Press Conference Date: April 17, 2019
Location: Mmouse Enterprises Headquarters in Memphis, Tennessee
Acronyms:
CM = Catherine Mouse, Chairwoman/Owner of Mmouse Enterprises, Chairwoman/Owner of PWI, Chairwoman of the WOW Board, Owner of WOW TV
LMN = Lawrence Mason, Spokesman for Mmouse Enterprises
R-NETWORK = Reporter-Network They Represent
Any additional acronyms will be described, if necessary.
[Loud chatter amongst reporters subsides upon seeing the entrance of Mmouse Enterprises Spokeman Lawrence Mason]
LMN: Good morning everyone, it is nice to see you here for the first time in quite some time. I know that a lot of you will have some questions for Madame Chairwoman Mouse; particularly about what you thought was a finalized business agreement between herself and her uncle, Benjamin -, but I will ask that you hold on those questions until you hear the Chairwoman's opening remarks. Thank you for understanding and for your patience. Now, without any further delay, here is the Chairwoman and Owner of Mmouse Enterprises, Catherine Louise Mouse.
[Catherine enters the room and approaches the podium]
CM: Thank you, Lawrence. It has indeed been a long while since you last stood at this podium to speak on our behalf, and I suspect you will be doing a lot more of that in the very near future. Your long years of service to my father and now to me have been greatly appreciated. Now, on to the reason why I have called for this press conference:
In December 2014, the PWI had its final show. Considering the fact that the company was then the only active wrestling promotion, it was widely considered by the Board of Directors at the WOW to be a sign that the epic eras of professional wrestling had finally come to an end after roughly 25 years spanning from the founding of Jeffrey Murrey's WWF in early 1990 to PWI's concluding Pay Per View entitled "Motivation 6". In the summer of 2017, my uncle - the owner and chair of BWM Inc., Benjamin Wade Mouse - had contacted me about acquiring the controlling shares for Mmouse Enterprises in exchange for my complete ownership of the entirety of professional wrestling's video library for the WOW TV Network as well as 10% of BWM Inc.'s shares. With my father having stepped down as owner of Mmouse Enterprises so that he could run for president next year, this deal was finally open as a possibility.
As you may recall, that deal was signed and I submitted an audio-recorded statement for the press by the fall of that year. At first, it seemed like a lucrative deal, and I was immediately rewarded by the WOW Board through my official acquisition thereof when they removed the term limits for my tenure as Board President and sold all of the WOW TV Library to me. I was preparing to finalize the process of selling Mmouse Enterprises to my uncle last year so as to launch my own exclusive wrestling network - named Mouse Wrestling Incorporated - with all of professional wrestling's video library from the WOW TV and from the material that Benny had previously withheld, but then we were caught off guard by two shocking developments: Benny never paid the money for the shares he intended to buy, he didn't send us the video library he promised, nor did he ever send us the paperwork for acquiring the 10% share of BWM Inc.
This naturally piqued my interest, as you might suspect, and I hired a lawyer to comb through the details of the deal we signed. Then, as we were waiting to hear back from our lawyer, Benny himself contacted me about arranging a final "From Dusk Til Dawn" event - which was originally supposed to happen in 2010 -, and I became ever more curious. What intrigued me in this respect was the fact that Benny was supposedly trying to acquire all of the rights with respect to professional wrestling's talent, stories, events, and etc., yet he was somehow incapable of putting on this supershow by himself. I told my uncle that I would get back to him after I reached out to our former talent.
About seven months ago - or a month after I spoke to Benny -, my lawyer asked to see me. There were a number of details in the deal which I had overlooked in mid-2017. For starters, Benny inserted language - deep within the fine print - which gave his company five years to initiate the exchange with my company. According to the deal, there was no obligation on his part to begin paying me at all until August of 2022. Furthermore, he had another 15 years to share his video library, and his obligation with respect to the aforementioned 10% share I was supposed to obtain from him was open to a piecemeal approach wherein he only had to give me .005% per year for the next century. Meanwhile, I was expected to finalize my end of the bargain by August of 2022.
Needless to say, I was quite aggravated, but none of this explained why my uncle needed my help to air the final "From Dusk Til Dawn". That's when I asked my lawyer to look into the matter, starting with my uncle's finances. It should serve as no surprise that Benny has much of his financial information under lock and key, but what we did learn was that his wrestling promotions had a long history of turmoil, which extends far back into the early-2000s.
Before Benny launched the UWF - which had evolved from his previous company, the last incarnation of ECW -, Benny had seen one wrestling promotion after another fold. The most notorious collapse was in 2000 when WCW imploded after a couple weeks of sabotage from the likes of Ric Venom and Shane Murphy. Suffice it to say that Benny's finances never fully recovered from the debts incurred by that incident. It didn't help matters that other wrestling promotions before and immediately after kept struggling to catch on during the dominant days of USWA in the so-called "second era" of this industry.
Then, Benny's greatest success happened with the UWF. He made a killing with the company as it bested my father's company many times during the next era. However, many of you might recall that Benny closed shop on the UWF long before the UWA came to a close in early 2005. Why did this happen? The fast answer is that Benny's profits from this highly successful company weren't enough to keep up with the rising salary demands of his best talent or with his mounting debt interests from his past. On top of that, Benny had purchased in late-2002 - by borrowing even more money - the controlling shares of the UWA's "North Division", which had been owned by Jeffrey Murrey. To pay the bills for this purchase and to tame the interest payments for his previous debts, Benny had to dissolve the UWF and file for bankruptcy.
Now, part of that bankruptcy agreement with the government required my uncle to wait five years to try and start anymore new wrestling companies. However, he grew restless and started negotiating with my father for the original "From Dusk Til Dawn". Not many people realize this, but Mmouse Enterprises covered most of the costs of that pay per view, with John Brown covering the next largest portion, and Benny paid for a fraction. In fact, the WOW itself paid more than Benny did in advertising alone. Where Benny stumbled was when he ignored the bankruptcy agreement and decided to launch the EWA in the summer of 2008, a little more than a year earlier than he was permitted.
The EWA did good for a few months, again proving a ratings success - even with its surprise challenge from Brown's HCW -, but his violation of the terms of bankruptcy led to a massive cascade of fines from the federal government. This resulted in talent not getting paid - something we learned from a number of lawsuits taken to court at the time - and his inability to afford rent for the venues where his shows were to be held. For that reason - and not the bogus explanations offered by Benny at the time, including his ludicrous suggestion that he had to help with the Olympics -, the EWA started cancelling shows for weeks and even months; earning it the nickname "Erratic Wrestling Alliance".
When that era came to an end, the EWA putt-putted like a dying vehicle across the finish line. Mmouse Enterprises had been ready and willing to help promote a final "From Dusk Til Dawn" card in late-2010, but Benny never offered to pay any part of it, therefore the arrangement fell apart. Two years later, Benny repeatedly promised his fans that he would start a new company - this time called the N.E.W., or "New Era Wrestling" -, but his promotion had more press conferences than actual shows when that last era came to a close in 2014. It is believed by my lawyer and financial advisors that this unfortunate twist for Benny's latest professional wrestling experiment collapsed for the same reasons as his numerous other failed ventures; an inability to pay his bills or at least respect the limitations of his finances.
When you put all of this into perspective it is easier to understand why Benny might need my help to host "From Dusk Til Dawn" and it is even easier to understand why Benny gave himself such a sweet deal in living up to his obligations with me. I discovered that Benny again had filed for bankruptcy in January 2017, and that he was given a choice by the federal government: wait five years to launch a new promotion - if desired - or pay all of your debts. If he failed to live up to this obligation, he would face fines which amounted to 200% of his previous fines combined. With the acquisition of a profitable franchise like all the companies owned by Mmouse Enterpises as well as the payments I had agreed to make, he would have both made the money he needed to pay his debts in full and had plenty left over to reinvest in himself and whatever he wanted to do.
If you have not figured it out by now, my uncle duped me and everyone who ever worked for him. Even so, I managed to find a loophole. Rather, I created one for myself. Another detail that you all may recall is that my father was the master of contractual loopholes. He had learned it from his father's lawyers and he taught me a thing or two about it. In this respect, I had inserted language into the deal to establish a backdoor which nullified any and all deals made by Mmouse Enterprises in the event that I should sign a confession to have been incompetent in my ownership and restore the controlling shares to the previous owner. This morning, I did just that. So, as of right now, I am no longer the owner or chair of Mmouse Enterprises.
Before I take your questions, I will note that there was one last act that I did in the role I abdicated today. I sent a check to the government on my uncle's behalf for the full amount of his debts. I did this for two reasons. Number one, I recognize that his financial troubles mostly stemmed from the sabotage of his earlier company by someone who was then under the employ of Mmouse Enterprises and this debt payment is my decision to make amends for that unfortunate series of events. Number two, I know that Benny wants to enter into a new era of wrestling and in addition to helping host "From Dusk Til Dawn", I want him to be fully prepared in the event that this company decides to enter the fray again.
With that, I am willing to take your questions now.
R-ABC: You said that the clause you inserted allows you to return ownership to the previous owner so as to nullify your agreement with Benny. Does that mean the controlling shares revert to...?
CM: To my father, yes.
R-ABC: Well, how can he do that and run for president of the United States simultaneously?
CM: The answer is that my father, who is not here today, is now suspending his exploration of an independent bid for president. In his mind, the fate of this company is more important than a vanity project of pursuing the highest office in the land.
R-ABC: Is that all it was?
CM: Excuse me?
R-ABC: Were your father's presidential ambitions merely a vanity project?
CM: Look, that is not what I meant. You've asked enough questions. Next?
R-FOX: Madame Chair...?
CM: That's not my title anymore.
R-FOX: Well, it is still your title as far as PWI is concerned, correct? As well as with respect to WOW and WOW TV?
CM: Ok, go on.
R-FOX: Ok, well, since we've established that you are still technically running the show with respect to the defunct PWI and with WOW, what will be your role at corporate headquarters and do you plan on stepping down from your WOW role any time soon to avoid a conflict of interest?
CM: There is no conflict of interest so long as there is no competition.
R-FOX: Does that mean Mmouse Enterprises is ruling out another competitive bid in the world of wrestling?
CM: Our company rules nothing out, and there are discussions underway. One step at a time.
R-FOX: What about...?
CM: I'm sorry, how many questions have you asked?
R-FOX: I am just looking for an answer to the question on your role at corporate.
CM: My father has appointed me as his Vice Chair and C.O.O., are you satisfied?
R-FOX: With the decision of your father? Or the answer?
CM: Am I supposed to do your job for you? Sheesh. The answer, dumbass.
R-FOX: I suppose, and I don't apprecia...
CM: Next!
R-ESPN: Any word on when this supershow will be transpiring?
CM: If my uncle is up to the task, and as long as we can get the talent together, we are shooting for early June of this year.
R-ESPN: Isn't that a little too close to now?
CM: Nothing is impossible when this family puts something on the agenda. Believe that. Anymore questions?
R-NBC Sports: Any comment on the tragic accident which took the life of PWI's last champion, Terry Austin in December?
CM: We extended our condolences to the Austin family at the time and I will reiterate now the gist of what that statement said. Terry was a hard worker, in fact, he was among the hardest working talents that we had ever experienced the pleasure of employing. He stood up when it was time to do so and he was not afraid to take bumps or to push others. When my father saw fit to shock everyone and make him the first USWA champion of the second UWA run, Terry and my father caught a lot of flack for it. Industry pundits ridiculed the decision and the widespread hatred for Terry made him one of the more polarized figures in industry history; putting him in the reviled class of stars alongside HBP and Midget Hogan. When his car was smashed by that semi so close to Christmas, it broke all of our hearts. I personally liked Terry, and felt that his hard work had earned him the title which should be forever associated with his name: champion. Next?
R-HBO Sports: Is there any truth to the rumor that Mmouse Enterprises has been in negotiations with Teo to exclude him from any future draft?
CM: Where do you people get this? I'm done with this press conference. Thank you everyone. See you next time.
[Catherine exits the room as the reporters start yelling for attention to their inquiries]