Heath Slater looks back on his first match with Vader, becoming The Legend Builder

By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)

Inside the Ropes interview with guest Heath Slater
Interview conducted by Kenny McIntosh
Available at ITRwrestling.com

On how his first match with Vader came to be: “I walked into Gorilla or Talent Relations. I looked at the list and it said Heath versus Vader. I looked over at Mark Carrano. I said, ‘Is this Swoggle coming out dressed as him to beat me up or something? What’s happening here?’ He’s like, ‘Nah man, it’s Big Van Vader.’ I said, ‘Like, the Big Van Vader?’ He replied, ‘Yes, which other Big Van Vaders do you know?’

He explained to me that leading up to Raw 1000, Vince [McMahon] wanted a legend to come in each week, and they just wanted to feed them to whoever and just let them win. I knew that had to be my spot, man. Let me be the legend builder or the guy that’s like, ‘Get the hell out of here old guys, we don’t want y’all here.’ Mark told me to talk to Vince.

“So I looked to see who my agent was, and it was [Mike] Rotunda. I go up to Mike: ‘Mike, what do you think about this?’ I explained to him what I explained to Carrano, and Mike just spits in his little dip cup and says, ‘Man, go tell that to Vince, I can’t change nothing.’ I go to Vince’s door, and I pull my pants up, knock, and he said, come in. I walk in and I explain it to him. I said, ‘Hey man, Raw 1000 got legends coming in each week, you mind if I be the guy that wrestles them?’

“[Vince said] ‘Why would you want to do that?’ I explained, ‘You know how Randy’s the legend killer? I could be the legend builder. I could be talking junk, you’re this, you’re that, don’t come around. They can come out and demolish me.’ He looked at me like, ‘You would want to do that?’ I said, ‘Damn right, I want to do that!’ What was crazy is that he said, ‘Yeah, man, let’s do that then. I’ll give you a minute promo and the match.’

“What was crazy is that each week I had no idea who I was working, no idea who was coming in. So it was one of those things. I knew once I got to the building, but all week I am wondering who else it is going to be? It was a surprise to me too, and also for the fans in the audience.

“But that’s pretty much how it started. I walked in, saw me and Vader. Thought it was a joke. Turned out it wasn’t. I went and pitched it. It was like a childhood dream. I remember playing with those dudes as toys and they let me be in the ring. Holy crap, this is Sid Vicious. Wow!”