By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
The Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling Podcast with Bill DeMott
Host: JP John Poz
Twitter: @TwoManPowerTrip
Website: www.tmptempire.com
Interview available at Tmptow.podomatic.com
On Randy Savage: “Randy was great with me. And I think he goes back to that day one. He knew after the first time working with me, that I at least had an idea of what I was doing and how to control other people as well. Because, you know, big men have this stigma to them. They’re stiff and they’re this and they’re unsafe. And if they get blown up, they’re really unsafe. But I got to run with Randy for six months. I was running with Sting on live events and in certain shows and, and, you know, all the run-ins we were doing as the Dungeon and things like that. So the running joke was, okay, give, let the new guy run to the ring first and take four chair shots before the rest of us get there. So I was beloved in the Dungeon.”
On Hulk Hogan: “The only time I ever got really nervous was the first time I main evented with Hulk, and we were in Virginia. I’m not sure, maybe Norfolk, I’m not sure. And I didn’t realize I was working with him that night and, and Beefcake came into the locker room and said, ‘the big man wants to see you’. And we made the whole walk around the whole arena, cause his dressing room was on the other side. And I sat there like I was a kid in the principal’s office and, and the Hulk came out and said, ‘Can you hit me with your deal and not hurt me?’ I like had this lump in my throat and I’m like, ‘yeah’. I said, ‘I promise I won’t hurt you’. He goes, ‘all right, let’s do it’. And he walked, he walked back into the part of the dressing room. I’m like, ‘that’s, that’s it?’ So now I’m walking, I’ve taken the walk of, Oh my God, what the hell is supposed to happen now? And now I’m sitting, the whole show’s going at the time. Business is hot.
“And now I’m in the main event against Hulk Hogan. Well, some of the time we go through the, you know, the typical match and rake his back and he’s just like you, and I hit him with my deal and he was the first one to ever kick out of it. The match was over, and here came [Brutus] Beefcake again and said, ‘Big man wants you’. And now I was, I was really, I was a little nervous, going, ‘Oh shit, this may have just ended my run here’. And, uh, he put a beer down on the table and said, ‘Thank you.’ And I went, ‘Oh yeah, thank you’. And, you know, little toast of a beer. And it was the best walk ever back to my locker room. And I was like, all right. So I think, listen, a lot of guys can say that, but you get the blessing of the, of the big guy, then you keep working hard and try and wait for the next opportunity. And I got to, I got to bump around with Hulk through the years like that. And like I said, same with Randy and Sting and [Lex] Luger and got in there with the Horsemen and I was doing, you know, good stuff. And so every time I had an opportunity to try to showcase what I could do, I tried to take advantage of it.”
On WWE: “Fast forward, I came back, I started an angle with Rikishi that went well and all these things were going well, and then I broke my neck. So when I was out doing that, I was given an opportunity to be a commentator. So the day after my neck surgery, I was back on commentating in Connecticut. So I was, I would say I was blessed and fortunate because the company kept me around. They saw something in me that I could keep going. So when, as my neck was healing, I wanted to get back in the ring, but I wasn’t cleared to do that. And it was one of those, let’s not take any chances, but we will send you to Louisville to train the kids. And by the way, there’s another Tough Enough. So my calendar was twice as full, not being an in ring performer.”
On Tough Enough: “While we were on the road and doing what we did, Tough Enough was their reality show. The first season was Taz. The second season was Bob Holly. And so they were coming up on their third season. I was approached by Al Snow, who was the head trainer for Tough Enough, and he goes, ‘Hey, hey, Billy, they want, they want to know if you want to do Tough Enough’. And I’m like, ‘Well, what does that, what does that mean for me? Like what’s, what’s involved’. And so they laid it out for me, said it was a good opportunity. I didn’t realize I was going to be gone for four months, but that, and, and how I got that opportunity was I was always in the ring before shows, before live events, before TV, I spent all the time in the ring working out with young guys or working out with other guys, just wrestling, trying new things or showing somebody something else that may work. And that was the culture in WWE, like get out there. Don’t just sit in catering for ten hours before the show. And so when I got that opportunity, that worked out really well for me. It was the highest (rated) show on USA. It was MTV at the time, their biggest hit show was season three. And so now we have, I have some, you know, some fire behind me.”
The end of WCW: “ As you spend time in this business and stuff, believe half of what you hear or half of what you see, none of what you hear, whatever it is. Until I see it, I don’t believe it. But that night we got to Panama. We saw WWE production signs up everywhere and we’re like, Oh, this is it. So I wasn’t pissed. I was more contemplating. Will I go back to Japan? Have I had enough? You know, what’s, what’s the opportunities. And I think that a lot of the guys were thinking that way. And a lot of the guys were like, Who cares? I’m on guaranteed money. I don’t care if they get sold or not. I’m getting paid, but I was trying to figure out my next steps. So I wasn’t mad at it at all.”
Other topics include breaking into the business, WCW, Eric Bischoff, Kevin Sullivan, Hulk Hogan, Macho Man, Lance Storm, Vince Russo, WWE, Vince McMahon, Triple H, NXT, the Performance Center, and more.
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