Jay Lethal On His Belief That Vince Russo Made The Call To Get Rid Of Him In TNA, Hating Roadkill And More

Jay Lethal recently appeared as a guest on Colt Cabana’s “Art Of Wrestling” and spoke about coming to terms with the gap between his teeth, who he hates in the wrestling business and more. Below are highlights and full podcast.

On coming to terms with the gap between his front teeth:

“I accepted it, maybe, two years ago [or] a year and a half ago. Yeah, you know what? It was when everyone else, because I got some good dental insurance and I was like, I said, ‘it’s time to fix this’ because I always wanted to fix it. In all my pictures I wouldn’t really smile with an open mouth. It was just something that kind of bothered me. And then, once I started the process, first, I had to fix my cavities. The dentist wouldn’t just fix that, so I had three cavities that needed attending. And then, I started telling some of my friends, ‘I’m finally going to get this gap removed,’ like, [this thing I had been worrying about my whole life], which I never brought up, so no one ever thought it was an issue for me. They looked at me like I was crazy. And then, some of them would lie and be like, ‘I didn’t even notice you had a gap,’ which is total bulls–t because they were just trying to make me feel better.” Lethal continued, “I’m owning it now. [In] all my pictures, my mouth’s wide open.”

On his belief that Vince Russo made the call to get rid of him in TNA:

“No, no, that’s a good question because sometimes I think about it. To be honest, and it’s a shocker, I think maybe [it was] Vince Russo even though he called me [to say it was not his decision] because the weird part to me was, and I don’t think I’ve told anybody this, after my stint with Ric Flair, after I did the thing and we just finished, in my second or third match with him, Ric Flair created this group called Fortune. It was him and AJ Styles and a bunch of other people. Then, Tommy Dreamer came and created a rival group and he had asked Vince Russo, ‘hey, Jay just finished this thing with Flair. Can you write him into our group?’ And Vince told him ‘no’. He didn’t want it to happen. I didn’t understand.”

On hating ECW Original Roadkill:

“I trained at Mikey Whipwreck’s school and Roadkill came in. [He’s] probably one of the only guys I hate in the [professional] wrestling business. Yeah, so he quote, unquote beat me up. Punt to the ribs, splashed me with all his weight, told me, ‘man, you talk too much’, mounted me and tried to give me these punches, clubbing me as hard as he could, putting all his weight down on me like a fat piece of s–t. I hate him. I hate his guts. It’s like, I don’t understand. Like, if you want to fight, call me outside and say, ‘okay, I’m mad at you and let’s fight for real.'” Lethal added, “I would never, ever get mad at someone and take out that anger on them in the ring, especially in a situation where it’s not even a fight. They’re not defending themselves. They’re allowing me to hurt them, which is the worst possible [situation].”