By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
Rad Turtles Wrestling Podcast with Scott Stanford
Host: Rad Rob
Interview available here
On how he got in to the WWE as an on-air talent: “Well, I was a sports anchor at a station here in New York and Smackdown, I think about 11 years ago, came to UPN. The UPN stations had their news, their news programs would come on. Their local news would come on from 10 to 11 so they always want it to have a WWE or wrestling related feature piece in the news that they can tease. During Smackdown they’d say, ‘Coming up on your local news, you know, Hulk Hogan and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, We’ll have the details at 10’. So they chose me and I kind of maybe worked my way in since I was a wrestling fan and the guy in New York closest to WWE. I was the guy who worked with WWE to put those feature pieces together, you know, two minutes. That’s all it was. So I’d go to one event at the garden or the Meadowlands here in New Jersey, and I would do like ten different interviews and I would have ten different stories.
“And basically, my pieces would run on all of the UPN stations around the country. You know, the Bella twins are, you know, doing this, and here’s Scott Stanford with the story. So they could tease that during SmackDown to keep the wrestling fans, to watch the news because it’s a totally different audience, right? It’s wrestling fans, and it’s 10 o’clock news, so you’re working harder to try and keep some eyeballs on your newscast. So, I was the guy doing that, and one day I got a call, they said they were looking for a new studio host. They said they had a ton of auditions. I sent in a demo tape, which had me doing all these interviews and stories and fun pieces with, with wrestlers.
“So it almost looked like I worked for them anyway. And they showed it to Vince McMahon and he saw it for two minutes and he said, get this guy in here. And then I went in and I auditioned with Joey Styles. So Joe had me on, went through like a two, three hour audition process. And I got the job. And I’m like, ‘Holy cow, this is unbelievable.’ And the rest is history. So, I mean, I basically, I’ve done pretty much everything there is to do. I’ve got to call matches, hosted shows, done interviews, WrestleMania stuff, pre-shows, kickoffs, and it’s just been, it’s just been phenomenal.”
Appearing on Zack Ryder’s True Long Island Story: “You talk about having fun, man. I mean, I would literally shoot superstars before Raw. Go in the back. You know, you hang, everybody’s around and if they need you to do it, interview, you’re there. And Zack and I would put together these commercials and skits. And he’d shoot it on his phone and he’d go home, he’d edit it there on the week, and he’d, show me, and I’m like, dude, this is great. They’re going to love it. You know, make it cheesy. The cheesier the better. The less production quality, the better. And he, if you think about it, he was one of the first guys to take advantage of a YouTube platform, and really just, you know, got himself over, if you will. You know, the term everybody uses. And I just think it just shows you his drive and determination, to go above and beyond and do what he needed to do, to have people in those arenas chant his name all the time, which was unbelievable.”
You can hear about this and much more on the Rad Turtles Wrestling Podcast that drops three times a week anywhere podcasts are found or via the link above.
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