Road Warrior Animal Talks Laurinaitis, Turning Down Royal Rumble, Horsemen In HOF & More
WWE Hall of Famer Road Warrior Animal was on Busted Open with Dave Lagreca and Doug Mortman. You can hear Busted Open on Sirius 94, XM 208, and Sports Zone 860 on the internet. Here are some highlights:
The Four Horsemen getting inducted into the Hall of Fame: "I am so happy for Tully and Arn for getting the recognition that they deserve. If it wasn't for Tully and Arn, there would not be a Road Warriors. I say that humbly because you are only as good as the guy you're in the ring with. Those two guys sacrificed their body and they knew they were going to get an ass kicking. Every night they knew they were going to get an ass kicking, but they took it. They took probably 250 press slams with all the matches we did. At the time you had the WWE growing on one side and the NWA growing on the other side, and that was what was making the NWA hot at the time. Talk about the business taking a wrong turn and there is hardly any good tag teams or tag team matches. Back then, we were selling out with 6 man tags and tag team matches as your main event."
The state of tag team wrestling: "Today's business is such a NOW business. They don't have time to build tag teams. I would love to go in there and head up the tag team division on both Raw and Smackdown. You know what I would love to do? Johnny (Laurinaitis) has this big thing going on with Raw right now and he is butting heads with Teddy Long. I would love to appear on TV right now and say "John, you can go back to Raw and stay where you are and I'll have Smackdown. Why don't we have an NFL style draft? I'll draft my talent, you draft your talent. I'm telling you right now. I'm reviving the tag team division." I would definitely go that route and revive the tag team division. There is a lot of great young talent out there. Cody Rhodes is proving it, Dolph Ziggler is proving it, CM Punk is proving it. There is a lot of great young talent coming up through the ranks?. Kofi Kingston?. There is a lot of good guys."
His brother John Laurinaitis: "He has a company to run as well as being on TV. He reports to one boss and the boss says 'this is what you're going to do and this is what you have to do and this the way I want you to do it.' He is an employee too and he has a hundred employees under him. I wouldn't want to have his job for anything in the world. I would love to be his assistant though (Laughs). I've told him many times? 'you need an assistant so I can watch your back at all times.' You know what I like about John? A lot of people don't agree with it. You may not agree with his methodology, but he is doing what he thinks is right, and he is going to do it regardless of what anyone thinks. Back then when we did that, it was cool, because we were wrestling guys that were jerks and people wanted to see them get beat up anyway? like Jim Cornette and the Midnight Express. Now John is kind of the heel persona and when you hear him talk and I'm sure a lot of guys that work with him will probably say 'He does suck'. There were many times when I was a kid that I hit him. (Laughs)
His future with the WWE: "WWE is a great company. I'm in a situation where they are being great with me. They take care of guys when they get hurt. It wasn't always that way, but it is now. They have a great wellness program that works. You never know, if they ask me to work for them in the future, I would probably be happy to do it. I don't know if they would ask me to wrestle. I did get asked to go do the Royal Rumble, but the timing wasn't right. It just wasn't a good time for me to do it. I got asked with just a couple of days notice. You never know whats going to happen in the future."
On WrestleReunion: "I tell you what's great about it. Because I went into the Hall of Fame last year, the events down in Miami and I know in the state of Florida, especially in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale area are big Road Warrior/Legion of Doom fans. For those who didn't get to see me last year in Atlanta, I'm not going to be at WrestleMania. I'm telling you right now I'm not going to be there. I'm going down for WrestleReunion. It's a great event. WWE doesn't have people who were in the Hall of Fame the year before at their Fan Axxess. I'm going to be at Wrestlereunion and it's a great event. It's a great event for the fans because there is a bunch of great wrestlers, past and present, that is there for just one sole purpose, to meet and greet with the fans and answer questions. Be that guy that fans couldn't meet or be with before. Not that we are put up on a pedestal, but sometimes we are unreachable, especially guys like myself that were blessed enough to be one of the top guys in the sports entertainment business. Well now you can and I'm happy. One thing Hawk and I realized early in our career, if it wasn't for the fans loving and cheering for you, you don't have a job."