Kevin Nash says a Roman Reigns vs. Seth Rollins match was the breaking point that caused him to stop regularly watching current professional wrestling.
Speaking on the latest episode of Kliq This with co-host Sean Oliver, Nash initially discussed whether a wrestling promotion can successfully operate with multiple people controlling the creative direction.
For Nash, someone ultimately needs to have final authority. “Man, no. It can never be done by committee. It has to be somebody that has final say, and it can’t switch week to week,” Nash said.
Nash compared a wrestling booker’s creative philosophy to cooking, arguing that audiences ultimately decide whether they enjoy the product being presented. “Vince has been making spaghetti for so fing long that he’s going to fing make the sauce the way he makes the sauce,” Nash said. “You either like it that way or you don’t like it that way.”
The conversation then shifted toward Nash’s issues with the modern in-ring style.
Nash argued that professional wrestling has increasingly moved toward high spots at the expense of psychology. “I think the problem was, is the business turned more and more high spot, and less and less psychology, and it’s like 12 minutes of high spots is that, that’s it for me. I’m done,” Nash said.
He then pointed specifically to Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins’ match at WWE SummerSlam on August 2 at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.
According to Nash, the sequence following the referee going down, which saw Reigns and Rollins survive each other’s finishing moves, pushed him too far. “I think that the match that Roman and Seth had when the ref went down, and they fing basically no-sold each other’s fing finishes for five minutes. I don’t think I’ve come back,” Nash said. “Like I haven’t come back to wrestling.”
Nash compared the situation to a comic book establishing rules for a character and then undermining them shortly afterward. “You can’t drop a nuclear bomb on the Hulk, and then tell me two issues later that the Leader’s going to take control of his mind,” Nash said. “You take me too far one way, and I’m gone.”
The WWE Hall of Famer said he would rather spend that time learning about something he doesn’t already know. “There’s too many other things in life that I can do that I don’t know about,” Nash said. “I’m sure I could go grab a textbook on the French Revolution and read it, and learn 20 fing things that I don’t know about instead of watching fing two guys not sell f**ing each other’s finishes.”*
Later in the episode, Nash reflected on working with Shawn Michaels and Scott Hall and explained how they helped shape his philosophy toward in-ring psychology. “That’s what I learned about him and Shawn. You know, less is always more if you f**ing do it at the right time. But when it’s time to go, you gotta go,”* Nash said.
Nash clarified that he hasn’t completely stopped watching wrestling altogether, revealing that he still watches older matches that appear on Instagram.
Earlier in the episode, he also revisited his 1994 WWF Championship victory over Bob Backlund at Madison Square Garden and praised Vince McMahon for how the moment was presented.
