Kid Kash Explains Why He Rejected Initial Offers From WWE

Former ECW and TNA star, Kid Kash, recently caught up with The Cut Pro Wrestling Podcast to talk about the end of his time with ECW. Kash revealed that he ultimately wasn't aware that ECW had finally died out until seeing Paul Heyman appear on WWE television.

"The last few months, the word was that Paul was in New York and LA because he wasn't at the shows a lot of the time. He was out trying to push the sale of the show. And I knew that he was out doing stuff in LA. Well then come to find out, he was doing a movie and I knew that he was doing a movie, but I was just going to work. I was just going to work while they continued to book me, I continued to get an airline, I continued to get a paycheck. I just kept going to work.

"Now Paul wasn't there on a few of these shows, and you would hear things. But when you're in the wrestling business, that old saying goes, 'believe nothing that you hear and only half of what you see.' But we heard he was trying to get a deal with Fox and, I think TNT, but he was working on getting a deal and working really hard, but that's all I knew," Kid Kash explained. "Then, like I said, I got the phone call to not show up the last few house shows. And then the very next week, when I saw him on WWE — but then I started seeing Sabu, and Taz, and other people on there too, so maybe?

"You know, without anybody telling you, it makes you wonder, 'well maybe we must be working something out with WWE.' Everybody's there, you know? But then I got a call from WCW with an offer, so I kept trying to call Paul and I couldn't get a hold of Paul," Kash continued. "Tommy Dreamer wound up getting it hooked up to where I talked to Paul and then Paul simply said, 'You want to go to work?' And I was like, 'I do.' And he was like, 'alright' and he goes, 'you still have time left on your contract and if you sign over every financial amount, sign it over free and clear, I'll give you your release.' So, I did. We did it literally right there. I drove over to Kinkos and called him back and we did it all right there. And as soon as that happened, I sent mine in to WCW and then WCW sent me an offer, and then I went to do the last Thunder for them."

Though, Kash's run with WCW would be short-lived because like ECW before it, WCW would be bought out by WWE. Kash says they were willing to renegotiate his contract in WWE, however, he wasn't interested in relocating. This would lead him to a return in TNA/Impact Wrestling, where he was X Division champion and a multi-time tag team champion.

"It was pretty hectic, I think. I wasn't there long; I was only there for about a total of three weeks. I signed with them, I got brought in a week later, did a couple of dark matches, and then I got brought in the next week and did a Thunder," Kash said. "Then the following week, they called me and told me, 'I know you're supposed to be in Panama City, but we're just gonna sit this one out. We'll be calling you next week.' So, they didn't call me, I watched what happened on TV and just like ECW, nobody knew what was going on because even whenever I was there, when I was signed and got doing the dark matches, it was like business as usual, nobody was talking about anything differently. Nobody was bringing anything up, nobody was... I'd say almost a month later, and I was getting paid, they kept sending me my paychecks but I didn't get that phone call.

"Next thing you know, John Laurinaitis did call me, and he said, 'here's the deal.' I signed a pretty good deal, Jimmy Hart worked with me a lot, and he worked with me on quite a few deals I had over the years. He helped me work that one out and I signed a really nice deal for myself that I was really happy with. So, he comes back, and he says, 'we have a new company. We got so many wrestlers now that it's going to be a little bit — we're going to have to weed everybody out that we're going to keep, blah, blah, blah, but Vince wants to keep you," Kid Kash recalled. "So, what we're going to do is we're going to renegotiate your contract and we want you to move to Cincinnati and wrestle there until we call you.' And I'm like, okay well here's the deal, at that time, I was like 35, 36 years old. I was like, okay, I'm 35 years old. I own my own house in Nashville, Tennessee. I've been wrestling for 15 years, I've been Kid Kash in ECW and I've traveled the world, you know. I'm kind of well known a little bit, not like a Stone Cold or anything like that, but people know who I am and you can push me definitely as a light-heavyweight. So, I don't know if I really want to be moving.

"I don't want to move to Cincinnati of all places, get an apartment so that means I'm going to have to sell my house, get an apartment for a thousand dollars a month and wait. And I was like, 'how long am I going to be there?' And he was like, 'well you know this business, you could be there three weeks, three months, or three years.' And so I called Jimmy and talked to him. Jimmy was like, 'just my opinion, I think you're better than that, and I think they'll want you later on.' And I was like, 'okay,' so I called back and found out what they wanted to renegotiate my contract down to moneywise, and it wasn't good at all. Holy crap! I was like, that's a huge jump from what I signed for to what you're offering me now, and you want me to go to a developmental ground and take the risk of getting hurt?

"Now I'm in my mid 30's. I'm not going to be wrestling, you got me in a developmental group with a bunch of young guys, it's going to put me at risk of getting hurt which when I finally did sign with WWE later on, they had me in the Atlanta area there and I did get hurt there, broke my arm," Kash noted. "But I went on ahead and did that just to show them that I could do good business and get in because I did turn them down the first time. But they held that you know, John Laurinaitis held that against me there for a little bit."

ECW originals did reunite for the first One Night Stand pay-per-view that occurred in 2005. Kash was able to be a part of the event despite the fact that he was contracted to TNA Wrestling at the time.

"Actually, I don't know how that worked out. I got permission to do that," Kid Kash noted. "I think Tommy Dreamer had a lot to do with that, but I asked and at first, they said no, of course, and I was expecting them to say no. But then they came back and said yes, just one time and one time only. Hopefully, make up some and create a good relationship between them, that may be a start of one anyway. When I went there, it was cool, it was weird. I'm under the TNA contract but I'm under a WWE banner. I think that's the first and only time [a TNA performer has worked under a WWE banner] I believe, at the same time, where I was contracted."