It seemed that Ram had been huge for a good few years before his star waned, I found myself wondering what happened to the money he ought to have made during those years. Not saying he would necessarily be rich, but unless I missed it there wasn't really any explanation of where his money might have gone.
Ask Rick Flair. Read up on any older wrestler now adays. Saving money wasn't much of a concern for wrestlers then. Very few saved for the future and lived in the moment.
it's very very common for people to blow all their money. The smart thing to do is save and invest, but wrestler's aren't smart. They blow it all on cocaine, boos, strippers and tights. A lot of lottery winners also lose it all from not so smart decisions and then they're back at where they started.
Drugs, roids, strippers, bad investments, expenses from being on the road, and don't forget child support and alimony. Plus it had probably been more than a decade since he was making big money.
"If I'm wrong, I'll pay for it. But if I'm right you're gonna hear about it."
Also keep in mind that professional wrestling (as in all other sports) is, for the most part, a career that is quite limited in time. You can make lots of money relatively quickly, but unless you plan ahead, it will go away really fast.
I am also assuming (disclaimer: its been a few years since I saw the movie) that Ram apparently burned bridges with all the big players in pro wrestling, because certainly a star of his magnitude would have still been involved in the program in some capacity (manager, booker, etc). However, the fact that he struggles so much suggests that nobody in the big leagues wanted him back.
Probably the same as a lot of other wrestlers, he never bothered to save it and blew it all on the party lifestyle while he was on the road only to be left with very little once he retired which he spent on coke, booze and other stuff, he's also divorced which probably didn't help. These same kinds of things have happaned to the best of wrestlers such as Ric Flair, Jake Roberts, Scott Hall, and so on.
Although wrestlers who are big names like Randy was still get paid well for appearances and such. Highspots paid Ric Flair something ridiculous like 100k to do a shoot interview.
Many athletes, and a majority of NFL players go bankrupt. There is not any one cause, but the reason is when they are making good money the idea that their career is going to be short does not set in.
Most athletes do not save and invest and when their career comes to an end they have no way to support their lifestyle.
Lets say Ram made $500k/year for 10 years (I read somewhere that the top wrestlers in the mid to late 80s made that much). $5mm becomes $2.5mm after taxes. Lets say he bought a $1mm home and $100k car, right there you care $1.4mm left. If his living expenses were $100k/year (food, property taxes, clothes, family, etc) he is down to $400k. Easy for an athlete to blow $40k/year on stupid stuff i.e. drugs, jewelry, hookers, etc.
It is really sad, but athletes really should know better. Especially wrestlers, where in the industry there is only room on top for a few and even the most popular or hated wrestlers rarely stay on top for more than 10 years.
Very true. I read somewhere that the average career of an NFL player is only four years. After that, it can go downhill fast. Not to mention the brain injuries these guys can get from to many concussions and its no wonder so many end up drug abusers or kill themselves.
If you have streaming netflix they have a documentary about athletes and their finances that is appropriately titled 'Broke', doesn't deal with wrestlers just guys from the three major sports. The previously mentioned items all play a part but also bad investments that were supposed to provide a stream of income after their playing days ( car washes were frequently cited, don't know how you could screw that up but there you go ). But probably the biggest issue cited is friends and family who go from self sufficient to invalids the day you sign that big money contract, recently Allan Iverson was playing 'pro' basketball in Turkey after going through 200 million made from the NBA and endorsements, much spent on a 60 person plus entourage that he felt obligated to since they helped him out when he was younger. Unfortunately these stories are more the rule then the exception
I read the same thing back in the 80s. Pro Westling Illustrated stated that a top star like Dusty Rhodes made about a half mil a year. In an interview with the same mag, promoter Jim Crockett said wrestlers were independent contractors. So far as I know they still are, so they are responsible for paying double SS, withholding taxes, medical insurance blah blah blah. Throw in the cost of travel, and a lonely lifestyle that makes it easy to succumb to drugs and booze and it's easy to see where the money would go.
This movie is partly based of Jake "The Snake" Roberts. He had a well known drug habit and had a rough life that gave him no proper raising and he did not know the right/wrong way of doing things. He wasted the money on drugs/alcohol and had several wives and at least 1 daughter.
Roberts was a smart mind about the business but could not function enough to properly use it. He wanted to be a backstage guy when he was done working for the WWE but they passed him over and he left. He burnt bridges and is finally trying to fix it after 20 years.
My guess is Randy was the same. He had a family when he was small time but when he hit it he gave them up. He got into the blow and wasted what money he had, and the big timers dumped him because he was "too old." He was not smart like his buddy The Ayatollah, who ran the car dealership and was good enough to save money.