NJPW star and current STRONG Openweight champion Fred Rossser was a guest on episode nine of Comedy Store Wrestling, where Rosser spoke in-depth about a number of different topics, including how GLAAD told him that WWE was not ready for a gay champion at the time he was with the company. That and more can be found in the highlights below.
Recalls GLADD telling him that WWE was not ready for a gay champion during his run there:
I remember talking to a representative for GLAAD and they had told me — and they worked with WWE — they said, the GLAAD representative said, ‘We appreciate everything you’ve done in the community but WWE is not ready for a gay champion,’ you know? And like I said, I don’t — I’m not all rainbowed-out and stuff like that. People know my story, they know my backstory and I said earlier, the second of me winning this title, it didn’t matter about being gay or any of that stuff. The people wanted to see me win and at the ECW Arena, the reaction I got was different because it was like a roar from the crowd, like, ‘Yeah! He did it.’ It was a reaction I’ve never experienced and it’s a reaction I’ve never heard with any other talent. You hear people cheer for a win. You hear Sting, Undertaker but for me in that kind of intimate ECW-type setting, you go to my Instagram… and you hear the crowd, they just — that roar because they just wanted me to win so none of that stuff, none of my backstory matters. They just wanted to see me win and they saw it.
Looks back on a match with EC3 that didn’t go over well with Arn Anderson at the time of his NXT run:
I’d love to have a match with Brock [Anderson]. Man, he moves just like his dad, you know? And Arn Anderson, he’s one producer I would not wanna piss off… I remember I had a match with EC3 for NXT and something happened where it was really his fault in the match where something happened and we came to the back and Arn’s like, ‘What the f*ck was that?’ He’s like, ‘You’re trying to get me fired?’ I said, ‘I’m sorry Arn. I’m sorry’ but yeah, it was EC3’s fault whatever the f*ck we did in the ring. But yeah, you don’t wanna get Arn pissed off. He’s one producer you don’t wanna get mad.
(H/T and transcribed by Post Wrestling
)