Mikey Whipwreck Talks Declining WWE NXT Trainer Job, Why He Turned Down TNA Hardcore Justice PPV
Former ECW World Heavyweight Champion Mikey Whipwreck was recently interviewed by Wrestling Inc.'s Andy Malnoske. The third Triple Crown winner in ECW history discussed why he didn't accept an invitation to be a part of TNA's Hardcore Justice pay-per-view.
Whipwreck said he was contacted by former ECW superstar and hardcore wrestling legend Tommy Dreamer to be a part of the show. He didn't hesitate to turn down the invitation because he was disenchanted by the idea of TNA doing an event like that. Since WWE owns the rights to ECW and former ECW owner Paul Heyman still being with the company, Whipwreck believes only WWE can authentically put on a hardcore wrestling event.
"Tommy Dreamer asked me, I said, no thanks, and that was it. I would say it was 'ECW-lite', but it wasn't even 'ECW-lite' because WWE owned it. It was like, I hate to say 'bush league' and 'imposter ECW,' but it was," Whipwreck said. "We did the thing with ECW at WWE and it was more authentic because Paul Heyman was there, Tommy Dreamer was there. It was in one of the ECW buildings, so it kind of had that atmosphere and vibe to it, but TNA doing it felt kind of blah to me, so I passed on it. The money would have been nice but I wasn't feeling it."
Whipwreck also revealed that the WWE reached out to him to become a trainer at NXT, but he turned them down. He said he didn't feel comfortable moving his family down to Florida for something he knew in his heart he wasn't committed to. He said he would have accepted an invitation to be a guest trainer on occasion, but he has no regrets about his decision.
"They asked, I said no. It was one of those that I had to uproot my family to Florida, which I was okay with that, but I didn't want to move down there and then they decide to fire me, so the uprooting my family; my wife had a good job then as did I, but it wasn't for me," he said. "To be a guest trainer for a week would have been okay, but it wasn't worth to go down there and take the risk. Maybe it could have worked out great and ended up like Billy Kidman, but I could have also went down there and stayed for a week and thought how terrible it was, so I didn't pursue it. I have no regrets about it."
Peter Bahi contributed to this article.