By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
Insight With Chris Van Vliet with guest Paul Wight
Host: Chris Van Vliet
Podcast available via Podcasts.Apple.com
Are you feeling good now? “I’m feeling real good. I think my main thing now is I understand there’s a short window left, and listen, I’m not in any way, shape or form delusional that I’m going to go out and compete for championships and pull the wagon, those days are done. Also, in fairness to the younger talent that’s digging and striving now, they don’t need to see my ass every week, taking up TV time and ring time. There’s nothing I can do that’s going to make my career any bigger or better. All I can do is enjoy some of the last years that I have under contract with AEW and hopefully have some fun with some of the younger talent and teach them some of the lessons that have been passed down to me, and just, you know, have a little bit of fun. I’m in a really good spot. I got a good boss that believes in me, supports me, and gives me an opportunity to be a part of the business I love.”
Do you have a number in mind for how much longer you want to keep doing this? “It’s funny, with wrestling, I think for me to get back in the ring and compete, I’m going to have to be a certain level. I’ll never be what I was. Got two fake knees and two hips. The proprioception is different. The connection between your joints is different. You feel different as an athlete, so I have to accept what am I now, and does that enhance the product that I’m doing? Sure, I’m smart enough and old enough. There are certain things that I can do that will still give a little kickback to nostalgia, will still look like a big, dangerous giant that is my character and teach. But at the same time, if it looks like, oh, put a bullet in [him], well, I’m not going to do that. So that’s what all this hard work now is, okay, what’s the one thing that I can really control? That’s conditioning and weight. I don’t need to be 500 pounds anymore. I need to be about 350.”
It’s become an observation of how many times you turned face or heel: “Arn Anderson told me, ‘The dumbest thing you ever did is learn how to work.’ So any minute, I was able to be a good opponent for what we were doing. I knew that me, personally, I don’t think I should ever have been champion. You don’t need a giant to be a champion. You need a giant to be an obstacle for the upcoming champion. You need somebody, something, a wall, a mountain, something that has to be overcome so that the next talent can be on its way. There’s a damn good living to be made in that position. I think the last time I got the title was just because I had been five or six years in title matches all the time, hadn’t won the damn thing. ‘Well, he’s been in here while, we might want to put it on him, so get some validity out of it.’ But I was okay with that. I enjoyed that, because I look back at my career now, I got to help create some big, big stars. I was working early with Roman and working early with Cody. There are a lot of talents that I had a great [time with], Kofi and Woods and Cesaro. Big moment, Cesaro at WrestleMania, those are all good moments for me. I always understood that I’m not, and this is no way am I putting myself down. I’m not a leading man, I’m not Rock, I’m not Stone Cold. I’m not John Cena. I’m not the leading guy, I’m the funny sidekick, or I’m Thanos, the villain. That’s where I fall in, and that’s okay.”
It’s great to hear the perspective of why you turn face or heel so many times. If you were working a heel, you’re a babyface. If you’re working a babyface, you’re a heel. Yeah, you’re trying to make them look good. “That’s the whole name of the game. My philosophy is different. What I took to the business and brought to it, not that it’s any super algorithmic formula that’s going to guarantee success. I looked at what I brought to the table, and what are my responsibilities? Get the match over, get my opponent over, and the third thing is going to happen, I will get myself over. I didn’t know how to do those things early in the beginning, because it was, oh, do I just go out, get myself over? Do I do this? Just figuring out how to respond on things, just a couple of little tweaks, and then also trusting the other talent, and talking to them, explaining to them what we’re doing. And once you explain to guys now, if we do this right, and we build this here, this will get a bigger reaction, and then guys get crazy, like your buddy, Rey.”
The stuff on the stretcher is crazy! “I hate that spot! That gives me nightmares. That went so bad. Oh, that went terrible because it was my idea, because Rey was tied in it, and then I thought I’d rib him in the afternoon, whereas I’ll just pick him up and scare him. Oh, I can [pick him up]. This isn’t that tough. So what about swinging the pole? My God, that’ll look crazy. But the whole thing was, I was gonna swing him in the pole, swing him on the pole again, and I was gonna shove him back in the ring. Somewhere, somebody before us, because it sure as hell wasn’t me, the guys used to put this conditioner crap on their hair. Sometimes it would get on the ropes, and it makes your hands so slimy. Even if you grab the top rope, getting out of the ring, your hand just comes right off. So when I swung Rey into that pole, that thing popped right out of my hands, it squeezed like a hard-boiled egg or something. It just popped right out, then I saw Rey go, and I went, Oh, I just killed Rey. Oh, Jesus. So I’m freaking out on the inside, but we’re still doing our thing. He’s moving. Oh god, they’re putting him in the ambulance. Oh my god. So I ran back to the locker room, grabbed my clothes, threw them in the car, and drove to the hospital in my rental car, because I’m thinking, man, if Rey’s seriously f—ed up, I’m done. I’m quitting. I’m done. Because I really cared about taking care of the other guys. I get there and Rey sits in the hospital bed with his hands behind his head, just chilling. ‘Hey, man, that was good, huh?’ I’m like, ‘You’re okay?’ [He says] ‘Oh yeah, man, I’m fine.’ I’m like, ‘You know what I went through driving over here worrying?!’ Rey used to love in the house shows when he worked, he used to love to sit on the top turnbuckle and have me chop him in the chest, and he would bump from the top turnbuckle to the floor, and it looked like he got assassinated. There’s a loud smack, and then boom, there’s no more Rey. He just disappears and goes down. Arn Anderson was the agent. Arn said, ‘You know, when I see you do that to Rey, I want to call the police on you.’ It’s not me. It’s his idea. That’s not me doing that. That’s Rey. That’s getting me in trouble.”
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