Heath Slater On WWE's No Crowd Shows: "I Hate It! Everyone Hates It!"

Now former WWE performer Heath Slater helps operate a wrestling school in Georgia called Face 2 Face Wrestling Academy. But like everything else, the school has also been affected by the ongoing pandemic and Slater discussed the school's status when he joined The Wrestling Inc Daily podcast.

"It's been down for about two months now. But now in Georgia you can have 10 people in a space together. So Richard, who's running it there, he has class schedules ready for people to come in," said Slater. "But then again, maybe only four of the students want to come in. So, they can come in and work but we're just following the rules and trying to pick back up."

Slater said he goes down to the school once every quarter but would like to be there even more often. One problem he had was that every time he returned, what WWE wanted had changed so he would then have to get the aspiring wrestlers to change their training.

"One day they love headlocks, the next week they don't. Why are you getting clotheslined over the top rope? Why don't you go through the ropes? People do the same things some times in the matches and then it becomes rhetorical and you stop doing that stuff and think of something else," said Slater.

He was then asked what advice he would give to a wrestler who is starting out.

"Always learn the craft because if you can't handle yourself in a ring then you don't need to be in it," stated Slater. "Have a personality. Go out there and don't give a damn if you fall on your ass and embarrass yourself. For me, personality and charisma goes a loooooong ways in the wrestling business. And you've gotta have a good look. Whatever your mindset is and whatever you wanna have out there, do it. Live it. Try it.

"It's kinda hard when you don't have a damn crowd to perform it in front of."

Speaking of the no-crowd shows, Slater revealed his true thoughts on what he and the WWE locker room think of them.

"I hate it. Everyone hates it because the people is what makes it. My goodness! When I was a heel, the best thing was when I would have a dude in a hold and I would hear something. Someone would say, 'Oh, you suck' and I'd be like, 'Oh, you shut your mouth!' I'd just go off on them and that's the best feeling in the world," said Slater.

"But if there's no one there and I'm going, 'Shut your mouth' then they're gonna be like what's he talking about? Is he okay?"

In terms of WWE programming, Slater said they can't just air old content as they have to fulfill their broadcasting contract in which they're obligated to do so many live events.

"It's one of those things where you have to go live, even if there ain't no one there because you already signed the dotted line," Slater said before being asked if FOX or NBC would allow some leeway given the current circumstances.

"Look what's going on. Hell if I know. That's above my head," admitted Slater. "I'm the guy who walks out to cool music and gets to have fun for 15 minutes."

You can follow Heath on Twitter @HeathSlaterOMRB. Heath's full interview with Wrestling Inc aired as part of a recent episode of our podcast, The Wrestling Inc. Daily. Subscribe to get the latest episodes as soon as it's released Monday – Friday afternoon by clicking here.