 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
(the comments expressed herein may not necessariyl reflect those of The
"Clothesline Crew".)
Eric's Commentary
By Eric Gargiulo
http://www.prowrestlingradio.com/diary.html
This has just been one crazy week. Honestly, my phone has just started to stop ringing off of the hook. At first it was fun, but soon I wound up shutting the ringer off. I have received a ton of feedback from people asking to comment on this past week's situation. Well, I think Owens should be an Eagle. But that is not what everyone has been asking. So I will do so here on my website. It seems within 73 hours, the wrestling world has met the real Rob Feinstein.
Let me make some things perfectly clear first. Do I have an agenda? Yes. Do I not like Rob Feinstein? Yes. It is also fair to point out that I was fired from his company in 1999. The reason I was fired however is quite different from the one he has publicly spun. I will get to that later. We did repair our business relationship a couple of years later. When the real Rob Feinstein reared his ugly head again, this time I was smart. I quit. That said, I am not going to come on here and gloat and tell crazy stories. Believe me, I have quite a few. That is not what this is about. That is not what I am about. This is an incredibly serious issue here. I will say some things that some people just flat out may not like. But, unlike what seems to be 95% of the wrestling media. I will not protect someone who was busted quite evidently in an underage sex sting operation. I will tell it like it is, how I TRULY SEE IT.
Meet the real Rob Feinstein. I have known Rob for 24 years. I have only had one brief conversation with Rob in the last two years. I have only seen Rob once briefly in the last two years. For ten years or so we were the best of friends. Rob gave me some great opportunities in my lifetime. None were charity, and all were a well paid investment for him. As horrendous as this incident is, some people may have had it a bit easier than Rob. Unfortunately, Rob has made a hobby and a living of screwing with people, conning people, and taking great joy out of it. The Rob I knew 10 years ago is a slightly different guy. He was slimy back then, but the arrogance that grew in him was frightening.
In 1999 Rob and I just did not get a long. His arrogance and way of doing business was fine when I was younger, but those days were gone. The two of us could not sit in a room without arguing. See, Rob surrounded himself then with a lot of, "Yes Men." These people would only fuel the ego of Rob. Unlike them, I spoke my mind and spoke up. I was pretty much done.
At the time I was presented with a noncompete agreement. The agreement was more or less to prevent any former employees from getting jobs in pro wrestling once they finished with RF Video. Everyone signed immediately but me. I refused. I knew this was the writing the wall, so why sign? Rob and I continued to fight over it, but I saw no good reason to sign it. I was offered nothing conditionally to sign it. Our biggest blow up came over an incident that happened in the office. It was an ugly office, that I will not talk about here. Something I heard about that happened in our office. I confronted Rob on it and well, that was not a good thing. We had a blow up, and I quit. After I cooled down, Rob and I sat down and worked things out. To show my loyalty (and stupidity) I told Rob if he would give me his word he was not going to fire me I would sign the papers. He gave me his word, I signed the papers.
Even after this incident I knew I wanted out of the company. I wanted nothing to do with him personally and professionally. So, I started sending out resumes for non-wrestling related jobs. I used Tommy Dreamer as a reference on one of the resumes. I called Tommy to let him know, but just left a message. Tommy, not knowing the real Rob Feinstein told him to tell me everything was cool with the reference. Rob flipped when he heard I was looking for other work, and I was fired 24 hours later.
72 hours later Rob began threatening my radio station and my sponsors. I had just begun hosting the radio show about a month before I left. The radio show was offered to me a few months back from WBCB. I took it and offered Rob the CO-host spot. Rob got it in his egomaniacal head that the radio show was his. Not mine, not WBCB's, but his. Rob's lawyers called me and was very threatening about continuing the show. It should be noted why Rob was upset. Rob wanted to see me ruined and jobless. No other reason. My friend, my business partner. This was just done out of spite and ego. Rob continued to call and threaten my radio station daily. Even one of Rob's employees called my Program Director and left a message with his wife threatening to rape her and harm her kids if the show continued. Needless to say, that would be RF Video's first dance with the law.
Honestly, I was bankrupted and lost all of my assets. I had no choice. I had to fight for what I believed in. I had no choice but to pay for a high priced attorney. He was the best, and the case was thrown out before it even went to trial.
I say this because I, like many others have been trashed, defamed, and victimized publicly for years by Rob. Rob did his own shoot interviews in which he blames my firing on me being a thief. I have never seen it, but that is what I was told. Rob also goes on in the shoot to trash my character and just flat out lie with everything he says. Everything at least that I have been told that he blames me for, or accuses me of was just a flat out lie in his shoot. Rob continues to this day to bury me to mutual friends and just tell them flat out lies about me. How can I forget about Rob on his hotline making fun of my dead father? Another great Rob Feinstein moment. What do I say when people ask me about him? He's a scumbag. But I don't sit and give stories, unless prompted. The only reason I tell my story is to show you what kind of man he is, and how he operates. I was his best friend for ten years, and this is how it went down. I also tell you this to give you some background and to be honest about my feelings and agenda. Rob has tried to personally get me blackballed from the wrestling business for the last few years. Believe me, I was taking the opportunity to attack Rob with this incident. I could blow your mind away with what I could write. But I won't, and don't even ask.
The real Rob Feinstein has trashed not just me but several of my friends over the last few years. Rob takes glee in gloating at other's failures. Rob has fucked with my employer CZW from the start. Partly I would think to make sure I am unemployed. Believe me when I tell you, there is no honor in the operations of ROH. The real Rob Feinstein tried to lure talent away from CZW when ROH started. That same Rob cried foul when XPW tried to do the same thing. The real Rob tried and sometimes successfully went into other promoter's regular buildings with the intent of taking over as sole proprietor. When MLW booked the Rex Plex last December, Rob cried foul. Rob has made a lot of money from bootlegging video tapes. I encourage you to sell and trade his shoot interviews. The WCW and WWE footage inserted into all of those shoots are not his legally to use. But recently Rob had a man in VA sent to prison for bootlegging Rob's ROH tapes. Court Bauer is a good man that recently went out of business. Rob has taken great glee from constantly trashing him for his financial woes. Rob has begun screwing with CZW again. Putting press releases up the same day as ours. Leaking information about a shoot interview he did with the Backseat Boyz. An interview which is done out of malice to hurt our company. Rob conned these kids into burning their bridge for a few hundred dollars. Everyone on DVDR are familiar with Rob and his postings on message boards. Trashing people in very vicious ways under false names. But gloating about it later. Hell, he even sabotaged ECW when he worked with them. He sent out an anonymous email to news sites claiming that RVD was leaving and guys were not getting paid. How do I know it was him? I told him in confidence about RVD, and boom it was out there. He came clean immediately and laughed about it. Well, Rob played the ultimate game of sabotage. He sabotaged himself and his own company.
As someone that has been fucked with and the target of Rob's vindictive and unwarranted hobbies of screwing with people, defaming them, and trying to bankrupt me, I can't say I don't feel a sense of Karma. But the true Rob that I have told people about for a long time, as someone that knew him better than anyone for many years has come out. Not the sexual predator Rob. But the selfish and arrogant Rob, who would rather see his company go down in flames as well as the people that have worked to build it and sustain it, than to bite the bullet and do what is right.
There is no honor in the handling by the company of this situation. The carefully worded statements are not telling people what they want to hear. That ROB FEINSTEIN WILL NO LONGER BENEFIT FINANCIALLY FROM EITHER COMPANY! They have been crafty, and quite arrogant in their carefully worded statements. Their fans deserve better than this. Don't con your fans, they want to support you. The fans want to support ROH, but they have made a mockery of this. Not once have they offered an apology to their fans. Not once have they denounced Rob's acts. Not once have they apologized publicly to their employees. Not once have they even apologized to my good friends at PWG for having their names dragged into this disgust. No apologies from Rob himself, and I doubt you will ever get one. How about offering refunds to your fans who bought tickets under false pretenses. The pretenses that their money was not going to a man caught on video meeting a 14 year old boy. People should just keep in mind that as of now, your money you spend on these companies will still be going into Rob's pockets. If you can work for a company like that with good conscious or give them your business, more power to you. I couldn't. Take Rob and ROH out of the equation and I think a lot of you may feel different. As one very famous wrestler that has done business with Rob in the past said to me yesterday over the phone, "there is a very hot place in hell for those people."
Unfortunately, unless Rob is a changed man that won't happen. I have no reason to believe he will ever change, his arrogance has been a part of him since I knew him in Cub Scouts at 7 years old. I think his actions post-incident are almost as sick and disgusting as the act itself he went to commit. Read the statements close. Rob is basically taking a long vacation until this blows over. I am sure it will be a paid vacation. I have bad news for those guys over there, and Rob himself. The teflon attitude that Rob has about everything is not going to work here. This is bigger then being caught bootlegging PRIDE tapes. Superman has finally met his kryptonite.
What confused me more was the treatment he has received from some people. Almost painting him as the victim. All of the upper echelon news reporters should be ashamed of themselves. With the exception of Wade Keller, and Mike Johnson the rest of them have been an embarrassment. Your obligation is to report on the news if you are a reporter and commentate on the news if you are a commentator. Whether the news involves someone you like, someone you do business with, or someone who's product you are a fan of. You people are protecting a man caught on video and caught in a published chat going to meet a 14 year old boy. Most of these sites did not even report on it until the newscast. If any of these people were doing their jobs, they would have researched perverted-justice.com and saw it was a reputable site. It got even worse when they did report the news.
Rob Feinstein, who has been reported over the last two years as owner and promoter of ROH was now a partial owner of the company. Rob's actions were alleged. These same people reported on Austin punching his wife, Beefcake's anthrax incident, anything Rob Black did, and more without even batting an eye. Here was a case with a guy on video and caught online and yet it was ignored. These people were protecting him! Shame on you.
Even further. more coverage has been given to the articles about the neighborhood being upset at the sting operation. In none of those reports, are the facts reiterated. ROB FEINSTEIN SHOWED UP TO MEET A 14 YR OLD BOY! I have seen all kinds of comments thrown in. Dave Meltzer in his threw in there that nobody has ever been sent to prison from this group. He failed to mention that 10 adults are going on trial shortly from the actions of PJ.com. Everyone is quick to print those stories, almost like they are trying to vindicate him. O.J. got off, but do you think he is innocent?
Then come the carefully worded press releases from ROH. Kudos to Mike Johnson for having the balls to finally stand up and say flat out, they are bullshit. It is also funny that all of these news sites just throw up these press releases stating that Rob is gone right away. Is there proof? You needed to see the newscast before you threw up anything from PJ.com. Double standards I would say? Bob Magee and Eric Walker, who commented on anything and everything Rob Black ever did won't even touch this. Eric Walker who makes snide remarks about everyone continuously in his columns, says he is not going to make remarks and anyone that releases a press release will have it thrown off of PWBTS.com. Are you kidding me? You are a commentator. You have made comments about everyone else for the last six month. Magee, who is a friend is taking the same route. Shame on you and your website for protecting a man should I say again, CAUGHT ON VIDEO GOING TO MEET A 14 YR. OLD.
The follow up by the wrestling media, Rob, and ROH themselves has just been an absolute disgrace in my opinion. This whole thing does nothing but just give the entire wrestling business a bad name. The true victim in this case, besides whatever kids were harmed previously are the fans that had their faith in him and his companies. They want so bad to continue to support them both. But most are saying that they just can't. In the last week, everyone in the real world has finally met the real Rob Feinstein.
