Brodus Clay Talks Evolution Of His Character, Being Upset About Losing NXT, Teaming With Tensai

Brodus Clay joined Busted Open with Dave Lagreca and Doug Mortman. You can hear Busted Open on Sirius 92, XM 208 and on the app on Sports Zone. Here are some highlights from the interview:

On teaming with Tensai: "We're kindred spirits. I don't know if you guys have noticed and by the way, I don't want to upset him, the name you're looking for is Sweet T. Tensai is so angry, relax, have some fun. And everything goes with Sweet Tea, right? It's a delicious drink and athletic big guy who can dance, why not?

"I think he's right around 350 and I'm about 356 so seven plus. There's a little resemblance [between us], one of us has still got his hair, which is always nice and between the two of us could pay some mortgages at a tattoo parlor but our styles are a little bit different though. Like his success in Japan and he has the Japanese influence into his work and I'm more of a suplex power guy, so the pairing of us together is actually ying and yang a little bit, which is cool. He enjoys being able to show the other side of him. As he was before, he was kind of one dimensional, you know, the angry guy, which can only go so far, I think. After a while it's like, what is he mad about? He's got a great job and the country is going broke and this guy is mad?"

On just having fun out there and yelling 'suplex': "Actually they were getting mad at me for doing that on TV. They're like, 'you seem like you're picking on the guy' when I'm telling him what I'm going to do to him, but I always thought that was the worst thing you can do to somebody, like 'I'm going to take my hand and I'm going to put it in your face and I'm going to throw you.' When you call it to him, it mentally gets in the guy's head. I think I'm going to get back to that."

The evolution of his character: "Coming out of NXT I felt that I was robbed and I finished second and I cut a pretty good speech on the crowd. I told them I was going to get some back because I was angry, and being with Alberto Del Rio was basically similar to when I was with Snoop. My role was to get his back and make him look as tough as possible and me smiling and cracking jokes wasn't going to do that. So I had to put my personality in the back seat to take care of the job, but I knew it was a doorway for me to get my own personality an opportunity. So the time with Alberto was good in terms of learning and Alberto's a great competitor and his experience helped me a lot, but as soon as I got a chance to be me, I never was a guy who was angry, that mean tough guy is usually the scariest guy in the room, I always noticed the guy that looked the meanest and act the meanest was terrified, that's why he looked mean. And the guy who was smiling at you before he fought you was the guy you really worried about because he's not sweating you. So that's kind of like how I was, even body guarding with guys I was more of a talker and ran my mouth and smiled and stuff and it kept people off, especially if a guy's is fired up and you're laughing at him or smiling or winking at him it just messes with their mind. That was more who I am. Shaquille O'Neal was the same way. If you looked at him before a basketball game, he was silly, joking around, dancing, but come tip-off he was the business and I'm trying to be more like that."

The Funkasaurus character: "I think the word is fun. I just wanted to have fun with it. I think that was something that the WWE was missing. With all the seriousness that's going around today, people need to laugh, they need to have a good time, they need to look at somebody who's not afraid to make fun of themselves a little bit. I mean everyone's gotten a little too uptight. When I think of guys like the Junkyard Dog and even Hulk Hogan, when he came out and that music was playing and he was pointing and ripping his shirt and everybody got fired up and Ultimate Warrior came out and everybody was shaking ropes and they didn't really know what they were doing but they knew they needed to be moving vigorously and it made sense and we kind of got away from that. I wanted, if anything else, Brodus Clay to be remembered as somebody who got you out of your seat and I think that'll be remembered so you've got to come 100% with that. We have an open camp, Naomi and Cameron, they always have ideas and as the leader of the Funk Nation or Tons of Funk, now the official name of the tag team, it's a big group but it's a lot of fun and a lot of input and people come in with new ideas all the time and I always get all sorts of good ideas from Twitter, people going, 'hey can you do this?', and we try as much as possible to incorporate everyone's opinion so everyone feels like they're involved. Even the name, we went out and it came down to Lords of Funk and Tons of Funk and What the Funk and Sweet T was like, 'I like Tons of Funk,' I was like, 'what are we, tipping scales?' Next thing you know its #tippingscales, Tons of Funk. So it's a group thing but you got to have fun with it."

People of all ages dancing for Brodus: "I think it's a testimony to how bad of a dancer I really am. The thing about it (the teen wolf dance) is anybody can do it, so when they see me dancing, 'well I can do that.' I think if I was like Fred Astaire out there or like break dance fighting and doing crazy splits and stuff like that I think people would be like, 'ehhhh, I'm just going to watch him,' but the fact that they're like, 'I can do that,' it's fun and I think they lose themselves. Matter of fact, at WM last year when I came out with Mama Clay and the Bridge Club I was like 'everybody call your mama,' there was a guy who was watching and was defiant, I was keeping him from his tough stuff, and when I was like "everybody grab your phone" he without even realizing just pulled his phone out and it wasn't until it was up that he was like, 'what?! No.' Then he put his phone back down and if you watch it you can see me looking at him going like, 'you dig? I got you.' You can say what you want to say but you just lifted your phone up when I told you to. It can be euphoric and for tough guys it's alright to lay back a little bit and have fun and when the bell rings still be about business but enjoy it, have fun, people are excited to see you."

The Funkadactyles and the Bellas in the ring: "Well they're both former Divas champions and I would argue that Naomi is the best pure athlete in the women's division, period. Some of the stuff that she does, it just blows your mind. She's just chomping at the bit and the more she gets out there the more things she does and Cameron makes up for her inexperience with she's ferocious. She's throwing blows out there and the Bellas, they're wily veterans out there, but that's what me and Sweet T are there for. We're always coaching them on the sidelines. If you've seen me during the match, they got pom poms for me so I get up there and cheer for them as best I can but at the same time giving instructions and stuff. Experience wise you've got to give it to the Bella Twins but in terms of just overall effort, athleticism, and just work ethic, the Funkadactyles are there with them."