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Tape Reviews
Perry Saturn Shoot Interview
Posted by Brandon Truitt on Sep 15, 2003, 19:00
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I'm not feeling talkative this week, so I'll limit my comments to my Fantasy Football team.
I drafted much better this year, as I got Priest Holmes with my #1 pic (the third in the draft) and picked up Brett Farve as my QB. Considering the problems that Kurt Warner (who completely screwed me last year through crappy playing), Peyton Manning, Donovan McNabb, and other established QBs are having, I could have done much worse. The main thing I'm hoping for at the moment is that Ike Hillard can get me at least six Fantasy Points tonight against Dallas so that I can win my matchup this week, which currently has me behind at a score of 75 to 80. That's hella impressive considering I only scored 43 points last week (goddamn Vikings killed my score by picking off four Farve passes).
Next week's shoot will be with the legendary Harley Race.
As always, you can feel free to Drop me an e-mail, read the archives, buy me stuff, or buy yourself stuff at Highspots.com.
Perry Saturn shoot interview (4-4-2003)
Perry Saturn vs. Balls Mahoney- Balls wins after giving Perry a Death Valley Driver onto a large stack of chairs.
How he got into the business- He watched it as a kid and, afterwards, always wanted to do it. After he got out of the army, he inquired about wrestling school and was told to go to Killer Kowalski�s school. He attributes his success to the determination he learned from being in the Army Rangers, as he says there were a thousand wrestlers he�s seen that didn�t make it because they couldn�t stick it out or just didn�t get the lucky break they needed.
Kowalski�s school- It was good back when Saturn started because Kowalski was still young enough to wrestle the guys in the ring and train them. By the time Triple H started there, Kowalski had turned over the in-ring portion of the training to others but would still get in the ring every once in a while. By the time Chyna started there, Kowalski was too old to even get in the ring anymore.
The training- They learned how to take bumps and do wrestling holds. Since they learned in a boxing ring and the bumps hurt more than in a wrestling ring, Saturn thinks that was Kowalski�s weed-out process. Conversely, when Saturn and Tazz ran the House of Hardcore for ECW, they made sure that their students could chain wrestle before they ever got into the ring.
What was Triple H like? About the same as now. He was always a young, strong kid with a good look and, combined with the big break he got, made it to WCW. No one could tell that Trips would be as successful as he has become and remarks that Trips is set for life because he�s practically a McMahon family member right now and that he�ll never have to worry about having a job.
Iron Horseman- Kowalski made him into a cowboy and he remarks that Stu Hart did the same thing to Chris Jericho in Calgary. All the old-timers had at least one cowboy gimmick in their territory.
John Kronus- Perry managed a rock club in Boston where Kronus worked as a bouncer. One week, Saturn brought in a tape of the show he�d worked for Kowalski and Kronus decided that he wanted to get into the business. They ended up going to Memphis together so that they could split the expenses while living there. The Eliminators team came from Saturn�s self-proclaimed anal-retentive nature, as he researched the Roman god Saturn in order to come up with a gimmick for Kronus and their team. He found out that Saturn�s Greek counterpart was named Kronus, so that�s where Kronus got his name, and the original name of the team was going to be the Harvesters of Sorrow because Saturn/Kronus was the God of the harvest. When they pitched it to Jerry Lawler, it was shot down because the rednecks wouldn�t get the name. Saturn decided to go with The Eliminators because Kronus had wrestled several singles matches as The Eliminator. Saturn takes credit for Total Elimination and all the other moves the team did, saying that Kronus was athletic enough to do anything but had a hard time coming up with things or completing thoughts.
Memphis- Their first match as a team was on a house show in Jonesboro, Ark, and wasn�t pretty because they hadn�t teamed together despite bullshitting Lawler about that fact. They were made the tag champions but weren�t making enough to live on, only $40 a week, so they met with Lawler about it. They said they were leaving because of the money and Lawler wanted to know what it would take for them to stay. Saturn only wanted an additional $10 a week but said �double our pay� instead and, luckily, Lawler agreed. At one point during that run, they were sharing an apartment with The Spiders (The Headbangers), Axl Rotten, and Ian Rotten, so they had �a lot of interesting times� as Saturn put it. He had only smoked pot before Memphis but the road schedule made him take pain killers for his aches, then downers because he was wired, etc. They ended up getting a good deal from a nurse who was married to a wrestler, as she�d sell them blister packets of Vicodin at $3 a pop, which he says was a phenominal price. He says that a lot of guys today make it in the business without doing drugs but that he can�t, as he will need pain pills for the rest of his life. He claims that pain pills won�t screw up his life and that, if he doesn�t take them, he�ll only be sore and not in serious danger. He also does Somas, but says he keeps those under control considering all the problems other wrestlers have had with them. He doesn�t drink anymore, although he used to be a bad drinker.
Who mentored him in Memphis? Eddie Gilbert, as they worked against him and Brian Christopher early in their run in Memphis. The heels and faces dressed in different locker rooms back then but Gilbert sent word that he�d call the match in the ring.
Japan- He worked for New Japan in about 1993 and got that job through Tokyo Joe, who set him up with Brad Rheingans. After the tour, he was supposed to call Rheingans to see about another possible tour but decided he was too green to be over there at that time and never called him. He ended up meeting someone in Boston who got him a job with Tenryu� WAR organization.
WAR- They liked it better than Memphis because Memphis was mainly walking and talking while WAR was more physical. On top of that, Lawler didn�t want any of the heels to be more athletic than the babyfaces, so Kronus wasn�t allowed to do all of the neat spots he could do.
ECW- They were originally supposed to be an S+M tag team but they went in with their original gimmick. Saturn says he�d go for it if Paul Heyman pitched it to him today but that, at the time, he was couldn�t see how it could get over. On top of that, �It took John [Kronus] six months to learn how to spell �Eliminators�� so it would have been a problem to start over with a new gimmick.
Their original role in the company- They were brought in for a few shows to put the Steiner Brothers over but made such an impression on Paul E that they got a nice role in the company.
Impressions of the ECW crowd and locker room- It was the best time in his career. He wishes he could go back and enjoy that more since everyone was more concerned with getting the company over or trying to get signed by the WWF or WCW than enjoying themselves. The crowds were great and it made it a lot better for them when they worked the matches. Paul E also had sold them on everything and says that �We�d have walked through fire for Paul E.� Paul had everyone paranoid about outsiders trying to mess things up and it pulled them together. At Barely Legal 97, Harlem Heat (Booker T and Stevie Ray) showed up to the building and Paul E had everyone ready to fight them. Saturn ended up talking to Stevie Ray and found out that they just wanted to check out the show since they�d seen some ECW stuff on TV. He says that, while in WCW, they went to some WWF shows and it was no big deal but, as far as Paul E was concerned, workers for other companies shouldn�t come to their shows.
Initial impressions of Paul E- He likes him even though he�s usually full of bullshit. Paul�s big talents are maximizing someone�s strong points and minimizing their weak ones in addition to being able to get anyone over. He makes sure to say that the reason he left ECW was that he and Kronus were having problems, not he and Paul E. The only thing he faults Paul E. for is not letting him and Kronus split as a tag team, which might have convinced him to stay in ECW.
Jason, The World�s Sexiest Man- They liked him and, since neither him nor Kronus were good interview people at the time, it was good for them. It also helped them tremendously when Paul E. took small thirty-second segments of the show to get individual wrestlers over.
Working with the Pitbulls- They liked working with everyone but the Gangstas, because he feels he�s a wrestler and all they do is brawl. He says that New Jack is capable of doing spots but he doesn�t want to do them, as he�s done them in Smokey Mountain. Saturn has no objections to brawling as long as they do a few spots.
Winning the ECW tag titles from Mikey Whipwreck and Cactus Jack- The main thing he remembered was that he wanted to shave his head because he was balding but not nearly as badly as he thought. When they won the titles, they did an angle where the Pitbulls cut his hair then he shaved his head like Woody Harrelson in Natural Born Killers. It was a mistake to cut his hair and it took him a long time to adjust to being bald.
The weapons cage match with the Gangstas- They did so many garbage matches with the Gangstas that he has trouble remembering it.
The Dudleyz- He went to Paul E with the idea of putting them over in order to get them to their level with the fans. He thinks people were surprised because of the push that they were getting at the time.
The ECW locker room- �Like a frat house.� He would drink and do drugs with anyone at that time.
Tod Gordon- Never had any problems with him.
Preparing for the Dudley Boyz match- They had to lay things out beforehand so that Kronus would be able to work the match. They thought what they�d laid out was good at the time but, in hindsight, it was �godawful� because they only did spots and had no transitions.
The atmosphere of ECW around Barely Legal 97- No one knew what to expect and Paul E. had them all paranoid. One night, there was a ring rat putting on a sex show, doing such things as blowing one guy while jacking another two at the same time, but someone decided, as a joke, to throw her out in the hall naked, which upset her. After the calmed her down, they brought her to the bar but then Francine made a comment to her that she shouldn�t have and Saturn bitched Francine out over it. He and Shane then got into an argument over that, then Paul E got involved and was convinced the girl was someone who�d been sent by a different company to get them all sent to jail, even though Saturn pointed out that he�d seen her at every ECW show for the longest time. Paul spent most of the night bitching out the whole locker room over it and claiming that they might not get their PPV as a result. A week after Barely Legal, Saturn spotted the girl in the crowd and pointed her out to Paul E, to which he replied �Oh, I know her��
Screwing up his knee- During a match, he tried to kick Big Dick Dudley and caught his leg on a crutch, which snapped his ACL. He finished the match by hopping around and said it was brutal. That injury is part of why he hates hardcore matches, as there wouldn�t have been crap in the ring that he could have hurt himself on if it was a regular match.
How hard was it to rehab his knee? That injury was pretty tough because he was rehabbing his knee in addition to trying to stop drinking and doing drugs, amongst other things. He ended up in WCW a few months later.
When did his partnership with Kronus collapse? When he married a girl who thought she knew more about wrestling than everyone else then started believing everything she said. Kronus just stopped listening to everyone and doing the opposite of what he was being told. He�s talked to Kronus since then. They were originally going to split up six months before that, after they lost the belts to the Gangstas, because Kronus had his head up his ass and they were fighting all the time. The plans were called off after Kronus started going back to the gym and quit drinking before matches. When Kronus got married, he started screwing up again but Paul E didn�t want to try and split them again because he figured Kronus would be back to normal when Saturn got back in the ring. When Paul E refused to split them and Saturn still refused to team with Kronus, Paul E got pissed and told him that, if he could get a job somewhere else as a singles wrestler, he could leave. He signed with WCW shortly after that.
Did he think Kronus would make it on his own? He figured he�d be fine because he�d worked for so many years, but he ended up crashing and burning.
The match against Terry Gordy and Dr. Death Steve Williams- �It was awful.� He�s watched it on DVD recently and remembers how bad it was. He told Paul E. before the match that he�d do a spot from the scaffold but Paul E. didn�t believe him. Once he started up the scaffold, he didn�t want to do it anymore because he doesn�t like heights but he couldn�t stop after he already started climbing. Part of the problem was that it was a halfassed scaffold that was swinging around, so he had to be extra careful so that he didn�t accidentally kill Gordy when he landed. Terry Taylor later told him that he hired him in WCW because of that bump and Saturn told him that he should have hired Gordy because it took more balls to lay there and take the bump than to jump off a scaffold. However, Gordy �probably didn�t even know where he was at�, so it may not be as impressive as he thought for Gordy to sit there for that bump.
Working with Rob Van Dam and Sabu- They did a bunch of table and ladder spots in their matches. All four of them tried to do a spot on a ladder once and it gave way, causing all of them to fall. They�re lucky none of them got seriously hurt considering how many ladders they�ve broken.
November to Remember 96- That was a three-way tag match but he doesn�t remember much about it. He remembers the tag match against Sabu and RVD leading up to it instead. That was the second favorite moment in his career, with the match where he defeated Raven to free The Flock in WCW being his most favorite.
Training at the House of Hardcore- Paul E opened the school in order to help Tazz get a steady paycheck. Tazz ended up cutting him in on the deal. Mikey Whipwreck was also a trainer there. He got along fine with Tazz.
His training philosophy- Teach them to chain wrestle first because it will help them develop timing and trust in their opponents. They would start with chain wrestling then move on to simple takedowns, holds, and throws. Tazz believed in a similar philosophy, which is why they were able to train so well together. He relates the story of how one of their students was working with Shane Douglas but Shane wasn�t happy about it. Shane ended up convincing the guy to do an elbow drop from the top rope, except the guy snapped his leg in half because he wasn�t ready to do that kind of move. He doesn�t think Shane meant the guy physical harm but, rather, wanted to have him fail as an excuse to get rid of him.
Pablo Marquez- He smacked Pablo around once but people blew it out of proportion. He takes credit for Pablo getting a job in ECW but says he wouldn�t listen to anything people said. He thinks that someone like Victor Quinones convinced Pablo that he�d be the next Shawn Michaels, which made him impossible to work with. Saturn doesn�t think Pablo would have been the next Michaels but he certainly could have been a good worker with a permanent spot somewhere. He talks about how slapping Pablo around was similar to how he was taught, as Killer Kowalski punched him in the face once for doing something wrong and it worked because he never did it again.
Going to WCW- Paul E. had brought contracts for him and Tazz to sign and Saturn wanted to get a lawyer to examine them before signing, which Paul E. didn�t want him to do. When Saturn reviewed the contract, his contracted pay was not what he and Paul E. had agreed on but Paul E. still tried to force him into signing the contract. Saturn decided to check on alternatives and called Terry Taylor about possibly coming to WCW. He told Taylor that, since the WCW hotline was reporting that both him and Kronus were jumping to WCW, they might as well offer him a contract since they were probably going to get him fired from ECW. Taylor got off the phone with Saturn, got Eric Bischoff�s approval to make a deal, and called him back within ten minutes of hanging up.
How did he tell Tazz he was leaving? Paul E. was spinning stories in all directions, telling Tazz that Saturn wasn�t leaving for WCW despite Paul yelling at Saturn shortly before that claiming that he and Kronus had signed a deal with WCW.
What were his impressions of the WCW locker room? Nowhere near as friendly as the ECW locker room, as it was very clique-ish and it was a �two class society�, as certain groups got their own dressing rooms.
His memories of his first WCW dark match, against Billy Kidman- His knee was bothering him, so he sat at home for a month afterwards.
Did he like the idea of The Flock? He loved it. Unfortunately, the top guys held Raven down because that gimmick should have made him into a top star.
The TV title match with Disco Inferno- The main thing he remembers was having to go from his seat at ringside into the ring without time to warm up, which made him blow up easily in the match.
Breaking away from The Flock- Bischoff saw him as being on a higher level than The Flock, so he broke him away from the group before they had it dissolved. That lead into his feud with Raven where he won the blowoff match to free The Flock.
The Flock- He, Raven, Kidman, and others had a great time doing that gimmick. He and Raven took over a strip club one night in San Diego and got them closed down because they had the strippers giving guys blowjobs and so forth. �It was like directing a porno.�
Wrestling against Chris Jericho in a loser-wears-a-dress match at Souled Out 99- They always had bad matches together. Bischoff wanted to screw with Jericho before he left for the WWF by having him lose a stipulation match that took him off of Nitro for the rest of his contract. Since Kevin Nash was in charge of the PPV and Bischoff wasn�t there, he and Jericho convinced Nash that Jericho needed to go over and that they could blow it off the next month. Nash wasn�t thinking too clearly at the time and didn�t get it approved by Bischoff, which made him PISSED when he got back and found out. He didn�t mind having to wear a dress because it made him stand out in people�s minds.
The idea to form The Revolution- Him, Shane Douglas, Dean Malenko, and Chris Benoit were all travelling together at the time. He thinks that Shane pitched it to management then came up with all of the catchphrases. The group was supposed to get a big push but all of the top guys pulled together to protect their spots, which kept anyone else from getting over. �Too many of the guys had creative control.�
Did he ever think he�d get a program with a main eventer? No, because you�d have to outlast them and most of them are still wresting. They always had a reason that someone couldn�t be a top guy, such as claims that Saturn was too short.
How did he get along backstage? He used to travel with Scott Hall, but it didn�t help him out. Hulk Hogan was the one who had all the stroke.
Kevin Sullivan as a booker- He was great as a booker but he let his personal feelings influence some of his decisions, which lead to some total crap. He says that Sullivan booked Benoit badly because of the bad blood between them.
JJ Dillon as a booker- �I think JJ�s a piece of shit.� JJ made midcard guys who were injured work matches but �if Hogan got a hangnail, he�d take a month off.�
Eric Bischoff- He got along with him great. He went to Bischoff once about getting out of a house show booking when he was hurt and JJ insisted that he still wrestle. He says he could have called up Bischoff and told him anything, such as that he didn�t need to work house shows or that he deserved a bigger push, and that Bischoff would do it, except he never did it because it felt like asking his mother for something behind his father�s back.
At what point did he, Eddy Guerrero, Dean, and Benoit decide to leave? They decided to leave once Kevin Sullivan became booker and told them all that he saw no value in them at all, couldn�t get them over, and that he wouldn�t book them. He actually appreciates Sullivan telling them that because it meant they didn�t need to waste their time there and that they needed to leave. He says that Benoit was getting screwed over by Mike Graham, who was friends with Sullivan, despite Vince Russo trying to push them. Whenever there was a finish that had any of them going over, Sullivan and Graham would switch the finish to them jobbing then, whenever Russo and Bill Busch called them on it, they claimed that they�d misunderstood what they�d been told. After that, they told management that they didn�t want Sullivan or Graham to be booking their matches. Graham then confronted them one night when he was drunk, claiming that they were threatening his job and pulled a knife on them. They used that as leverage to get out of the company.
Who made the first call to the WWF? He did, making a call on behalf of himself, Malenko, Benoit, Eddy, Konnan, Rey Misterio, and Shane Douglas. The WWF decided that they only wanted himself, Malenko, Benoit, and Guerrero, so Konnan, Rey, and Shane were out of luck. The full story is that they went to Busch about a release and, when he hesitated, Saturn started yelling at him about being a man of his word and giving people who wanted out of the company a release like he promised, especially with Mike Graham pulling a knife on them backstage. Immediately after that, they called up the personnel division of the Turner company and told them about Graham pulling a knife on them, which put pressure on them to give the releases. When they talked to Vince McMahon about who he would take, he said he�d take Shane if he absolutely had to in order to get everyone else but he really didn�t want him. The WWF just weren�t interested in Konnan.
Raven�s release- A few months before that, Bischoff publicly promised anyone who wanted out a release and Raven asked for one. Once things got behind closed doors, Bischoff decided that Raven�s release wouldn�t let him go to the WWF for a year. Kidman also wanted a release but ended up staying.
Did he see WCW going out of business? He saw how much money that Time Warner had and figured that they�d just overhaul management in order to fix the company. He never thought it would get down to just one wrestling company on television.
His contract with the WWF- Despite rumors to the contrary, he did NOT take a three-year contract with the WWF because he thought he�d be worth more at the end of the deal. He took a three-year contract because he wasn�t sure if he�d like being in the company. The company initially had offered them five-year deals. He notes that no promises were made to them about their positions in the company.
Memories of their first night in the company- They were brought in at first doing a promo with Mick Foley, then they worked matches the next week in Dallas.
The locker room atmosphere- Everyone got along with them and just saw them as four new people to work with instead of people who could take their spots.
Who came up with the Radicalz name? WWF marketing came up with the group name but Saturn himself came up with all the catchphrases that went on the t-shirts.
Match break-
The Eliminators vs. Cactus Jack and Mikey Whipwreck with Raven- Cactus was a member of Raven�s Nest at this point and Mikey is just along for the ride. The Eliminators win after hitting Total Elimination on Mikey. There was a lot of argument between Mikey and Cactus during the match but I�m not up for storylines at the moment. Raven assaults Mikey after the match, Cactus assaults Raven, then Cactus changes his mind and attacks Mikey.
The Eliminators promo with Francine- Francine is in S+M skank mode here. She�s only a distraction while the Pitbulls jump the Eliminators. Kronus gets superbombed while Saturn is hung from the ring by a chain. After Kronus is taken out, Francine cuts Saturn�s hair.
Saturn vs. Pitbull #2 with Francine- For those wondering, this is the Pitbull whose career WASN�T ended by Shane Douglas breaking his neck. Pitbull #2 wins after hitting a top-rope clothesline on Saturn.
The tag match where Eddy dislocated his elbow- Eddy�s injury screwed up the storyline that was planned, as Malenko lost the first match as planned, Eddy and Saturn were supposed to beat the New Age Outlaws but didn�t due to Eddy�s elbow, and Chris Benoit was supposed to get screwed over by Triple H. Saturn didn�t even know that Eddy was hurt until Billy Gunn, who was brawling with him at ringside, told him. A few seconds later, Road Dogg pinned Eddy to end the match. Because of the changed storyline, the company had to come up with a new angle for them and turned them heel by aligning them with Triple H.
Did Triple H change from when they first met until now? �He�s more over� but, otherwise, he was the same. He thinks that Triple H always had influence backstage but that it kept multiplying over time. He used to be one of the guys that Vince trusted but, now, he�s THE guy Vince trusts.
The six-man match at No Way Out- They went out and got drunk the night before and showed up to the arena an hour before the match to lay it out. Chyna ended up dropping him on his head with a powerbomb, popping out his shoulder. Chyna�s usually easy to work with but wasn�t strong enough to pull that spot off. Saturn gives road agent Michael PS Hayes the blame by saying that the whole spot was his idea.
Did he know Chyna beforehand? He met her a few times back when he was at Kowalski�s school but doesn�t think she even remembered him. He mentions that she tried to get a job in ECW at one time but didn�t get hired.
What did he feel about being in the hardcore division? He was pissed off about it because he thinks they had no idea of what to do with him �so they stuck me in that shit.� On the positive side, he feels that he and Steve Blackman had a lot of good matches.
His relationship with Dean Malenko outside the ring- They�re like best friends.
Least favorite guy to work with- Matt Hardy, because he�d lay out the whole match with Michael Hayes the day before with none of their input. He found it disrespectful considering Dean�s vast experience and Matt kept doing it despite being asked to stop.
Drugs in the WWE locker room- Typical wrestling locker room, as opposed to ECW, where guys would have their stuff laid out on the tables. The WWE won�t actively look for drug users but, if you start screwing up, they better not find out you�re using.
Jim Ross- He doesn�t know how to take him because he seemed straightforward but he wasn�t sure that he was getting the whole story.
His matches with Eddy- They worked together so many times in WCW and the WWF that their matches tend to blend together. Eddy was one of his favorite opponents.
Reaction to news that Paul E was coming in- He was happy because he liked Paul E. and, besides that, the writing was slipping at the time.
Matches with the Hardy Boyz- They hated every aspect of the matches they had with them.
The roster split- Few guys were getting used, so they saw the split rosters as an opportunity to get booked more often. It kind of gives the wrestlers the feel of having two companies again, despite the fact that it�s all WWE. �It�s not even the wrestling business anymore� it�s the McMahon family business.� (That can be taken SO many ways)
Dark matches he�s worked- He�s not sure why they used him in dark matches, although he feels his temper and stiffness was probably used to test prospective employees. He remembers working against some true morons, like a guy who wouldn�t bump for him because no one ever told him that he should. He also remembers one guy who started laying in the punches and kicks, so he started doing the same. When they got to the back, the guy�s excuse was that his family and friends were at the arena and that he had to look good. (I�m pretty sure this is a match I saw live in December 2001, with Saturn against Brian Gamble on a Jakked taping)
The Mike Bell incident- Bell kept dropping him on his head, knocking him silly. When he got knocked silly, he would start kicking and punching Bell instinctively. When he realized what was happening, he tossed Bell out of the ring and the guy landed roughly.
What did WWF management say to him? They told him not to do that anymore, which he already knew he shouldn�t do. He got the Moppy gimmick out of it but it REALLY pisses him off is that the gimmick got over yet management killed it. He kept going along with it each time they told him to do it, and he says Gerald Brisco was right when he told him �You still get paid no matter what.� He hated the gimmick but he did it the best he could with it.
Being paired with Terri- They had a lot of chemistry so it pissed him off that nothing ever really came of the pairing.
The Moppy angle where Raven put Moppy in the wood chipper- It was his idea but the WWF did it in too short a period of time. He wanted to go out with a 1-900 number asking for tips about Moppy�s whereabouts and so forth, but it was done way too fast.
His feud with Raven- It should have lasted at least two pay per views but, due to the handling of it, it was only done at Unforgiven and no one cared.
His release- He was asked to take a pay cut and refused. Management told him he wouldn�t get resigned when his contract expired if he didn�t take a pay cut but he still refused. He figured that he�d actually get released months before it actually happened. He says the main reason he was targeted for paycuts and/or a release was that he didn�t get over, so it�s not like he blames them for running him off. He�s not sure if he�d still have gotten released if he took a paycut but he wasn�t taking chances. The reason he wasn�t taking chances was that his old contract was iron-clad for the entire length of it while the current contracts have 90-day cycles in which someone can be released.
Atmosphere in the locker room when he left- Lots of people were worried about their jobs right before the split but, since he got hurt, he never went back after that. His opinion is that a lot of people on TV now wouldn�t have been there a few years ago. In particular, he singles out Shane Helms because he isn�t credible as The Hurricane when facing guys like Kane or Triple H.
Is it bad to have non-wrestlers involved, such as the writers? No, because you do need non-wrestling storylines to keep people interested. However, the guy with the final say has to be a wrestling guy. Vince is a wrestling guy but the decisions he�s okayed don�t seem to be bringing in money to the company.
Was he satisfied with his run in the WWE? Yes, as he had a good time and he made a lot of money. He talks about how he�s always lucky enough to leave a company right before the shit hits the fan. He�s working for New Japan and a few small groups right now. He�s mainly interested in getting an agent position.
Has he had much contact with Vince McMahon? Yes, he�s met him backstage and goofed around a lot. He got along fine with Vince. He feels he wasn�t pushed enough but that part of it was his fault, such as showing up late, tired, hung over, etc.
How would he have booked himself? It�s a hard question. He wanted a real personality but not necessarily a Stone Cold Steve Austin. A Fight Club type of gimmick would have been good and was actually pitched in WCW, where it would have been himself, Rick Steiner, Don Frye, and a bunch of other legit badasses and shooters.
Will he be teaching in the New Japan Dojo in the US? He will be at the end of the Summer, but the office needs to send him the young Japanese to train since they�re all in Japan right now.
Working for the WWA- He actually took off from one Japan tour to work for them but, since the next Japan tour he�s on is the same time as their next show, he�ll have to miss it.
His recent Japan tour- He loved it because the company took care of everything for him. The only thing he had to worry about was wrestling. He worked for Ultimo Dragon�s Torymon promotion as a favor in order to help them draw some fans.
NWA TNA- It�s coming along and he loves working there because it�s close to his house and it has an atmosphere like ECW.
Working with Vince Russo- He always got along with him and just worked towards getting the show over.
Does he agree with Russo�s philosophy on the business? Yes and no. Russo�s big on the entertainment aspect of it but you need to mix it with just the right amount of wrestling to make it work.
If he could change anything in his career, what would it be? He can�t think of anything so bad that he�d go back and change it.
Name association-
Tommy Dreamer- Nice guys finish last. He�s a great guy but everyone took advantage of him.
Kevin Nash- He gets along with Big Sexy.
Roddy Piper- Very polite the few times he met him.
Hulk Hogan- Hogan in WCW �was a fucking piece of shit� but he blames Bischoff for that. However, he credits him with putting over a lot of guys in the past year for the WWE.
Bret Hart- He didn�t talk to him much. Very talented.
Kronus- �A big kid that�s never going to grow up.� He tends to screw up though.
Chris Jericho- �Most popular geek in the world.�
Paul Heyman- �Paul�s a genius�
The business in five years- �I hope not OUT of business.� He wants some competition to spring up if only to light a fire under Vince�s ass. He hopes to be retired by that time.
Eliminators vs. PG 13- JC Ice hits Kronus with a hubcap and rolls Wolfie D on top for the pin and the USWA tag titles.
Eliminators vs. RVD and Sabu vs. The Gangstas- Sabu is pinned after a Total Elimination then New Jack hits Saturn with a top-rope chair shot for the pin to retain the ECW tag titles.
Eliminators vs. D-Von Dudley and Big Dick Dudley with Joel Gertner and Bubba Ray Dudley- For those who don�t know, Big Dick died last year of kidney failure. The match turns into a total schmoz after The Gangstas runs in with their trashcan o� crap. In a strange spot, Kronus and Saturn hit the Total Elimination on Big Dick Dudley and Mustapha, who are fighting each other, then roll them up for the simultaneous three count.
Ultimo Dragon, Perry Saturn, and ? vs. Norman Smiley and two Japanese guys- The intros were totally cut off so I�m lucky I can even recognize this many wrestlers. Dragon picks up the win with what appears to be a combination of a rear chinlock and an armbar.
Saturn vs. Sabu- Sabu wins with a top-rope lionsault after using a chair as a stepping stool.
D-Von Dudley and Bubba Ray Dudley with Joel Gerner and Sign Guy Dudley vs. the Eliminators- The Eliminators win the ECW tag titles after a Total Elimination on Bubba. Gertner announces that the match was waged under the points system and the Dudleyz have slimly retained. Gernter gets a Total Elimination because of it.
Thoughts- There was some good stuff in here, mainly about his time in WCW and the circumstances surrounding the departure of The Radicalz from the company, but the rest seemed to fall flat. I�m going to have to go with a vanilla Recommended for it
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