Posted on by bdamage1
Brian Damage
JJ Dillon has been a wrestler and a promoter…but is most known for his run as a manager to one of the most iconic factions in all of professional wrestling…the Four Horsemen. Leading the likes of Ric Flair, Arn and Ole Anderson, Tully Blanchard, Barry Windham and Lex Luger certainly made himself a name in not only the NWA and its territories, but all over the wrestling world. During his time with the NWA, JJ Dillon also worked behind the scenes. He was a well valued employee, who offered a great deal of expertise in the business. In early 1989, that all changed and suddenly Dillon was working for the NWA/WCW’s main rival…the World Wrestling Federation.
It all began when Jim Crockett Jr sold his company to Ted Turner. Before too long, Dusty Rhodes was removed as booker and slowly, but surely more of Turner’s corporate friends began getting involved in the wrestling product. JJ saw the writing on the wall and decided that he needed to get out of the company, before the company saw him out. It was Tully Blanchard who along with Arn Anderson already defected to the WWF, called Dillon to inform him that Vince McMahon was seeking help in the WWF offices. Apparently, McMahon and his right hand man Pat Patterson were in need of help as they were wearing themselves thin from doing everything themselves.
Dillon reached out to WWF agent Terry Garvin, who put Dillon in contact with Vince. A secret meeting was set up between Dillon and McMahon in New York City. Dillon along with his wife were whisked away on a private jet to New York where they were wined and dined by Vince McMahon. An offer was made to JJ which he said was very lucrative and he agreed to join the WWF as a member of Vince’s creative team and not an on screen character in February of 1989.
Once working with McMahon, Dillon was immediately impressed with how he ran the WWF. He was extremely diligent and paid close attention to even the smallest details in every creative meeting. According to Dillon, the WWF under Vince’s leadership was a well organized and professional infrastructure. Something that was lacking working with Jim Crockett Jr, but especially with Ted Turner and Jim Herd. While not an on screen character, JJ Dillon did appear on WWF television from time to time as a nameless WWF executive in segments such as the Brian Pillman press conference at WWF headquarters.
When JJ was hired, Vince McMahon was extremely busy helping put together the ‘No Holds Barred’ movie and other side projects. Because of this, creative meetings were held primarily on weekends. During the summer, it was by Vince’s pool and in the winter months they were conducted in Vince’s dining room. Dillon learned quickly that the Vince McMahon he met with his wife in New York, was a lot different than the Vince working on building his company. McMahon would often fire employees that were promised lifetime jobs with the WWF, only to re-hire them back within a day or so. Dillon thought that Vince got a perverse enjoyment out of doing this to many of his underlings.
JJ said in the beginning, before meetings, he would ride with both Vince and Pat Patterson with Vince insisting on driving. Dillon said that Vince loved driving really fast, while talking shop. It got to a point where Dillon fearing for his life, decided to start riding with Howard Finkel who was very nice, but more importantly drove carefully and was far more quiet than Vince. This apparently agitated McMahon who asked JJ…”What’s the matter? You don’t like me anymore?” JJ felt that he needed to be honest and told Vince the truth and that apparently set off Vince to a point that it changed his relationship with Dillon.
Dillon claimed that Vince always preached that he did not want any “yes men” in his inner circle, but the minute you disagree with him or reject one of his creative ideas, he makes you pay for it in some fashion. McMahon’s Jekyll and Hyde personality started to wear thin with Dillon, but continued to deal with it due to the nice living he was making for himself and his family. It was getting tougher and tougher, as McMahon expected his inner circle to be on call 24/7. For a guy like Pat Patterson, who did not have a family of his own, it was easy for him to just get up and go to Vince. Dillon on te other hand had a wife and a special needs son that required his attention as a father and it was much, much harder.
In the early 1990’s, Vince was dealing with a big steroid scandal and brought in Jerry Jarrett to help run the day to day operations of the WWF while he stood trial. Jarrett and Vince often butted heads, as Jarrett was not as diplomatic as Patterson and was basically an outsider that was let in for emergency purposes. Dillon said that Vince at some point really believed he was headed to prison and expected his inner circle to visit him in jail and go over WWF booking decisions. Vince would plan out the year starting with Wrestlemania and who would be on that show and work backwards from that event. Many times creative discussions would go absolutely nowhere due to Vince firing someone or a wrestler getting injured.
After McMahon’s trial ended and he was not found guilty, Dillon said Vince became more intense than ever before. He wanted to be involved more in every single aspect and started firing executives and talent that was brought in while dealing with the steroid case. The other thing that McMahon did, was severely cut the salaries of all of his wrestling executives. The reasoning, according to JJ, was to start paying all of his legal fees from the court case. ‘Lord’ Alfred Hayes ended up quitting the company due to the masive pay cuts. Dillon said guys like Patterson and Gerry Brisco were already financially independent and while not happy with their cuts, were able to adapt. It was a much different story for JJ Dillon.
Dillon approached McMahon about the pay cut and how he had a son suffering from cerebral palsy who needed constant care. When Vince first hired Dillon, he insisted that Dillon and his family move to the very expensive town of Stamford, Connecticut to stay close to Vince. Now that McMahon cut his salary, he could no longer afford the house he was living in. Dillon told this to Vince, who offered him a small loan, but even with the loan, there was no way he could continue to afford living there. That was inevitably the final straw for JJ. He blamed Vince for cutting his agreed upon pay and was about to lose his home and have his family homeless in Connecticut.
After discussing the situation with his wife, Dillon decided to put his home up for sale on the sneak. He quickly sold the home relatively for much cheaper than what it was worth. Dillon said he lost about $50,000 on the house sale. While his home was being sold in quiet, JJ did not give any hints that he was planning on skipping town and quitting his WWF job. Finally in September of 1996, the sale of his home was finalized. The same weekend that Vince’s son Shane was getting married. That Friday, JJ Dillon went to WWF headquarters with a note of resignation that he planned on personally handing to Vince. While JJ was going to talk with Vince, Dillon’s wife was packing everything up in moving vans with $20,000 in her purse ready to make the quick exit.
The problem was what was planned on being a few minutes in Vince’s office, turned into a long two hour conversation between the two men. Vince apparently was trying hard to convince JJ to stay on, but Dillon would have none of it and handed his resignation letter and office keys to an human resources representative and walked out. As Dillon was getting into his rental car, Vince followed JJ to the parking lot still trying to convince him to stay, but at this point, there was nothing McMahon could do or say to change his mind. As he was moving, Vince sent his lawyers to threaten legal action against Dillon if he talked about certain things such as the steroid program that the WWF had in place or contracts of the talent. Vince had apparently become both enraged and paranoid that JJ Dillon was headed to WCW with all of that information in hand.
JJ Dillon insisted that when he initially quit the WWF, he had no other jobs lined up. Dillon did indeed return to WCW in April of 1997 as both an executive and on air commissioner role on WCW TV. For a few years after, there was bad blood between Vince and JJ, but was eventually inducted into WWE’s Hall of Fame as a member of the Four Horsemen in 2012.
David Fullam
All you need to see to realize that Vince is a tad weird, is to look at that picture of him at home.