ONE SHOW. TWO MEN. NO RULES..

During his celebrated career “The Nature Boy” wrote an autobiography “To Be the Man”, a New York Times Best Seller, and released a 3 disc DVD set on his storied time in the wrestling business.

On March 30, 2008, one night after he became the only active wrestler to be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, Flair ended his 36-year career at WrestleMania XXIV. Ric Flair’s robe, trunks, and boots worn at Wrestlemania XXIV are permanently exhibited at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in Washington DC.

During the 50’s and 60’s, Gleason recorded 43 albums of music, wrote the theme songs for his 2 principle TV shows, The Honeymooners and The Jackie Gleason Show, built a round 'UFO' house in Peekskill, New York, starred in nine films, garnered an “Oscar” nomination for The Hustler, won a “Tony” for his Broadway performance as Uncle Sid in Take Me Along. Were that not enough, he hosted more than 30 plus television specials.

On June 24, 1987 Jackie passed away from colon cancer in his exclusive Inverrary home. “Throughout his professional life (Jackie) kept the heart of a child. A whimsicalness that cheered up a sad and tired world.” He is buried at St. Mary’s Cemetery in a lavish above-ground mausoleum that truly suits “The Great One.” Etched into the marble stairway leading to his sarcophagus reads the inscription, “And Away We Go.”

In 1948, after decades of competing with each other, an agreement was made to bring all the territories into one national alliance, forming the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). This also brought forth the first recognized "World Heavyweight Championship," where Lou Thez became it's first champion. Despite the agreements that Lou would be champion, many promoters wanted to keep their main stars looking strong. They often employed shoot matches (non-fixed matches) for the top talent to beat Lou in championship matches. The matches were able to succeed due to two main factors: the rise of television in the United States, and the implementation of The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956. Signed into law by President Dwight Eisenhower, the Highway act created 41,000 miles of new highway in the United States over a 10 year period  Traveling to live shows became more feasible for the public due to the new highway system. This coincided with the boom of the wrestling territories allowing more eyes on the matches.  Also, the rise of television networks caused a need for more content, and wrestling was cheap programming for them to buy. 

During this time the idea of gimmick wrestlers also became more and more popular. Instead of just being strong men who competed for titles, you would see characters who were defined by one major aspect. These could include heels (bad guys) who took on the evil foreigner gimmick, such as the Iron Shiek. However, the most popular character of the early days of the territories was George Wagner, more commonly known by his stage name, Gorgeous George. George was not a physically imposing man at five foot nine. He would come out in an effeminate outfit, mock the crowds, and most importantly followed his motto, "Win if you can, lose if you must, but always cheat!" George's natural charisma and natural ability to draw massive "heel heat" (audience hatred of the character) made him the ideal villain for the growing television audiences.

Eventually the NWA would begin to show cracks as many of the promotions viewed the entity as a corrupt tyrant holding back innovations in the business. Due to this growing disdain, promotions would leave the NWA. The biggest impact would be from the American Wrestling Association (AWA) and the New York based Capitol Wrestling Corporation (later renamed the World Wide Wrestling Federation ) agreement to leave NWA at the same time. The WWWF's exit would be a huge blow to the NWA as the New York promotion not only held one of the biggest venues, Madison Square Garden, but also one of the highest population densities in the nation. This caused NWA's loss of a huge market. The WWWF also had Bruno Sammartino, often regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time. Bruno's popularity would be the beginning of the WWWF becoming the biggest promotion of all time and evolving into the company we know today as the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE).

Paul McCartney wrote those words during a six-week stay in Wilson County, Tennessee in 1974. He and his family rented a 133-acre farm just outside of Lebanon from songwriting great Curly Putman ("Green, Green Grass of Home").

Along for the ride was his band, Wings, who rehearsed in Putman's garage for an upcoming tour. And since this is Paul McCartney we're talking about, his surroundings inevitably inspired a future hit song: "Junior's Farm," released later that year.

Eventually, Putman — born Claude Putman Jr. — came to realize that he was "Junior."

The Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame member passed away in 2016, but we've just unearthed a supplemental interview he gave for "Story Behind the Song" in 2013.

Here, Putman talks to NSAI Executive Director Bart Herbison about the true tale behind "Junior's Farm."

BH: Like the Godfather, I think they made an offer you couldn't refuse (laughs).

CP: That's kind of what it was. He said "We'll have a good contract on it and pay you good for staying the six weeks." I said, "Well, what am I gonna do?" Anyhow, I relented, let them rent my place for six weeks for a pretty good little chunk of money. I won't say much, because I can't remember, but it helped pay for my farm. And my son, Troy. He was he was about 14, 15, and my wife and I decided we'd go to Hawaii and let Paul McCartney pay for it...

We had two houses. One the band, Wings stayed in...they stayed in the little small house down the road and they had a gate there then had to keep somebody at the gate to keep people from coming in. I live up on a hill.

Troy had a road bike, a nice one. I said, 'You better put this up some place where they can't find it, because some of these guys they'll run it all over the world and then tear it up. But Paul found it and loved it. He rode all over Wilson County and Lebanon, up and down the highway. People would see him and they wouldn't even know who he was. 

I was in an obscure record store in London, England last year. I found a British copy of "Junior's Farm." farm that I thought you might want...It says, "Recorded on a farm in Lebanon, Tennessee." Did they do it at your house, or another recording studio?

They did it at Sound Shop, which Buddy owned. I didn't have a recording studio, but I had a double car garage. That's where they set their band up and rehearsed. We got back from Hawaii, and I was anxious to get back home, of course. We were walking up the driveway and they saw us coming, and Paul and the band started playing "Green, Green Grass of Home" (laughs). It was an experience. 

On September 15, 2011, Ferrante spoke at The Economist's Ideas Economy: Human Potential Summit in New York City. On October 21, 2014, Ferrante spoke at the CEO Global Leaders Forum in New York City, hosted by billionaire businessman Leonard Lauder.

Early life

Arrests

FBI Surveillance Photo of Louis Ferrante in California, on His Way to a Meeting with His Crew

FBI Surveillance Photo of Louis Ferrante and His Crew in California Planning an Armored Truck Heist (Ferrante's Back is to the Camera)

The main witness against Ferrante entered the Witness Protection program. Another informant against Ferrante was William Degel, now the host of Restaurant Stakeout on Food Network.[7] By 1994, and facing a life sentence in prison, Ferrante wrote and distributed a rap song defending crime boss John Gotti. Ferrante hired controversial civil rights attorney William Kunstler to defend him. Ferrante has appeared in at least one biography based on the life of William Kunstler.[11] During the trial, Kunstler claimed that Ferrante's song aggravated law enforcement agencies who had convicted Gotti and that the massive resources used to indict Ferrante multiple times were part of a government vendetta.[12] Ferrante's defense was defeated in court by prosecutors and Ferrante was convicted. In Ferrante's second case, he chose to plead guilty to a thirteen-year sentence, with his third case running concurrent with the first two cases. Ferrante refused to cooperate with the government and did not inform on former associates of the Gambino family.[13] He was sent to the maximum security prison in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, to begin his sentence.

THE FALLOUT

TKO, the company that owns WWE, has just revealed the financial fallout it faced last year from WWE’s 2022 investigation into Vince McMahon’s alleged misconduct, and how much power he currently has at the company. TKO also confirmed who will be replacing McMahon’s role on its board of directors amid his resignation last month, which took place shortly after a lawsuit was filed against him accusing him of sexual assault.

In June 2022, WWE’s Special Committee launched an investigation into McMahon’s alleged sexual misconduct and hush money payments he allegedly gave to a departing employee. The investigation has cost WWE over $27 million in 2022, and it continues to face additional costs from ongoing/additional claims related to the allegations, despite the investigation concluding sometime in 2022, according to a Feb. 27 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

“Professional costs resulting from WWE’s Special Committee’s investigation have been significant and are expected to continue to be significant as the Company continues to incur costs arising from ongoing and/or potentially new regulatory, investigative and enforcement inquiries, subpoenas and demands and claims,” said the company in the SEC filing. “We expect Mr. McMahon to reimburse the Company for reasonable expenses incurred in connection with the investigation.”

TKO also claims that McMahon has already reimbursed the company $5.8 million in costs related to the investigation in 2023.

McMahon resigned from TKO as executive chair and member of the board or directors last month shortly after a former WWE employee filed a lawsuit against him and former wrestler John Laurinaitis, accusing them both of “physical and emotional abuse, sexual assault and trafficking at WWE.”

In TKO’s new statement about Vince McMahon’s allegations in the SEC filing, the company finally revealed who will replace him on its board of directors.

“On February 22, 2024, following Vincent McMahon’s resignation from the position of Executive Chair of the Board in January 2024, the Board appointed Ariel Emanuel, the Company’s Chief Executive Officer, as Executive Chair of the Board,” said the company in the filing. “In addition, the independent directors of the Board established the position of Lead Independent Director and appointed Steven R. Koonin to serve in such role. Both appointments became effective as of February 22, 2024.