Larry Zbyszko Talks TNA Vs. WWE, Chris Jericho & More
"The Living Legend" Larry Zbyszko appeared on In The Room with Brady Hicks, DJ, and Kevin McElvaney to look back at his more than 30 year career in the wrestling business. You can listen to the full show by clicking here, here are some highlights:
On Keeping Up With The Business: "To be honest, I just don't find wrestling entertaining the way it is right now. I just don't watch it. I wish it was better for the new generation, it could be great but they make the guys look like morons. I just don't watch it because it's all silly. There's no suspense. You can see the same crap you saw tonight any night. Boring. They've just gotten stale because what they are doing today is the same thing they were doing 15 years ago. I can honestly say for any of these young guys coming up that I can see why they'd rather get involved in that Ultimate Fighting."
On Comparing His Noteworthy Bruno and WCW Angles: "It was kind of a night and day. The first one was my idea, turning on Bruno, but he was the one who taught me the psychology and taught me how to do it. I learned from him. Then 20-some years later, the New World Order worked because I programmed it. It was done the way Bruno would have done it. It was just done right. I'm the one that programmed it and set it up."
On Chris Jericho: "I don't do Internet stuff. I did "Last Call [with Scott Hall]" because Scott came and set it up at the house. I don't want to waste time on the kid, though. What else can I really say about him? Listen to the show [Last Call]. He's just better off dancing."
On How to Fix the Business: "The basic problem is that they just don't know how to make stars any more. What do they call them, Superstars? Everybody's the same. Everybody's inter-changeable. It's just repetitive. You'll see the same matches for the next year that you see any other time you turn on the TV. And instead of all these creative writers, all that they need is a booker. They could be telling stories through the matches. You don't need all these segments. The wrestling fans are tired of skits. Everybody I talk to – every radio show – says that. If everybody feels that way, wouldn't you do what the customer wants and get rid of so many skits?"
On Comparing TNA to WWE: "I love the TNA people. They've got some great people there. What TNA does — they're very nice people and all that — is that this is what WWE does, so this is what we have to do. WWE has 15 minutes of matches in an hour and 25 minutes and all those skits ... we have to have 15 minutes of wrestling and all those skits. They only do things because that's what WWE does, without understanding the rhyme or reason for it."
On Comparing TNA to WCW: "They're not being the same as WCW was, that's the problem. They're not operating the way WCW did it. A lot of those guys have no idea how WCW did it. They weren't there."