Mark Jindrak Defends Vince Russo, Talks Transition From WCW To WWE

Mark Jindrak shot onto the wrestling scene quickly, debuting along with other members of the Natural Born Thrillers in WCW, towards the end of the company's tenure.

"9 months — maybe — of being in WCW, but that was enough," Jindrak said in an interview with "Developmentally Speaking." Jindrak credits the controversial Vince Russo for giving him his big break.

"A lot of people diss Vince Russo, we'll never have any bad words for him because he gave us an opportunity," Jindrak explained. "And that opportunity of like nine months of TV time, that gave us a chance to get picked up by WWE. They saw enough in us to say, 'Hey, let's take a chance on these young guys.' So that was cool." 

Jindrak was one of the 10 wrestlers that weren't under contract to WCW's parent company Turner Broadcasting, and were eventually signed by WWE.

"They signed like 10 of us right away, it was like me and [Shawn] Stasiak and [Chuck] Palumbo and [Sean] O'Haire, Stacy Kiebler, Shane Helms, Hugh Morrus, I think Mike Awesome, Lance Storm, maybe Booker T was part of that as well, I'm not sure, but that was The Invasion," he continued. 

According to the former WCW World Tag Team Champion, he'd initially been introduced to WWE as part of the "Invasion" angle that happened after the purchase of WCW by WWE, but his youth and inexperience were still a factor. 

"WWE, knowing that we were young, wasn't really in a big rush," Jindrak said. He revealed that they were sent to the Heartland Wrestling Association and then to Ohio Valley Wrestling for developmental work. "It was a cool camp to be in."