Paul Roma On Rumors Of His Heat With Triple H, Problems With Wrestling Today, The Four Horsemen

Today The Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling welcomes a former 3 time WCW World Tag Team Champion, a former member of The Four Horseman and 1/2 of Power And Glory, as "Pretty" Paul Roma joins us for episode #276. The former Young Stallion goes into great detail with John and Chad discussing his promotion based out of Connecticut Paradise Alley Professional Wrestling and their big show Saturday night in Danbury, Connecticut: Rumble In Paradise. Always telling it like it is about his career, Paul pulls no punches and shares both funny and intense stories he encountered inside of the wrestling business. The full episode can be downloaded at this link.

On his supposed heat with Triple H:

"My understanding is that he is running NXT. I think he is turning out a fairly decent product. I think people have a misconception of how I feel about Triple H. You might say, well I've heard what you said but sometimes that can be misunderstood also. When Triple H went to WCW and he first started, they asked me to help train him and sharpen him up and that is what we did. Him and I tagged and it was fun. I have no qualms about Triple H as far as that goes. I also know that somebody has either a Twitter account or had one and they were really going at it with Triple H as me and I cut a promo and told them to cease and desist because they are not me and if it keeps up I'll find you and you will be in a lot of trouble. If I want to get myself in trouble I can do it, I don't need somebody else doing it for me."

NXT's product being the freshest in the industry:

"From what my students tell me, it is a different product than WWE and that is good. On the flip side and just like you have TNA who is a year or two behind Vince. If they write really good storylines they will have it made and be really competitive with Vince's shows. With WWE, I just don't see it. I watched a couple of matches from WrestleMania and now I understand why I don't watch. I tried and did my best but the one match with their big-hero, the phony (Cena), I called that spot with the proposal at the end. It is all too predictable."

The current model of WWE vs. the old school:

"I know that Vince always said that he wanted to do one pay per view a month. He wanted to get rid of house shows. I've always thought for the most part that is where he was going. I also know that they read scripts now so they are basically being told how to wrestle. In our day you went out and called your match. You did know what the finish would be but for the most part that was it. You gave the crowd what you were supposed to give them and not just a choreographed match and I don't understand how these guys do it. You read a book and remember every spot? That doesn't make any sense to me but that is my understanding of what is going on. But Vince always liked guys that were well built and good looking mixed with the not so well built and not so good looking and the great wrestlers and the semi great wrestlers and the flat out sh*tty wrestlers."

"Why do you think they are bringing back the old timers? They need those guys. They really need Austin and The Rock and I'd be surprised that The Undertaker doesn't come back in a year after he heals. They need guys like that. My guys are old school and they get it. I'll put them up with anybody and I know that Vince or Triple H they have missed the boat on a lot of young talent that is out there and I don't know where they are picking their people from but there is a hell of a lot more talent that they are passing up and it is sad because they could make their product that much better. Some of that stuff is just God awful. I wish I could remember some names but now it is like everybody is wearing jeans? And muscle shirts or "wife-beaters" shirts. Really? Is that what it has come down too to now hide my body?"

His highly discussed time as a member of The Four Horseman:

"I liked going with it and I thought it was a great honor. It was Dusty Rhodes telling me that they were going to make me a Horseman and I walked out on stage and was calling Dusty's name and he called out to me "Pretty Paul" and he said; "Come over here and give me a hug and that is what I will call you, "Pretty" Paul Roma, one of the Horseman." Nobody knew about and it was total kayfabed. When I walked into the offices down in Atlanta, the people looked at me like they had seen a ghost and it was like; "What the hell is this guy doing here?" It was cool. I got a long with Arn really well, I tried to get along with Ric and it seemed like I did for awhile but it is hard to tell. Ole was kind of in that rough spot in between and would say coming out of the ring and it was; "We don't do that, the Horseman don't do that, the Horseman don't sound like that." It was always something. But when I was with Arn it was never a problem. We traveled together and Arn would stay quiet and Ric ran the show and I get it because he's the big deal. We just needed to gel. I tried but we needed to gel. Later, Paul (Orndorff) came up to me and said was I okay with tagging with him and I said absolutely brother."

What he learned by teaming with Paul Orndorff as Pretty Wonderful in WCW:

"What is nice about Paul is that he is real. He is from the heart and he doesn't sugarcoat anything. He was constantly teaching me things and you were always learning something. He was one of the guys in the WWF that when I first started that called me over and asked if he could give me advice and told me that I had a great body and that I could wrestle and that they weren't going to do anything with me. I was like holy sh*t, talk about tearing someone's heart out but he told me that I had to get out there and do what Paul Roma does best and give the crowd what Paul Roma does every night. There were times that I didn't want to throw the drop kick but I did. Whether I was hurting or not, I always did it. That stuck with me through my entire career."

The Young Stallions team with Jim Powers:

"Right from the get-go it was pulling teeth with this dude. I left it as it was and things didn't get any better. I don't know how long we were together. I had enough of his shenanigans and called it a day. Pat (Patterson) got pissed because he put us together and he created The Young Stallions. After I called it quits on him they floated me around a little bit, I got some wins under my belt, got some good bookings and was just floating and I was starting to travel around with Ray (Hercules) and I went to the office with an idea, talked to Pat and Pat said come to TV to run it by Vince. We did and we had it."

His respect for Hercules and the style of Power and Glory:

"Ray and I gelled. There was no ifs, ands, or buts about it. I knew what he was thinking when he brought a guy over and he knew what I was thinking. It was the freakiest thing that two people got it. Ray had said to me one day that a lot of people don't like me and I told him that is because they don't know me."

"We liked the lightning bolt and we wanted something in a pair of glasses that looked more like lightning bolts and it was the office that came up with those but they didn't last long and kept breaking. We designed the cutoffs because we had the bodies and knew that the premise of the team was no matter what happens I always pinned the guy. He can do whatever he wants as long as at the end, he tags me and I pin the guy. He thought that was fantastic because I was the "glory" but when we get beat he never gets beat, they always beat me.

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