Following the merger between Pizza Time Theatre and ShowBiz Pizza Place, the combined company maintained the two restaurant brands simultaneously for several years. Each continued its own stage shows and sold different merchandise. However, in the latter part of the decade, difficulties between Creative Engineering and ShowBiz began to arise. In 1988, Aaron Fechter, the founder of Creative Engineering and creator of the Rock-afire Explosion, stated that the fallout between his company and ShowBiz arose when ShowBiz asked him to sign away the licensing and copyrights to the Rock-afire Explosion, which would have allowed ShowBiz to cut production costs on the show, such as the manufacture of future shows and royalty payments to Creative Engineering. Fechter refused, both on the grounds that