Gerald Brisco is the latest name to surface among the many names that were part of WWE’s massive list of cuts and furloughs earlier this month. This was reported on Monday by Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
UPDATE: On Monday night, Meltzer clarified that Brisco was furloughed.
On Tuesday, Brisco confirmed the news he had been furloughed and posted a statement.
Brisco, 73, had been with the company since 1984 after playing a key role in Vince McMahon gaining control of the most lucrative timeslots in the industry during his expansion of the company. Throughout the years, he had been a close confidant of McMahon and played a comedic role as one of the ‘stooges’ throughout the Attitude Era. His largest contribution was as a scout for the company, helping to build a bridge between WWE and the amateur wrestling community and is credited with being the one to first make contact with Brock Lesnar when he was wrestling at the University of Minnesota for coach J Robinson.
The Briscos held stock in Georgia Championship Wrestling and were part of a group that ended up selling controlling interest to Vince McMahon for $750,000 that was finalized in July 1984. This deal was done without Ole Anderson made aware and was on the outside looking in as McMahon came in to take over the key timeslots on WTBS in what has become known as ‘Black Saturday’.
The addition of the WTBS slots added to McMahon’s syndicated television and the recently launched ‘Tuesday Night Titans’ program on TNT.
However, Ted Turner would not limit the wrestling on his network to only McMahon by allowing Anderson’s offshoot Championship Wrestling from Georgia to gain a slot and working with Bill Watts and Mid-South Wrestling. The deal ended with Jim Barnett arranging a deal that would see Jim Crockett pay McMahon $1 million and take over the coveted slots exclusively in 1985.
Jack & Jerry Brisco went to the WWF and wrestled together but Jack would walk away from the industry in February 1985 and never looked back. Jerry took a role behind-the-scenes with the company and worked there ever since.
He was very close to the Montreal Screwjob event in November 1997 and was part of the inner circle aware ahead of time.
In 1998, with the rise of the Mr. McMahon character, Brisco took on a comedy role alongside Pat Patterson as ‘The Stooges’. This included the two coming out to ‘Real American’, which always got a big reaction during the era where Hulk Hogan was working in WCW.
He would wrestle occasionally including part of the hardcore division where he won the title twice. This included a ‘Hardcore Evening Gown Match’ at the King of the Ring in June 2000 that Patterson defeated Brisco in.
Brisco was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in March 2008 in Orlando, Florida, and has remained a scout for the company up until this point with deep ties to the amateur wrestling community stemming from his days as a wrestler at Oklahoma State. He worked extensively with Jim Ross during Ross’ time as Vice President of Talent Relations.
