By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
Insight With Chris Van Vliet with guest Eric Bugenhagen (f/k/a Rick Boogs)
Host: Chris Van Vliet
Podcast available via Podcasts.Apple.com
On previously stating that the removal of Vince McMahon from WWE killed his career: “Well, I mean, if you look at it objectively, look at my NXT run and then look at when I was seen by Vince and look at that run. Then, when management and the whole regime changed again, look at that run. A lot of people say, ‘Oh, he was injured.’ I was supposed to be brought back early when I wasn’t cleared, like a month or two after rehab. I was really pumped. ‘I can’t bend my knee but, yeah, let’s get back out there,’ and it was kiboshed.”
On whether some holds a grudge against him: “Grudge isn’t the right word. In development, I was told, ‘You have an awesome personality, and people like you, and the crowd is with you. Just keep getting better in the ring.’ Basically, with that regime, that’s all I ever heard. But at the same time, I get where both sides are coming from.”
On being released by WWE: “If you want to talk about my second run on the main roster, I guess I saw the writing on the wall. But it wasn’t like let me get ready for it. It was just basically thank God for my YouTube community because I always had that. I have an awesome community. Everyone I meet in real life is awesome. I have done a ton of meet and greets and it’s great, it’s awesome.”
Getting injured at WrestleMania 38: “There was supposed to be this documentary too. It’s like, “Oh yeah, it’s being filmed all day. Oh it’s your first WrestleMania?” Then I just blew my tendon once I got in there. I guess I wasn’t warmed up. We were the first match at WrestleMania too so it’s not like I had much time to warm up. It was a crazy day. My muscle was firing so hard, it just ripped the tendon off the bone.”
On not wanting to wrestle again: “No. When I first decided I was going to do wrestling, I had to be all in on something. So like, I was doing strength and conditioning stuff, personal training. I was like, if I’m gonna commit to this other endeavor, I just quit my job. I have a wife and a daughter. I just got unemployed for the sake of you know, getting hungry that I really wanted to make it happen, which my wife was not happy about. She was like, ‘Why did you have to quit?'”
>>‘I can’t bend my knee but, yeah, let’s get back out there,’ and it was kiboshed.”
And then if they HAD let him go in, he would have sued them for making it worse or went all over saying “WWE let me wrestle injured which ended my career.”