WWE Senior Vice President of Live Events “Road Dogg” Brian James recently spoke on his podcast, “Oh You Didn’t Know,” about a variety of professional wrestling topics including the origins of Scotty 2 Hotty using the Worm in WWE:
“I did the worm to top and beat Mankind and I forget which actual match it was in, but I did the worm. So then I would do it on live events as a kick out spot, one, two, kick-out. I would do the worm, do something, wiggle wiggle knee and then back up and do the worm, but worm and end up on top of them, hooked their leg, one two. So then Scotty 2 Hotty said, ‘Hey, I see you doing that thing? Are you doing it all the time or do you care if I do it?’ I said, ‘I don’t care dude. You can do it’, and literally he took something that I was just doing as a joke and made it so much more and so much bigger, and it to this day, you’re right. That thing was over as crap. It was not at all what I was doing. He just came to me and said, ‘Can I do that?’ I was like, ‘Heck yeah, you can do that.’ It was feeling weird to me anyway, like I wasn’t doing it right. I felt the potential, but he took it and ran with it and it is what it is today which is kind of historic and nostalgic. I guarantee he could hit that today in any sold out arena and he would have the place rockin’.”
Thoughts on Edge retiring:
“I can’t speak highly enough about the dude. Just talking about that episode of SmackDown, what a great episode that was devoted to him, and in respect to him, with respect to him and his family. I just love this guy. Man, what a professional. I’ve told this story a million times too but it’s the truth. They came in and they were students of the game and they were working hard and working out and tanning and doing everything that you need to do to be a WWF Superstar at the time. I was on top of the world and peeing it away and not realizing it and making fun of them guys for being on time and doing their jobs adequately and stuff like that. It just goes to show full circle I have come, but also these two individuals I saw come in and then surpass me and surpass arguably everybody in the wrestling business with the TLC matches. I mean, that raised the bar in the wrestling world. You would say ECW did that 100 times. Yeah, but WWF didn’t. You know what I mean? When they did it, they did it with these six cats and it raised the bar as to how we do things today. So yeah, just a good human being.”
“I had an opportunity not long ago, went to Madison Square Garden for a Friday Night SmackDown recording, just an homage to the Garden, and got to sit at a table in catering with some really good friends of mine, and Edge was one of them. We talked and laughed for an hour and a half acting like we didn’t have real jobs. Edge looked at me and said, ‘This is what I’m going to miss.’ I said, ‘Dude, the camaraderie.’ I said, ‘If they could put it in a bottle, I’d be hooked on it too.’ That’s just what it is about the dressing room. If you’re a people person, that dressing room can be a really cool place to be, but, you know, it depends on where your head’s at because it can also be hell on earth. When he said that, and it just made me think like, man, it’s the camaraderie. We had such a good time and they could have taken my pay for the day. I don’t think I got paid anyway, but they could have taken my pay for the day and I would have been happy with that just to hang out. AJ Styles, Karl Anderson, Luke Gallows, a member of the writing team was there, just different guys would sit down, Fergal Devitt sat down with us, and we just sat there joking and it was just, like he said, man, I’m gonna miss the camaraderie and he’s 100% right. The camaraderie is gonna miss you, dude.”
You can listen to the complete podcast via AdFreeShows.com.
(h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription)
