Jake Roberts follow-up

Quickie: you mentioned today Bill Watts literally tearing up Jake’s big-money contract and forcing him into a shittier one. But isn’t that the entire point of the word guarantee? Why didn’t Jake just tell him to screw off and he’ll see WCW in court if they pay one cent less than was previously contractually agreed upon?

Same goes for anyone re-negotiating in those days, really.

​You’d think that would be the case, but you’d be wrong. For you see, not only was Jake incredibly unlucky in 1992, he was also a horrible business negotiator, because he was still under contract to the WWF at the point when he left and failed to secure a release until much later. So Frey and the WCW team could promise Jake whatever numbers they wanted, but until Jake actually got his release from the WWF and signed on the dotted line, there was no legal agreement possible.​