Kevin Nash talks booking TNA, injuries, negotiating with WWE, Hall
By Alfonso Castillo
I've just posted my in-depth interview with Kevin Nash on my blog at Newsday.com. In it he talks about the Jarrett-Kurt-Karen love triangle, whether he's interested in booking for TNA, negotiating with WWE last year, his thoughts on TNA's creative direction, and what's been up with his hair. Here are some of the excerpts:
On getting in good shape and losing 35 pounds:
“I think I move better. I think my movement is better than it’s been. I think, really, the biggest thing is being with Kurt [Angle] and watching Kurt’s work ethic night in and night out – He sets the bar very, very high. He does it by example and he fires you up. He makes you want to push yourself. I’m a jock. That’s just who I am. And Kurt’s the captain of the team. And when he sets the bar and goes out there night it and night out as beat up as he is and goes as hard as he does, it makes it very difficult for me to not at least try to do the same.”
Recalling a conversation with Triple-H and Shawn Michaels a few years ago:
“We were kind of going through the rosters and saying who are the guys who are going to replace us. Which guys are going to replace us when we retire? And everybody through names around and there weren’t a whole lot of names of guys who we thought were going to replace us. You look at a guy like Edge, and now he’s starting to realize – and, gosh, I don’t even know how old he is but he I think he’s in his 30’s. And he’s getting to the point where he’s had a ton of injuries. John Cena has had a ton of injuries. With these guys, it’s almost [a question of] who can last.”
On why wrestlers don’t take time off for injuries:
“I think it was Matt Hardy who not too long ago got like a little injury. And then got another little injury. And he was starting to get a push so he said, ‘Ah, I’m not going to take the time off.’ And then that injury ends up escalating to something where he has to, because he has to get it fixed. It’s hard. I sat one day and I was flipping channels and I saw Cena. I had read that he had injured his neck and I see John in there… I look, and here’s this earthworm of a scar on his neck – knowing that he shouldn’t be in the ring already. And it’s not that Vince said, ‘You need to get here and get in the ring, John.’ It’s just the fact that John realizes that that spot’s golden. And he doesn’t want to lose that spot. And as soon as he feels that he can somewhat fill that void.”
On negotiating with Vince McMahon last October for a 120-date contract with WWE:
“My whole thing was that I came into prominence with Shawn. And I know that Shawn is thinking about – I don’t think he’s going to be doing it that much longer. And I kind of wanted to have that circle of life. I wanted it on my wall of shame in my house to have that 1993 picture of Shawn Michaels doing a double-bicep pose with the black headed Diesel behind him and then I wanted a 2010 photo of Shawn Michaels doing the double-bicep pose with the gray-haired Diesel behind him.”
On Scott Hall’s problems:
“I don’t feel guilty, but I don’t think sad even begins to cover it. Because, to me, Scott Hall is probably one of the most talented guys I’ve ever been around in my life. One of the most charismatic. It crushes me. I’ve tried. Everybody’s tried. But as much as you want somebody to live a sober life, unless they want to, it’s just not going to happen. And I’ve been around it. Scott’s been a close friend of mine. I’ve seen the demon of addiction and, God, it’s just horrible. And people say, ‘Well if you want, you can get clean.’ I’m of the mindset, being around it as much as I have on so many different levels with so many different guys, that it’s a disease. It is absolutely a disease and it has to be treated as a disease. And, you know, some people don’t make it from a disease.”
On whether he’d be interested in booking TNA:
‘I have a 13-year-old son who needs a father way more than TNA needs a booker… I don’t do anything half-assed. If you put me in there, it means I’m thinking about it 24/7. You have to, because when you’re lying there in the sun, you get an idea and it’s like, ‘God, that’s way better than I thought.’ And you’ve got to get up and you’ve got to write it down. And you’ve got to change in and so on. I’m really good friends with [Vince] Russo. And I see what he has to go through and the situation that happened where kind of right before the pay per view, some political things go down, and he’s left with a show with a bunch of gaps in it and he’s got to do his best to fill it. And those are the things that take years off your life. And at this point, right now, like what we talked about earlier – I’m closer to dying. So, I don’t need the stress and they can’t put enough zeros at the end of my paycheck.
On some of the changes in the sport during his career:
“The business has changed so much…Guys actually go over matches in the ring and actually take bumps. I remember I sat there one day and watched guys practicing moonsaults. I thought to myself, ‘Oh my God. Do you realize how many of those you have in your body in your life? And you just gave away nine of them for free.’ It’s a different group of guys. It’s a different era.”
On critics of TNA’s booking:
“…For years Stallone and Shwarzenegger – they said what horrible actors they are. But you know then they do $240 million at the box office. So, I believe there’s something to critics. But, you know what, I believe that the 10-16-year-old kid, who’s really the meat and potatoes of your demographic, and then from there the 18-35 year-old demographic – I’ve never had a 9-year-old kid come up to me and say, ‘I think you need to pick up your workrate.’ ”
On hardcore wrestling:
“Mick Foley being thrown off a cage to a table 40-feet below him was the worst thing that probably ever could happen in our sport. Because what we do is we go out and we put on a performance, and you should never, ever hit each other. That’s not the art of what we do. When you light yourself on fire and jump 40 feet, that’s a stunt. That’s not a work. To me, ECW was pornography.”
On Abyss’ thumbtack spots and other hardcore matches in TNA:
“Every time I see it, I go back there and I shake my head and I go, ‘I don’t get it. I don’t know why you would do this to yourself’ and I state my opinion. I say it’s wrong. It’s like when you watch the old Dusty things and everybody says, ‘Dusty! Dusty! Dusty!’ You know, you take a blade to your head and bleed for 25 minutes while people pound on you – that ain’t working. That’s a shortcut. That’s all that is.”
On the challenges of booking TNA:
“I’ve said this 100,000 times. I would write a show and I’d go to bed and I would say, ‘That’s show is going to be brilliant.’ And then three guys miss two spots and the execution… All of a sudden it’s like this domino effect. This guy screws up a finish in match one. This guy does something in match two. And all of a sudden everybody’s saying, ‘Your show is horrible.’ Well, yeah, but if they would have executed those three things, it would have been a lot better. But I take the rap because I made the soup.”
On wrestlers bringing their wives around the business:
“I remember I was on the road with Rick Rude… And he looked over at me and he said, ‘Nash, whatever you do, don’t bring your old lady around the business. Not backstage. Not anywhere.’... I don’t think there’s on of us in which there’s not a Jeckyll and Hyde. You’re different when you’re in your character… There’s so many times that you see a pretty girl walking backstage and the guys will walk by and you’ll see them go, ‘God, who’s that? And who’s that? And who’s that?’ And you find out, eight minutes later, it’s some guy’s wife…The boys are the boys. They see a pretty girl and it does cause controversy. There’s no doubt about it. The girls that we have, like the Christy Hemmes, and the Beautiful People, and Tracy – I look at those girls as sisters. They’re part of the team. But it’s always that fresh piece of meat that comes in. That’s the one that causes [problems]. It’s almost like putting chum in the shark tank. That’s the one that the boys all start sniffing around – especially the single guys. And you can’t blame them.”
On the possibility of being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame:
“I think, of course, it would be an honor to be chosen into the hall of fame. But, at the same time, it’s just like, I never hit a curve ball. Every belt I’ve ever won has been because someone, on a piece of paper with a pencil, determined that at the end of the night, ‘Nash’s music on the way out.’ As an entertainer, I think I’ve been entertaining. I think I’ve been entertaining. I think I’ve been witty. I think people have enjoyed my humor way more than they’ve enjoyed my matches. So I look at it as a broad spectrum of things. Did I have some good matches? Yes. But did I have to have somebody out there with me who could absolutely work? Yes. I didn’t go out there with Sid and tear the house down.”
On his hair not looking as good as usual as of late:
“You know what it is? They came out with this product. My hair was like white, white, white. And so they came out with this product that put color back in your hair but it’s like a dark gray and it matches the back of my hair. If you pull up the back of my hair, the back of my hair still has some pigment in it. So the lady put it in, and it was fine for a couple weeks, but I’m in the sun all the time. I live in Florida and I’m on my boat or my Jet Ski. So it kind of gave it a yellow tint. And on top of that, I have curly hair naturally, and it’s so humid in Orlando. And the building has been so hot lately. You can’t breathe when you work. And your hair just becomes like a frizz ball.”
In the interview, Nash also talks about the reason why he didn’t sign with WWE last year, his thoughts on TNA’s growth over its seven years, UFC, long-term vs. short-term booking, the wrestling media, TNA’s over-40 wrestlers, and why his WCW booking stint wasn’t a success. The whole interview is available at
http://www.newsday.com/steelcage
Thanks,
Alfonso A. Castillo
Newsday Staff Writer
631-843-2459
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