Heath Slater On If He Still Talks To Jinder Mahal And Drew McIntyre, Who He Rides With Now, More
The former members of 3MB have all risen from a midcard staples to achieve varying levels of success in the WWE recently. Heath Slater was a guest on last Wednesday's edition of the Wrestling Inc. Podcast with Glenn Rubenstein and WrestlingInc.com owner Raj Giri and discussed his friendship with Jinder Mahal and Drew McIntyre.
Mahal is the former WWE Champion, losing the title to AJ Styles this past Tuesday, and McIntyre is the current NXT Champion. Slater won the SmackDown Tag Team Championship with Rhyno last year in one of the most engaging and popular storylines of 2016. Slater said he doesn't get to talk to Mahal and McIntyre very often, but their friendship is still very strong.
"We text each other here and there but it's not like we talk to each other everyday. Every time we talk, we just pick up and leave off like we never stopped talking, that type of deal. We were on the road together for two years straight, and I love them all to death," Slater said. "Drew is back and Jinder is back killing it still. I'm sure something will happen where he will get another shot. It's just one of those things where I am happy for them. I'm genuinely happy for them."
Slater said nowadays he's close friends with his current tag team partner Rhyno. The former ECW legend is Slater's driving partner during road trips and they enjoy their time together.
"He's a road warrior man. He always wants to drive, and drive all the way," Slater said. "He is a night owl. We watch documentaries together, he's one hell of a guy. A great dude."
Slater was asked about his favorite matches from his WWE career and he came up with three. His tag team title win with Rhyno made the list, of course, as the crowd reaction was one of the best he's ever experienced.
"Three off the top of my head; Nexus vs. WWE at SummerSlam, which we should have won. Mine and Rhyno's match against the Usos when we won the Tag Team titles. Just because the storyline was good and people were behind it. The roof had blew off when we won, which was a very chill bump moment," he said. "And then probably the Money in the Bank one that I was in, just because I had always wanted to be in another one and I haven't been. I just love climbing ladders and doing crazy stuff so probably those three. I haven't watched those back in God knows how long."
Slater is in the process of opening his own wrestling school, Face 2 Face Wrestling, in Atlanta, Georgia. He said he hopes to teach the next generation how to be the entire package. He'll impart his knowledge of character development on them as well as teach them how to perform in the ring.
"I want to teach the total package. I want you to be able to go out there and cut a promo on anything. I want you to be able to have a gimmick and feel comfortable with it to make it work. I want you to learn everything you can learn because I am still learning, but I have a lot that I have learned and that I can teach, so it's one of those things where I am trying to always get the best out of whoever walks into that school, period," he said. "That is just the bottom line. I am the type of guy that shoots from the hip, so if you are doing something wrong just take good criticism because I will let you know who you are. I don't want someone to keep doing something wrong and they get a handle with it so they keep doing it, but it's the wrong way of doing it. You have to have thick skin in the business. I am trying to make sure everyone is ready for WWE, or NXT and all of that stuff. If you are not ready to go there and pick things up, I can make sure to give you some pointers if you want to come to Face 2 Face."
You can check out the full episode in the video above. You can get also get details about Slater's wrestling school at face2facewrestling.com. The latest edition of the Wrestling Inc. podcast goes live at noon ET at this link.
Peter Bahi contributed to this article.