Flashback Audio: Stevie Richards On Calling TNA 'An Indy League With TV,' Hogan & Bischoff

Above is audio from an interview WrestlingINC.com conducted with ECW Original Stevie Richards regarding a variety of topics, including his time with TNA and why he once referred to the company as "an indy league with TV." We are posting interesting clips and stories from our interviews to our YouTube channel, so please take a moment to subscribe to our YouTube channel at youtube.com/WrestlingINC1.

Describing TNA as "the most distant second you could imagine," Richards noted that the income that wrestlers make through their work in TNA often doesn't pay their living expenses. He noted that this factored into his decision to ultimately leave TNA.

"I said 'If you don't believe me, look at my pay checks, look at many other guys' pay checks'," Richards said. "Or look at how some guys just leave the company. It's always about money. So, I said that before. If I'm not making a living wage at TNA, I will leave. And I did. ?Most people got very offended but I was just telling the truth and I was just saying it because I feel like a lot of the wrestlers there are not getting their just wage. They put their bodies on the line, they kill themselves. They drop themselves on their heads, all sorts of high risk maneuvers and they don't get compensated for it? I don't think that's fair."

Richards said he wasn't sure if the big contracts that TNA was paid out to guys like Hogan and Bischoff factored into their inability or unwillingness to pay decent wages to undercard talent but he also didn't place any blame on people who received sizeable paychecks.

"I don't blame Hulk Hogan and Bischoff for getting the money that they can get from the company," Stevie advised. "This is America, I'm not saying they should feel bad about the money they are getting. I'm just talking about the people that I feel personally should be getting more or at least a living wage so they don't have to go apply for a job at Wal-Mart or Target or K-Mart after the pay-per-view and two TV tapings."

You can read much more from the original interview here.

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