On the latest “Monday Mailbag” podcast on AdFreeShows.com, former WWE referee Mike Chioda talks about venue curfews, Joey Marella stories, draft picks, concerts, meeting Vince McMahon for the first time and more.
Here is what Chioda said on why WWE does not run Madison Square Garden often anymore:
“Steve Taylor was a camera guy for WWF for many years. He was in charge after Terry Garvin left who was head of that operation. Steve Taylor was head for a good 10 or so years. Steve Taylor got fired from the company, left the company, and guess who he started working for? Madison Square Garden, so he knew everything about how much money the company was making at the Garden, and everything like that. That’s when our prices became higher at the Garden as well. I know when the guys used to run over time at the Garden at the curfew, it would cost anywhere between 50-100 grand. It wasn’t cheap.
If you’re running the Garden and you have a full house, you have a million dollar gate, so it wasn’t a cheap price to go over the curfew at the Garden because that union stuff was strict there. When Steve Taylor took over, that’s why it became harder for WWF/WWE to go into the Garden and even do shows. That’s why they’re strictly, pretty much, doing Brooklyn Arena right now. Steve Taylor knew everything, how much the company was making from the Garden, so when he went to work for the Garden, he screwed the company back because then the Garden was charging the company a lot more money, and then the company decided not to go there all the time, which sucks Brooklyn is great, Brooklyn is fantastic, the arena is fantastic, but the Garden is the Garden. That’s the mecca of shows, concerts and entertainment through many years and sports.”
You can listen to the entire show now at AdFreeShows.com.
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit “Monday Mailbag with Mike Chioda on AdFreeShows.com” with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
