VOW Q&A returns – Each Friday, a panel of VOW writers will gather to answer a reader-submitted question on any topic under the sun. In the news this week has been the incredible decision by a Florida jury to award Hulk Hogan with $140 million stemming from his lawsuit against Gawker. While Hogan may never actually see all, or any, of the money, it sure would be swell if he did! What if we were awarded that much, right now? We ask the panel today on VOW Q&A!
We want your questions! Tweet us @voiceswrestling, or e-mail rob@voicesofwrestling.com, to submit questions for this column!
What would you do with Hulk Hogan’s $140 million jury award?
Rob McCarron (@ShakeThemRopes)
Super great audio equipment, loads of strawberries, Impact Wrestling’s video library, and maybe a zoo – The things I’d by if I was just awarded $140 million. Of course, I’d need to make sure I have all that money first, something Hulk Hogan may not actually get to enjoy. I’d build my own full-fledged radio studio, for sure. I may even attempt to make it a commercial station, but not likely. Purchases Impact Wrestling would be a pure vanity project, of course. Really, though, everything with this money would be. Aside from the boring stuff – paying off student loans, buying a home, living without debt – I’d give money to those close to me who need it, then foolishly spend the rest on Kansas City Royal season tickets while not even living in Missouri.
Alex Wendland (@AlexWendland)
Maybe Voices of Wrestling is filled with pragmatists, but I’ve got A LOT of student loans to pay off (thanks, Northwestern!) and my Future Wife has her fair share as well (thanks, Marquette!). I said when the Powerball hit $1 billion-ish that I would pay off our student loans and then go out for a nice dinner before I had to be back at work the next day so we could make rent. It isn’t actually that bad, but perhaps you know the feeling. Post-loans, I’d buy real estate, treat myself to a nice car (probably a Tesla), pick up some sort of rich person’s hobby (like golf) and, of course, serve as the money mark for VOW. With the rest of my time (and a good portion of my money), I would buy a whole lotta land on the outskirts of my beloved Milwaukee and open a no-kill animal shelter.
Joe Gagne (@joegagne)
The truest answer is “lots of nothing,” which makes for a pretty poor essay response. After paying off my mortgage, my nutty dream is to start New England Lucha Libre, or NELL for short. I’d start from scratch, get all new trainees with brand new gimmicks and import someone from Mexico to run the dojo. I’d run weekly lucha shows and at best get a terrible time slot on a local channel at 3 in the morning. Quarterly iPPV’s would be held and likely would be beset by technical difficulties. We’d bribe our way into having a team in King of Trios. I’d be flushing money down the toilet, but if you’ve got the money, I say flush it.
Warren Taylor (@WarrenETaylor)
If I had the Hulkster’s sex tape money, I’d invest it. Boring answer, I know, but I’ve never been known as a sexy person in appearance or lifestyle. What I would invest in though – a tiny, tiny portion, is wrestling media and become a money mark. It’s no secret that I don’t like that Dave Meltzer has a virtual monopoly on serious wrestling reporting or that some of the humdrums from other sites get paid to write about our beloved faux sport. Folks like the staff of VOW and other sites deserve a little compensation to pursue the good work they do. What I would is form an LLC, make an offer for controlling interest in sites like VOW and pay a decent part-time salary to the editors. Pay for the writers would start off on the freelance scale and would go up if, as would the editor’s pay, as the site grew.
Bryan Rose (@br26)
Move away from people as far as humanly possible. But also have like a cool jet so can I go to whatever wrestling shows I want, wether it be in Japan, Mexico, US, whatever. I don’t mind interacting with people but I am someone who works best in solitude, and I sure don’t have it the way things are situated now. I’m always frugal with money anyway so I probably wouldn’t spend it all at once. Also, I’d be able to have a Wii U, Playstation 4, AND an Xbox One! That’d be cool.
Jeff Hawkins (@Crapgame13)
Pay off my mortgage, buy a modest house and car in each of the following Orange County, CA, Albemarle County Va and Scottsdale AZ. Spend my time travelling the country supporting small improv communities and helping them to grow while performing and not worrying about my room service tab. Also, ride all of the world’s water slides and play in the World Series of Poker.
Aaron Bentley (@AaronBentleyVOW)
The first thing I would do is nothing because that $140 million is almost certainly being reduced or completely reversed on appeal. But if I did end up with some amount of cash approaching $140 million, I’d do a lot of what other people have said (loans, mortgage, etc.). Most importantly, though, I’d never work another day in my life. I’d invest enough to live to 100 (which I most certainly won’t), give liberally to the organizations I care most about, and do whatever the hell I want from nine to five.
