Unless somebody shows me proof. I'm just going to assume Buddens is lying.
I agree with the set up. In smack and all those league., The battlers their entourages and crowd all feel part of the show. Here It was just the two people and it took alot of the energy.
I don't think he's lying about his pay. Here is why. Em didn't show his absentee lanlord ass on the show, not a single ep. He didn't show up to the event either. He didn't even do a prerecorded 20 second congrats video for the winner, meaning he could give a fukk about any of this. He was about as involved in this as 50 is in what they put in that vitaman water he threw his name on. This is Budden's thing... So the convo went like this.
Budden (to Em): "I've got a connect to exploit a bunch of-"
Em: "Yeah, yeah yeah. What's the return?"
Budden: "2 to 1, Maybe 3."
Em: "How much?"
Budden: "I need 1.5 mil and a spot from you for the intro."
Em: "Done."
Budden pockets 200k, gives crooked royce joel 100k to help him run this shytshow, and uses the mil to actually do the show.
Its not rocket science.