Pro-wrestling star Heath Slater spoke with Pro Wrestling Junkies to talk about his time in WWE, and how frustrating it was for him being stuck in limbo. He also discusses wanting to work for NJPW and more. Highlights are below.
How frustrating his time in WWE was:
It’s frustrating as hell,” Heath said. “I was just kind of numb to wrestling. I was pitching ideas before Rhyno, after Rhyno and during our run together. I’m serious! Even with us together and pitching stuff to just draw a story out or us turning heel and doing things that are hardcore. Then again as baby faces and him teaching me to be hardcore and hitting me with things and me responding, ‘Ow, that hurts! I don’t want to get hit by that.’ Just things to make it funny and entertaining, but it’s just one of those things were you pitch, pitch, pitch, pitch, pitch but nothing happens and you end up getting put on the shelf. You just get numb. Next thing you know, it’s someone else is on the come-up and I get a call to come make him look good,” Heath continued. “I never got where I feel like I could have been. It’s just one of those things where business is business and BS is BS and there’s just a lot of that in the business.
How he grew up in WWE:
I was there for 14 years,” Heath said. “I feel like people forget how long I was there. I’m 37-years-old now. I got signed to them when I was 23. I was a baby and, in a lot of ways, people really watched me grow up on TV. Now people want to know, ‘You’ve been there, so now how can you go anywhere else’? I had a bucket list before I even got signed to WWE. I had all this stuff I wanted to do, but was kind of forced to skip all of that because I was only on the indies for a year and a half before getting signed. I just skipped past all of that, so I was good with my money and I’m okay.
Says he really wants to work NJPW:
I really just want to go out there and have some fun,” Heath continued. “I want to go out there and do some indies, Impact, ROH and if I do All Elite Wrestling then I’ll do AEW. I really want to go do New Japan. New Japan would be a lot of fun! There’s just so much that I want to do. Impact was cool because my contract was up and a lot of my buddies were going there, so like ‘Hell yeah, let’s go do it and have some fun.’ Once I got released, opportunities started presenting myself and my friends all started calling and I started agreeing to things and that’s just what happened. I’ve got a lot of places I want to go and I’m pretty sure I’m going to go there.