Shane Helms Talks Jericho & Orton's Suspension, If He'd Return To WWE, PWI 500

Arda Ocal and Jimmy Korderas of AftermathRadio on theScore spoke with former WWE Superstar Shane "Hurricane" Helms from a hospital, where his girlfriend is under observation due to birth complications. Here are some highlights from the interview:

Thoughts on Randy Orton's Wellness suspension and how Orton will be treated upon return: "If the rules are you get three strikes then you get three strikes. If a guys playing baseball you don't just pull him off the plate after a second strike. If that's the rules then you got to follow them. I mean if he has one more strike then he has one more strike. He is one of the most talented guys in the world, the most talented guy in the business by far. I mean you can't just put him in a mid-card scenario. Maybe the push isn't as strong I guess but you got to give the guy the benefit of the doubt and keep in mind that it's a victimless crime? I'm kind of liberal when it comes to this whole performance enhancing drug thing. I'm not sold that they even enhance performance or sold on who gets to decide what's legal and what's illegal. Caffeine is a performance enhancing drug but yet we find it in the soda every day. I mean it just depends who gets to decide what's what? I've always been one of those people as long as you're not hurting other people then do what you want to do? That's tricky cause you want to have a good image for kids."

Does he have designs on returning to WWE: "I am very happy with what I'm doing right now, being away form WWE and the schedule has given me time to do to other things. The thing about this business is that there are people in it and that's all they have. Once its gone and it will be gone for every single one of us, they don't have anything left... that's things I'm telling young guys. You got to devote yourself to the business, no doubt. It has to be a top priority for you to be successful but you have to have other stuff going on because once the wrestling is over and it will be over at some point and if you got nothing left then you're going to have nothing left to do. A lot of guys can't ever come back from that cause wrestling was all they had and it consumed so much of their life that when its gone they got nothing to do and they can't let go and they can't really deal with not being in that lime light."

On Jericho's Brazilian flag incident: "What Jericho did with the whole Brazilian flag- that's a character. A character did that. Chris Irvine did not do that but Chris Irvine got suspended. His character did that- a character on a show? we're supposed to know the law of every country we go to? I don't know the laws in America... You can't be going to a country and be expected to know that that's that big of a deal. Me personally, I always kind of stayed away from messing with a flag but I have had fans give me a flag and I have held it up as a cape. There might have been some people who found that that was disrespectful?. I didn't mean it like that? Like I said, it was a character that did that. Chris Irvine did not do that, Chris Jericho did that."

How do you feel about PWI 500 and how much weight does he and other pro wrestlers put on their rankings: "I think it's cool for people coming up in the business because it's a way to get your name out there that people might not originally see. I would imagine it [PWI 500] was one of the most bought issues, I could be wrong. It was one I always liked when I was coming up and it was cool to see my name for the first time? I know it's important for some guys and for some guys it's not. I think at some point it becomes a level in your career when you know how good you are. I think especially for the younger guys coming it's more important and it should be, they're struggling to get their names out."

Helms also talked about his iMMA FightFan and WrestlingFan smart phone apps, his injuries stemming from his motorcycle accident last year, and gave an update on his unborn child. You can listen to the full interview by clicking here.

You can also send your well wishes to Helms and his girlfriend as they remain in the hospital on his Twitter at @ShaneHelmsCom.