m. inferno
New member
So is it weird to call yourself a "Superstar" as opposed to a wrestler?
I don't think it's weird. I think we're all Superstars. Absolutely. I don't think there's anybody else who can be called that. Would you call Brad Pitt a Superstar? Do I think Brad Pitt can do what we do? Absolutely not! Brad Pitt gets scripts and lines to study months ahead of time and he has a very controlled setting in which he looks the best he possible can. He has makeup on, there's lighting, there's people doing the sound and everything. We go out there on live TV every Monday night and kill it. That's where the entertainment part comes in. It's more entertaining then a Brad Pitt movie. There are no retakes, you know? There's no Take 1, Take 2—"I screwed that up, let me do it again." If we screw up, we screw up. That's the entertaining part.
One thing you did change is your entrance music, to Living Colour's "Cult Of Personality." Did you consider anything else?
No, that was the one. It was a throwback to my Indie days, but it also just fit. I have tremendous guts, I'd like to say, and it was just a gut feeling that this was the right thing to do, to change my music now. Did I like my old song? Absolutely. Was it recognizable? Sure, I had it for five years. Was it time for a change? Was it a risky thing? Yes and yes. But ultimately, I think it was the right move. I haven't been able to get the song out of my head since last Monday. It's a song that came out in 1989, when I was on my little league team, and now it just jumped into the iTunes Top 200. That's powerful. That should speak volumes to the WWE management. They should say, "Holy crap, this kid has the power to do something like that. Let's see what else he can do."
What's really different now that you're back? What are we really going to see that's not status quo?
I don't want to ruin any surprises, but I will tell you that when the Ramones were voted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame, there was one surviving member of the original lineup left alive, and it was Marky. Marky originally was completely being in the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame. This is, after all, the establishment that shunned the entire band for it's entire career, and he wanted nothing to do with it. He was extremely adamant that, "No, you don't get the privilege of having the Ramones in your little club." My good friend, Lars Frederickson [of the band Rancid], got on the phone and said, "Marky listen to me. You almost have a responsibility to the underground to accept this award and be in the Hall of Fame to show that you are as big as the Rolling Stones, you are as big as the Beatles, you're as good as Led Zeppelin, all these mainstream bands that the Ramones maybe never got credit on the same level as." And that's kind of how I feel about WWE right now. I'm the guy who, for all intents and purposes, never should have even made it to WWE. Then I had roadblock after roadblock thrown in my way. Not only did I get past those roadblocks, It did it while flipping off the people who put up those roadblocks. I feel I have a responsibility to the younger wrestlers on the roster, the ones that aren't signed yet, and the future of wrestling as a whole, to help make this place better, and to change this place. I certainly can't change it by sitting on my couch in Chicago.
I don't think it's weird. I think we're all Superstars. Absolutely. I don't think there's anybody else who can be called that. Would you call Brad Pitt a Superstar? Do I think Brad Pitt can do what we do? Absolutely not! Brad Pitt gets scripts and lines to study months ahead of time and he has a very controlled setting in which he looks the best he possible can. He has makeup on, there's lighting, there's people doing the sound and everything. We go out there on live TV every Monday night and kill it. That's where the entertainment part comes in. It's more entertaining then a Brad Pitt movie. There are no retakes, you know? There's no Take 1, Take 2—"I screwed that up, let me do it again." If we screw up, we screw up. That's the entertaining part.
One thing you did change is your entrance music, to Living Colour's "Cult Of Personality." Did you consider anything else?
No, that was the one. It was a throwback to my Indie days, but it also just fit. I have tremendous guts, I'd like to say, and it was just a gut feeling that this was the right thing to do, to change my music now. Did I like my old song? Absolutely. Was it recognizable? Sure, I had it for five years. Was it time for a change? Was it a risky thing? Yes and yes. But ultimately, I think it was the right move. I haven't been able to get the song out of my head since last Monday. It's a song that came out in 1989, when I was on my little league team, and now it just jumped into the iTunes Top 200. That's powerful. That should speak volumes to the WWE management. They should say, "Holy crap, this kid has the power to do something like that. Let's see what else he can do."
What's really different now that you're back? What are we really going to see that's not status quo?
I don't want to ruin any surprises, but I will tell you that when the Ramones were voted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame, there was one surviving member of the original lineup left alive, and it was Marky. Marky originally was completely being in the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame. This is, after all, the establishment that shunned the entire band for it's entire career, and he wanted nothing to do with it. He was extremely adamant that, "No, you don't get the privilege of having the Ramones in your little club." My good friend, Lars Frederickson [of the band Rancid], got on the phone and said, "Marky listen to me. You almost have a responsibility to the underground to accept this award and be in the Hall of Fame to show that you are as big as the Rolling Stones, you are as big as the Beatles, you're as good as Led Zeppelin, all these mainstream bands that the Ramones maybe never got credit on the same level as." And that's kind of how I feel about WWE right now. I'm the guy who, for all intents and purposes, never should have even made it to WWE. Then I had roadblock after roadblock thrown in my way. Not only did I get past those roadblocks, It did it while flipping off the people who put up those roadblocks. I feel I have a responsibility to the younger wrestlers on the roster, the ones that aren't signed yet, and the future of wrestling as a whole, to help make this place better, and to change this place. I certainly can't change it by sitting on my couch in Chicago.
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