Bob Holly Talks Working With CM Punk, WWE's Hypocrisy With Wellness Policy & Injured Stars, ECW

I recently spoke with former WWE star Bob Holly. In the third and final part of the interview below, Holly discussed discussed ending CM Punk's streak, working with Punk, hypocrisy with the WWE Wellness Policy, Ted Dibiase's release and much more.

You can check out the first part of the interview here, where Holly discussed his early career, working as a job guy with Ricky Steamboat in WWF, working with Ric Flair in WCW, signing with WWF, being given the "Sparky Plugg" gimmick and much more. Click here for the second part of the interview, where Holly talked about the Attitude Era, if he ever considered jumping to WCW, being injured during a match with Brock Lesnar and if he tried to sandbag him, not being ready for the World title picture and more. You can also follow him on Twitter @TheBobHolly.

Wrestling INC: You were a big part of the new ECW after WWE brought it back. What were you thoughts on them bringing it back? Did you care either way or did you think it was a good idea?

Holly: You know what? I thought it was a good idea simply for the guys that weren't being used much because they had a lot of guys just sitting around not doing anything and I thought it was a great platform for other guys to get over. I thought it worked. I thought the show carried itself pretty well. I thought it was a good idea, I really did and I enjoyed it because that was my kind of wrestling. I enjoyed it and I really did think it was good for business. I just hate that it didn't last.

Wrestling INC: While you were in ECW, you ended CM Punk's undefeated streak, I think it was a year and a half.

Holly: Yep. Yep. I was the first one to dethrone him.

Wrestling INC: Did you ever envision that he would be able to become where he's at?

Holly: He's a hard worker. I honestly didn't envision him being where he is now, but he got there through hard work. I'm happy for the guy. He was great to work with. He was easy. He was rough, so it fit. I enjoyed working with him. He about knocked me out when he caught me with that knee a couple times, [laughter] but that's the way the game is played when you work with him. If you dish out you better be ready to take it. I was. That's how I liked it.

When I see guy's names across from mine, certain people, I was like yeah, this is going to be fun, or I got to take it easy with this one or whatever. Whenever I seen guys like Punk and Bradshaw and Brock [Lesnar] and [Chris] Benoit and guys like that, and Test, I didn't have to worry. I enjoyed that because it was like you can drill these guys pretty much as hard as you want. As long as you don't knock their teeth out and break their nose everything's going to be fine. It made it easy working with those guys. And Punk, he was always fun to work with. I enjoyed working with him. He was fun. He was easy to get along with. He's a good dude. He really is.

Wrestling INC: You mentioned Benoit. I know in your book you write about Owen Hart and Eddie Guerrero and Benoit and those were really some heartbreaking reads. You had a very level headed hypothesis of what Benoit did, what happened with Benoit. Do you mind discussing that?

Holly: Well, I mean I talk about it in my book. I go into pretty great detail about it. Mine was just a theory of what I think happened. It was my opinion. I really don't want to say much more than that. I think a lot of these interviews I've done, it put into perspective what people read that I wrote about it. They're like you know what, that makes a lot of sense. It's tragic. When I think about I Just shake my head and think, you know, what happened? Why? Chris and I were such good friends. We rode up and down the roads together and stuff like that. Whenever I was in Atlanta on days off I'd meet with him and we'd go eat lunch and stuff or whatever, and it just breaks my heart. It really does.

Wrestling INC: You also wrote about the Wellness Policy. Is that something you think should be kept around? Do you think it's doing much good?

Holly: All I'm going to say is it's a huge double standard. All it is, is let's do testing so we can say we test, but we're going to pick and choose who we enforce it on and it's not straight across the board. I know that for a fact. That's another thing I discuss in my book. I talked to one of the doctors that was in charge of the testing. I had a nice telephone conversation with him when I questioned him on a few things which I didn't think was right, and he sort of explained to me how it works. From that point on I was like okay, it's all a bunch of BS, pretty much. Needless to say, the guy that was in charge of the testing, he's no longer with WWE wellness program anymore.

Wrestling INC: It's obvious from reading your book, I think a lot of people put it up there with [Chris] Jericho and [Mick] Foley's book as probably the most honest. It's obvious reading it that you're not looking for a job right now with WWE. It was really refreshing, whether people agree with some of your opinions or not. What made you decide to write it this early? You're still wrestling. You can still go. You wrestled for TNA earlier this year. Did you think there would be any backlash or that it'd be hard to go back after releasing the book?

Holly: When I wrote this book, I thought about it and it's like, you know what? I've always been a person that's says what's on my mind. Whether people hold that against me, that's fine because it's my opinion. It's my beliefs. It's my story and I'm not going to alter my story or sacrifice putting information in there that people want to know for the sake of, you know what, I may end up going back to WWE, I may not or I don't know. To me, that's taking away from the wrestling fan because there's so many books out there [that lie]. There's one that came out not that long ago, I'm not going to mention no names, but he skips around and dances around a lot of details to make you want, it's like okay why is he doing this? Why isn't he just coming out and telling us what he thinks or how it goes because they want a job or eventually they're going to want their job back. And me, it's like if they hire me, fine. If they don't hire me, hey I'm cool with that. I don't care. I'm happy doing what I'm doing now. I don't need WWE. I don't need anything.

I wanted people to know, hey, this is the way everything went with me. This is my opinion on a lot of stuff. This is my opinion on how I perceived a lot guys and stuff like that by being around them and everything. I was not worried one bit. Whether WWE is going to call me and say hey, we'd like you to come back to work for us, or you're never going to come back and work for us, I don't care. I honestly don't care. If they call me, fine. If they don't, I'm fine. So when I wrote it, I wasn't looking to make a lot of people happy. I don't tell people what they want to hear to make them happy. If I feel a certain way about something and you're my friend or you're the company I work for, I'm going to tell you maybe something you don't want to hear, and that's just the way it is and that's the way I feel.

I think more people need to be like that because with true friendships, you should be able to tell somebody hey, this is the way it is and if you don't like it, that's just the way [I feel]. You should still be able to be friends and stuff like that because I think when you're honest with people, you're trying to help them, a lot of people, when you're honest with them and stuff like that. I don't have anything to hold back. I shouldn't have to sugar coat anything because I'm afraid I'm going to offend somebody. I was with the company for so long and this is where I've been, this is what I've seen, this is what I've heard and this is my story.

I even say stuff about TNA in my book and certain people with the company and I wasn't worried about okay, do I want to get a job with TNA or not? Better not say this or whatever, or maybe I need to alter it to where it won't offend nobody down there. I didn't do that and they still called me, so I just think more people need to [be honest]. I don't know. That's just the way I am. I just want people to know, because with a lot of wrestling fans, I think I answered a lot of questions that they've always wondered. I may not have answered every question, but I think I answered a few questions to where people will go okay, okay, so that's how it works. Okay, okay, so that's why it's like this and so forth. It's not one of those books where I'm pissed off at the world and this and that and I'm going to write a book and I'm going to bury everybody. I talk about people. I talk about the good about, say I pick out Hunter. I talk good about him. There's a lot of good about him, but I also talk about how I feel about him and what I think. It's not like I have a tendency just to go bury people to bury them. I talk positives about people, but I also tell how I feel about somebody. People have been very, very happy with it. But the credit doesn't go to me, it goes to Ross Williams, the one who wrote the book. I just told him my story and he put the whole thing together and just did a great, great job.

Wrestling INC: It's been four and a half years now since you left WWE. Were you surprised after 15 years about your release?

Holly: It was a mutual thing because they didn't have anything for me. I had just come back from elbow surgery. I was ready to go back to work, but I wasn't ready to go back. So when Johnny [Laurinaitis] had called me we got to talking and stuff and I asked him, do the writers have anything for me? He said well, let me check, and I talk about this in my book too. He called me back like a week later and said well they don't have anything for you and I said Johnny, I'm not just coming back to work to sit around and put people over. Because nowadays, we're not making any money putting guys over. I said it's no fun. If I'm not going to be in a storyline, I just don't want to come back. He called me back and said well, they don't have anything for you so we're going to let you go. I said that's fine with me. So it was mutual thing. It was like they had called me, hey, we're going to let you go. It was like Johnny, do they have anything for me? He calls me back, no they don't so we'll let you go. And that's how it went.

Wrestling INC: At the end there, right before your last program, you were working with Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase. I know you were critical of DiBiase's recent release. What exactly made you speak out against that?

Holly: I just got tired of seeing WWE people, executives and stuff, post stuff on Twitter saying hey, if you want to make it in WWE you have to show us you want it. You have to work hard. You have to not cause any problems within the company. You have to be able to cut good promos. You have to be able to work. Let me tell you something. Ted DiBiase has every single tool it takes to be number one. That, to me, and I talk about it in my book, because why is he not on TV right now? There's not reason why because let me tell you something, when they bring Sheamus back, because their excuse is they can't just throw him out there, but then when they bring Sheamus back you watch and see if they don't put him in something when he comes back. It's like the other guys that get hurt, like Rey Mysterio. How many times does he get hurt a year? About 15 times a year and then he comes back and they throw him right out there and put him in a storyline. You can't sit there and tell me they don't have anything for this guy or they can't find anything for him.

Wrestling INC: And it is there job. They're the ones that are supposed to be coming up with stuff.

Holly: Exactly. That's the writer's jobs and when you have a talent like this, you are so missing the boat on this guy, because I worked this guy. I've seen this guy. They don't get no better than Ted DiBiase Jr. I'm sorry. It just doesn't happen. It's a shame. It really is.

Wrestling INC: Thanks and thanks for taking the time. Do you have any upcoming appearances or anything else that you'd like to plug?

Holly: I got a few things going on. I don't want to get too busy with traveling and stuff because I had my fun traveling and did all that. I kind of just want to chill out and just do a few things here and there. That's all I want to do.

You can check out the first part of the interview here, where Holly discussed his early career, working as a job guy with Ricky Steamboat in WWF, working with Ric Flair in WCW, signing with WWF, being given the "Sparky Plugg" gimmick and much more. Click here for the second part of the interview, where Holly talked about the Attitude Era, if he ever considered jumping to WCW, being injured during a match with Brock Lesnar and if he tried to sandbag him, not being ready for the World title picture and more. You can also follow him on Twitter @TheBobHolly.

You can also purchase his book, The Hardcore Truth: The Bob Holly Story, at Amazon.com by clicking here.