Marc Mero has detailed how he negotiated what he describes as the first guaranteed contract in WWE history, a process that also led to Sable joining the company as his valet after Vince McMahon first saw her. Speaking on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, Mero explained that the groundwork for the contract was laid three years before he actually signed with WWE, when Vince McMahon flew him to New York after a previous WWE contract expired.
“He said to me, ‘ What’s going to take to bring you to the WWE?” Mero said. “I said, Vince, I’ve got a three-year guaranteed contract waiting for me at WCW and a signing bonus, and I would need that if I’m to come to WWE. And he said, Mark, we’d love to have you, but we don’t give guaranteed contracts. We give opportunities. And I said, well, then I can’t come.”
Three years later, with Mero’s WCW contract set to expire again, McMahon came back with a different answer. “He said, I’ve never done that before,” Mero said. “I said, well, that’s what I’ve got to have. And he said, okay.”
Mero also negotiated a signing bonus and flights for his then-wife, explaining that he had seen too many wrestling marriages fall apart from time apart on the road. It was that travel provision that ultimately led to Sable being placed on television. “When we’re walking into his office, he said, I’ve got to put her on TV,” Mero said. “And that’s when we came up with the name Sable. We went through a bunch of names that day.”
Mero said the guaranteed money fundamentally changed how he approached his on-screen role, including the decision to lower his own profile in favor of raising Sable’s.
“I’m getting guaranteed money no matter what,” Mero said. “The more I did to lower my profile, the more her profile raised. They were backing up the Brinks truck to our house at this point.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit Insight with Chris Van Vliet with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
