Author Talks WWE's Scrapped Plans For Seth Rollins Vs. Dean Ambrose At WrestleMania 34
As noted, Jon Robinson, who wrote the new Creating the Mania: An Inside Look at How WrestleMania Comes to Life book, was recently interviewed by the Smark to Death podcast. You can download the podcast on iTunes, Podbean or Stitcher. Below are some more highlights:
Plans for Seth Rollins vs. Dean Ambrose at WrestleMania 34 earlier this year being scrapped:
"The only match that was locked in early was Roman vs Brock, they knew about that for a year. They really wanted to do Seth Rollins vs Dean Ambrose, that was another storyline. They wanted to break up the Shield and that was gonna be a huge match at Mania, but then Dean got injured. So, then all of a sudden it's what you do with Seth and the Shield storyline?"
How he got started with WWE Books:
"When I was in college I was an intern for a magazine called Game Pro which was the #1 video game magazine in the world. That was back when WCW was kicking WWE's ass in the ratings, but WWE had one cool thing ? video games. I convinced the magazine that we should do a cover story on wrestling video games and the WWE game that was coming out and they agreed for whatever reason. And I called up WWE and said I wanted to do a cover story on Game Pro and they were like 'yeah, who do you wanna interview.' And I was like 'I wanna interview the Rock, Stone cold, Triple, Mankind, and Chyna' and they were like 'yeah, sure.' I walked into a back stage in the arena and they had a room with video games setup and they were all there and I spent a couple of hours just playing video games with them on. And it ended up being one of Game Pro's highest selling magazines and was the first time the Rock was on the cover for a magazine. I thought that was the highest I was ever going to get in my career and then the Rock called me one day to hang out when was coming to town. I brought video games to the arena and we ate lunch and played video games and he introduced me to the Nation. And any time they came to town, here was Dee Lo Brown at my apartment playing video games. From there, I'd be backstage playing games with like Christian and Edge.
"As I wrote for different things, like I started working for like IGN and ESPN and I started going to more events. And one time on the way back from WrestleMania I rode back with a guy that was in charge of WWE Publications and I said 'you're the guy I wanted to talk to, I wanna write a book.' A year later I get a call and it's WWE and this editor wanted me to write this book, Rumble Road¸ and this book sold very well so they asked me to write another one. So, I wrote My Favorite Match and each guy got a chapter. Then WWE wanted me to write an Attitude Era book, but they said I had to get the access myself and they thought I could because I was friends with a lot of those guys. And I kept building from one book to the next."