nanook says as he digs in his pocket and pulls out his deposit slip and hands it to Michael.
Michael’s jaw hits the floor. His blood just boils instantly. “What the fuck! How? What? This for real?”
“Yeah man, everyone got one just like that. You sure that isn’t your paycheck?”
“NO! Look!” Michael says as he digs in his pocket and pulls out his paycheck. “I got two checks today. Look, this one! Says Bonus in the memo!” Michael says as he points it out. Nanook looks at it again, again acting like he’s never seen it before.
“Ah yeah. Huh! I wonder why you’re is different.”
Michael snatches up the 2 checks and stuffs them in his pocket. He could just explode right now, he is right there. “I’M GOING TO FIND MY BROTHER! FUCK THIS SHIT! THAT ASSHOLE ISN’T GETTING AWAY WITH THIS! I’LL FUCK HIM UP!” Michael yells which causes Nick and Joe to stop training and look at him wondering what in the yell is going on. Michael storms back to his Caddy and climbs inside of it and takes off like he’s the 3rd member of the Duke Boys. Tire smoke, Tires begging for mercy and everything.
Nanook wanders out of the warehouse and out of view from Nick and Joe. He reaches in his pocket and pulls out another check. When Michael’s Caddy is out of sight, Nanook holds it up.
“Time to make this disappear.” He says as he pulls out a zippo and lights it on fire.
This check, is Michael’s actually bonus check, which was for the same amount as everyone’s else's check. Nanook took a check that was cut to cover airfare home for Michael and had Bonus stamped on it and pocketed his actual year end bonus check…………..