Ring The Bell Radio with Nick Dinsmore
Hosts Matt and J.D.
Full audio available at RingTheBellRadio.com.

Whose idea was it for the Eugene Gimmick: "It was my idea; I had the idea of a kids based character that couldn’t do the basic things, but when he got into the ring he would emulate his favorite stars. I remember being a kid watching wrestling feeling that way, having the awe and excitement when I Hulk Hogan or the Junk Yard Dog or Koko B. Ware.

How he pitched the idea to Vince McMahon: "In the developmental system (OVW) WWE used to send down members from the creative team. They said I had great in ring ability but I needed a gimmick. So I pitched the Eugene gimmick to them. They really didn’t care for it and at the time I got really frustrated. I was about to ask for my release and go to Japan or Mexico, and then I found myself in a meeting with Mr. McMahon. He looked at me and said "I want to get back to character based wrestling!" Going into the meeting I had no idea what I was going to say, but once he brought that up, I told him my idea. He sat back and laughed and said "Sounds great, you’ll start on Monday".

Working for WCW and how it compared to WWE:
"Late 98-99 I wrestled two Thunders, two Nitros and about 10 Saturday Nights. It seemed to be a bit more stressful for sure. Things weren’t ironed out as smoothly as with WWE. I remember one Nitro that they didn’t even have the line up of what was going to happen until 5 minutes after the show actually started. In WWE though it’s the same thing, but I think the "machine" and more well oiled than in WCW."

Toughest Opponent: "Hands down….Kurt Angle. I wrestled him for about six weeks straight. He pulled my hair, bloodied my lip, blackened my eyes, and dropped me on my head! He was one of the most aggressive guys out there, but at the same time very professional. He was great to wrestle with but you knew you were going to be in for a fight."

Thoughts on TNA: "TNA has the platform to do something completely different in the wrestling business right now. All of the pieces are in place in TNA right now that were in place when WCW made more money than any wrestling company in history. People are expecting things to happen immediately in TNA and you can’t make the magic happen like that. If you remember Hogan was in WCW for almost two or three years before the NOW finally took off. You just have to wait for everything to fall into place, but for TNA it’s looking good all the way around."

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