I’m old enough to remember a time when shoot interviews were a big thing. VHS tapes that were 4 hours long and most likely bootlegged from someone else’s friend. Honky Tonk Man talking about the things WWE didn’t want you to hear, or just how he really hates *insert wrestler here*, The Iron Sheik shouting that he will break our backs and make us humble, Jim Cornette doing the face.
But since the advent of podcasts and every wrestler in the world have a podcast, shoot interviews don’t mean quite so much anymore. When you leave WWE you give an interview with Chris Jericho or Chris Van Vliet or presumably a different Canadian that is also called Chris, but often it just feels like the same stories getting told but from different perspectives. Nothing quite feels… explosive anymore.
But that’s not to say there haven’t been some big ones in 2020 – no siree! You see, in April WWE cut a lot of talent which means there was a lot of talent who had a lot of time to do a lot of podcasts. And as such, we got some real gems inside the working hive of WWE and an insight into the mind of Vince McMahon – but also some bits about AEW and the indies.
I’m Luke Owen please give this video a thumbs up, and subscribe to WrestleTalk for more great content like this, and let’s look at 10 explosive shoot interviews from 2020.
10. Vince May Be Out of Touch – Matt Hardy On Talk is Jericho
Matt Hardy decided not to re-sign with WWE back in February – do you remember February? We all sat together in massive crowds at wrestling shows which now feels like a totally alien concept. His WWE run wasn’t the barnstormer we all thought it would be. Matt had reinvented himself on the indies and became the hottest act in wrestling when he brought out the Broken Matt Hardy character – you could not move for Delete chants in 2015. And then he and his brother Jeff re-signed with WWE in 2016 and just became the Hardy Boyz again for nostalgia pops. Oh, dear. He did eventually get to be “Woken” Matt Hardy, but it didn’t quite click. And perhaps the reason it didn’t click, was because Vince McMahon is out of touch.
Hardy appeared on Talk is Jericho where he talked about the Ultimate Deletion match that closed Raw on March 20, 2018, and noted that Vince was not only not a fan of it, but if it was a hit, then maybe he has passed it?
“[Vince] watched it in the production meeting, and a few people watched it already. But after it was over, everyone clapped and stood up… and he was just kinda looked around and told a few people, ‘I don’t get it. If it does a number then I am truly out of touch.’ And we kept the audience over 3 million viewers, which was cool. It did okay”
I mean, it was a hit – but Vince is still heading up creative. Maybe he thinks the kids are wrong.
9. The WWE Tag Titles Are So Bad No One Wants Them – FTR On Talk is Jericho
FTR – formally The Revival in WWE – had been looking to leave for quite some time and finally got their release in April – actually before all of the pandemic firings. One of the big reasons they wanted to leave was because WWE – for whatever reason – don’t like tag wrestling. And when I say WWE, I mean Vince McMahon doesn’t like tag wrestling. They don’t treat the titles seriously, they don’t really feature them, and they keep breaking up teams left right and centre. Cash Wheeler on Talk is Jericho said of Braun Strowman and Nicholas winning the tag titles:
“This is nothing against Braun, but he steamrolled the entire tag team division. And then a ten-year-old won the titles at WrestleMania. And then no tag teams were featured at SummerSlam, and at the last minute they added the women’s tag titles, which I’m all for, but it was so last minute that people didn’t know.”
But perhaps the most damning of things to say of WWE’s tag division is that they didn’t even want to win the tag team championships.
“We’d just beaten Lucha House Party, so we knew the tag titles were in our immediate future, and that’s when we asked. Because we wanted to make the point that we knew things were going decent for us, they’re going all things considered, but we’re not happy. The tag titles don’t mean anything… I would rather lose to the tag champs for the rest of my career than hold them, because it’s just going to be seen as a failed championship run.”
The tag scene in WWE has only gotten worse since FTR left, with that never-ending feud between Street Profits and Andrade & Angel Garza, and the nonsense with Viking Raiders. I’m not even sure I know who the Smackdown tag champions are… STREET PROFITS? Oh yeah, the whole swapping belt thing. Looks like Cash Wheeler had a point!
8. WWE Is Augustus Gloop – Andrew Yang with Chris Van Vliet
WWE have had a lot of criticisms leveled against them in 2020 – many of which stem around their handling of a certain global pandemic – but one of the biggest bones of contention is the banning of their talent using Twitch and Cameo. Despite calling their wrestlers “independent contractors”, they sure as f*** don’t treat them as such – just ask the former Zelina Vega. Augustus Gloop was a big greedy nincompoop, and Andrew Yang feels WWE are quite similar.
If you’re not aware, Andrew Yang was a former presidential candidate for the democrats and is hopeful – at the time of this recording – to be part of president-elect Joe Biden’s new cabinet. And if he does get that seat, he’s already said that he will target WWE for their definition of “independent contractor”. He did a fantastic interview with Chris Van Vliet, and spoke about this topic saying:
“It infuriated me because I know that the WWE has been trying to play it both ways for years now, where they’re saying on one hand you can’t do anything without our sayso we own you, but you’re an independent contractor and we have nothing to do with your health, retirement, any of the benefits that would ecurde to an employee.”
And then went as far as to call WWE, “f****** greedy”.
“The McMahons have made so much money, they have money to where they’re investing in football leagues. If you’re a wrestler, breaking your back, and the WWE is like ‘oh, we can’t afford you, you’re fired.’ It like, ‘Well, you probably could have afford me if you could afford to lose tens of millions on [The XFL] debacle.’ The affordability argument does not apply to WWE the way it applies to every other firm. If you look at AEW, I have a feeling that their economics are real. WWE does not have those constraints anymore because it’s a public company. If your company is worth $3.3 billion and you’re mistreating workers, that’s just shameful, really shameful. There was a point in the distant past where you could have made a legitimate argument based upon cost, but now you can’t. Now, it’s just plain f****** greedy. We can all see it.”
Say what you really mean there, Mr. Yang.
This could be a turning point for the wrestling industry, and an interview that could change the very fabric of how it all works. Keep your eyes on this one.
7. The Son of a Wolverine – David Benoit with Chris Van Vliet
There aren’t that many names in WWE that are more controversial than Chris Benoit, who in 2007 murdered his wife and child over the course of a weekend, then took his own life. It was a moment that shook the wrestling world to its very core, and the effects of the event still hold strong today. Vice’s brilliant Dark Side of the Ring opened season two with a two-part special on Benoit that made me cry a whole hell of a lot and I would heartily recommend you watch.
Chris Benoit’s son, David Benoit, featured on the show talking very openly about his father and his crimes. But in an interview with Chris Van Vliet, he interestingly brought up his fledgling wrestling career, and how he doesn’t want to shy away from his family name and wrestle as Chris Benoit Jr.
“I don’t own [the rights to] his name yet. I have his middle name I can legally use it and they can’t come after me. Yeah [I would wrestle as Chris Benoit, Jr] I think it would be cool. I’ve got the tights with the claw.”
Listen, I’m happy for David Benoit, I really am. But I’m not sure this is something that is ever going to get positive traction. The Benoit double murder-suicide is one of the darkest days in wrestling history, I’m not sure if we need constant reminders.
6. A Very Bad Rusev Day – Miro On Talk is Jericho
WWE have missed the ball on a lot of talent over the years, and Miro is just one of those names. And perhaps he’s one of the biggest. There was a period in time where nothing – and I do mean nothing – was as over as Rusev Day. So what did WWE do? Try and squash it, break up the team, and release Miro in the early days of a pandemic.
The pandemic actually plays a part in Miro’s final days of WWE, as he told Le Champion on Talk is Jericho that he feels his anger towards WWE making talent work when every other sport – and the whole world – was shutting down, and that’s what got him fired. He says in the interview that he felt that his firing was coming, saying:
“I was getting some of the boys around because we were not okay about how everybody was treated in the pandemic situation. We felt scared to go to work, and once again, it was probably ten of us talking, somebody leaked it to the office. From us 10 people that were talking, somebody leaked it to the office and to the dirt sheets, and once that happened, I knew right away they’re gonna fire me because they’re going to blame it all on me of course because I’m the guy, but it doesn’t matter.”
“They fired me. I lashed out because I think we’re on the path of doing something good because I do want to protect the boys. We all wanted to protect the boys and the girls. That didn’t work out, and that’s why I felt like they cut me underneath because I was just so angry, man.”
An angry man? But you seem so friendly on Twitch!
5. Come Sail Away With Flair – Rhea Ripley with Lillian Garcia
Charlotte Flair winning the Royal Rumble made a lot of us groan, but Charlotte Flair going against Rhea Ripley made a lot of us excited, and Flair winning that match split opinions – those who felt that it could be really interesting for The Queen to return to NXT and have great matches with their great talent, and those who thought it would be a big pile of dicks. Ironic as there were no dicks involved. Apart from Raw creative, of course.
It’s since come out that NXT had to run all their ideas past Raw and they were always shut down. What it meant that Charlotte Flair’s run as NXT Women’s Champion in 2020 was beating a lot of talent, and not putting anyone over. And the person this hurt the most was Rhea Ripley, who went from being the next hot thing in NXT to just… being there. It took a long time for Ripley to recapture the magic she had this time last year, and she told Lilian Garcia on Chasing Glory that that loss was the start of her downfall.
“I’m not too sure. It did feel like (the wind was taken out). I felt like I went through a stage where I was losing confidence in myself because I wasn’t portrayed the same way. Even now, I’m still slowly building myself back up from it. My confidence was tainted a little, which sucks because I try to keep it up and do my best all the time. I don’t know if it was something in my head that wasn’t getting the picture, I just got a little bit lost after that. Now, I feel like I’m getting back on track. Building myself back up has been hard, it’s been difficult, but I’ve found my track now and I’m getting back on it.”
The old Rhea is now back, and it will only be a matter of time before we start talking about her as one of the best talents in NXT again.
4. Running on Diesel Power – Brodie Lee On Talk is Jericho
Full disclosure, I’d wrote this next segment earlier in December – just as we’ve done with all these lists so they were ready to go out over the holiday period – and part of me nearly took this out and replaced it with something else once we all found out Lee had passed on. But listening back to the clip, it made me smile because it made me think of all the great times we had with Brodie Lee in AEW, or Luke Harper in WWE. He was such a passionate man about this strange wrestling business, and hearing his voice again was quite comforting to me. So, this entry remains as it always was intended to be. Rest in peace, Brodie Lee.
It’s easy to forget but Brodie Lee actually left WWE in December of last year, after trying to get out of the company for most of 2018 and 19. The former Luke Harper’s run in WWE can be summed up as “was in a tag team with Erick Rowan”. He tagged with Erick Rowan in NXT, teamed with on the main roster, then he wasn’t in a team with Erick Rowan, and then he was in a different team with Erick Rowan, then creative had nothing for him for a bit – finally coming up with the brilliant idea of putting him in a tag team with Erick Rowan. And then he left. To quote Bret Hart, frustrated isn’t even the goddamn word for it.
And Brodie Lee revealed to The Demo God on Talk is Jericho that WWE’s other big creative plan for him wasn’t a singles run – but to be in a team with a different person with a ginger beard.
“I was going to be Sami Zayn’s heater and I was like, you know what, I go ‘f**k man, that’s exactly what I don’t want to do.’ That’s what I’ve done my entire career, I don’t want to do that anymore. I want to just go do my thing, but you know what, I’m gonna make it work, let’s figure it out and go from there. And two days later I was supposed to debut on SmackDown, I believe after Mania, and then it got cancelled. ‘Oh, we’re not doing it.’ And I’m like ‘Okay that’s it.'”
Man, I just really miss Brodie Lee. It’s only been a few days, but I still haven’t quite processed this. And I didn’t even know him personally. Let’s all be kinder to each other in 2021. Tell the people you’re close to that you love them. I know I will.
3. Trouble In Paradise, Already – FTR WrestleTalk Interviews
Louis Dangoor has made a name for himself in the wrestling world this year with his interviews with the likes of Will Ospreay, Drew McIntyre, Brodie Lee, and then AEW Champion Jon Moxley. But in an interview with FTR, they dropped a pretty big bombshell that they were already unhappy with some of the booking they’d got in All Elite Wrestling.
The pair debuted in the company after being released by WWE and immediately began a feud with The Young Bucks; a feud that had been building for the previous 4 years. It was the match wrestling fans wanted to see, and it was finally going to happen. But then AEW over egged the pudding and turned The Bucks heel… I think? They superkicked Alex Marvez and Tony Schivaone, and then had to turn back face the week before the PPV as no one wanted to see heel Bucks vs. heel FTR for the tag titles – especially when it might have been the last time the team challenged for the belts. It was a bit of a mess, something FTR aired their grievances about to our own Nugget.
“We begged for our release from WWE for two years, and I’m not saying that with any bitterness. We begged for our release from WWE because of this match… Am I happy with the build? I think the build to this match could be a little bit better. Obviously when you’re an artist, you think that your piece is the most important piece in the whole museum, and I do believe that. I don’t know if that comes off as selfish or not, but we believe that our piece in the AEW art is the most important art in the museum of Full Gear. The build, I feel, could have been a little bit better. We could have had a little more time devoted to this match and to make it a little more special. But with everything that has been given to us, we all four have put every ounce of effort into these next few weeks of building to make sure it’s just as important as we want it to come off, just as important as the fans had hoped it to be and I think that at Full Gear, you’re going to see quite possibly the greatest tag team match of all time.”
There is some debate over which match was better: FTR vs. The Bucks, or The Bucks vs. Omega & Page – and you can debate that all you want in the comments I’ll even join in. But it’s undeniable that the Full Gear match was amazing. The build was a bit shonky, but the final product was amazing. Sort of the opposite of Homer Simpson building a spice rack.
2. Bullet Club Invades Madison Square Garden – Matt Jackson TalkNShop Patreon.
Sticking with AEW for a moment, and Matt Jackson revealed on The Good Brother’s TalkNShopAMania Patreon podcast that the original plan for the AEW Dynamite debut was to have Gallows and Anderson debut along with AJ Styles and have a Bullet Club reunion inside of Madison Square Garden. But in the end the show wasn’t from MSG, and Gallows, Anderson and AJ decided to stick with WWE and we got Jake Hager instead. Which worked out well for Styles but not so good for The Machine Gun and the Big LG as they were cut in April as part WWE’s COVID spring clean.
Now we haven’t got a clip of this as it’s behind a Patreon paywall – but we recommend you go behind that paywall so you can listen. But here’s what Matt had to say:
“We were originally going to debut AEW Dynamite at Madison Square Garden. At the end of our match, the three of you [Anderson, Gallows, and Styles] were supposed to jump the guardrail, and we were going to have a Bullet Club reunion. Obviously, things didn’t work out like that.
As for AJ, Jackson revealed: “[He] buzzed us and said, ‘I just got too good of an offer [from WWE] and I would have never got that money without you guys’ offer. So, I want to thank you’.”
You’re welcome, AJ.
A Bullet Club reunion of that enormity certainly would have been a bigger impact than Jake Hager, but at least we’re sort of getting it next year when Kenny Omega teams with The Good Brothers to take on Rich Swann and Motor City Machine Guns in Impact. It’s only a matter of time before The Good Brothers take out Matt and Nick Jackson – but sadly there will be no Uncle Alan alongside them.
1. Vince McMahon Has Failed – Eric Young with Chris Van Vliet
Eric Young is an interesting WWE story. He debuted in NXT and immediately jumped into a main event position thanks to his excellent Sanity group with Nikki Cross, Aleksander Wolfe and Sawyer Fulton [Catchphrase SFX] – sorry, Killian Dane. They won the tag straps and had an excellent War Games match in 2017, and then got drafted to the main roster as a super hot act where they did…nothing. According to reports, WWE had planned on doing a tag team version of Money in the Bank, which is why Sanity was called up – but those plans were scrapped and creative had nothing else for them. So they were just kept off TV for weeks on end – and then lost a bunch. The team got split up, and Eric Young became a job guy on Raw. And then he got fired.
And in a scathing interview with Chris Van Vliet, Eric Young said that Vince McMahon not only failed him, but he’s failed the company. This is quite a long clip to end on, but I do want to air the whole thing – and I recommend you check out the full interview over on Chris’ channel.
“With the WWE, I’m not the first guy to say this, Moxley talked about this a bunch, it’s a broken system. It’s impossible to be creative. It’s impossible to get ahead. It’s impossible to feel like you have even a foothold in your career at all. I’m a person that spent 20+ years grinding, trying to make my reputation and it’s basically dumped on by one person for no reason whatsoever.
“He looked up from his cellphone for five seconds, saw me doing something that maybe he didn’t agree with in that moment and that’s the end of it. The whole time you’re there you’re just trying to fix other people’s mistakes. That’s what it feels like, and it’s an exhausting process. You’re not having fun. There’s no creativity. He wants everyone to be the same, do the same things and sell the same way, and that’s not what pro wrestling is to me.”
“The last thing I’ll say about it is this. If you have a three hour pro wrestling television show and you can’t find something for me to do, then you’re failing as a leader. Plain and simple. You failed your company. You failed the shareholders, you failed the fans and you failed yourself. The reason I wasn’t on the show was his choice. No one else’s.
“I think if you ask most of the people who work there, they would be in my corner. He wasn’t in my corner, so I wasn’t in the show, and I would tell him to him his face, ‘you failed as a leader. You can’t find something for Eric Young to do.’ It’s a really weird place. You can’t fully understand it until you’re there.”
And that’s something I don’t think many people fully realise – we can talk about WWE’s backstage issues, creative problems, or chaos in production meetings – but we have zero clue what it’s actually like to be there and experience all of that first-hand. You can hear in Young’s voice, it must be so incredibly frustrating – and that’s why shoot interviews like this are still popular. They’re just not on 4-hours VHS tapes anymore. They’re in nice bite-sized podcasts or videos like this on YouTube.
So that’s our list of explosive shoot interview comments from 2020, which ones did you like and which ones did you think were dumb and dumber? I’ve been Luke Owen, Jam That Jam.
Comments.
Loading comments…