Shawn this is our first intergalactic interview on Fight Network Radio and we’re glad it’s with you

Stasiak: Am I on the air right now?

You’re on the air right now

Stasiak: Man, no warning, nothing. The guy just put me right on the air. Okay, that’s just the way I like it

Oh, he’s a mute. We should have really considered that when we hired him to be a call screener. But thank you very much for joining us here Shawn and you’ve got a brand new documentary coming out, entitled Shawn Stasiak determined. Tell us a bit about how this project came about

Stasiak: Well Howard Feintuch is a long life wrestling fan and he’s an independent producer now, out in L.A. and he got ahold of me and wanted to initially do a basic shoot wrestling interview with a workout routine. It’s good that we spoke and the conversations evolved and he got to know more about me and the diversities and substances I’ve had in my life. I’ve got so many different avenues to it, that it just progressed from there and we ended up filming in Dallas, Texas. Boise, Idaho where my other roots were; you know, Boise State Broncos. We went to Portland, Oregon where Portland wrestling, during the territory days and Don Owen, being the promoter back then, had a huge influence on me as a child, you know growing up with my dad and just the influence of the wrestling industry. Then we finished up in California. Basically the film has a lot of diversity to it. It’s got a little bit of everything about my life and the chiropractor now that I am. A professional wrestler, an amateur wrestler, a lot of spirituality. I’m a very spiritual being. And just a plethora of diversity that most people watch and they think they’re going to walk away with some substance and hopes to be applied to their lives and benefit for themselves that view it.

Now Shawn, getting into professional wrestling as a second generation wrestler as yourself. Tell us a bit about the pressures of following your father. I mean being a second generation wrestler, it seems a lot of the guys, it opens a lot of doors but it also adds a lot of pressure. Did you find a lot of that getting into the industry?

Stasiak: You know what, I don’t know if I had pressure because of that. I always knew deep down that I always wanted to pursue it. Having the influence my dad had on me and of course, growing up in the business. I kind of got to a late start. I started training back in 1998 with the WWE at the Stamford headquarters there and 27 just getting ready to turn 28. You know, for me, I think it goes to a personal level, because I’ve lost both my folks and I’m the only child. I think for me, I was looking more for a family type situation with the WWE. I’m always loyal to them, watched all kinds of wrestling programming, but my dad worked for Vince’s dad and I’ve lived in Toronto for many years. I consider that kind of a home away from home and you know just that demographic area. It’s pretty much just WWE country so for me, you know, I just really didn’t want to screw up the situation. I really wanted to make it and go all the way, I mean if you had any kind of sport, I don’t care if it’s football, hockey, baseball, MMA, boxing, even professional wrestling. If you’re not there to be the absolute best, then there’s no sense in doing it and that’s just my attitude. I think looking back, hindsight is 20/20. I took time and been away you know five years is in the mainstream. I’ve had a chance to reflect back, not just on my wrestling career, but on my life and I’m just a completely different person in a lot of ways now, because of the hardships, struggles, trials and tribulations I’ve had to go through. So that being said, I realize where I went wrong. I think sometimes you can try too hard or if you feel like you’re walking on egg shells, you want to say the right things, or do the right things, you want to be diplomatically correct. There’s a lot of politics in that business and I think if you try too hard or think too much, at least for me, sometimes it can backfire. I think in a lot of ways it did for me, but I’m very greatful for the opportunities that I did get and knowing that’s who Shawn Stasiak was. If it wasn’t for the WWE and Vince McMahon to give me that initial forum to work off of.

Is it easier Shawn, putting together this documentary when you’re removed from the mainstream wrestling scene as it is right now and to be able to take that step back and look at the things objectively? Looking at the politics and some of the barriers that a lot of the current performers go through

Stasiak: Yeah, you know, it’s just like, it’s just life. You live and learn. You’re constantly growing and evolving and refining yourself as a human being. If you’re not going to challenge yourself, you know for me, I always wanted to be a doctor of chiropractics; it kind of goes hand in hand with what I’ve done my whole life, just being an extreme athlete in amateur wrestling. Then I get into professional where people always say “it’s choreographed; it’s fake,” you know this and that. They don’t realize that it’s probably the most real thing and most damaging thing one can do to their human body, you know. I mean it’s probably harder than a lot of professional sports, because there’s no off season and so forth. But the point is, is that yeah I’ve had a chance to reflect back on that and I’ve learned and I know that, you know I’m 37-years-old but I’m a young 37-year-old. I’ve always been a late bloomer through like a lot of things I’ve done in my life and I’m always five, six years younger than I really am. I have a few good years left in me. I’ve got some, you know there’s some thought processes on potentially making a return, whether it be TNA or WWE, but it would have to be the right business situation. I certainly wouldn’t want to go back and be exploited and do the things that I’ve done before. I certainly wouldn’t want to waste my time or waste any company’s time doing the Wile E. Coyote of wrestling or ready to throw myself at walls or being a character called Meat that has no substance, no purpose, no focus. Shawn Stasiak today is a second generation wrestler, world class athlete with p*ss and vinegar that actually can make history in the WWE if he were to win the WWE title. Guess what, he makes history because it’s the first time in that company’s history that a father and son ever won the World Heavyweight title or WWE title for that matter.

Take us back Shawn, just to 1999, when that gimmick of Meat was presented to you. Who was it that brought up the idea? Was that a Vince Russo creation and was it an instance of, you know, you have to take the ball and run with it no matter what kind of gimmick they give you?

Stasiak: You know what, at that point I’ll be honest, I was a little disappointed when I found out they gave me that moniker, but it didn’t come so gimmicky at the time, so I was like “well you know, I’m a team player, I’m with the company; this could be an opportunity to just make my day. Get on TV, get the exposure. You know your life long anticipation of being in anything, you know, especially for me, the WWE. You know, I just knew it would be a temporary thing. Look at all the great performers in history. Look at the Rock, look at Stone Cold. All these guys had to go through a plethora of different characters to finally find who they are, and you know it just goes to show that, it’s like, you listen to some of the interviews that the Rock talks about or Austin talks about, until they found out who they really were. It’s just that element of who they were; the real person and amplified times 100. That’s when they really got over, because they believed who they were and that’s why I’m out today. I finally have a focus, I finally have a direction. Like I said, I’m a doctor in chiropractics. I’m headed toward a motivational speaking career. It’s one thing to entertain millions of fans, but it’s more important for me to be able to do something with substance and entertain and educate and hopefully inspire for those to live a healthier life. That’s kind of, I’m in the health profession now, so like I said, it’s in my blood. How could not be, I mean it always will be and I’m physically capable and able and I just know if I had a spare opportunity, a real opportunity, I just believe that fans would, in time, would gravitate towards me and what I stand for and that’s overcoming adversity. It’s taken a real piece of my life, which is lost a mom and dad, it’s having no siblings, it’s having to start all over again and go to a four year medical program, it’s having to live trials and errors. That’s just life, but to overcome those and to persevere and that comes the message I want to send on any kind of wrestling platform, so that’s really Shawn, you know just a real, I’m a huge MMA fan. I reverted back to my roots in amateur wrestling and I definitely pull for all the amateur wrestlers in MMA, of course you got to be good in all aspects to be a force to reckon with. I’m really excited for Brock Lesnar, you know, he’s got a great wrestling pedigree and you know I’m definitely going to be a fan of his in the MMA world and I guess my point that I’m getting at is that I reverted back to who Shawn is and I’ve got my roots again and if I ever get a chance to perform, people would see a whole different Shawn Stasiak.

You’re listening to Fight Network Radio. We’re chatting with Shawn Stasiak who’s just come out with a new documentary entitled Shawn Stasiak determined. Now Shawn, I feel remised not to ask you about the circumstances under which you were initially let go by the WWE. The story that had been reported was that you had been recording conversations with certain performers. Now every story has two sides of the story and we definitely want to give you this forum on what happened there in that first run with the WWE?

Stasiak: As much as I would like to squash that, it does follow me wherever I go and it’s just inevitable, but I’ve had countless opportunities to share the real perspective and the bottom line is on that whole thing. I’m not going to spend very much more energy on it, its that you know I was playing a joke, I was playing a prank on a couple guys. There was no wrongful intent whatsoever. It backfired, wrong time, wrong place, stupid thing to do. Got fired because of it, it got blown way out of proportion. You know it was humor really and some of these fans they know and they just sit there, and I am the biggest piece of c**p walking God’s green Earth, because I played a prank on a couple guys that backfired. I never really did anything really that drastic; all I did was play a prank that backfired. It was a stupid thing to do looking back and in essence I was relieved; I was fired from that and it actually worked out to my advantage. I went to WCW and actually got more TV time and exposure and more experience under my belt and it sure worked out better, but you know things happen for a reason. But ultimately there was wrongful intent. Just looking back, it was a stupid thing to do. It’s as simple as that, life goes on.

Yeah and your run in World Championship Wrestling, as you said, they seem to really, to utilize you in that role. How did that door open up for you? I mean it was right around the time that Vince Russo and Ed Ferrara had moved over and they brought you in. Was that sort of the link? Because Russo and Ferrara must have worked with you a lot in WWF, seeing a lot of potential bringing you in, down in Atlanta.

Stasiak: Yeah, you know I didn’t get through the details of it. I was just happy that I got hired and got a job with WCW. I was concerned that I might be blackballed, because in professional wrestling, it’s one of those things where you, you know perception’s everything. You create a label of yourself. For me, you know I’m the tape recorder guy and I’m the one recording all the conversations in the locker room, which is complete BS. But you know the point of being is that the word gets out. People believe what they want to believe, they jump up on the band wagon and my concern was that I was going to be blackballed from any company that I went to, because ultimately if I put myself in other peoples’ shoes and look back, I think you know man, if that, if someone came on board and did that, I would probably be a little skeptical of them too. But I think through time, people realize that there was no wrongful intent. It was pretty much blown out of proportion and that’s the reality of it. They did give me a chance, whether Vince Russo or Ed Ferrara, I imagine they had something to do with it, because they were familiar with me and my work and my potential and they were starting up this new blood type angle and timing is everything, and I think it’s just fit perfectly for me to come aboard at the time that I did.

And as well, during that run of course, you had the perfectshawn gimmick, working with Curt Hennig. Does that stand out as one of the highlights of the WCW run, getting to work a program with Curt Hennig?

Stasiak: You know what, yeah it does, because I always look up to Curt, in fact it was one of his matches during my teenage years in Toronto when I was growing up. I watched a WWE show and I saw Curt Hennig, Mr. Perfect and that’s when I called my buddies up and I said “hey that’s it. I’m sure what I want to do, I want to become a professional wrestler,” and I looked up to guys like Curt Hennig and you know, “Ravishing” Rick Rude and of course I always gravitated towards the guys that had the better physiques and bodies. I know it’s not a body building show or beauty contest but I always admired like a Paul Orndorff, a very aggressive style, you know, a guy that was well put together that had that, the whole package and Curt Hennig was one those guys; very technical and a little bit of history there with his father and my dad, and you know so yeah it was really an honor for me to work with Curt Hennig and in fact I felt even guilty that they, I think Curt might have had trouble with the office or something, so you know they were putting this moniker on me called Perfectshawn and I didn’t feel comfortable with it and I even told Curt, I said “you know I feel, I respect you and it’s an honor for me to work with you but you know, I feel uncomfortable.” He said “don’t worry about it, you know, it’s not you, you just got to keep your job. You got to do what you got to do,” and I took it and ran with it. I felt really uncomfortable when I wrestled at a pay per view and beat him. Not just beat him, but also beat him with his own Perfectplex. I felt really, wow, but you know it’s a work, it’s a business and it’s not reality. It’s just a fictional performance, so as long as people can keep in check from reality to fiction and it was just a business thing. I just did my job, I just played a role.

Yeah it’s unfortunate. You were caught in the middle there. Another run you had in WCW was with the Natural Born Thrillers and that’s a group that I really thought that WCW really hit something out of the park with. I mean this group was featuring yourself, Mike Sanders, Reno, Chuck Palumbo, Sean O’Haire, Mark Jindrak. Do you think more could have been done with that angle? Because that seemed to be something that WCW stumbled upon near the end of 2000, right before it went out of business that fans seemed to really get into.

Stasiak: You know, it’s tough to say, I mean the thing is we’re a bunch of young guys that were rookies; that were new in the business, and I think for what it was, it gave us good exposure, especially for those guys coming up from the Powerplant. I had already been with WWE and established a bit of visibility. So I think for the time given and what they … by the way, I’m driving my car and you know what, people just do not know how to drive here, I’m sorry. Yeah I’m multi-tasking. I got an appointment here in five minutes. I just wanted to touch base with you guys and I do appreciate the time on the radio. Now this is a Canadian network, correct?

We’re based out of Toronto and we’re airing on Sirius Satellite Radio, so we’re going across Canada and into the U.S.

Stasiak: Well then, my best friend’s probably listening right now. He’s a big time satellite radio guy and he’s probably listening right now on the QEW. I was just there in Toronto on the weekend.

Oh give him a shout out

Stasiak: Hey Goonez are you listening? Call in man, call in. He does a great Roddy Piper impersonation, you couldn’t tell the difference. Anyway, getting back to your question, I think the Natural Born Thrillers had a lot of potential but unfortunately I just think there was just too many chiefs and not enough Indians in the company going towards the end of the company and which it did, six months later. I was glad to be part of that, you know looking back. At first I wasn’t real, you know, lukewarm to the idea of even being part of that. I wanted to be more of singles competitor. I felt ready to be doing my own thing and kind of taking off on my own. But looking back, I just wish I could have had more fun with those guys. We traveled the world; we had fun; we had exposure; we made some money. But for me, they finally singled me off and they hooked me up with Stacy Keibler. I feuded with Bam Bam Bigelow, God rest his soul, you know and ended the program with WCW kind of on my own there and I was glad it was done. The Natural Born Thrillers was fun to work with Kevin Nash. He’s just a big kid like all of us and it was a fun experience looking back, so I’m glad I was part of it.

I know you’re in a hurry Shawn, so we’ll just finish up really quickly. Where can fans pick up the DVD of your new documentary?

Stasiak: You can go to www.musculargalore.com {plug}