Providence Peep
06-23-2010, 10:00 AM
On current WWE talent: "I still think Hunter's the best. Rey's good when he's on, I think Kane is awesome, he's underrated, obviously 'Taker, the in-ring teachers. Although they're being portrayed as such, when I look at the last season of NXT, or the next one, and I love these guys, I saw guys like Zack Ryder, and Kofi, like guys I either hired in WWE, or I trained with them, saw their first match, you know what I mean? It's like these are the guys now who are towing the line. These are the guys that are the pros. John Morrison, I must have wrestled him a thousand times, I helped train him. So it's like, I'm proud of these guys, but in the next thing, these guys have big shoes to fill."
Work-rate vs. Character: "I'll tell you the difference, Nova was a big work-rate guy in ECW, and when ECW went out of business, I was owed probably about $50,000, but Simon Dean was a really good WWE character who has a nice house and has money saved, has got an action figure and everything else....Simon Dean was a great character who would go out there and get a reaction, I would do what I was supposed to do in the ring,and I think character is a million...million times more important than work-rate."
Working with Paul Heyman: Eh, take him or leave him. You know, I was never really super friendly to Paul, I was very standoffish to Paul in the beginning, because to me he was the boss, what he says goes, I was intimidated by the guy and I mean, hell, I probably spent the first two years working for the company and said two sentences to the guy...I never really had guidance from Paul, I wasn't one of his guys, I don't think he viewed me as anybody he could make money with until probably the last couple months the company was around...he did a lot of stuff toward the end that was really crappy and I'm sure someway shape or form he'll pay for it someday...I haven't seen him in years and I have no desire to ever see him again."
On Triple H: "Dude, Hunter is the most misunderstood guy in the business, people forget, this man was a life long fan, started with Kowalski, went down to USWA, I was very friendly with Hunter, I respected him and liked him a lot, he was always a pro to me , I still hate when people talk crap on him and bash him. He was in WCW, had a career there, he was a World Champion before he even met Stephanie; and does anybody really think it was that easy to date Stephanie and go sit at Vince's house and say 'by the way I'm dating your daughter and eventually I want to marry her' are you kidding me? I mean that guy took a bigger career risk than anyone I've ever met in my life... I'd probably put Hunter at fourth, right behind Hogan, Shawn and Flair."
ECW One Night Stand: The only painful part about it was the debate with Balls Mahoney in the back, he kept telling me, and this was before what we know now about unprotected chair shots, and he just kept harping for an hour, and I like John, he kept saying 'the crowd man, it's a pay-per-view, don't put your hands up man, this has gotta look good, it's gotta look good' and I looked at him and said, 'what are you nuts? I'm getting up and wrestling tomorrow, John I'm going to Raw, I gotta be Simon Dean tomorrow, I don't really care about that stuff, this is a one night thing, I'm not letting you kill me... Jericho and couple other guys walked over and said 'if you let him hit you, you're crazy, dude'"
Talent he hired: "I hired Sheamus, Drew (McIntyre), Stu Sanders, Nattie Niedhart, Ted DiBiase, TJ (Tyson Kidd), Santino... I'm forgetting some others, but I hired a lot"
Work-rate vs. Character: "I'll tell you the difference, Nova was a big work-rate guy in ECW, and when ECW went out of business, I was owed probably about $50,000, but Simon Dean was a really good WWE character who has a nice house and has money saved, has got an action figure and everything else....Simon Dean was a great character who would go out there and get a reaction, I would do what I was supposed to do in the ring,and I think character is a million...million times more important than work-rate."
Working with Paul Heyman: Eh, take him or leave him. You know, I was never really super friendly to Paul, I was very standoffish to Paul in the beginning, because to me he was the boss, what he says goes, I was intimidated by the guy and I mean, hell, I probably spent the first two years working for the company and said two sentences to the guy...I never really had guidance from Paul, I wasn't one of his guys, I don't think he viewed me as anybody he could make money with until probably the last couple months the company was around...he did a lot of stuff toward the end that was really crappy and I'm sure someway shape or form he'll pay for it someday...I haven't seen him in years and I have no desire to ever see him again."
On Triple H: "Dude, Hunter is the most misunderstood guy in the business, people forget, this man was a life long fan, started with Kowalski, went down to USWA, I was very friendly with Hunter, I respected him and liked him a lot, he was always a pro to me , I still hate when people talk crap on him and bash him. He was in WCW, had a career there, he was a World Champion before he even met Stephanie; and does anybody really think it was that easy to date Stephanie and go sit at Vince's house and say 'by the way I'm dating your daughter and eventually I want to marry her' are you kidding me? I mean that guy took a bigger career risk than anyone I've ever met in my life... I'd probably put Hunter at fourth, right behind Hogan, Shawn and Flair."
ECW One Night Stand: The only painful part about it was the debate with Balls Mahoney in the back, he kept telling me, and this was before what we know now about unprotected chair shots, and he just kept harping for an hour, and I like John, he kept saying 'the crowd man, it's a pay-per-view, don't put your hands up man, this has gotta look good, it's gotta look good' and I looked at him and said, 'what are you nuts? I'm getting up and wrestling tomorrow, John I'm going to Raw, I gotta be Simon Dean tomorrow, I don't really care about that stuff, this is a one night thing, I'm not letting you kill me... Jericho and couple other guys walked over and said 'if you let him hit you, you're crazy, dude'"
Talent he hired: "I hired Sheamus, Drew (McIntyre), Stu Sanders, Nattie Niedhart, Ted DiBiase, TJ (Tyson Kidd), Santino... I'm forgetting some others, but I hired a lot"