twn-news-2013

Cody Rhodes Interview

Fri, 31 May 2013 19:28:47 +0100

Cody Rhodes joined Busted Open with Dave Lagreca and Doug Mortman. You can hear Busted Open on Sirius 92, XM 208 and on the app on Sports Zone. Here are some highlights:

Rhodes and Damien Sandow as a tag team and the tag division: "I think after Wrestlemania you'll see us without much fanfare. Damien and I have never really looked at it as far as being a tag team, I guess technically we're a tag team and we have a team name, but really its two different individual performers who get away with a lot of shenanigans and he's helped my career a lot. He's completely different from what I grew up a fan of, he's just different, he's a different aspect of this world and he's helped me with that.

"Tag team wrestling is incredibly important to sports entertainment and Damien and I will be there as far as I really do think we make a good tag team and especially match wise I think we complement each other well so hopefully if we do part ways there are more tag teams coming up. I know it's something that we'd like to have a bigger place on the show is the tag teams in general."

Growing up in wrestling: "I was never motivated at all by my father and I grew up with such an age distance from Dustin that it didn't come from him either. I never was motivated to get into this. I was actually, if anything, discouraged, but then again, he took me to shows when I was supposed to be going to school the next day and he exposed me to sports entertainment at the ripe age where you're never going to want to do anything else. We watched Monday Night Raw and we watched Nitro; we watched this stuff on the couch together and I think without me knowing I was always naturally being groomed to do this.

"My brief acting stint, which was rather brief, really was based on the fact that I didn't think I was big enough to be involved with sports entertainment. I didn't think I was physically big enough. I had an amateur wrestling background but I know that this is a whole other world and that what I'd seen on TV I was a little concerned. I thought, 'well I want to be a performer, I want to be in entertainment, maybe I'll go to Hollywood,' it was almost like a cop out. It's like 'I'm going to be an actor" when you have no acting credentials or formal training. That lasted about 9 months of me spending my parent's money and really doing nothing and watching WWE and seeing guys like Randy Orton, seeing them move forward from being just somebody's kid, somebody's son. So it was extremely motivating for me. Actually, as soon as I came home I was on the track to getting to Louisville, Kentucky to being part of WWE in any capacity.

Working with Randy Orton in Legacy: "We forget that Randy was 21 when he debuted on television. He had a chance to grow up with the audience. Randy was an extreme influence, still is, and we're both now able to do our own things and initially he took me and Ted Dibiase under his wing and it wasn't like 'Randy is a friend of ours, he's going to be easy on us,' I think Randy was harder on us than even Triple H was in that whole grooming process; Legacy versus DX, then him versus Triple H and them going into Wrestlemania 25; so I will always owe him a good chunk of my career."

When is his time: "When Dolph is a world champ. This year after Money in the Bank, and Dolph is the guy who won MITB, there was this real drop off of all this momentum and moving forward and I don't blame anyone but myself; not that something bad happened or anything like that. I hate when people say stuff like 'the push', it's just a matter of sometimes, I'm never going to be patient and fans of mine I hope they know I'm not sitting there waiting, but as a company there are several superstars that whether you want them now, it's a slow thing. It's a slow building process and I think it'll be all the more satisfying. I grew up a fan of Shawn Michaels. I watched the whole time. He makes it to the WM match and he doesn't win the title. Then the next title match he goes an hour and he doesn't win the title in the hour but they're going to go sudden death and then he finally got the title and I was just fully satisfied as him being the greatest WM performer of all time. That's the goal. That's the guy I'd like to pattern myself as. I hate the fact the people said 'you're the future' and we're not there yet, but we'll get there."

How he got to be so versatile in the ring: "I watch everybody. Lately I've been watching a lot of Ray Stevens, a lot of Pat Patterson, a lot of Arn Anderson, but Joey Mercury is a trainer at NXT now and he told me once, and I love this advice, he said, 'I don't work my size, don't work your size.' This weird, eclectic style I've carved out is just a combination of different people. The moonsault is a very simple thing, but it's a Shawn Michaels thing. The Alabama Slam, I feel like if anybody gets that I get it. I had to partner with the guy and we put him away. Out of respect for the team I had with him and the guy himself, I'm going to continue to do it. Then I have the great fortune of I can steal from my own family. I just take stuff I see and try to make it fit for me. I try to be somewhere in the middle because I'm not the biggest guy so I want to give the audience the fighting chance I give myself in the ring and that's through some of the little eclectic things that are probably more suited for a smaller guy. That's why I had to put knee pads on eventually, that was mandated I was told by the boss. Yeah, [I prefer to go without knee pads], I saw this picture of Buddy Rodgers and he had the WWWF championship on and he's standing there and I just thought 'that's what a wrestler looks like.' And that's what he had, the boots, no knee pads, the trunks were like a quarter of an inch higher than everybody's wearing today and I just thought 'that's what they're supposed to look like.' It never translated with me though. I have these tiny little legs so it didn't translate."

Damien Sandow: "Damien Sandow, his vernacular, how he competes, he has this style and it's kind of rooted in the old south, Carney style, but what's old is new. It's not even a character, every day he's more and more Damien Sandow than whatever the hell his real name is, I've called him everything. But to me, that commitment I really appreciate because I'm old school in how I approach sports entertainment; his commitment is wonderful. I did not want to do a tag team with anybody but I have enjoyed everything we've done together because that's a completely different facet of the industry. I'm not funny, he does certain things that I can't and makes things very fun."

Jimmy Korderas Interview

Fri, 31 May 2013 19:28:17 +0100

Former WWF/E referee and new author Jimmy Korderas joined Kayfabe Wrestling Radio Tuesday Night. In a nearly 30 minute interview, he discussed what prompted him to write the book, how he was discovered by the WWF as a photographer, the historic Maple Leaf Gardens, working with Jack Tunney, his time as a driver and part of the ring crew, becoming a referee and asking for help from people in the back, was he ever awe struck in the ring and who is his favorite person to work with, the rise of the earpiece as part of the referee uniform, being part of the WrestleMania experience and being hand-picked to work the Edge/Undertaker Title match, being the referee in-ring during passing of Owen Hart and how it almost got worse for him personally, his thoughts if the PPV should have stopped or should have continued and if ‘Owen would have wanted it to continue’, his thoughts on the RAW Crowd Post-Wrestlemania and much more.

What made him want to write a book? “Well, to make a very long story short, it began with my wife, Audrey. She was the one who kept saying after I left the WWE, ‘You know what, you’ve got so many of these great stories to tell; you should write a book.’ And I’m thinking to myself, ‘Yeah, but nobody wants to read a book about fun stuff.’ In my mind, I’m think everyone wants to read about dirt, you know, that whole ‘what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas mentality’. They want to hear what happens in Vegas, you know what I mean? I’m thinking I don’t know, and then I got together with Arda Ocal and we started doing our wrestling radio podcast and that sort of stuff and working on the ScoreTV up here in Canada. We’d hang around and I’d tell him stories and he’d say ‘You know, you should put that in a book. It’s kind of funny and some fun stories.’ And I’m thinking to myself the same thing. Eventually, he kept notes on his phone and he forwarded an e-mail to me with a whole bunch of stories on it and said ‘This stuff should be in a book’. So he’s the one who contacted me with ECW Press and we met with them and pitched it to them and they liked the idea and it ran from there.”

Asking the guys for help and better himself as a referee: “I did that all the time and I even asked the boys ‘Hey, if I do anything wrong, please let me know’. The problem for me is, and maybe I’m overly critical; I hated watching myself back because I am my own worst critic. Even the smallest little thing, I’d go ‘Why did I do that? Why did I move like that? Why did I look over there?’ I was never really happy with myself. You always strive to be as close to perfect as you can be because there’s no such real thing as perfect. Again, I would find flaws with everything that I did and it got to the point where maybe I shouldn’t be watching myself anymore. But it is kind of cool to see yourself on TV, I have to admit, let’s be honest.”

Was he ever awe struck by anyone in particular in the ring: “Almost all the time. It’s so amazing; I consider myself lucky to have been there for different eras. Like you said, the Golden Era with the Andre the Giant’s and the Hulk Hogan’s and the Randy Savage’s, and then Next Generation with Bret Hart and the Shawn Michael and that era and the Kliq, and then the Attitude Era, which people to this day still talk about and living through that, and moving onto the next generation with John Cena, Batista and porbably my favorite of all time in The Undertaker. Honestly, I consider myself really blessed to be able to say that I actually got to work with all those guys.”

Being the referee in-ring during passing of Owen Hart and how it was almost deadly for him: “It is one of those things your try to put out of your mind, but it’s there; it’s always going to be there and I just have to come to terms with the fact that this is something that’s going to live with me and it’s something I can’t get out of my mind completely. Part of the process of writing the book too, when I was writing the chapter on Owen, I was hoping that it would be a little cathartic, maybe ease part of the pain for lack of a better word, that still lives with me today because, like you said, six inches to my right and I may not be here talking to you today. It did help a little bit (writing the book), ease some of that pain, but not completely. It’s going to be one of those unfortunate things that I won’t forget, but that I have to live with, I guess.”

The post-WrestleMania RAW crowd at the IZOD Center: “I’m two schools of thought here: 1) I appreciate the fact that the fans who paid their hard-earned money come and enjoy themselves and they cheer and boo and chant for whomever they want. They only issue I had with the post-WrestleMania Monday night crowd was it got a little bit crazy and overboard where they did it to amuse themselves as opposed to being entertained with what was going on inside the ring. So, it was almost like ‘We don’t care what’s going on in the ring, it has nothing to do with what’s going on in the ring; we’re going to start chanting and almost kind of hijacking the show to some extent. And I get it, I would never say to the fans ‘Don’t do what you’re doing. Don’t go out there and have a great time’; it’s just to me, it didn’t feel like it fit with the actual presentation of the show.

The other thing is it seemed like the majority of the crowd were probably from overseas. It just felt like an overseas crowd, like you’d see in London, where RAW coming up from London, England next week. That’s the type of crowd it felt like, you know; with the soccer chants, the ‘Ole, Ole, Ole’ and that sort of stuff. But you know what, they were having fun and I guess that’s what the main objective is. I just thought, like you said, it was more to entertain themselves than to be entertained by the festivities.”

You can follow Jimmy through his Twitter (@jimmykorderas) or through his personal Facebook (www.facebook.com/jimmy.korderas) for the latest news and notes. You can also get Jimmy’s new book “The Three Count: My Life in Stripes as a WWE Referee” from ECW Press, which also contains a forward by Adam “Edge” Copland. Check with your local book retailer for availability or for ordering information. You can also hear Jimmy on air with Arda Ocal on their “Aftermath TV” show on the Score TV Network, check with your local cable provider for availability and show times.

Wild Talk Radio Network was founded in 2008 by Tim Stein and is the home of such programs as Wrestle Talk Radio (Sundays 10 pm ET/7 pm PT), RAW Post Show (Mondays 11:30 pm ET/8:30 pm PT), Kayfabe Wrestling Radio (Tuesdays 9 pm ET/6 pm PT), Cheap Heat Radio (Wednesdays 8:30 ET/5:30 pm PT), The Rack (11 pm ET/8 pm PT) and CB Radio (12 am ET/9 pm PT) The Wild Talk Radio Network offers a wide range of programming that covers Professional Wrestling, Video Games, Movies, Sports & Entertainment. Log on daily for new content at www.wildtalkradio.com

HHH Interview

Fri, 31 May 2013 19:27:29 +0100

HHH is one of the big names behind the Attitude Era transition that has made WWE so popular today. That era, which also saw Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson rise to prominence along with “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, is the heart of THQ’s WWE 13 video game campaign, which is called the Attitude Era and features actual video from that time along with new voice recordings from the main wrestlers to bring the key matches back to life virtually.

“It’s one of those things — I’ve talked about this with Austin and a little bit with Rock, too — you don’t realize is happening at the time; it’s just what you’re doing,” said Triple H. “We were all so wrapped up in what we were doing, and it was so competitive with each other. It’s only now that I think we can look back and go, ‘Wow. That was a pretty special time, and we shared some pretty special things all together and made history.’ I think at the time you’re doing it, you realize it’s going well, but you’re just so deep in there that you can’t even fathom really what you’re doing. To look back at it now and see all those times, and to watch the video game…when we did the voiceovers to the video game, to go back and watch some of those scenes take place, it’s crazy because you forget what a…that was just another day then.”

Before he took to the ring at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey for WrestleMania 29, he and wife Stephanie McMahon spent time raising money for Hurricane Sandy Relief in New York City.

“A lot of people know about the power of the WWE brand,” said McMahon. “We’re in 145 countries in 30 different languages. We reach about 650 million households worldwide on a global weekly basis. But what they don’t know about WWE is that we use all of that power to give back to the community through events like Hurricane Sandy Relief.”

WWE just topped 100 million Facebook followers during the big event, which brings its total social network presence to over 150 million. 2K Sports is readying WWE 2K14 for a fall launch featuring The Rock on the cover, which will help quench a rabid fan base’s appetite for all things WWE. 2K hasn’t revealed its plans for the new wrestling game yet, but gamers can still experience the history of The Game in virtual form.

“For me the attitude era was a lot of fun,” said Triple H.

“ He almost defined the attitude era,” added McMahon. “He was a huge component of it.”

“It was just a wild and crazy time and it was a lot of fun. It was really us getting to go out there with a little bit of a free reign,” said Triple H. “I think it makes for a great game because it takes the rules out of it, you know, takes the restrictions off a little bit.”

When I talk to former WWE superstars like Adam Copeland, better known as Edge, the one thing they don’t miss about pro wrestling is the grueling year-long schedule. Triple H and McMahon have kept their fire burning through all the wrestling drama in front of a global audience.

When asked what keeps their chemistry going, Triple H joked that it’s almost like they live together.

McMahon said she couldn’t answer one romance question publicly, but her husband did.

“What keeps a fire burning? A big log. It keeps the fire burning,” said Triple H.

It’s not easy, at times, to watch the one you love step into the ring against giants. While pro wrestling may be fake, the injuries and athleticism involved is all too real. McMahon said she watched every one of her husband’s matches very closely.

“There’s real danger involved with every match,” said McMahon. “He’s going to get bloody and everything else gets bloody.

“It’s funny because she knows me so well that she sees the smallest little things in there and when I come back she’ll be like, ‘Then this happened,’” said Triple H. “She knows all the little intricacies of everything we do and knows me so well that she can see it whether I’m hurt or not hurt. She’ll be watching almost more intently than anybody.”

McMahon is happy with Triple H’s new shorter hair style, but she loves him either way.

“She’s happy now,” said Triple H. “This saves time. It doesn’t take me so long showering and stuff.”

With Triple H now getting older, he’d have no regret if his next match was his last.

“I wouldn’t have one regret,” said Triple H. “I wouldn’t have any. I’ve had a hell of career, a hell of a run. I’ve done everything I wanted to do in this business. I’ll never leave this business. It’s ironic. Years ago when I said it about being in the game, you know that statement was really about the business. It was about being a student of the game and about this business and when I say the game will never die, I truly mean that. None of us are bigger than this. None of us are bigger than the WWE. It will always continue to go on and I will always be a part of it.”

One area he’s not an expert at is video games. Like most WWE talent, he’ll spend time working with the game developers on each new game. But unlike many of the younger superstars, he’s not a gamer.

“Let me just say right now that if I gave advice to a gamer it would be terrible because I don’t play them and it would probably surely cause their demise in the game,” said Triple H.

Paul Heyman Interview

Fri, 31 May 2013 19:25:40 +0100

Paul Heyman recently spoke with Busted Open radio about his WWE return and more. Check out the highlights:

On what brought him back to WWE: "Well, Brock Lesnar made the decision to go back to WWE and once he got back in I guess he realized that it's the same boat that it was 10 years ago with all the politics and everything. If you're going to get involved with a whole bunch of politics obviously you need your New York Jew along with you. It was a matter of Brock going back and then it was just a natural fit for me to go back with him. Once I was in there, the first person that obviously I let know I was coming back was CM Punk, who is the person that I was fighting with Vince McMahon over back in 2006 when I decided to leave. So it became a natural fit for us to get back together as well and it just took off from there."

On the differences between working with C.M. Punk and Brock Lesnar: "It's two totally different relationships. My job with CM Punk differs dramatically from my job with Brock Lesnar. It's very easy for me to talk about Brock Lesnar because I am Brock Lesnar's biggest fan, and how could I not be? The man is legitimately the only person in history to hold the NCAA Division I Heavyweight Championship, the Undisputed UFC Heavyweight Championship and the Undisputed WWE Heavyweight Championship. I could talk about him all day long; I am such an admirer of his talents and his greatness and I think the world of him as a human being. As far as CM Punk goes, to be very honest with you, we've never defined my role with him on television; I don't refer to him as my client because we're just friends. We are best friends and we wanted to work together on television. We wanted to work together in front of everybody and so we just did it. I'm there for whatever he needs me to be; whether that's as a confidant or a strategist or be ring side with him when he's wrestling or just hang out with him in the ring and admire him from a close distance when he's actually speaking, because I think he's a better talker than I am. I think CM Punk does the best interviews in the industry, and I'm actually learning from him when I'm standing that close."

On what he saw in C.M. Punk that others in WWE didn't: "It's not that I think I have this great vision for CM Punk, I think everybody else was just blind to it and that's to their discredit more than it's to my credit. I saw a Wrestlemania main eventer. I saw a WWE Champion. I saw a guy that could single handedly carry this industry. He's a rock star; I mean, this guy walks in a room, how do you not just feel the charisma entering? When he walked in here just now, and half these guys are asleep as you can see, and all of a sudden it was like a big jolt of coffee. The guy just has that intangible "it" factor, and he's talented and he's a great wrestler and he has passion for this industry. So, what did I see in him? I saw everything in him. The fact that the other people didn't see that from the moment he walked in their doors is a cry for change."

On why Punk wasn't seen as the next big thing: "He's not cookie cutter. He doesn't want to be cookie cutter. He refuses to be cookie cutter and he will rebel against anything that makes him cookie cutter. So if everyone comes on television and they say the very same thing, 'it's an honor to be here, I put smiles on people's faces,' the first thing he's going to say is, 'I don't put smiles on people's faces, I put frowns on people's faces; I make you not like me.' And others go, 'well, that's not what we say.' And he says, 'Yeah, but that's what I say,' and all of a sudden he's a malcontent, but every great superstar has been trouble. Think it was easy for Vince's father to deal with Bruno Sanmartino? Think it was easy for Vince to deal with Hulk Hogan? Think it was easy for Vince to deal with Stone Cold Steve Austin? The only guy that was easy to deal with was Bob Backlund and he bored everybody to sleep."

On the current state of pro wrestling: "I'm happy with my position within the state of pro wrestling. It's a very interesting weekend to ask me that question, because we're sitting here, 48 hours outside of a show that's going to generate $100 million in revenue, so it's kind of hard for me to knock the state of pro wrestling. I grew up in the territorial days where if MSG sold out, the territory was doing fine. So, to see here on radio row with 24 interviews to do and satellite TV down the hallway and $100 million in revenue being generated by one show, if I knock the state of pro wrestling today then I'm just an unappreciative prick. When I was a kid they didn't generate $100 million in one show, let alone on the weekend where they've got the Hall of Fame as well, they've got Monday Night Raw which is sold out, so how do I knock it? So anything that I don't like about it I should just shut the F up because I'm going to come off like an idiot. No matter what the answer is, they drew $100 million in one day. Ok, doing better than I am."

On Brock Lesnar: "Brock Lesnar hates human beings. Period. That's it. Doesn't like people. He lives on a compound in what I like to call Texas Chainsaw Massacre Minnesota. You cannot find his address on a GPS. He lives off two dirt roads and it's a compound. His mail is delivered to his attorney's office in Minneapolis, they sort through it and then when they see him they hand him the rest of his mail. That's it. He does not like people and he wants to be left alone and that's what drives him. That's what makes him Brock Lesnar. There's a lot to be afraid of with Brock Lesnar. He's a violent man living in a violent society and it's a society that couldn't handle him if he decided to conquer it."

On Brock returning to WWE despite scathing remarks in his book: "It was a pretty big shock to me that he was willing to do it. I wrote the book with him and you should have seen the stuff that they made us edit out. You read a very tamed, toned down version of Brock's feelings. Brock's also a businessman and this is some opportunity for him. He came back and wrestled Extreme Rules, wrestled Summerslam and he's wrestling at Wrestlemania; he's had three matches the entire year and that was his limit. That's all he was willing to do. They're all high profile and they're all huge money matches. It's on his terms and not a lot of people can come back here on their own terms."

On ECW getting some respect: "It's something I don't even think about and here's why; do I think that ECW is getting the credit that it deserves from the audience that saw it and lived it? I don't think you can ever take that credit away. For people who didn't experience, it's kind of hard to explain it to them and it will never get the credit that it deserves from within the corporate structure of WWE. I don't anticipate that it would. It's like dreaming of being an astronaut once you're past 20 years old; aint gonna happen for you. If you're not dedicating your life to it, it just aint going to happen. I could have campaigns out there to get ECW recognized and respected within WWE; it's just not going to happen. Its fait accompli as far as that's concerned. So I don't really worry about it. The people that lived it, the people that experienced it, the people that watched it, my god, they love it to this day and it gets the respect that it deserves from those."

On his current run in WWE: "Career highlight. Absolute career highlight. I am working with my two best friends in the world. We are in two of the three main events of the largest Wrestlemania in my home market, New York. The stadiums in New Jersey but the market is New York. To be in two of the three main events at Wrestlemania is a pretty big deal. To do it with my two best friends on our own terms, this is an absolute fantasy come true."

Paul Heyman Interview

Fri, 31 May 2013 19:25:04 +0100

Paul Heyman spoke with Chad Dukes of 106.7 The Fan about WrestleMania and more. Check out the highlights:

On the Paul Bearer angle: "I mean leave it to a Jew to portray a resurrection the day after Easter Sunday. That was part of how offensive it was supposed to be! Of course, it was designed to offend! It was designed to be controversial! It was designed to piss people off and I wish it went even further than it did."

On the possibility of a CM Punk vs. Brock Lesnar match: "Listen if they happen to come to blows, I have both sides of a main event, that's not bad. Isn't that conventional thinking, I'd have to choose one side? Listen, tell ya my theory of life. I have a hot girlfriend. I have another hot girlfriend, on the side. Now, I can sit there and lie to them both and say, "Honey, you're the one," and then go to the other one, "Baby, you're the one." Or I can get them together and have the best of all worlds. Now you tell me, do you wanna live the double life, or do you sit there and say, can't we all get along? So, why can't I have both sides of the main event?"

On a possible Steve Austin vs. CM Punk match: "I'm very intrigued by what could possibly happen if those two could step into the ring with each other. The chemistry with each other, and around each other, there's a real combustible element there. You just know it. They have so much respect and admiration for each other, but man you look into each others eyes going, "man I'd really like to tangle with this dude. Let's say Austin comes back for WrestleMania XXX, let's say he comes back against CM Punk. Is that a $200 million dollar weekend in revenue? Is that a $200 million dollar gross revenue weekend and is the catalyst for that figure going from 150 to 200, Stone Cold Steve Austin? Now if that intrigues Steve, it intrigues me but I'm not Steve, I think Steve would be back."

Daniel Bryan Interview

Fri, 31 May 2013 19:24:44 +0100

WWE’s Daniel Bryan is an example of wrestling’s new generation of low-key stars

Daniel Bryan is not what most people would envision when picturing a professional wrestler. He’s not a huge man; he’s not even a particularly large man. In the bowels of Verizon Center a few hours before a recent taping of WWE’s “Monday Night Raw,” he stands at equal — or even lesser — height as the various non-grapplers who are milling about. He wears a flannel shirt with baggy jeans, and his full, shaggy beard is the only aspect of his appearance that would make casual bystanders give him a second glance. (And wouldn’t earn even that at, say, a Bon Iver concert.)

In conversation, his sentences aren’t peppered with exclamations or catchphrases, and he has deep thoughts about this form of entertainment that many might not expect are possible. “One of the things that people don’t understand — even people here, people within the company — to me, wrestling is art,” says the 31-year-old native of Aberdeen, Wash. “It’s a form of performance art. And there’s so much that goes into it that other people aren’t seeing.”

But maybe you should envision someone like Bryan when you picture a professional wrestler. As he and the WWE superstars gear up for Sunday’s Wrestlemania 29, the regular-looking, regular-sounding Bryan is representative of a new generation of superstars who don’t share much in common with the over-muscular and overexaggerated wrestling personalities of the recent past.

Wrestlemania, professional wrestling’s biggest annual event, by a factor of many, will be held this year at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium before 80,000 diehard fans. Casual fans — 1.2 million pay-per-view orders were placed last year — will be at home forking over their $60 to see whether Hollywood crossover star and returning, conquering hero the Rock can defend his WWE championship against the current face of the company, John Cena, or whether the Undertaker can defeat upstart C.M. Punk to win his 21st consecutive Wrestlemania match.

Bryan wrestled at Wrestlemania last year and knows this is a great chance to make his mark and earn new fans.“That’s the time when you can really show off,” he says of wrestling’s Super Bowl. “And you have to mentally prepare for it, too. You got to be on your game.”

Bryan’s path to WWE was built on giving his best showing night after night on stages microscopic compared to the scale of that on which he’ll perform Sunday. Over a decade, he has worked for dozens of companies on the sprawling independent wrestling circuit, from Pennsylvania to Japan, and earned a reputation as one of the best technical wrestlers in the world. This means he is someone who can make any move in the ring look devastating, graceful and believable, whether he is on the giving or receiving end — an essential skill for a wrestler.

Bryan eventually made it to the WWE — which turned Hulk Hogan, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin and the Rock into household names — without the one key ingredient to those stars’ success: a gimmick. So there’s a certain irony that Bryan is more popular than ever thanks in large part to the simplest catchphrase imaginable: “No!” The back story of how his character has won over fans by shouting this single word involves a relationship gone wrong, a vengeful ex forcing Bryan into a feud with a fearsome masked giant (Kane), the two rivals enrolling in anger management classes and eventually becoming tag-team champions. Bryan is somewhat baffled by how this story line has evolved, but he takes it in stride.

“I don’t consider it wrestling,” says Bryan, who will compete alongside Kane in a tag-team championship match on Sunday. “I’ve done wrestling. Everywhere. And just by being a good wrestler you can become popular. But not here. It’s more important to be entertaining than it is to be a great wrestler. It’s fascinating to me. Some things just stick. Why it happens, I have no idea.”

Bryan’s match at last year’s Wrestlemania lasted all of 18 seconds. He lost to Sheamus, a hulking, pale Irish brute who finishes his opponents with the Brogue Kick — which is a catchy way of saying “big boot to the face.”

“I felt my knees get weak,” Sheamus, 35, says of his first Wrestlemania moment, which came back in 2010 when he was in a high-profile match against one of WWE’s biggest stars, Triple H. After last year’s unfortunate cameo, he hopes to get much more time in the squared circle this year. “When you get to ’Mania, the football [stadium] with over 80,000 seats and you’re walking down the ramp before the doors open and you look at the stands .?.?. I hope [my match] lasts a lot longer so I can absorb the atmosphere.”

While Sheamus looks more like a traditional wrestler, he’s also representative of the new generation and WWE’s emphasis on authenticity — which is admittedly tricky when dealing with scripted material that often makes headlines for its absurdity.

“If you go back to the ’80s, I didn’t really know much about the characters,” Sheamus says. “I knew what they did in the ring. I knew Hogan went off and spouted lots of crazy promos, and Ultimate Warrior did the same. They really were just characters. Now the superstars are more like people, more human. And I think that’s a good thing.”

Joseph Park Interview

Fri, 31 May 2013 19:23:17 +0100

TNA's Joseph Park recently spoke about his time working for the company and more. Here are the highlights…

Celebrating is one year anniversary with TNA and the transition from lawyer to full-time wrestler: "It has been a heck of a transition, you know? I mean, I showed up about, like you mentioned, about a year ago and had no intention of wrestling; just wanted to look for my brother Abyss. I got some answers but not all the answers I needed; I couldn't really find him and he showed up at Slammiversary and didn't even stop to say hi to me after he helped me. You know, after that all happened, I was ready to go back to my law practice and then Bully Ray kinda got in my face a little bit and I kind of had just enough of being pushed around and stuff, so I decided to stand up for myself. Then, whole this thing just kind of rollerballed and I went to OVW, training with Danny Davis and the great folks out in Ohio Valley Wrestling and the next thing you know, here I am. So, I am still proud of my law practice but pretty excited about the future with wrestling."

What was it like beating Bully Ray at Slammiversary and picking up his first win: "You know what, you're right; you hit it on the head Lindsey. I mean, it has been; that match was something I'll never forget, you know? And as you remember, I had a little assistance there from my brother; that‘s about the only time I've seen him since I've started looking for him and I actually didn't even see him. I got to see the tape replay later but was not able to connect with him. But, to get back on your point, I was a great win for me and it kind of catapulted things and after everything that happened with Aces & 8's; I'll be the first to admit, Bully Ray pulled the wool over everybody's eyes, including mine and Hulk Hogan's and Sting's and everybody else. So, it's going to be interesting to see where things go moving forward."

Making his homecoming to Chicago: "It was great. It was truly a homecoming of sort and it was ironic with the first live television, outside of Orlando, was in Chicago, IL; my hometown. So, I mean, that was incredible. All the partners of Park, Park and Park were there; I couldn't get them anything other than nosebleed seats unfortunately because I don't have that kind of clout yet. Hopefully, when I get kind of clout that Kurt Angle, Sting and Hulk have, maybe one day I'll be able to get them better seats. Absolutely, I'll get a little more clout in the office and stuff like that and hopefully I'll be able to get some better seats for the partners for maybe the next time we come back to Chicago."

Taking IMPACT on the road: "We're just excited in general; I mean, Orlando and Universal Studios was great. It was fantastic to us but it really didn't give us an opportunity to get out around the country and to connect with our fan base and this has really allowed us to do that. You know, getting out of Orlando and getting on the road and actually getting in front of fans in the Midwest and the Northeast and in the South; to actually connect with them had just made such a huge difference in the show. Orlando was great and they're a great crowd; god bless them, we love them to death but, you know, moving out and moving on the road, and in front of a live audience every week, a fresh audience. It means the world of difference to everything and you can tell that just by watching the show and come right through your television screen; that momentum and that creativity and everything, it just comes right through your TV screen. Those fans are great on the road.

His friendship with on "Cowboy" James Storm: "James is great you know; you talk about a true, true cowboy. I mean, the guy is as much of a cowboy out the ring as he is in the ring and he's been great to be around. I've learned a lot from just talking to him and I actually got to travel with him a couple of times on the road, early on in my career. He's just a great guy to be around and he's an intense guy to be around and I can't think of a better guy to kind of learn the intensity and learn the ins-and-outs of this whole business from than a guy, a seasoned veteran, like James Storm. He is a lot of fun, and the thing with Storm is when it's time to fight, when it's time to wrestle, nobody comes more prepared than him, but when it's time afterward to drink some beer, there's nobody more prepared than him too. So, that's a unique quality he has."

His reaction to Bully Ray revealing himself as the President of Aces & 8's: "I felt betrayed and duped, just like everybody else, you know? That's just me, I'm sure I don't feel as duped as Hulk Hogan does; he ended up handing his daughter over in marriage to this guy. That part really bothers me the most and the fact that he fooled everybody. He did fool everybody and he had a lot of help fooling everybody; I mean, he was behind this thing the whole time and so he did an incredible job. I'll give Bully Ray one, he did an incredible job of pulling the wool over everybody's eyes but now we're in quite a jam. I mean, gosh, this guy is still married to Brooke Hogan, technically, legally. And as a guy who's a lawyer, it's going to be tough to get her out of that marriage; he's not budging at all. He's doesn't want out of it, so it's going to be interesting to see what happens. But I know this much, I'll be there to help out, whether it's physically or providing my legal skills to help resolve this whole thing."

Chris Masters Interview

Fri, 31 May 2013 19:22:17 +0100

Chris Masters recently appeared on AfterBuzzTV.com to talk about a number of topics such as recently stealing from his high school cafeteria, taking a jab from Shelton Benjamin and more. You can also check out a video of the interview below:

Masters on getting into wrestling: "I loved pro wrestling my whole life. Probably from the age of 8 or 9 years old. Ultimate Warrior actually caught my attention," Masters joked, "Guilty as charged. Looking back at the character, the music, you can see why as a kid you'd love a guy like that. [At] 16-years-old, wrestling was the only thing I loved. It was career day for me and I thought to myself, 'What can I do with my life? What do I love?' I was like, 'Shoot! Pro wrestling.' I decided on that day I was going to do it and I started working out. The rest is history."

On UPW and his injuries: "I started [at UPW] when I was about 17-years-old. The same day as John Cena...He was the prototype back then. I was only there a couple months and suffered a fractured ankle injury from a leapfrog over Andrew Bryniarski, who you'd know from Texas Chainsaw Massacre. So I got injured, but I also realized I was too young. I was 17 and all the guys they were looking at were real built. It was back to the drawing board [after my injury]. I had surgery for my ankle. Concentrated and took body building up as a hobby in pursuit to professional wrestling. I knew I was going to come back, but I wasn't in a rush. I was going to come back when I was ready to make noise and possibly get a job. [The injury] was the best thing for me actually. It gave me a taste of [pro wrestling]. I saw what they were looking for...I realized, 'I'm 17. Why would I pay for wrestling school at this point. I don't have the option to become a wrestler yet. I'm not physically there and I'm so young. I go back to UPW at 19 and I got signed by the time I was 20 to WWE, because UPW was constantly getting looks every time [the WWE] would come to California. Once I got to OVW in Louisville, this was my first time leaving home, mind you. You know, 19-year-old kid moving from Los Angeles, California where I was born and raised to Louisville, Kentucky, I didn't know what to expect there. But it turned out to be like my college. Looking back is was some of my most fun years. We had a tight knit group."

On getting "The Masterpiece" nickname: "I got to OVW and it wasn't maybe a week or two when they changed my name from Mordetzky to Masters. Dr. Tom Prichard told me, 'Your new name is Masters.' Maybe a few months down the line I was sitting with Mickie James, Matt Morgan, Johnny Jeter...and Matt Morgan of TNA specifically dropped the name 'Masterpiece.' As soon as he said it a light went off, 'The Masterpiece' Chris Masters. I brought it to Jim Cornet the next day and the rest is history. Vince kind of identified me with a young Paul Orndorff"

On the Masterlock: "The full nelson is an effective hold...I used it as a bouncer here in LA when I was still working and going to wrestling school. Because they don't want you to hit anybody obviously. They want you to restrain them and get them out [of the bar]. I always thought it was funny that I used that as a finishing hold. But [the MasterLock] will really make you pass out if you tort the neck. Just ask Shelton Benjamin. I was such a big, young kid and they had me so fired up and I didn't really know as we call it in the business, 'Shakespeare,' which is creating the act of movement. You know, I was really swinging people around. Eventually, I learned better."

On his body before wrestling: "I was really skinny as a kid. I was about 160lbs...but then I started eating like a pig and working out and I eventually ballooned up to 300lbs. Yeah, I was pretty fat...I remember one day waking up and looking in the mirror and being like, 'Wow, you're fat!' I just saw the tire iron around my waste and thought it was time to clean it up a little bit. Then I dropped down to 240lbs...I never had a trainer, so I taught myself everything. Initially, I was so skinny. I didn't have a diet scheme. I was in high school stealing those little cartons of milks that they give out. You know, you're allowed one per person. I'd go up and stuff five of them in my bag because then you get 50 grams of protein if you've got five milks. Milk is great. If you're a skinny kid trying to bulk up, have some milk with every meal...I kind of was just force feeding myself."

On his WWE release: "I take full responsibility for my first release. The second one was a little bit more of a shocker to me. I had fallen into the typical wrestling problem which as prescription pills. I fought that battle and haven't gone back. [At the time] I became a liability to the company and I understood them letting me go. Even when WWE sent me to rehab, I didn't believe I had a problem...so I eventually messed up again and had a relapse. It derailed my career. I never really got the shot that I got the original time."

On saving his mom from her burning house: "Every second that went by felt like ten minutes...The big part of the story that everyone [exaggerates], is I didn't rip the tree from it's roots, but I did bear hug the tree down to the ground and broke it...She pops out and I've never loved my mom more than that moment."

Big Show Interview

Fri, 31 May 2013 19:21:46 +0100

Years before he was a two-time WWE Champion, Paul Wight (a/k/a The Big Show) was a reserve center on the Wichita State basketball team, averaging 2.0 points and 2.1 rebounds in 21 games during the 1991-92 season. With the Shockers back in the Sweet 16 for just the second time since the tournament expanded in 1985, I caught up with him to talk about his experience playing basketball, what made college hoops so difficult after he dominated in high school and next week’s return of WrestleMania to the NYC area.

What can you tell us about your college basketball career?

Big Show: My college experience at Wichita State was definitely a learning curve. I had a great time at Wichita State. It’s a great university. I love the program. I chose Wichita State specifically because they didn’t have a football program. Wichita State was all about basketball and baseball — and we all know I have a strike zone the size of Nebraska so I don’t think I would have made it as a baseball player.

The basketball program had a lot of potential and I think that was one of the reasons I made the decision. I really liked Coach [Mike] Cohen at the time, who recruited me. I liked the university. I liked the town. The people in Wichita are very supportive of their athletic programs. Wichita’s a fun place. It’s a great place to go to school. It’s a big university, but at the same time it’s not too big. The program was awesome. The colors were cool with the black and gold. I still haven’t figured out exactly what a Shocker is. People ask me all the time: “It’s a … shock … of … wheat … I don’t know?”

The whole fact that Wichita State’s in the Sweet 16, I’m very happy for the program and I’m very happy for Wichita itself. But also for me it’s kind of a weird year because this past year I’ve started getting back into college basketball and I live in Miami now. And I’ve made a lot of roots and a lot of ties in the local community so I started going to a lot of the U of M games, just getting back into college basketball and appreciating those great student-athletes. Now the team that I played for and always supported, and then now a team that I supported in my community, they’re both in the Sweet 16 and they might wind up facing each other in the Final Four. It makes March Madness just that much crazier in my house.

When did you first start playing basketball?

Big Show: My first game was for Aiken Prep School in seventh grade. The first shot i took — somebody passed me the ball and I was about 10 feet away — I shot it and I made it. That was the first time I had ever had a crowd reaction, so to speak. There was probably like 60 people there but for me at the time it might as well have been Giants Stadium. It got me hooked. Basketball and athletics were a way for me to start to bond with other kids. You know at 12, I was like 6-2. At 13, I was like 6-5 or 6-6. I had always stuck out as a bit of a freak, so athletics gave me a chance to make friends and I guess find my “cool” vibe if there’s such a thing when you’re in high school.

It also gave a chance for me to attend university. Let’s face it, my dad was a mechanic and my mom was a cop: my college options in seventh grade didn’t look that great. And the chance I got to go to college and experience college life is something that’s pretty precious to me. I’ve always made the statement that I’m going to go back and get a degree. I just haven’t had time; I work 290 days a year wrestling now. But I love getting to go to a couple of U of M games and see the college atmosphere and appreciate the student athletes. If there’s any advice I could give any of those athletes, it’s that life has a lot of challenges in front of you and don’t put all your eggs in one basket. If you have a chance to get the degree, get it. Take full advantage of the education. All the hard work you’re putting in on the court, the practice time and sacrifices you’re making, if you get a chance to get the degree, take the degree and have that in your back pocket. I started out thinking I was going to play in the NBA, now I travel the world as a WWE Superstar. Life changes.

Do you have a favorite memory from your basketball days?

Big Show: There’s a lot of great memories. I got benched a lot because I was an arrogant S.O.B. as a young teenager if you can imagine that or not. I remember Coach Cohen was a really personable coach. I think that was probably our biggest downfall because he cared too much about his players, when sometimes being a coach means you have to think about the program first and making the program work. But for me, he was like a father figure. He was on me all the time about being arrogant. I talked trash when I played, I fought in practice. It was different for me. I was used to being the guy, the stud in high school. Team play was kind of a new concept. We ran kind of a UCLA high-post offense at the time. There was a lot of movement and setting screens and flashing to the top. And I didn’t want to do that. I wanted to sit on the low block. I wanted to post up. Just throw me the ball and I’ll put it in the hole. And I was like a black hole. If you threw the ball in, obviously the defense would collapse and I couldn’t do anything with it, but I didn’t have enough sense to understand at the time that if you move the ball around, you create more opportunities for the team. I think back then I was trying to create opportunities for myself.

I remember 5 a.m. runs for smarting off and sitting the bench a lot for smarting off. I missed the team bus one time — we were going to play Tulsa — and me and a couple of the guys drove my car all the way to Tulsa. We were burning oil and we couldn’t afford the gas and everything else, and when we arrived they turned us around and sent us back because we missed the team bus.

For me, my college basketball experience wasn’t what I thought it was going to be out of high school. But I think in life adult lessons, I learned a lot from Wichita State. The town was always good to me. The fans were always good to me. The people in Wichita were always good to me. I don’t have any complaints at all about any time that I spent at all in Wichita.

WrestleMania returns to the NYC area next week for the first time in nearly a decade. Is pro wrestling’s flagship event any different when it’s in New York?

Big Show: It’s completely different. New York and New Jersey fans are like no other fans anywhere in the world. It’s funny because New York is known for being competitive. New York likes champions. If you’re not pulling your weight, New York lets you know. Trust me: If you have a crappy match, New York fans will let you know right in the middle of it. They’ll chant boring. They’ll chant you suck. They’ll chant you messed up. The pressure to do well is always a little bit higher in New York. But like anything, that pressure makes you better.

So the only thing that I’m a little concerned about is the weather. Because, you know, I’m not wearing much. I’m wearing Spandex. It’s gonna be a little chilly out there.

Hate to put you on the spot, but if it did end up being Wichita State and Miami in the Final Four, who would you be supporting?

Big Show: If it was Wichita State and Miami in the Final Four who would I be supporting? Wow, you are a real reporter, aren’t you. You’re really diving into the question that everyone wants to know, where any answer that I give somebody’s gonna hate me, and I thank you so much for that question and it’s so nice of you to ask me that question. Let’s see. Well. Um. [Thinks.] Honestly, both programs … Miami’s doing well with their program. I live in Miami. I’m going to root for Miami just because I’ve got too many friends that will make my life miserable if I said Wichita State. So, I think, uh, yeah, I’m going to root for Miami. But then again, Wichita State is a Cinderella team and everybody wants to see that real underdog win. I think just for me, because I live in Miami and I get my coffee in Miami, I’m going to say Miami.

All you had to say is you’re going to root for a good game!

Big Show: Why don’t you just put that then! I’m just going to root for a good game. I’m not good at this! I change my answer! I just hope that it’s a great game. That’s why you get the big bucks.

Hulk Hogan Interview

Fri, 31 May 2013 19:21:13 +0100

In an interview with Fighting Spirit Magazine, Hulk Hogan discussed his strained relationship with the late "Macho Man" Randy Savage and desire to induct the legendary wrestler into the WWE Hall of Fame.

“I’ve heard all these urban legends about Randy doing something to piss Vince off," said Hogan. "I’ve heard two or three different stories, and I don’t know if any of those are true, but he deserves to be in the Hall of Fame, and I would love to be the one that inducts him. I’ve got a speech for him ready to go. I just think it’s a must that he’s in the Hall of Fame; he was so influential in this business, especially in the WWF, and in my career.

"You know, he’s the only guy we could pass the belt to, and we wouldn’t lose money. You gave the belt to The Ultimate Warrior - I don’t want to drop a bunch of names - and right away the revenue went down. Give the belt to ‘Macho Man’, and things would stay the same, or get better.”

“For me, it would be cool to induct him. We had a rift for about 10 years, and then right before he passed away, I was getting an EKG, when I hear (mimicking Randy’s voice) ‘Yeah, what’s up, brother?’ And I looked over, and he was there, looking great. I said, ‘Hey Mach, how you doing?’ I shook his hand, and introduced him to my wife, Jennifer. He’s like, ‘Hello lovely lady, how ya doing?’ Jennifer said to him, ‘Oh, Mr. Macho, I’ve heard so much about you. You know, we’ve got three or four lawyers at the house today, so we’re gonna cook up. We’d love to have you over.’ But he just went, ‘I don’t dig lawyers, baby, maybe we could start out with a phone call?’

“I was on a show with Lanny (Poffo, Randy’s brother), Scott Steiner and Kevin Nash in Canada [around the time of Randy's passing], and Lanny had told me that his mom was depressed because his dad had passed away, and would me and Randy come to see her? We were gonna have a barbecue at Randy’s house for his mom, and surprise her. But midweek, Randy passed away. It was tough because we just started talking after all that bullshit; I was excited to talk to him, he was excited to talk to me, and then he passed away. It was [expletive] up. He was a great human being, too. He had a good heart, man. He was a good person.”

Hulk Hogan talks about the plans for his match with The Rock at Wrestlemania X-8 in 2002.

“Out of respect, I go down there (to Miami), and there’s me and The Rock and his dad Rocky Johnson, and Pat Patterson,” said Hogan. “The Rock starts telling me that we’re gonna lock up, and do this and do that, then start getting some heat on me, and so on. So he talked through the whole match, and I was listening. I respect him, and it kinda made sense, but I’d never done that before. Then they go, ‘Okay, let’s have the match here.’ I said, ‘Whoa! You’re talking about me taking bumps in this ring, with no people? I’ll get hurt, and if I fall wrong one time, then my career is over.’ I’ve got to have the energy of the crowd, so that when I go down, I go down to the mat hard. So instead, we just walked through the match."

Hogan was depicted as the heel going into the match due to his affiliation with the New World Order, and because of his acrimonious departure from WWE years prior. The audience, however, didn't care that Hogan was portrayed as a villain by WWE, instead cheering the wrestling icon and reigning a chorus of boos toward The Rock. Hogan says he had the match changed on the fly due to the crowd reaction.

“The whole issue I had was what if we got to Toronto, and this doesn’t work? So sure enough, when we go to Toronto, I give The Rock one big push, and the place explodes. Then I pushed him again, as we planned, and the place explodes again. [WWE] thought I was gonna get booed. Then I start chopping meat on him, and with every hit the place is going crazy. Then I did what was planned, blocking a punch, and as soon as he started hitting me came the boos.”

“I went down, and looked up and said, ‘You want me to fix this?’ And The Rock says, ‘Yeah, let’s fix it.’ I went, ‘OK, then listen to me.’ But it took him no time to get it right, because he is just so good in the ring. It took us three minutes to get it right, but if we’d done what we had practised, they’d have booed us out of the [expletive] building. I’m not saying I could do it in every instance, but The Rock is so good, we could do that. The Rock doesn’t usually talk about planning his matches, so somebody must have made him worry that I was too old and too slow, and that I wouldn’t be able to keep up with the work-rate. But once he got in the ring with me, he knew I had a feel for it, and we got it right. That’s what I wanted to do with ‘Stone Cold’, and Bret Hart, too.”