The following is a reprint of the Torch Newsletter cover story from five years ago this week.

-Jason Powell, Torch assistant editor

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Torch Newsletter Archive
By Wade Keller, Torch editor
Cover Story:
Originally published: Pro Wrestling Torch Weekly newsletter #495
Cover dated: May 23, 1998

Longtime assistant to WCW V.P.s, Janie Engle, takes full knowledge of WCW's inner-workings to WWF

In the biggest front office defection in years, Eric Bischoff's personal assistant, Janie Engle, gave her notice to Bischoff and WCW on Monday. She starts her new job with the WWF next week. While Engle is not a familiar name or personality among wrestling viewers, within the industry her defection has been the dominant topic of conversation since news got around late Monday.

Engle's role in WCW is being compared to that of Evelyn Lincoln's role in the Kennedy Administration. Engle knew everything that went on in WCW's front office. She knows details of every wrestlers' contract status, she knows Bischoff's good and bad habits, she knows who to contact when crises occur, and she knows how best to deal with the many diverse personalities in the industry. She was the personal assistant to Jim Herd, Kip Frey, and Bill Watts - every WCW executive vice president since Ted Turner bought Jim Crockett Promotions and renamed the company World Championship Wrestling.

She was so valuable to Bischoff that, according to the story circulating, when she told Bischoff she was quitting to work for the WWF, Bischoff said, "Whatever they offered you, I'll double it." She said things had gone too far and her decision had been made.

Besides the value Engle will bring to the WWF front office due to her wrestling savvy and experience, another key element of her departure is how she may help the WWF's lawsuit against WCW. Vince McMahon continues to be extremely confident, based on what his high-priced attorneys tell him, that he will win his lawsuit against WCW and collect upwards of $100 million in damages. The key to winning the lawsuit, McMahon apparently believes, is getting people to tell the truth regarding how Bischoff and WCW approached the acquisitions and television debuts of Scott Hall and Kevin Nash. If Bischoff openly said that he wanted to give the impression that Hall and Nash still worked for the WWF when they debuted in WCW, the WWF needs witnesses to say so in court. Engle would be as privy to that information as anybody. She sat outside of Bischoff's office and has been described as the only person who could get a hold of Bischoff within five minutes no matter where he was or what he was doing. She was considered a close confidant of Bischoff and someone Bischoff looked to for advice.

Early information circulating indicates that it wasn't the WWF that approached Engle, but that Engle approached the WWF. Apparently Engle, who could stand working for volatile personalities such as Herd and Watts, could no longer take working for Bischoff, adding to the stories of how little loyalty Bischoff elicits from many of his employees, be it front office workers or wrestlers. However, any executive in Bischoff's position is going to ruffle feathers and there have been other executives with offers to jump to the WWF who have turned down the opportunity and remained with WCW.

Engle's departure is being compared to J.J. Dillon's sudden departure from the WWF last year. Dillon was upset with how he was treated by McMahon. He blind-sided McMahon much like Engle blind-sided Bischoff in giving notice. Engle's departure, though, is being seen as a bigger deal than Dillon's. Dillon had some important specific roles that he played in the WWF, but Engle's knowledge of WCW and Bischoff is all-encompassing.

McMahon has privately been inquiring as to various current and former WCW employees who might have knowledge of the inner-workings of WCW and might have important information for his company's lawsuit against WCW. Even recent hiree Steven Regal is believed to have at least one anecdote regarding Hall and Nash that could help the WWF's lawsuit, thus Bischoff made a last-ditch effort to keep Regal, saying letting him go was a mistake.

With WCW's Nitro ratings falling behind the WWF's Raw two of the last three times the shows have run concurrent to each other, Bischoff was under enough stress to begin with. Adding this to the plate of an already unpredictable personality has a lot of people in WCW on edge. In the long-run, should WCW lose the lawsuit and should Bischoff look bad in the process, he could be Time-Warner's scapegoat. In the short-run, Bischoff is simply trying to generate some momentum for Nitro.

In a surprise move at Slamboree on Sunday, Bischoff succeeded in getting Scott Hall to agree to turn on Kevin Nash. In the main event, Hall knocked out Nash with the WCW tag title belt (giving him a legitimate concussion in the process) leading to Sting & Giant capturing the tag titles. Hall and Nash were vehemently against splitting up their act, but Bischoff pushed hard enough that Hall and Nash were in danger of breaching their contracts. Rather than end up where Ric Flair is, in the middle of a lawsuit with no paychecks coming and no option to join the WWF until that lawsuit is settled, they went along with the storyline.

Bischoff, in selling the idea to Hall and Nash, said that WCW needed to shock viewers to get some momentum back on their side. Besides Hall's turn, Giant and Bret Hart also recently turned heel, while Nash has joined forces with Sting. Historically bookers resort to rapid-fire turns when business takes a downturn. In this case, WCW is resorting to rapid fire turns to attempt to spark interest in a still highly rated Nitro program, but a show that has fallen into second place the last six weeks with signs of declining momentum.

Bischoff's on-air personality also took some strange turns as at the Slamboree pay-per-view he played up his challenge to fight McMahon and portrayed himself as the babyface. The next night on Nitro, he portrayed himself as a full-fledged heel regarding his McMahon feud.

As confusing as all of the turns have been, WCW hopes their ace in the hole will be Ultimate Warrior, who came to terms with WCW on Monday morning to make his debut, apparently on the first Nitro in July in Las Vegas, Nev. But if ratings take more of a downturn before then, expect his debut to come sooner. WCW hopes that whenever he debuts, that Warrior will mean enough to stop the momentum of Steve Austin on Raw. When Warrior made his last return to Raw, he ignited a Raw ratings victory.

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