This was filmed in 2013
Friday: WWF Championship Wrestling 8/16/86
Saturday: RoH Invades Boston 8/24/02
Sunday: WWF Championship Wrestling 8/23/86
Tuesday: WWF The Big Event 8/28/86
Thursday: 1992 WWE Timeline as told by Bret Hart
Any feedback or questions can be sent to BBayless781@gmail.com
Follow me on Twitter at https://twitter.com/MrBayless1982
The Interview was conducted by Rob Feinstein
It runs at one hour and thirty-eight minutes long
The interview begins with Feinstein asking Daivari if he grew up a wrestling fan. He said that he did and grew up watching the AWA as he lived in Minnesota. He also got into wrestling again in high school during the "Monday Night War" era.
His favorites as a young kid were Hulk Hogan and Sting. When he got older, he became more into the actual wrestling side and became fans of Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels.
Daivari had his first match at age 15. His plans were to graduate from high school then go down to the WCW Power Plant and learn to be a wrestler, as it was the only advertised wrestling school. A friend of his told him about Eddie Sharkey and Daivari got in contact with him and it cost $2,000 for training.
He said that while training, only a few of them took it seriously. Daivari said that he was with Austin Aries, Ken Kennedy, and ODB and they were all serious as everyone else was content with staying on the local independent scene and did not want to branch out.
Daivari said that Sheik Adnan Al Kaissie took a liking to him and helped him out a lot, even taking him out to dinner. He also said that the best way to learn is by being in the ring.
His first impression of Austin Aries was that he was a dick. Daivari said that Aries was rude towards him but at the same time, Daivari was 15 years old while Aries was in his twenties and Daivari thinks that he might have been annoying by doing "kid things." He talks about when they had to drive 300 miles, he got all fucked up on Mike's Hard Lemonade and they had to pull over every twenty minutes so he could puke. Daivari said that he got to know Aries after a while and how some still say that he is a dick, he just marches to the beat of his own drum. Daivari said that Kennedy is one of his best friends and they used to live and travel together. At that time, Kennedy and ODB dated and they all lived together. Daivari said that Kennedy would watch over him on the road. Daivari also said that he also hung out with Punk and Cabana during this time.
His first major break was at the 2004 ECWA "Super 8" show. Tyson Dux got hurt and could not compete so Aries put in a word with Jim Kettner and that was how he got a shot. Daivari said that they all helped each other out at that time. He said that Kennedy was the first to get a push in the WWE but Punk eclipsed him when he became popular.
Daivari also said that Punk was a dick to him when they first met. He also said that Punk thought he was a jabroni because he had a website before he even wrestled in his first match. Daivari said looking back, he would have probably done the same thing. He also said that Punk helped him get into Ring of Honor.
Speaking about Punk, Daivari knew that he would become popular as not only is he really popular but he looks different and carries himself like a star. When asked about Colt Cabana, he said that he was handcuffed by the WWE.
When he made his RoH debut, Daivari said that it was cool. He also said that the match went okay and that Gabe Sapolsky booked him for a few more dates but some of the shows were very long drives.
Before he got signed by the WWE, Daivari said that he wrestled in sixteen dark matches. He wondered what he had to do to get signed and why they kept bringing him back if they did not want to sign him to a deal. Daivari mentioned how Tom Prichard and Michael Hayes vouched for him but they also had OVW and HWA as developmental territories and they had some guys that wrestled in WCW and ECW so there was no room for him. He thinks that after those guys started to trickle away, they started to look at the independent guys to fill those slots.
His first WWE dark match was with Austin Aries. Daivari said that they tore it up and got a standing ovation from the crowd. When they got back to the Gorilla position, Gerry Brisco told them it was the best dark match they have ever had and some of the other guys they were bringing in at that time told them they would be brought into the company but nothing ended up happening. He ended up working with the ECW guys like Tommy Dreamer, Stevie Richards, and the Dudley Boyz. When he and Aries wrestled the Dudley's in a dark match, Bubba went up to them and said they were put in a dark match because they were fucking with them and to go out and tear it up. After the match Vince apologized to Bubba, who told him that it was a shame the match was not on RAW and walked off.
He finally got a job with the WWE when they developed the Mohammed Hassan character. Daivari said that Tom Prichard got him in as a manager after he told WWE officials that if they were not going to use him as a wrestler, then make him a manager. Daivari was brought to OVW initially to tag with Hassan but Vince came down and wanted Hassan to be the singles star and for Daivari to be the manager and that was how he got signed. In four weeks, they were in Stanford, CT taping vignettes.
Daivari said that he was in OVW for less than a month. He was there with guys he considers friends like Carlito, Chris Masters, and Bobby Lashley.
When they first arrived together in the WWE, Daivari said that Hassan had a tough time in the locker room as he had never been there before. Hassan was trained and only wrestled in OVW while Daivari had over a dozen dark matches and they remembered him and he developed friendships and would go out drinking with them. He said that he was training with Benoit within weeks and hanging out with Randy Orton, briefly menitoning how they would toss out firecrackers from cars. He also said that they would fuck with Hassan constantly.
Feinstein asks Daivari who would mess with Hassan and to provide an example. Daivari said that Bob Holly and Bradshaw fucked with him a lot then tells a story when they toured Japan. Bradshaw, Holly, Undertaker, and Charlie Haas called him and Hassan down to the bar. Chris Jericho was there and saw what was going on and asked if they needed both of them and they said "just the big one" so Jericho tool Daivari and they went out drinking. He has no idea what happened to Hassan.
Daivari then tells another story. Hassan was a using the camel clutch as a finisher and Eddie Guerrero was using the move in his matches. Kurt Angle told Hassan that he should protect his finisher and Hassan went up to Eddie and told him about not using the move. Eddie then asked Hassan who invented the move and he said the Iron Sheik then Eddie corrected him and said that it was his dad who invented the move and it was done with but once word got out to the rest of the locker room, the veterans started to rag on Hassan for being disrespectful. He also tells another story of John Laurinatis and Gerry Brisco getting into an argument on a tour bus that ended with Johnny yelling at Brisco just to make sure that all of the fucking bags get off of the bus. Brisco then started to angrily take the bags off and asked Hassan, who was holding his own bag, to give it to him. Hassan said no a few times and had no idea what was going on and Brisco ended up taking it and that although it was just an isolated incident, word spread to the rest of the locker room and Hassan got heat for that. Daivari then added how he went back for a dark match in 2010 and that the locker room was totally different and stuff like that would never happen and if Mark broke in at that time, he would have probably made it in the WWF.
When asked if Hassan cracked due to the locker room, Daivari said that he never sold it but quit after they dropped the Hassan character.
On his initial impression of Vince McMahon, he said they did a pretape and Vince was watching the playback and asked what was wrong and when no one said anything, Vince yelled at the top of his lungs if anyone saw what was wrong and they saw that a cord was shown hanging in the background. Daivari said that Vince was always cool with him and that they would go into his office and talk a lot. He then said that Stevie Richards told him he was an idiot for doing that but Daivari said Vince was always cool with him and that was why he kept going back to his office.
He is asked about working with Hulk Hogan and Eugene at WrestleMania 21, he said they had no idea until the day of the show that the angle was going to happen. Daivari said that Pat Patterson, who was always Hogan's agent, came up with the whole thing. When asked, Daivari said that Hogan was awesome to work with.
Daivari said that he found out he was working with Shawn Michaels on RAW when he was at the gym with Molly Holly and got a call from the office if he had his gear with him because he was going to wrestle HBK. Daivari said he was told that he was going to work with a four-week long program with HBK but it got switched after two weeks. Daivari added that he thought they were joking when told he was doing a program with HBK.
He loved working with William Regal & Tajiri. Daivari said that he hung out a lot with Jericho, who jokingly called him his "Pet Arab" but doesnt remember a lot of their matches.
When asked about the London bombings ending their gimmick, Daivari said that they filmed the piece on Tuesday and the actual bombings happened early Thursday morning. He said that Smackdown was already in the can at that point and it was aired, with one reporter wrote how it was distasteful, thinking it was a live show then when it was on the AP Wire, the network wanted the characters off of the network.
After that, Vince told Daivari that he was going to be called "George W Bush" and come out dressed like the Apollo Creed character from "Rocky." That night, Daivari went up to Stephanie and said that the gimmick would tank and she agreed with him and convinced Vince to pull the plug on the character. Daivari also said that Stephanie was more hands-on than Vince.
He went down to the Deep South Developmental territory and Laurinaitis asked him to find a partner, as he thought Daivari needed to be paired with a big guy. However, Cena was feuding against Kurt Angle, who was the heel but getting cheered, so they decided to put Daivari with Angle so he would get heel heat. After that, they put him with other heels, like Khali and Mark Henry to get them heat.
When asked about the Undertaker, Daivari said that he was always cool in and out of the ring. He also said that Taker would always pay for bar tabs. He said that he would even show up for just a half-hour and leave then at the end of the night when they went to pay, they were told that Taker already took care of the tab.
Daivari is asked about his time in Deep South and if he had any horror stories about Bill DeMott. Daivari said that he never saw DeMott hurt anyone but at the same time, never thought that what he did would be necessary for someone to become the next WWE Champion. He said that doing Hindu squats are not going to make you a champ then went on to explain how his drills were all basic stuff that you would pick up after thirty days in wrestling school, even adding that he is not the best wrestler in the world himself. Then he adds that guys who had never wrestled or trained might need those drills though. He also said that it might not have been DeMott's decision to train the way he did either.
He is asked about John Cena and Daivari said that he was cool. He also said that they were drinking buddies. He also said that Cena never let him pay for anything when they traveled. Daivari also mentioned how Cena would change in the locker room with everyone else and not in Vince's office. When asked who would change in Vince's office (he is referring to Vince's office in the arena), Daivari said that HHH, Batista, and sometimes Orton would change in there. Daivari said that those guys would change in Vince's office on RAW and not the house shows.
When asked about how he got to work with Mark Henry, Daivari said that he was with Kurt Angle when Batista got hurt and they needed a top face for Smackdown. Daivari said that Angle told him they originally asked Shawn Michaels but he did not want to go to so they switched Angle to Smackdown, who was getting cheers anyway.
Daivari said that Henry was cool and they would chill at strip club together. He also said that Henry would bend silverware and frying pans too. He then tells a story of how Henry went to pick up a car and the bumper basically crumbled in his hands and they took off after that happened.
He is now asked about working with writers and agents. Daivari said when things go off script in a segment, Vince blames the writers and agents instead of the talent. He then said that the head writer only works with he main event guys. He also said that Michael Hayes was specifically assigned to him and the Great Khali when they worked together and said that happened when Khali told Daivari that he could understand Hayes when he tried to talk with him (Khali did not speak English) so Daivari told Stephanie that Hayes could work with Khali. Daivari jokingly refers to Hayes as the "Khali Whisperer."
On when he went to ECW, Daivari said that he was pissed on how he wound up there. He said the original plans for WrestleMania 23 were for Hulk Hogan, with Donald Trump in his corner, against Khali with Vince McMahon in his corner. But Hogan did not come to terms with the WWE and they already split Daivari from Khali so he had nothing to do at all and his split from Khali wound up being unnecessary as a result. He then talks about how he learned that it is much better to be a hot act rather than a wrestler as his last two years in the company he was wrestling every night but on secondary show instead of being involved with the top storylines.
He talks about his first match in ECW, which was against Shannon Moore. Daivari said that match killed him as they wanted him to go out and squash Moore but he considered him a friend and decided to give him some offense but Vince saw two guys who were not over and wanted to see a heel destroy the babyface.
Daivari talks about the Cruiserweight Division and how the company did not care about it but did like Shane Helms and made him the champion, who rarely ever defended the belt. Daivari said they got a little bit of confidence in him again and when Helms turned face, they brought him over to Smackdown and he beat him. He said that he was supposed to face Helms at a PPV for the belt and thinks he was supposed to go over but the week before the show it was scrapped and they decided to have a gauntlet match as he was told that cruiserweights do not draw. Daivari said it ended up being good then they decided to have all sorts of gauntlet matches and six-man tags but no focus on the belt.
When asked if he felt that his character was racist, Daivari said not at all and that was how he got to make it to the WWE and on the independent scene, that is the character they want to see him play too.
On how he left the WWE, Daivari said that they offered him a contract but he was coming off of his worst year creatively and did not want to get signed and have to ride the bench with nothing to do because when that happens, it is a lot harder to get work elsewhere so he decided to leave when his contract expired.
He got booked in All Japan through the Great Muta and said that it was awesome. He wrestled with Silver King as a partner a first. Daivari said he was wrestling a Japanese style at first then Silver King pulled him aside and old him that they brought him in to wrestle an American style so he switched it up and he got more over as a result. During his next tour of All Japan, he worked with the Great Muta in the main event and found out it was due to him being broken-down and the fact that Daivari worked the easier American style of wrestling.
On how he got into TNA, Daivari said that Bert Prentice used to book him when he first started out and did some dark matches when they were doing the weekly PPV shows. He met with Terry Taylor then a few weeks later Scott D'Amore said that he was among the top of the list of new guys they wanted to bring into the company. He made is debut as the captain of the World X Cup team then after that he signed a contract.
Daivari tells a funny sorry about when he was filming vignettes in Houston. They filmed him at a power plant and someone called law enforcement and Homeland Security arrived and saw him dressed up in a turban and the guys from Spike showed their press passes but they were told they had to leave.
He talks about how they played a prank on Billy Gunn in TNA when they told the flight attendant to announce over the loudspeaker that it was Gunn's 65th birthday. When they got to TV,they had a wrestler's court, which Daivari said resulted because there was so much downtime during the tapings and he ended up taking a plea bargain, which was to buy a case of beer for the locker room. He also said that someone was the bailiff and he cannot remember who it was but when Vince Russo tried to enter, they threw him out. Daivari said that he was in the first segment of that taping then left after that to get the beer and saw that a Walmart was right next door then bought some supplies and ended up making a bar in the locker room that was up for about a year but Universal Studio's made them tear it down. He said there were bottles of Grey Goose and beers on ice and he made signs that read "Talent Only" and they had a party that night.
When asked about the politics in TNA, Daivari said that once Russo became the Head of Creative, he told him that he disliked his act and started to strip away pieces of his act. He then said that it got worse as his contract was based off of TV and PPV payoffs and he was barely being used. He then said one night he got drunk and flipped out on Russo, which led to him getting fired.
He talks about how Jarrett told him he was going to be the head of the World Elite stable and from that, the Main Event Mafia was going to turn face and that feud to lead into a match at the Lockdown PPV. Russo ended up replacing Jarrett as Head of Creative and told Daivari that he was going to be replaced as the leader of World Elite with Eric Young. Daivari said that Russo fucked over his money as Daivari was only on house shows under Russo and he barely made any money off of those payoffs.
After TNA, he went to Ring of Honor. He said once Adam Pearce was replaced as the booker, he was done as he made more money than the main event guys but was wrestling the opening matches. He liked his time with the company and made a lot of new friends.
When asked about working for Jarrett's Ring Ka King promotion, he first talks about how Jarrett had talks with the Speed network for a wrestling show that involved racing as well called "All Wheels Wrestling" and from that they went to India.
Daivari said that India was rough and tells a few stories. He talks about how he was with Abyss and had some rubies that were worth about $10 in American currency and a homeless child tugged on his shirt for money and Abyss gave him some rubies then after that, all sorts of kids came up to him and he kept giving them money until they got into the cab to go to the airport. He then tells a story of how a few of the guys wanted to get some weed and thinks that something got lost in translation when they talked about getting high and had a guy knock on their door with a brick of black tar heroin for them.
Feinstein asks him about the incident on the train. There was a belligerent drunk on the train spouting off racial obscenities right in front of him and really targeted one guy who got on the train. An elder Chinese man told the guy to be quiet and he flipped out on him then took off his backpack and Daivari did not know what he had inside of it so he decided to take the guy down and put him in a chokehold. He said that the police were not going to come and the guy was twice his size but the train stopped and he dragged him out then the train pulled away. He said that it wasn't until two days later when TMZ emailed him about what happened.
He is asked about Chris Benoit. Daivari said they became friends in the WWE and how he looked up to him as a child. He said that the police contacted after the incident as he was one of the last people that texted him. He was in a ton of shock when it happened and still seems to be that way too.
When asked which wrestler's death hit him the hardest, Daivari said that it was Lance Cade's. He said that he saw Lance a week before he passed away and was all fucked up on drugs and said that maybe if he went to someone about it, he could have gotten help.
Daivari said that the Wellness Policy is awesome as his friends are no longer dying from drug overdoses. When asked, he said that the drug use has calmed down a lot because there are no consequences for their actions as when you are suspended, you lose a lot of money.
On his future, he said that he would love to have another "money" run but does not know if it will happen again and said that he was in the right place at the right time before in the WWE.
He closes by saying that as a heel, he hopes that he does not have many fans because that means he was doing his job right and you were paying attention to his opponent. Daivari rushed this a bit as he wanted to leave to hit up a strip club.
Final Thoughts: I thought this was a good interview. Daivari speaks fast and kept the interview moving. He definitely loves to go out drinking and hit up strip clubs too. Seems like a cool guy to hang out with.
Besides Russo, he never went out of his way to bury anyone and never took himself too seriously. Also, it shines light as to how the WWE locker room still was like the "Wild West" as he put in several years ago and I wondered how many young careers that atmosphere ruined myself.
Overall, this is a solid shoot interview and a breeze to watch.
You can purchase it as a rental for $9.99 here:
http://www.rfvideonow.com/catalog.php?id=c765ccda289b2b0b7ff2
or at RFVideo.com on DVD
Feinstein asks Daivari who would mess with Hassan and to provide an example. Daivari said that Bob Holly and Bradshaw fucked with him a lot then tells a story when they toured Japan. Bradshaw, Holly, Undertaker, and Charlie Haas called him and Hassan down to the bar. Chris Jericho was there and saw what was going on and asked if they needed both of them and they said "just the big one" so Jericho tool Daivari and they went out drinking. He has no idea what happened to Hassan.
Daivari then tells another story. Hassan was a using the camel clutch as a finisher and Eddie Guerrero was using the move in his matches. Kurt Angle told Hassan that he should protect his finisher and Hassan went up to Eddie and told him about not using the move. Eddie then asked Hassan who invented the move and he said the Iron Sheik then Eddie corrected him and said that it was his dad who invented the move and it was done with but once word got out to the rest of the locker room, the veterans started to rag on Hassan for being disrespectful. He also tells another story of John Laurinatis and Gerry Brisco getting into an argument on a tour bus that ended with Johnny yelling at Brisco just to make sure that all of the fucking bags get off of the bus. Brisco then started to angrily take the bags off and asked Hassan, who was holding his own bag, to give it to him. Hassan said no a few times and had no idea what was going on and Brisco ended up taking it and that although it was just an isolated incident, word spread to the rest of the locker room and Hassan got heat for that. Daivari then added how he went back for a dark match in 2010 and that the locker room was totally different and stuff like that would never happen and if Mark broke in at that time, he would have probably made it in the WWF.
When asked if Hassan cracked due to the locker room, Daivari said that he never sold it but quit after they dropped the Hassan character.
On his initial impression of Vince McMahon, he said they did a pretape and Vince was watching the playback and asked what was wrong and when no one said anything, Vince yelled at the top of his lungs if anyone saw what was wrong and they saw that a cord was shown hanging in the background. Daivari said that Vince was always cool with him and that they would go into his office and talk a lot. He then said that Stevie Richards told him he was an idiot for doing that but Daivari said Vince was always cool with him and that was why he kept going back to his office.
He is asked about working with Hulk Hogan and Eugene at WrestleMania 21, he said they had no idea until the day of the show that the angle was going to happen. Daivari said that Pat Patterson, who was always Hogan's agent, came up with the whole thing. When asked, Daivari said that Hogan was awesome to work with.
Daivari said that he found out he was working with Shawn Michaels on RAW when he was at the gym with Molly Holly and got a call from the office if he had his gear with him because he was going to wrestle HBK. Daivari said he was told that he was going to work with a four-week long program with HBK but it got switched after two weeks. Daivari added that he thought they were joking when told he was doing a program with HBK.
He loved working with William Regal & Tajiri. Daivari said that he hung out a lot with Jericho, who jokingly called him his "Pet Arab" but doesnt remember a lot of their matches.
When asked about the London bombings ending their gimmick, Daivari said that they filmed the piece on Tuesday and the actual bombings happened early Thursday morning. He said that Smackdown was already in the can at that point and it was aired, with one reporter wrote how it was distasteful, thinking it was a live show then when it was on the AP Wire, the network wanted the characters off of the network.
After that, Vince told Daivari that he was going to be called "George W Bush" and come out dressed like the Apollo Creed character from "Rocky." That night, Daivari went up to Stephanie and said that the gimmick would tank and she agreed with him and convinced Vince to pull the plug on the character. Daivari also said that Stephanie was more hands-on than Vince.
He went down to the Deep South Developmental territory and Laurinaitis asked him to find a partner, as he thought Daivari needed to be paired with a big guy. However, Cena was feuding against Kurt Angle, who was the heel but getting cheered, so they decided to put Daivari with Angle so he would get heel heat. After that, they put him with other heels, like Khali and Mark Henry to get them heat.
When asked about the Undertaker, Daivari said that he was always cool in and out of the ring. He also said that Taker would always pay for bar tabs. He said that he would even show up for just a half-hour and leave then at the end of the night when they went to pay, they were told that Taker already took care of the tab.
Daivari is asked about his time in Deep South and if he had any horror stories about Bill DeMott. Daivari said that he never saw DeMott hurt anyone but at the same time, never thought that what he did would be necessary for someone to become the next WWE Champion. He said that doing Hindu squats are not going to make you a champ then went on to explain how his drills were all basic stuff that you would pick up after thirty days in wrestling school, even adding that he is not the best wrestler in the world himself. Then he adds that guys who had never wrestled or trained might need those drills though. He also said that it might not have been DeMott's decision to train the way he did either.
He is asked about John Cena and Daivari said that he was cool. He also said that they were drinking buddies. He also said that Cena never let him pay for anything when they traveled. Daivari also mentioned how Cena would change in the locker room with everyone else and not in Vince's office. When asked who would change in Vince's office (he is referring to Vince's office in the arena), Daivari said that HHH, Batista, and sometimes Orton would change in there. Daivari said that those guys would change in Vince's office on RAW and not the house shows.
When asked about how he got to work with Mark Henry, Daivari said that he was with Kurt Angle when Batista got hurt and they needed a top face for Smackdown. Daivari said that Angle told him they originally asked Shawn Michaels but he did not want to go to so they switched Angle to Smackdown, who was getting cheers anyway.
Daivari said that Henry was cool and they would chill at strip club together. He also said that Henry would bend silverware and frying pans too. He then tells a story of how Henry went to pick up a car and the bumper basically crumbled in his hands and they took off after that happened.
He is now asked about working with writers and agents. Daivari said when things go off script in a segment, Vince blames the writers and agents instead of the talent. He then said that the head writer only works with he main event guys. He also said that Michael Hayes was specifically assigned to him and the Great Khali when they worked together and said that happened when Khali told Daivari that he could understand Hayes when he tried to talk with him (Khali did not speak English) so Daivari told Stephanie that Hayes could work with Khali. Daivari jokingly refers to Hayes as the "Khali Whisperer."
On when he went to ECW, Daivari said that he was pissed on how he wound up there. He said the original plans for WrestleMania 23 were for Hulk Hogan, with Donald Trump in his corner, against Khali with Vince McMahon in his corner. But Hogan did not come to terms with the WWE and they already split Daivari from Khali so he had nothing to do at all and his split from Khali wound up being unnecessary as a result. He then talks about how he learned that it is much better to be a hot act rather than a wrestler as his last two years in the company he was wrestling every night but on secondary show instead of being involved with the top storylines.
He talks about his first match in ECW, which was against Shannon Moore. Daivari said that match killed him as they wanted him to go out and squash Moore but he considered him a friend and decided to give him some offense but Vince saw two guys who were not over and wanted to see a heel destroy the babyface.
Daivari talks about the Cruiserweight Division and how the company did not care about it but did like Shane Helms and made him the champion, who rarely ever defended the belt. Daivari said they got a little bit of confidence in him again and when Helms turned face, they brought him over to Smackdown and he beat him. He said that he was supposed to face Helms at a PPV for the belt and thinks he was supposed to go over but the week before the show it was scrapped and they decided to have a gauntlet match as he was told that cruiserweights do not draw. Daivari said it ended up being good then they decided to have all sorts of gauntlet matches and six-man tags but no focus on the belt.
When asked if he felt that his character was racist, Daivari said not at all and that was how he got to make it to the WWE and on the independent scene, that is the character they want to see him play too.
On how he left the WWE, Daivari said that they offered him a contract but he was coming off of his worst year creatively and did not want to get signed and have to ride the bench with nothing to do because when that happens, it is a lot harder to get work elsewhere so he decided to leave when his contract expired.
He got booked in All Japan through the Great Muta and said that it was awesome. He wrestled with Silver King as a partner a first. Daivari said he was wrestling a Japanese style at first then Silver King pulled him aside and old him that they brought him in to wrestle an American style so he switched it up and he got more over as a result. During his next tour of All Japan, he worked with the Great Muta in the main event and found out it was due to him being broken-down and the fact that Daivari worked the easier American style of wrestling.
On how he got into TNA, Daivari said that Bert Prentice used to book him when he first started out and did some dark matches when they were doing the weekly PPV shows. He met with Terry Taylor then a few weeks later Scott D'Amore said that he was among the top of the list of new guys they wanted to bring into the company. He made is debut as the captain of the World X Cup team then after that he signed a contract.
Daivari tells a funny sorry about when he was filming vignettes in Houston. They filmed him at a power plant and someone called law enforcement and Homeland Security arrived and saw him dressed up in a turban and the guys from Spike showed their press passes but they were told they had to leave.
He talks about how they played a prank on Billy Gunn in TNA when they told the flight attendant to announce over the loudspeaker that it was Gunn's 65th birthday. When they got to TV,they had a wrestler's court, which Daivari said resulted because there was so much downtime during the tapings and he ended up taking a plea bargain, which was to buy a case of beer for the locker room. He also said that someone was the bailiff and he cannot remember who it was but when Vince Russo tried to enter, they threw him out. Daivari said that he was in the first segment of that taping then left after that to get the beer and saw that a Walmart was right next door then bought some supplies and ended up making a bar in the locker room that was up for about a year but Universal Studio's made them tear it down. He said there were bottles of Grey Goose and beers on ice and he made signs that read "Talent Only" and they had a party that night.
When asked about the politics in TNA, Daivari said that once Russo became the Head of Creative, he told him that he disliked his act and started to strip away pieces of his act. He then said that it got worse as his contract was based off of TV and PPV payoffs and he was barely being used. He then said one night he got drunk and flipped out on Russo, which led to him getting fired.
He talks about how Jarrett told him he was going to be the head of the World Elite stable and from that, the Main Event Mafia was going to turn face and that feud to lead into a match at the Lockdown PPV. Russo ended up replacing Jarrett as Head of Creative and told Daivari that he was going to be replaced as the leader of World Elite with Eric Young. Daivari said that Russo fucked over his money as Daivari was only on house shows under Russo and he barely made any money off of those payoffs.
After TNA, he went to Ring of Honor. He said once Adam Pearce was replaced as the booker, he was done as he made more money than the main event guys but was wrestling the opening matches. He liked his time with the company and made a lot of new friends.
When asked about working for Jarrett's Ring Ka King promotion, he first talks about how Jarrett had talks with the Speed network for a wrestling show that involved racing as well called "All Wheels Wrestling" and from that they went to India.
Daivari said that India was rough and tells a few stories. He talks about how he was with Abyss and had some rubies that were worth about $10 in American currency and a homeless child tugged on his shirt for money and Abyss gave him some rubies then after that, all sorts of kids came up to him and he kept giving them money until they got into the cab to go to the airport. He then tells a story of how a few of the guys wanted to get some weed and thinks that something got lost in translation when they talked about getting high and had a guy knock on their door with a brick of black tar heroin for them.
Feinstein asks him about the incident on the train. There was a belligerent drunk on the train spouting off racial obscenities right in front of him and really targeted one guy who got on the train. An elder Chinese man told the guy to be quiet and he flipped out on him then took off his backpack and Daivari did not know what he had inside of it so he decided to take the guy down and put him in a chokehold. He said that the police were not going to come and the guy was twice his size but the train stopped and he dragged him out then the train pulled away. He said that it wasn't until two days later when TMZ emailed him about what happened.
He is asked about Chris Benoit. Daivari said they became friends in the WWE and how he looked up to him as a child. He said that the police contacted after the incident as he was one of the last people that texted him. He was in a ton of shock when it happened and still seems to be that way too.
When asked which wrestler's death hit him the hardest, Daivari said that it was Lance Cade's. He said that he saw Lance a week before he passed away and was all fucked up on drugs and said that maybe if he went to someone about it, he could have gotten help.
Daivari said that the Wellness Policy is awesome as his friends are no longer dying from drug overdoses. When asked, he said that the drug use has calmed down a lot because there are no consequences for their actions as when you are suspended, you lose a lot of money.
On his future, he said that he would love to have another "money" run but does not know if it will happen again and said that he was in the right place at the right time before in the WWE.
He closes by saying that as a heel, he hopes that he does not have many fans because that means he was doing his job right and you were paying attention to his opponent. Daivari rushed this a bit as he wanted to leave to hit up a strip club.
Final Thoughts: I thought this was a good interview. Daivari speaks fast and kept the interview moving. He definitely loves to go out drinking and hit up strip clubs too. Seems like a cool guy to hang out with.
Besides Russo, he never went out of his way to bury anyone and never took himself too seriously. Also, it shines light as to how the WWE locker room still was like the "Wild West" as he put in several years ago and I wondered how many young careers that atmosphere ruined myself.
Overall, this is a solid shoot interview and a breeze to watch.
You can purchase it as a rental for $9.99 here:
http://www.rfvideonow.com/catalog.php?id=c765ccda289b2b0b7ff2
or at RFVideo.com on DVD
Here is my schedule for my reviews this week:
Friday: WWF Championship Wrestling 8/16/86
Saturday: RoH Invades Boston 8/24/02
Sunday: WWF Championship Wrestling 8/23/86
Tuesday: WWF The Big Event 8/28/86
Thursday: 1992 WWE Timeline as told by Bret Hart
Any feedback or questions can be sent to BBayless781@gmail.com
Follow me on Twitter at https://twitter.com/MrBayless1982
What's the official #?
ReplyDeleteAll the failed chances they had to take the proverbial next step. Such as:
ReplyDelete- Letting Raven go over Jarrett for the NWA World Title when Raven was on FIRE
- Ditto for Monty Brown
- Not making Samoa Joe the champ in 2006 when he was still undefeated and probably the hottest act in all of wrestling
- Ditto for D'Angelo Dinero. Pope was getting ridiculous reactions from the crowd for a while
Maybe I'm getting too deep here, but I think about all of the arrogance and contempt they rolled up.
ReplyDeleteThey were arrogant enough to blow off Jim Ross and Paul Heyman. They were arrogant enough to drive Jeff Jarrett off. They were arrogant enough to even lie to the same people who have been spending the past four years trying to prop them up.
Contempt? Where do we start? Contempt for the fans by depicting them as the most undesirable losers whenever they appear on camera, having Desmond Wolfe get destroyed after winning the #1 Contender poll, and then letting Jeff Hardy wrestle when he was in no condition. Contempt for the people who work there, whether they are on screen or off: Jesse Sorensen, any of the women (Awesome Kong and Daffney in particular), AJ Styles, their production crew, Rob Terry. Contempt for the realities of the business today.
The fact I associate them with those two things instead of their talented roster is not something I take glee in.
I'll give TNA credit - they did tag team feuds beautifully. Triple X/AMW, LAX/Styles & Daniels, Beer Money/Motor City Machine Guns. When they decided to feature the tag division, it was gold.
ReplyDelete...and being unable to shake it even though in recent years they've made a half-hearted effort to rebrand themselves "Impact Wrestling."
ReplyDeleteI can't understand it. If they REALLY want to change the name, why not change it? It's really not a well-known brand outside of wrestling fans, and they'll certainly get the change.
Awesome Kong was booked so perfectly for so long....then it all kinda fell apart.
ReplyDeleteWhat's the story with J.R. and TNA? Was that a legit thing, or is that just rumors?
ReplyDeleteThey weren't really jobbed out, though. Arn carried his team at Survivor Series before doing the job for Warrior after playing the "so exhausted, and come on it's fucking Warrior" card, and they had a great 2 out of 3 Falls match taped for SNME. Other than the title loss, they weren't losing 2-minute junk matches like others in similar situations.
ReplyDeleteWoohoo, a resume play feature is coming!
ReplyDeleteElvy
ReplyDeleteLOL Elvy was my answer also
ReplyDeleteLol @ Vince berating Flair and Savage after a match and making them go back out and redo it. Wow. That's a new one
ReplyDeleteBret is great discussing anything Bret related but I don't think he ever paid attention to things that didn't concern him. Like the Hogan/Sid/Flair/Savage/Undertaker/Jake deal at the beginning of the year. Doubt he would have paid attention since he wasn't in the mix.
ReplyDeleteI was mainly referring to the "you know as little as the real JR" tweet that she backpedaled from. As far as the 2010 talks, I completely forgot.
ReplyDeletei need to change my answer... Elvy
ReplyDeleteI remember hearing about how Vince laid into Austin after KotR '99. I think Austin hit him too hard with the ladder or something. Just amazed that Vince didn't really get starstruck and let everyone know he was the boss, regardless of who it was. Might have been different with Hogan but I doubt it.
ReplyDeleteYep, that sounds so crazy, especially with a title change. How the hell did they explain that to the fans?
ReplyDeleteX-Division.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first started getting to watch it in '04 that is what always stood out. You heard names like AJ Styles, Daniels, Low Ki, Amazing Red, Samoa Joe, etc etc on the Internet but I never really saw them wrestle. At its height - which for me was the AJ-Joe-Daniels matches from 06 (right?) it was as good as wrestling got.
The very first thing I associate with TNA? The very first thing is Jeff Jarrett. Which is unfortunate because he never had any favor with me and that wasn't ever gonna change. The second is the awful name itself, TNA. Steve Austin even said something this morning about it on his podcast, hard to get past that name, it should have wrestling somewhere in the title. The first good thing is the Knockout division. It was the one area where they excelled in, from Awesome Kong, Gail Kim, Velvet Sky, Christy Hemme, bringing in talent from elsewhere, Daffney etc, they really made their females stand out, and seem more than just T & A, which is strange considering the name of the company.
ReplyDeleteWhat's amazing about that is that you often had smart wrestling minds working for them. Yet they still kept doing dumb shit.
ReplyDeleteAccomplishing the minimum with the maximum resources.
ReplyDeleteI associate stupidity with the company. How can you not change your offensive or suggestive double entendre-based company name? Change it to Impact Wrestling or something similar, dumbasses. From Day One, they were fools.
ReplyDeleteAs far as another commenter here goes...
WCW1987: First thing I associate with them? Hmm. The fact that they are a highly profitable company that looks to be stronger than ever after the finish negotiating their new TV deal with Spike. THEY ARE STILL NEGOTIATING! DON'T BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU READ!
You're talking to a guy who watched Bad News Allen in Stampede Wrestling as a kid and Bad News was the most terrifying heel figure imaginable.
ReplyDeleteAn in shape 35 year old Bad News vs Stone Cold would have set the wrestling world aflame!
Already leaked, if you want to go that route.
ReplyDeleteThey were jobbing on house shows to the Bushwhackers. I didn't see the problem with that but Tully took it as a burial. Probably because he didn't respect them.
ReplyDeleteI think I'm always going to associate WCW1987 with TNA.
ReplyDelete1st Impression: Stumbling upon the show on the Fox Sports network and being confused by the 6-sided ring, not recognizing any of the talent, and getting a headache from the multiple score tickers scrolling across the bottom of the screen. Gave up after 10 minutes.
ReplyDelete2nd Impression: Checking out the Show on SpikeTV, hearing Mike Tenay's voice, seeing Jeff Jarrett, Sting, Scott Steiner, etc. and thinking "Jesus this is WCW 2000!" Did not make it through entire show.
3rd Impression: Watching hours & hours on YouTube of promos, matches, show reviews, recaps, rants. Laughing. Shaking head. Feeling sad. Baffled they are still in business.
Bafflling is probably the best way to describe TNA.
ReplyDeleteI’m fairly sure you just became the most popular female
ReplyDelete(only female?) on the BoD.
"female"
Concise and insightful. I'm not sure what's going on, but I don't think I've seen you take a jab at supposed smark mentality in about two days. A welcome change no matter how long it lasts.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting stuff, and wrestlers court actually sounds really fun.
ReplyDeletein the beginning, I thought it might be a good alternative to the WWE. Throughout the years I have tried giving it a chance but I could never get into it. So, I guess my overall impression is that it never had a clear cut direction.
ReplyDeleteIf you want me to join you on a journey then at least give me some idea of where you are taking me. TNA could never tell me cause they never figured it out themselves. Shame though. Could have really been a contender.
They knew exactly what they needed to do to be different (X-Division and Tag Teams) and instead de-emphasized those things to become a second rate cheap impersenation of the WWE.
ReplyDeleteJINX!!!!
ReplyDeleteThat's my experience with TNA. Aside from when they had AJ-Daniels-Samoa Joe tearing it up around 2005/2006 or so, I never really got invested in any of their characters.
ReplyDeleteThe title match at Victory Road in 2011 when a clearly disgusted Sting had to pin an inebriated Jeff Hardy in less than 3 minutes. The pre-match stuff (Hardy's entrance, Bischoff coming down to relay last minute instructions and Hardy trying to figure out where to throw his T-Shirt) lasted nearly three-times as long as the actual match. As for the fans that just paid their hard earned money to watch the match - sorry, but you're out of luck! They enabled a troubled figure like Hardy solely because he had been a name in WWE (and refused to fire him after he pulled this crap). When it was clear he wasn't going to be able to work that day, they still sent him out there, knowing he could hurt himself or Sting (luckily they called the audible). That, in a nutshell, summed up TNA.
ReplyDeleteRainbow Sherbet is the 1 in 700,001.
ReplyDeleteMy interest piqued with the Beer Money breakup. It seemed to be leading to something big then they just kinda dropped the whole thing. I still don't understand that one.
ReplyDeleteHe actually made it to end of February . Referenced working Undertaker and Taker telling him how glad he was to work with him and how great he was in the ring
ReplyDeleteProbably the six sided ring. However, I also think about the god awful "Joker Sting" character.
ReplyDeleteI still give kudos to Sting for standing up and saying "I'm not risking my health facing this guy."
ReplyDeleteI saw a match of theirs on Youtube, and it was a very interesting dynamic. Taker was a main eventer, fresh off feuding with Hogan, while Bret was just not quite there yet, but well on the rise. Was pretty cool to watch.
ReplyDeleteThe bar he built in TNA seems cool
ReplyDeleteIt was on the PTW taping for the title change as I recall.
ReplyDeleteThat one does. The court the Undetaker holds seems terrible.
ReplyDeletegod awful?
ReplyDeletethat's a funny way to spell "darn awesome"
crowd chanting "bullshit!" and sting yelling back "yeah, i agree!"
ReplyDeleteThe amount of jobbing Arn and Tully did to the Bushwhackers makes baby Jesus cry.
ReplyDeleteMonty Brown was awesome. Ridiculous how he never made it in either TNA or WWE.
ReplyDeleteThey made a half-hearted attempt to change the company name to Impact Wrestling (Hogan in particular spoke a lot about how he wanted to change it). Even the Twitter handle is @ImpactWrestling and the website is impactwrestling.com and their Facebook is at facebook.com/impactwrestling
ReplyDeleteThey never committed to it fully though. I have no idea why. It's not like TNA is a valuable brand name.
Hell, the WWE has been through TWO branding changes from WWWF to WWF and then from WWF to WWE.
ReplyDeleteIt was pathetic. You just aren't going to upstage Heath Ledger.
ReplyDeleteAJ Styles. He was the guy that made me watch TNA in first place. I might be wrong but he was the Spirit of TNA, they should've made him The guy of TNA, he was someone that crowd loved and gave to us TNA's best matches.
ReplyDeleteSting didn't have enough sleeping pills
ReplyDeleteI'd agree with this. TNA letting Styles go would be like WCW releasing Sting or the 1980s WWF releasing Hulk Hogan.
ReplyDeleteThat's always existed on PS3. I had no idea it didn't work on other formats until recently.
ReplyDeleteIt's easy to point out all the bad stuff so I'll stick with a positive memory, one of the few I have since I wasn't much of a fan of their product.
ReplyDeleteThe Joseph Park/Abyss angle was easily some of the best character work in any promotion in the last fifteen or twenty years. The angles surrounding that character arc were crummy as usual but the character by itself was tremendous stuff.
I said this once, I'll say it again. TNA should have booked AJ, Joe, Daniels as the Holy Trinity of TNA. They were the reason the company got some coverage in their peak of X-division. You can also put Monty Brown as the guy who carries the HW scene. Hell, they could've build a big Joe vs Brown match at BFG.
ReplyDeleteWhat's pretty ridiculous is that Joseph Park had some of the best facial expressions I've ever seen. So TNA had the guy wrestle under a mask for a helluva long time.
ReplyDeleteThe problem with Joseph Parks is they took a long for him to discover he was Abyss.
ReplyDeleteHis Bully Ray match has some nice storytelling, and seeing him on later Impacts making fun of Ray is great.
ReplyDeleteYeah I didn't stick around too long once Hogan came back and sucked the whole Abyss angle into the Aces & Eights thing, so I have no idea how it all turned out, I just have found memories of the very beginning really.
ReplyDeleteAnother one. Roode's title reign as world champion and Austin Aries chase for it. Until BFG 2012, TNA was having a great year, even with the Claire Lynch angle.
ReplyDeleteI will associate them with stagnation. They never got better and never got over the hump. I never expected them to ever compete with the WWE but they never left the mentality of being either below average or mediocre.
ReplyDeleteOn Thursday, I may or may not watch Impact and it won't matter because at the end of the day, they're not going to do anything I know I will regret missing.
The long quest for Sting to win the title and a month later losing the title to Abyss by DQ.
ReplyDeleteAnd that's a shoot, brother!
ReplyDeleteThe Aries - Roode feud, Bully's great heel run, Joseph Park, basically the entire Prichard run in TNA. I feel like he had a good thing going before he forgot how to use Outlook calendar alerts.
ReplyDeleteInteresting context for why Hassan may have decided to leave. I also heard after they killed the character that they wanted him to go back to OVW and wrestle under a mask.
ReplyDeleteIn the Network era, if Hassan's character got killed off RAW and Smackdown! they could've just moved him to Main Event and billed him as "the man too controversial for television!"
Russo came back.
ReplyDeleteSo I've never seen Victory Road '11, I'm 40 seconds in and Jeff's first appearance on screen he's already stumbling out of gorilla. Holy shit this is going to be a great ten minutes.
ReplyDeleteTJ: 700k subs for the network
ReplyDeleteThe red cage from their opening Monday Night War show. So much illogic and failure packed into one neat little package. Quintessential TNA.
ReplyDeleteIf WWE was petty (...), they should make a strong push for a Japan launch date for Oct 1, 2014 just in time for BFG.
ReplyDeleteOr just run a special promotion in the UK if they believe it will launch there by Oct '14
Another thing they got right was tag teams ... America's Most Wanted, XXX, Styles/Daniels, LAX, Team Canada, Team 3D, Beer Money, Motor City Machine Guns, Naturals, now the Wolves. Matches were baller too - AMW/XXX cage match, Daniels/Styles vs LAX ultimate x match.
ReplyDeleteBrian is there anywhere I can get all your shoot reviews?
ReplyDeleteok thanks
ReplyDeleteHaha I probably will.
ReplyDeleteThe Main Event Mafia. They didn't do enough to put over the talent that was there.
ReplyDeleteBad thing would be when Russo started a major hour with one of the Knockouts handcuffed.....I'm still wondering the logic behind that one (yes, I KNOW the logic, but he either didn't do enough or did too much)
That sames to be the answer to everything that went wrong for TNA for the last few years.
ReplyDeleteI never watched a single episode of TNA, just bits and pieces that looked positively dire every time
ReplyDeleteWell there goes my chance at recommending a Sunny shoot.
ReplyDeleteAlways pushing ex-WWE guys ahead of their own talent.
ReplyDeleteYou know, screw what I originally said. I'll remember TNA for killing Chris Candido.
ReplyDeleteI never understood that. Angle and those other guys should've been brought in to job to the TNA crew.
ReplyDeletePeople can say what they want about the invasion angle in 2001, but at
ReplyDeletethe very least, WWE protected their brand name by making it look 100x
better than the dead WCW brand. So there's AT LEAST that.
Missed opportunities. So many times, they could have boosted themselves, gotten home talent over and such but they blew it over and over again. Watch 2012 with Aries great as champ but they end it just so Hardy can have another run. Or the Monty Brown debacle. They really could have risen well but ruined their own attempts so often.
ReplyDeleteIf you google shoot inter view rspwfaq Bayless, they almost all pop up
ReplyDeleteAlzheimer's IIRC
ReplyDeleteHe's forgotten more about wrestling than we will ever know.
ReplyDeletetoo soon?
Maybe not Angle -- he is arguably the biggest star TNA ever had (I won't say Sting, Flair, or Hogan since they were way over the hill) -- and he could've legit carried the company if TNA didn't keep dropping the ball and Angle stayed healthy/off drugs. I think pushing him was the right move... I just don't agree with jobbing Samoa Joe (and his 18 month undefeated streak) to him in his first PPV match.
ReplyDeletePutting the belt on Foley, Anderson (multiple times), and Jeff Hardy whenever he could clean himself up for a month or so was just sheer stupidity.
As a Cards fan, the Redsox just bent us over for a 35 y/o Lackey, too.
ReplyDeleteThe X Division. It felt fresh and it felt cutting edge, which was something the WWE was definitely not. In some ways, it was like the evolution of WCW's cruiserweight title. When Styles/Joe/Daniels feuded through 05-06, it seemed like the company was making serious strides but it eventually became muffled by faces of another company that already went belly up.
ReplyDeleteit's not what i will associate tna with (actually can't think of any one thing, other than i'm glad there's something else to watch that's different and often enough has been good to latch on to), but i find it interesting that their HoF doesn't include anyone who's homegrown
ReplyDeleteHe came in 1985
ReplyDeleteeh, tough call on that
ReplyDeletehe flew AMA, which is what led to his death
"Nobody ever doubted how great Liz looked, she was just dandy, you know."
ReplyDeleteAnd I can't wait for it! Dude's hilarious.
ReplyDeleteIvory started doing it for me after she and Tori had that hardcore match backstage with Tori wearing almost nothing and Ivory in the short skirt. Crazy and Russo in his glory.
ReplyDeleteI see what you did there.
ReplyDeleteIvory might be the hottest diva that nobody ever talks about or mentions, when it comes to hot divas.
ReplyDeleteIt's no coincidence that the only time Khali was ever interesting was when he had Daivari as his second. That guy is a hugely underappreciated talent and still has the potential to be the next great manager if someone would take a flyer on him.
ReplyDeleteDaivari sounds like a good dude. Everyone was his drinking buddy which tells me that people enjoyed his presence and enjoyed having him around.
ReplyDelete"A real jam up girl."
ReplyDeleteThreadjack: Has anyone listened to JR's podcast with Sting? I almost had to turn it off a few times and I've listened to JR since he started the podcast. Every question went something like this: "What was it like when Crockett bought out Bill Watts?", Sting would provide an answer for about a minute or two, then instead of a follow-up question, JR rambles for 5 minutes about what he remembered and how he would've done things differently and how he felt about this or that. It's 75% JR running his trap with Sting providing "haha"s and "yeah your'e right"s in the background. Very aggravating and I really wanted to hear Sting's take on his career and it provided very little of that.
ReplyDeleteI'd put Hardy closer to Angle than the other WWE rejects. Getting somebody who was WWE champion within the last year is different than an upper midcarder who held the US belt like MVP or fucking Kennedy.
ReplyDelete"So you were trained by Fred Murkle, right?"
ReplyDelete"Yeah, Hellwig and I, we were..."
"Let me tell you about Fred Murkle, he was a guy who really blah blah blah for ten minutes."
I respect JR a lot but his podcast is insufferable, anyone's podcast where I have to FF through the first 30 minutes to get to the meat isn't a good podcast.
Does anyone know if he is still dating Ryan Shamrock?
ReplyDeleteYeah, it was pretty disappointing. Not only is your take pretty much dead on, but JR provided a lot of fluff before and after the interview in order to stretch out the actual interview into two parts.
ReplyDeleteWhat Sting did say was interesting, but this was JR possibly at his worst. He just seemed like a tired, rambling old man.
Hardy is a good encapsulation of TNA as a whole, someone that fans desperately wanted to like and got kicked in the balls every time for trying.
ReplyDeleteYep, I had thought of that too. Or simply have him do PPVs only, with the same tagline.
ReplyDeleteThe best thing about TNA was how they... uhhh..
ReplyDeleteI usually enjoy his podcast, other than his hammering home the same points regarding things he doesn't like about the business these days (no time limit draws, no use of the referee, heels don't break rules, etc.). Maybe he's always interviewed his guests this way and I never noticed it. For example, I thought the Angle interview was good. This was easily his most highly anticipated podcast I would think and he flubbed it up big time. Particularly bad was at the end when Sting is talking about working with Vader and JR responds with "what about all those untimely chants these crowds make these days", and then he just ends the show. It was like when Will Ferrell would do Harry Caray on SNL.
ReplyDeleteThat's one of the best Zombietaker matches, hands down (the MSG bodybag match against the Warrior is shockingly good, too). Bret can be full of himself but I think he has every right to brag over that one.
ReplyDeletein 3 months with constant shilling every week?
ReplyDeleteThats less than 5%
I thought he was talking about Savage then
ReplyDeleteThe only brand TNA has ever seemed to want to protect is ECW.
ReplyDeleteTaz will have plenty of free time soon..
ReplyDeleteI thought Xpac was.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was a joke. No way that would ever happen in the WWF.
ReplyDeleteVal Venis pinning Daniels on the first Bischoff/Hogan PPV and the crowd in the front row turning their backs on the show I'll always remember.
ReplyDeleteI know but i couldn't give 2 shits about the Heavenly Bodies or how Tracey Smothers and Dirty White Boy would have been huge if only Vince would have given em a real push.
ReplyDeleteWritten in 2006. So correct.
ReplyDeleteCall New Jack, the Gangstas started at SMW. It's gonna be fun to see that psycho talk.
ReplyDeleteLol, I agree. he always seems oblivious to everything.
ReplyDeleteto me that's essentially TNA's "legacy": missed (or ruined) opportunities.
ReplyDeleteThe AJ/Joe/Daniels three way matches come to my mind first whenever I think of TNA. Two of the best matches in the history of the business, the second building so much on the first.
ReplyDeleteWelcome to 2012, WWE Network!
ReplyDeleteThink that was a while back, I follow Ryan Shamrock on Twitter and she had a bunch of pics with Daivari for a while.
ReplyDeletethe strange thing is to me it almost feels like the prelude of the "takeover" (which obviously is an exaggeration) of the indie starts in the current WWE landscape.
ReplyDeleteif TNA hadn't screwed up so bad a lot of those guys (Bryan, Cesaro, Ambrose, Rollins) could have easily become THEIR stars.
They were building Rude up for Warrior, didn't need him taking a high-profile loss.
ReplyDeleteThe stubborn, stubborn refusal to realize that their best shot was to come up with stories unique to their product, not redoing stories done by WWE and WCW. Couple that with the insane idea to hire overpriced talent associated in the public's mind (fairly or unfairly) with the failure of WCW- Russo, Bischoff, Hogan, Nash, Steiner- and the only real surprise is how long they lasted.
ReplyDeleteThat was Kurt Angle though.
ReplyDeleteYeah I think he was going for that "we've known each other forever let's just shoot the shit" vibe that Austin does so well with his class of guys. Jim just doesn't have the charisma to pull it off, and he seems to not have much going on in his life outside of thinking about heels not being heels, so you're right he's only got like 4 tangents and he tries to fit them all into every episode.
ReplyDeleteOutside of the first few when he had guests that knew how to control a show, like Jericho and Austin, they've all been pretty self-fellating.
Can't wait to read your review in the future.
ReplyDeleteFair enough. I just think I was just frustrated by Hardy, who was a really big deal in WWE, couldn't keep clean and TNA kept pushing him anyway, like when they put him over Aries.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, while I understand that these are grown men who are responsible for their own actions and that WWE wasn't exactly the cleanest place in the 1980s and 1990s, the fact that TNA allowed Angle and Hardy to repeatedly wrestle in awful conditions (both mentally and physically) is a black mark on the company.TNA is lucky neither of them died on their watch (and in Angle's case, TNA is lucky WWE was willing to pick up his rehab tab).
Dixie Carter's unbelievable combination of unawareness and ego. You are the money. Just keep writing off the losses and let the wrestling people do the wrestling.
ReplyDeleteAt least with Jeff Jarrett putting himself (i.e., the only person he knew WWE wouldn't steal from him) on top, he let the midcard be the attraction with the X Division, Tag Teams, and so on.
I just watched about 3/4's of this, and it's good.
ReplyDeleteI totally marked out for the fact he rates everything on a _/10 system. It's actually hilarious.
He shoots on the 'skanks' that Tiger Woods got with, calling them 'about a 3' haha
The funny thing is, he puts the Papa Shango character over huge in the video.
ReplyDeleteYup, it was George Steel's.
ReplyDeleteThat's a really good shout.
ReplyDeleteAfter that, Vince told Daivari that he was going to be called "George W
ReplyDeleteBush" and come out dressed like the Apollo Creed character from "Rocky.".........fucking Vince
thats how I understood Lciscos post: he should have been used much more to build up the next generation of stars (especially because he was the biggest regular worker on the roster).
ReplyDeleteYeh. I love JR, but he doesn't divulge a great deal of detail.
ReplyDeleteAnd he is no good on the podcasts. Does nothing but talk over the other guy.
Saying that, Sean lets the guys speak, so I think he'd do alright with this.
I'm with you there.
ReplyDeleteI like Bret. There's something quite endearing about his calm and cool tone. And for whatever reason, I do actually believe a lot of his stories.
The first thing I associate with TNA is horrendous, overbooked finishes. Nothing says "TNA" to me like a match with 4 refs, super contrived bumps, "brawling" through the crowd, everyone's stablemates coming out and then randomly disappearing somehow so that there can be an actual finish and usually one guy turning heel and randomly joining the current mega-heel stable for no apparent reason.
ReplyDeleteAlso stables in general. WWE mostly got away from that but basically every time I turned on TNA during the Spike TV era, the whole show would be built around some kind of dominant heel stable, Planet Jarrett, Aces and 8s, Main Event Mafia, 4tune, Immortals, etc. It was like they didn't know how to book long term angles without the crutch of having a mega-group to hold down the top 4 faces. I'll even give them some credit, many of them were pretty good ideas at the time they just dragged on for way too long, especially Aces and 8s which lasted a full year too long.
I dunno if this is in the trailer cos i've watched 3/4's already (as mentioned below), but there was a funny moment where he was talking about Savage/Liz, and he said:
ReplyDelete"Randy was very protective over Liz, over guys looking at her at such. I looked at her lots of times and he never said anything to me, but he went crazy at other people for it" haha
It actually is a bad number. A lot more cancellations than anticipated
ReplyDeleteI'm tempted to go with TNA fucking EVERYTHING up in spectacular fashion, right down to not even coming up with a decent name. But my lasting memory is watching one of the greatest matches I've ever seen in Styles/Daniels at Destination X 2012... and the crowd was dead silent because it was literally like the 150th match between the two in that building alone so no one gave a fuck, rightfully so.
ReplyDeleteAnd of course, neither guy works there anymore.
WCW was actually in the midst of a critically well received period, having Arn and Tully show up at the end of the year to reform the Horsemen and Starcade 89 would have been pretty huge, I think.
ReplyDeleteThey were jobbing on house shows I the Bushwackers BEFORE they got the belts, too.
ReplyDeletei always thought he was awesome but i've only seen him in a few matches
ReplyDeleteStrike Force/Brain Busters was pretty high quality, too.
ReplyDeleteAnd they just didn't blow off house show feuds on ppv back then.
It makes you wonder, even with the bad stuff we see on TV, about the REALLY bad stuff that never sees the light of day.
ReplyDeleteHow the tag team division put the WWE's to shame. XXX, AMW, Styles/Daniels, LAX, MCMG, and Beer Money put on some great matches during that time period.
ReplyDeleteI still laugh at the black tar heroin bit no matter how many times I see or hear it.
ReplyDeleteI refuse to participate in this discussion because the first part of the question suggests that TNA has folded.
ReplyDeleteElix Skipper's rana off the cage. Jesus...
ReplyDelete"And that's the FISHING LINE, cause SHARK BOY SAID SO"
ReplyDeleteEither that, or AJ wrestling Christopher Daniels. Not any particular match, just in general.
ReplyDeleteWait, getting to change in Vince's office is a perk of being a main eventer?
ReplyDeleteI hadn't watched TNA regularly in... well, ever, but I always checked the show recaps whenever the fancy struck me. One night I decided on a whim to check it out, and that just happened to be the night of the Knockouts Lockbox Challenge.
ReplyDeleteHey, he said IF, man.
ReplyDeleteI'm here to chew bubble-gum and make "With tears in his eyes" jokes...and I'm all out of bubble-gum.
ReplyDeleteWow, Price to the Tigers.
ReplyDeleteA midget wanking in a trashcan
ReplyDeleteNot surprising to me that most people are citing a lot of the stuff from 2005-2006 as the highlights considering that Russo's first TNA stint ended in November 2004 and he didn't return until September 2006.
ReplyDeleteOh OK, in that case I'll go with the 2005 X-Division trio of AJ, Joe, and Daniels. All three had excellent matches with each other whether it was a three-way or singles with any combination.
ReplyDeleteIt still seems a bit surreal when I think of WWF back then.
ReplyDeleteI don't really see him as bitter anymore. In that trailer, it looks like he's having fun. But you're right that he doesn't seem to give a shit and will rip on dudes. Maybe he's just a straight-shooter.
ReplyDeleteAnd here I thought it stood for "Hatt Vardy."
ReplyDeleteMaybe he didn't call Patterson the day after...
ReplyDeleteWe should have seen it coming!
ReplyDeleteTee hee.
ReplyDeleteFor Drew Smyly and Nick Franklin. A couple of bushwhackin' scrubs. Goddamnitsomuch.
ReplyDeleteWas it the abdominal stretch that, if a guy did the move incorrectly (forgot to lock the foot in or something), Gorilla Monsoon would lose his shit on commentary?
ReplyDeletei love big head magnus
ReplyDeleteThe REVERSE Battle Royal
ReplyDeletePeople actually got paid to come up with this stuff!
It might have been the full nelson, because I always remember commentary freaking out about the fingers not being locked.
ReplyDeleteI'd love to have Magus sign a sign with this on it and then look confused about what it means.
ReplyDeleteIt may have been said, the thing that I will associate with TNA will probably be the first thing I saw in the company and that was the 6 sided ring.
ReplyDeletePeople= Russo.
ReplyDeleteI loved the Stone Cold Shark Boy character.
ReplyDeleteYeah, they always have good to great matches.
ReplyDeleteHey, he had no limits.
ReplyDeleteI saw maybe two episodes during their whole existence.
ReplyDelete6 sided ring or 4 sided?
ReplyDeleteMy God, I didn't think he was going to let AJ Styles get a word in. The whole interview was basically JR rambling and then Styles commenting about JR's rambling. There was so much ground that could have been covered if JR would ask questions, shut up, and let them answer.
ReplyDeleteRocking it old school I see.
ReplyDelete4-sided
ReplyDeletePeople=shit?
ReplyDeleteSo you caught it on a bad day.
ReplyDeleteGave it a couple chances over the years and it just never grabbed me. But I hardly pay attention to WWE's product anymore either, so there's that.
ReplyDeleteI bet Randy would have considered it an honour to have Bret Hart fuck his wife.
ReplyDeleteAnd event then, they couldn't go all the way.
ReplyDeleteBut if Shawn Michaels stiffs a waiter at a restaurant Bret can tell you by by exactly how much 20 years later.
ReplyDeleteHey, the crowd popped for the handcuffed segment.
ReplyDeleteHow does one get DQ'ed in a cage match?
ReplyDeleteWhy are you starting at the end?
ReplyDeleteHe was their versions of Helms and the Hurricane.
ReplyDeleteYep. He'd berate the guy every time about not hooking the leg for maximum stretch.
ReplyDelete"Oh he's never gonna beat this guy applying the move like that, give me a break".