Fit Finlay On Helping The WWE Women's Division Evolve, His Son Wrestling In NJPW
Fit Finlay has always been a mentor to many up and coming wrestlers. One career highlight for him was being able to help train the WWE women's division towards becoming stronger competitors like their fellow male peers. Finlay speaks about how pleased he is with the women's division, and how he hopes that they'll continue to steal the spotlight in the future.
"Well, it first started when I came to WWE in 2001-2002, as a producer. I was given the task of working with the girls," Finlay noted on the latest episode of WWE's The Bump. "As you know, during those years it was all bra and panties, lingerie matches. Whatever gimmick match it was, I had to work with the girls. It was sort of embarrassing to me. I knew I was not what the girls wanted. I started teaching them how to wrestle and got them all together and said 'Hey, I don't really like to do this. I don't like to tell you how to strip yourselves off in a match. It's alien to me for one, and it's degrading to you.' So, I came up with a plan to start putting on wrestling matches and teaching them all the ins and outs.
"I would get my wrists slapped here and again from people, who would say 'We don't want the girls wrestling like the guys. We want them pulling each other's hair and all that kind of stuff.' So, they would go back to pulling hair one day and wrestling the next. So, it stubbornly grew throughout the years, it started getting better. But, all the girls put everything into it. They started listening to me. I didn't have any resistance towards them, so, they all pulled it out and it was a success."
Not only is Finlay a mentor towards the fellow WWE Superstars, but he also helps his children out as well to keep his family's legacy in wrestling strong. His son, David Finlay, recently won the IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championships with longtime friend, Juice Robinson, at this years Wrestle Kingdom 14back in January. Though FinJuice lost the titles to Guerrillas of Destiny during the New Beginning USA Tour last month, who they won them off of at WK14, Finlay is quite proud of his son's career in Japan. He also mentions that his other two children have taken interest in wrestling just like their father and brother.
"It's awesome. With David, that is all he ever wanted to do," Finlay exclaimed. "It's in the family. I also have two other kids. My daughter is training and she is about to go to Japan too. My younger son is 17. I've got him in the ring. He's the tallest of them all and he says that he's going to be better than all of us. They never want to do schoolwork, they just want to be in the ring."
You can view Finlay's full interview above. If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit WWE's The Bump with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.