Chris Harris Reveals Which WWE Producer Did Him No Favors
In response to the recent comments made by "Something to Wrestle" host Bruce Prichard, "Wildcat" Chris Harris has finally addressed his very short stint in WWE. And though he has spoken about it generally in the past, the former NWA Tag Team Champion discussed that time in his career more openly than ever before when he sat down for an extended conversation with Conrad Thompson on "False Finish."
Despite Prichard's criticism of his WWE run, Harris' acclaimed run in TNA showed that he had plenty of experience with pre-tapes, promos, and matches. However, he faced so many obstacles and restrictions as Braden Walker that soured his whole WWE experience. For example, when it came to his spinning slam finisher known as Catatonic, Umaga was already using it as a set-up move on WWE TV, so he wasn't allowed to use it anymore. He found out that this also applied to many maneuvers in his arsenal, but not until he was about to have his matches. This lack of communication was most prominent in his second and final match on ECW against James Curtis.
"Jamie Noble really stands out to me [as someone who] went out of his way to not do me any favors," said Harris. "He was trying to change my match around right before I'm going out... It's already hard enough to try to change my whole routine because I can't do all these moves and now you're trying to tell me before I'm seconds away from going out to just do this and do that and do this... It was so bad. I must have thrown 30 clotheslines in that match."
Failure to communicate
These last-minute decisions plagued all aspects of the Braden Walker act. Harris was very open to changing anything and everything about him if need be, including his physique and gear. But since the necessary conversations weren't happening, things like deciding what gear he would wear to the ring got done at the last minute.
"I looked up to Curt Hennig so much and I got close with him for a period of time," said the Impact Wrestling legend. "He made that singlet look good and he was in good shape, so I wasn't opposed to the whole singlet thing... But they made it that day. That's why I came out in plain black... They didn't have any idea what to do with it, so they just got it made and sent me out there. Everything was generic."
Harris' affinity for "Mr. Perfect" was also the reason he used the Perfectplex as a finisher in his last match. Noble allowed him to run with it after turning down a number of other moves. But finding the perfect finishing move didn't change the fact that he looked like a pre-loaded template from the Create-A-Wrestler mode of a wrestling video game. It also didn't change the WWE executives' perception of Walker because he was released from the company two days later.
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "False Finish" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.