John Corrigan sent in a link to a recent interview he conducted with the NWA’s R. Bruce Thrape. Here are some excerpts from the interview:
On what is the NWA Classics subscription service:
“NWAClassics.com has got to be the greatest collection of vintage wrestling matches ever. We believe that very quickly we’ll have more vintage content than WWE has on theirs. We already have probably a hundred matches up, and we’re looking to put up another hundred. We probably have between 1,200 and 1,500 matches, 500-600 hours of videotape that is in pristine condition. These tapes have been kept in an air-conditioned vault for all these years. Most haven’t been seen in 30 years, some have never been seen before. They are owned by Paul Boesch, the promoter of Houston wrestling. I’m monitoring every match before it uploads.”
On receiving a low-ball offer by WWE for the Paul Boesch library:
I’m an attorney and I’ve been representing the Boesch family, trying to liquidate this library for more than five years. Paul has been gone for, I don’t know, 20 years. This is pretty much all they have left. They wanted to sell it, but they want a fair market value for this library. It’s 14 years worth of television. Who’s the only buyer? WWE. I met with representatives from WWE–they sent a crew out to Texas to look through the tapes for two or three days with us. They couldn’t believe the quality. I figured man, they’re going to go back and prepare a glowing report for WWE and offer us what this library is worth. We’re going to sell to Vince McMahon and go on our way. Well, they never offered us an amount of money that was even close to what this library is worth. Not even close. I mean, it was an insult. So we declined that offer and a year later there were still no buyers. I realized if we don’t take the money they offered us, you know, Paul’s widow may not get any money whatsoever. So we reached out to WWE and they offered us less than half of the initial offer. I think they realized they had us over a barrel, or so they thought. They’re ruthless business people. Maybe they were waiting for Mrs. Boesch to die so they could get it at a bargain-based price.”
Wrestledelphia.com: Corrigan’s Corner: Bruce Tharpe Talks NWA—Then And Now (Part 1)