Shane Helms Talks Getting Job As A WWE Producer
Shane Helms was interviewed by The Mirror to promote his appearance on the Future Shock Wrestling show scheduled for March 17. Helms, who has spent most of his time competing in independent promotions after leaving Impact Wrestling, just recently became a producer for WWE. Helms told The Mirror regarding joining the WWE backstage team, "being a producer is something I've always kinda been interested in, even back to my first run in WWE."
Helms added, "If there was a night where I wasn't doing something myself on TV, I would always help out other guys in different segments. I've always been a fan of the whole process of pro-wrestling, not just certain guys, I've always been a fan of the entirety of the show. I got a big opportunity in TNA to be an agent there as well and that just kinda fueled the fire a little bit." Helms has been going to the WWE Performance Center as a guest coach, and he could have been a trainer but "my strength I found was as an agent and as a producer."
When WWE decided that they needed more producers, they decided to bring Helms up to the main roster instead of work in the Performance Center.
"So it was something that kinda developed on its own organically over the last six, seven, eight months or so," said Helms. "You work with everybody, they don't give you certain guys or anything like that. You just work with everybody, you get certain segments of the show to work on and you just try to add your expertise and see if you can make it better. You're kinda the middle-man between creative and the talent. I think that's the best way to describe it."
Helms feels with his diversity of working as both a babyface and a heel, he can offer a lot as a WWE agent.
"I kinda did a little bit of everything, I was a heel, I was a babyface, I was a wrestler, I was a gimmick character," Helms stated. "So I bring a little bit more diversity, there's not really a situation they can give me that I haven't been in! I think that's what generally helped me in TNA and I think that's what is going to help me in WWE as well."
When I interviewed Helms on the Pancakes and Powerslams Show in November 2017, the former Cruiserweight Champion felt that 205 Live brand is struggling in popularity because of the lack of star power.
"[205 Live] doesn't have the star power that the main roster has. If somebody does get popular in that division they take them out and sending a message to the audience that this division isn't as important. They never seem to capture the magic of how it happens in MMA and Boxing. In MMA and Boxing, their biggest stars are 30-40 lbs smaller than me. WWE has struggled with that. I'm not talking about just small guys, usually smaller guys in that division against other guys.
"They've done great things obviously with myself, Rey Mysterio, AJ Styles, Finn Balor, but imagine how great that 205 Live division would be if AJ and Finn Balor were in it, but it has to be presented as an important division or else AJ and Finn Balor wouldn't want to be part of it, and I can almost assure you that they don't. If it's presented as second tier then nobody wants to be on the B-Team, on the Junior Varsity; everybody there wants to be on the main side and be viewed as important so WWE has to present it as important. Guys there also have to step up. There are a lot of guys look exactly like 40-50 guys on the Indies."
Helms, as the Hurricane, spent the latter end of his WWE tenture competing for the ECW brand in 2009 and 2010. He returned eight years later as a surprise entrant in the 2018 Royal Rumble match. He recently posted a tweet of it being tough to let his in-ring career go after it being all he has known over the past three decades.
The realization that my in-ring career might be coming to an end is starting to weigh on me a little bit. It's all I've known for over 3 decades. I'm not good at goodbyes. I don't wanna go. pic.twitter.com/WpopNJP1yG
? Hurricane Helms (@ShaneHelmsCom) March 11, 2019
"The realization that my in-ring career might be coming to an end is starting to weigh on me a little bit. It's all I've known for over 3 decades. I'm not good at goodbyes. I don't wanna go."
Source: The Mirror