Former superstar reflects on wrestling before guaranteed contracts

Former WWF superstar One Man Gang (Akeem) posted the following on his Facebook page:

I have had thoughts on back in WCW everybody had huge guarantee contracts, when I asked for a contract I got fired from WCW … I have never worked on a guarantee contract in pro wrestling. My whole career was based on ticket sales and my spot on the card for my pay off’s, yes even in WWF … I did get some per event guarantee money in WCW and ECW …. where did i miss the boat on big contract money ?? … I even have heard that wrestlers used sports agents back in WCW days …. wow !

Another thought …. I saw on WWE Network at Wrestlemania the talent is brought to the venue in a bus … these are some lucky people…. In my WWF days I had to drive myself …. I paid for all my own rental cars & gas, all my own hotels, all my own food, all my wrestling gear keep up, I had to make my own reservations on the phone for cars & hotels … the WWF did pay for the airfare…coach, at the back, I never once had a limo … and around 1989 or so they would fly you home at the end of your tour… then take the price back out of your pay check … so I had to pay my own way home … and at TV tapings I got paid a grand total of $50.00 … no not just one time every TV taping (unless you had a dark match then you got paid for the show) …. no big contracts, no doctors in back, nobody to pay me if I got hurt …. if I did an appearance for the WWF at an event I did not get paid, I was told to go and do it …. the talent today is very lucky !! …. This is for me, I am not speaking for everyone …. I’m not bashing just letting you folks know how wrestling has changed for the talent ….