Former WWE star Joe Gacy appeared on Insight with Chris Van Vliet to discuss various topics, including the background of his “Joe Gacy” character before joining WWE.
Gacy said, “Well, I probably was a little bit of a dark character, but I do have a fun side. I think before I went to WWE, I was, lack of a better term. I had like a little bit of a dark character, but I still was still was me. I didn’t really have like a full-on gimmick. I guess I just had more of a vibe. So you know, I had times where I had fun, so I wasn’t always like a dark character. I would probably joke too much at times, and I’d have to reel myself in to not become a comedy wrestler. So that was when I kind of started to try to really focus on trying to be more serious at the time.”
On if he still owns the name:
“So at a time I did. When I got hired, just like anybody else that gets hired and begins at the Performance Centre. They suggest, ‘Hey, come up with a list of names.’ I had like a list of 20 names, and I went through a bunch of them, and I’m like, ‘I don’t like a lot of these’ or whatever. And then I had one I really liked. Funny enough, it was called Mason King. This was before Lexxis King, so that was when I was really pitching. Then they were like, ‘We actually like Joe Gacy.’ I was like, ‘You do?’ I was very confused because at the time I was trying to get away from the Gacy name. I thought of it when I was very young, and then when I grew up and matured a little bit, I’m like, ‘Well, this is probably not a name I want to keep using.’”
On moving on from the name:
“Joseph Sawyer is the name I have chosen.”
You can check out the complete podcast in the video below.
(H/T to 411Mania.com for transcribing the above quotes)
