British wrestling legend Mark “Rollerball” Rocco turned down a permanent deal with the WWE at his peak.
The Englishman worked with the company numerous times, and had a rocky relationship with Hulk Hogan over the years.
He appeared in occasional matches for the promotion, including at the iconic Madison Square Garden arena.
Due to his success in England and Japan, Vince McMahon wanted to make him a full-time wrestler for the promotion. However, Rollerball Rocco refused, for one very good reason.
Mark Rocco spoke in a 2006 interview about turning down a deal from Vince McMahon Sr and the WWE (then WWWF).
He revealed that the money he was making in Japan and England was way more than he’d make in the WWE.
Mark Rocco added that if he had signed with McMahon, half his wages from his New Japan Pro Wrestling deal would have gone into the American’s pockets.
This meant that he would make significantly more money not wrestling full-time for the WWE, and instead carrying on his independent dates.
“Well, I went to America quite a lot in the early days.” Mark Rocco said. “I knew Vince McMahon Sr. before Vince McMahon Jr. You know, I met all those guys.”
“The problem was that the American pay they were offering me was nothing like what I was getting by going to Japan. I had a contract with Japan for six, seven years.”
“If I’d have gone and wrestled with a contract for Vince McMahon, that would have meant I had to go to Japan from WWF, as it was then, and that would have meant about half the money I was getting at the time.”
“I mean, I was making a lot of money with the Japanese contracts, and that was more important to me than the WWF at the time.”
However, he later clarified that he did wrestle a lot more for Vince McMahon Jr. However, he didn’t want to sign a full-time contract, in order to keep his freedom as a performer.
“I went a lot for Vince McMahon Jr. in different venues all over the place, but the whole idea of going with the independent promoters appealed to me because the main person during promotions in the TV world at that time was Big Daddy.”
“It was a total clash with me. When I went with All-Star, I was the top man with them, so I had more freedom, you know.”
