WWE Hall of Famer Road Dogg recently appeared on Busted Open Radio to discuss various topics, including how WWE managed its talent to prevent them from moving to AEW.
Road Dogg said, “Well look, it’s definitely a thing now, you know what I mean? Like, when it comes to renegotiation time, you’re gonna lock some people down that you don’t want to go there. But truth be told, I think there’s such a wide range of talents. I don’t watch Smackdown or Raw, or AEW or Collision or whatever for one talent. I feel like the rosters are such now that you’re gonna see a broad range of talent across the board, male and female. But look, it’s definitely a thing you’re gonna talk about now. And if Santos Escobar is gonna go to there and maybe make a difference, then you say, ‘Hey, maybe we’ve re-signed you for three years.’ And that’s — the difference is, I think the booking used to be about wrestling. And I think the bookings, maybe it’s always been about the money, and I just thought it was about the wrestling. But it just feels like it’s just all about the money now. And maybe that goes to what you’re saying is, the money, they can go over there and make some money too. So the money’s deciding everything. But I don’t know, man. It just feels like WWE right now, for me, was a money grab. And I don’t know, it didn’t feel right. I wanted to step away from that.”
On whether WWE saw AEW as competition:
“No, no, we didn’t, and we probably should have to be quite honest with you. But instead, I think it was looked at like, ‘That’s this other little money mark’s company,’ you know what I mean? I honestly think that’s how it was kind of looked at. And I would argue, however long we are now into their tenure, that was wrong to be looking at it that way. They’re still here, they’re still strong. I would argue they’re getting stronger. I would argue adding Mike Mansury to their team, who runs their truck now, was a huge step in the right direction. He’s a smart guy with good instincts. And look, it goes to more than two guys and a referee in the ring when you’re running a wrestling show. You got to have guys with good instincts, good feeling, good timing to hit the music when [it’s time]. There’s more things that go into a wrestling show than a lot of people want to give credit for.”
You can check out the complete podcast below.
(H/T to 411Mania.com for transcribing the above quotes)
