WCW and ECW alumni Crowbar recently joined Fightful for an in-depth conversation about all things pro-wrestling, including his thoughts on his run at the now-deceased promotions, advice that WWE Hall of Famer Diamond Dallas Page gave him, and how he did have some talks with WWE. Highlights from the interview can be found below.
On his first gimmick in WCW as Devon Storm:
When I first went in, it was as Devon Storm. Bad mullet, bad outfit. Bad everything. Bad outfit. Everything. Kevin Sullivan reached out through a northeast promoter, Tony Rumble, and they brought me out there for the cruiserweight stuff.
Says Diamond Dallas Page gave him some meaningful advice during his WCW run:
From there I went from that to ECW, spent about a year there or so, maybe a little less, then I went back to doing enhancement matches and doing tag matches with Ace Darling and we were both in school full time. I had met Dallas Page while I was there, and I tell everybody, ‘You can work as hard as you want, you ultimately need somebody to help open a door for you.’ Dallas was there at that time. He goes, ‘Bro, you got a lot of talent,’ this that and the other thing — but back then it was also different — ‘If you keep doing these matches, you’re going to get typecast as a job guy.’ So he goes, ‘Leave for now, finish school, get your degree and get better and if I can help you down the line, I will.’ He essentially got me in. Very grateful.
How much he loved the ECW product:
I loved the product. I still like mixing in the chairs and the more hardcore type. It’s a style that I like. I don’t like garbage wrestling where you just smack guys, but I like where you have a wrestling match and it just gets so heated [that] it degrades. I’m also a big fan of using objects that naturally occur at ringside. A guard rail, a chair, a bell. The tables have been grandfathered in. For whatever reason, we don’t know why, but there are folding tables under a wrestling ring. They serve some function. I’m not sure what they are. That’s an accepted part of wrestling now.
Recalls being the most unpopular guy in the ECW locker room:
Way back, you can’t bring the announcers tables in the ring—they’re gigantic now—but old ECW, they used to have the folding tables. We used to piledrive guys on the table, bring the tables in the ring. So what I’m getting at is, I like that a lot more than a big garbage can full of junk, you know what I mean? I loved the product. I was excited about going. It didn’t work out too good for me there me. I was probably the most unpopular guy in the locker room.
Says he did have early talks with WWE:
I did the light heavyweight stuff as Devon Storm. There was talk at that time, believe it or not, that when I graduated I would have been an opening match guy and also be the on the road physical therapist for the guys. That just never happened.