WWE Hall of Famer Arn Anderson recently answered some fan questions on his latest “ARN” podcast. Arn was asked who the guys backstage in WCW, WWE, and AEW who asked him the most questions and wanted to learn from his expertise were:
“Randy Orton was very receptive. Cena was, up to a point. Dave Bautista was very receptive. Roman Reigns, house shows, he had some matches with Braun Strowman that were just spectacular. He made Braun Strowman a giant. I really enjoyed working with him on that stuff. Dolph Ziggler had great ideas and listened. Bobby Roode had a great mind for the business.”
Arn Anderson stated that he hated his job as a WWE producer:
“If you want the truth, I hated that job. I hated being in charge of matches that I had no power or authority. I was responsible for the end result. If the story that was told or the physicality was not good, the finish wasn’t good, whatever, Vince chewed my ass out.”
“The problem with that was if you’re going to give me full reign and let me do what I want to, not what’s written and try to take the creative and put it into match terms and make it make sense, it’s not fair to have all the responsibility for a segment and no authority to do what you know is right, to having to do what they want you to do.”
“I did not enjoy that job. I really didn’t enjoy it that much in WCW because I mean, you get to the arena, and you have two guys that really don’t want to put each other over. I’m on the road just lining the show up. That’s supposed to be all I’m doing, carrying the word, ‘Hey, they would like so and so to go over.’ When you don’t have the authority that when they go, ‘I’m not feeling that.’ Now you have to go, ‘Well, what do you think?’ versus ‘No, I think I’m feeling it and this is what we need to do.’ It’s a straw boss position. You’re a scapegoat for something they don’t like. It’s automatically your fault.”
(h/t to Wrestling News for the transcription)
