The Headbangers Talk Being Back Together, Being In WWF In The 90's, The Monday Night Wars & More
Former WWE tag team champions The Headbangers, Chaz Warrington (Mosh) and Glen Ruth (Thrasher), recently spoke with Raj Giri of WrestlingINC.com about their time in the WWF and returning as a tag team. Here is part one of the interview, make sure to check back tomorrow for part two of the interview, where The Headbangers talk about the current product, TNA and a possible return to WWE.
WrestlingINC: How's everything going?
Chaz: It's great. It's tremendous.
WrestlingINC: How did the videos come about?
Chaz: It actually started just as a joke for us to maybe get some more indy bookings and things like that. We just wanted to have fun and good around. It kind of sort of took off so now we're just trying to be a little more entertaining and just have more fun with it and see what happens with it. That's all.
WrestlingINC: How long have you guys been on the indy circuit now?
Chaz: About 3-4 months.
Glen: Yeah, about 3-4 months.
WrestlingINC: You stopped teaming in 2000, right?
Chaz: Yeah, it was around there. It was a good 10 years, a little over 10 years since we had been in the ring together.
WrestlingINC: How'd you guys touch base again?
Chaz: We kept in contact off and on and what happened was we did a couple appearances like those autograph sessions at conventions.
WrestlingINC: Did you guys keep in touch during the 10 years you were apart?
Glen: Yeah, off and on. He lived all the way in Florida and I was all the way up in South Jersey so we kept contact but just not as often. In August I picked up and moved down here in Florida and now we're on chapter two.
WrestlingINC: Were you guys teaming before you signed with WWF (in 1996)?
Glen: Yeah, we were teaming. Glen was the trainer at the wrestling school, the Monster Factory so he actually trained me. We've been tagging together basically since I started, which was June of '93.
WrestlingINC: So you guys were together for a few years before you were signed with WWF.
Glen: Oh yeah. I started in June of '93 and we went to Memphis in April of '94.
WrestlingINC: You guys first started with WWF back in 1996 as The Flying Nuns, right?
Glen: '96 was when we signed with the WWF, our first contract, but we didn't go in as the Flying Nuns. We went in as the Headbangers.
WrestlingINC: Okay, then you were changed to the Flying Nuns?
Glen: Yeah, for like a two week stint.
WrestlingINC: Shotgun Saturday Night reminded me of an ECW kind of thing. What was it like being on that show?
Glen: The Shotgun Saturday Nights' were so cool because it was in our kind of crowd, our kind of scene. It was real late at night when we were taping it and everything else. Everybody was real close; it was packed. It was awesome.
WrestlingINC: It was Chaz that threw up during an interview on Shotgun Saturday Night, right?
Chaz: Yes, that was on Shotgun Saturday Night. It was just a nice mouthful of warm milk.
Glen: It would have made a normal man puke.
WrestlingINC: What do you remember during that time in WWF as far as the competition from WCW, business being down. Was it a tough time to be there?
Chaz: You mean for us? It was a great time to be there. I mean, we just got there. We had part-time contracts and we were getting used every night right away. The Shotgun Saturday Nights actually helped us tremendously because they were in New York and we were from Jersey so we were booked on every single live Shotgun Saturday Night except for one. We were local; there was no trans. We could just drive up and do the show and we could drive home. For us, it was great. That's how we got over with the fans and we got the gimmick over.
WrestlingINC: What was that time period like before the Monday Night Wars started?
Chaz: For us, it was great. We came in as it was starting to peak and go up. For us, it was just a great time. At that point we were ecstatic to have a job and opportunity to be there, which is what we're looking for now.
Glen: We always looked at WCW to see what they were doing and everything else. It was always a challenge to outdo them all the time not just Monday Nights. It was every time you were in the ring. You wanted to outdo everybody.
WrestlingINC: You guys won the WWF Tag Titles with an assist from "Stone Cold" Steve Austin. Did you know he was going to be as big as he became?
Glen: We looked at Steve like he was?
Chaz: He was like everybody else.
Glen: That's how he was in the locker room. That's how Rocky [Maivia] was. It's how everybody was. We can actually say back then it was more a close knit locker room. Everyone had a working relationship when we were there. I don't know how it is now; you hear different things but when we were there it was all about working together for the common goal – to be number one and everyone make money and that's what we did and everyone made money. There's no one worried about getting someone's spot and taking someone's spot. It was like whoever we can elevate to help put people in the seats and get the buy rates up for the Pay-Per-Views and make money. That's what we were there to do.
WrestlingINC: Glen then suffered the knee injury.
Glen: Yes.
WrestlingINC: Were you released during that time?
Glen: No, I actually did the knee surgery. I came back and we did a short little stint where we actually wrestled. Our comeback match was against Chris Jericho and [Curtis] Hughes. After that I had another surgery on my knee because it wasn't repaired correctly and then shortly after that I was released.
WrestlingINC: Chaz, they did that Beaver Cleavage stint. What were your thoughts on that?
Chaz: Well, they presented that idea when Glen was hurt. They wanted to give us two different things to do. When he came back he was going to do his own thing and have me do my own thing. At first I was like, 'What the f–k?' but after I thought about it I thought it would have been a cool idea. I had never done anything single so I was excited to try and have that opportunity.
WrestlingINC: It seems like that idea never really worked, as far as the whole incest thing but then they went dark with it. Were you happy with the gimmick or were you happy when you went to just being Chaz?
Chaz: The gimmick had one match because they got hit with lawsuits and so they killed it right away. That's when they had me do the Chaz gimmick. When they had me do the Chaz gimmick, just a happy kid from Jersey, the whole idea was to wait for Glen to come back and for us to tag again so that's where that was heading. I just wasn't thrilled with the girl I was put with. We didn't have that good chemistry together so I think that kind of hurt the whole singles thing as well. Again, the whole thing was leading to a Headbanger reunion anyway.
WrestlingINC: When you guys came back you dressed in drag for a little bit.
Chaz: We wore cones, yes.
WrestlingINC: Was that a company idea?
Chaz: That was a Vince McMahon idea.
Glen: Whatever he says, you do it.
WrestlingINC: Who were some of your favorite guys to work with back then?
Glen: The Godwinns and the Outlaws.
Chaz: Oh my God, yeah. They were by far the two best and the two favorite teams to work with.
WrestlingINC: Do you have any crazy stories you can share? Anything funny that happened in the ring or??
Chaz: I don't know if it's crazy but one of the funniest parts, at least with the Godwinns, is we worked each other so much so many times. It was like second nature. One of the things we used to laugh at is Phineas and I used to do this thing where he'd spit in the air, catch it in his hand and wipe it through his hair and everybody would boo. I would spit in the air, catch it in my mouth and the people would cheer. You think it'd be the total opposite. That was the fun stuff, the chemistry that we had with each other.
Glen: The Country Whoopin' matches where? we had 12 foot whips?
Chaz: Straps.
Glen: Straps and we would just lay it into each other and we would come back and everybody was like, 'Oh my God. That's so crazy.' It was just a lot of fun. We meshed with them. We meshed with the Outlaws. We fit together. We had some really good matches with the Dudley Boyz also.
Chaz: That's the thing with us. Our style mixes well with anyone. We can do the flying around stuff. We can dive over the top rope. We can come off the top rope. We can do all the air boom stuff where you're flying around. At the same time we're ground and pound attack. We can do that too. Our style – the way we wrestle and what we do – meshes with anybody really.
Make sure to check back tomorrow for part two of the interview, where The Headbangers talk about the current product, TNA and a possible return to WWE.