The Shining Wizards spoke with Lash LeRoux for a new interview. Here are the highlights:
On Bret Hart & Jerry Lawler:
I was never around Jerry Lawler as much as I was around Bret Hart because we were in competing companies at the time. Him in WWE & me in WCW, and I’ve done a few events with Jerry since then, but they were always situations and circumstances where we didn’t get the opportunity to talk a lot. So we don’t know each other quite as well. Bret, I got to know a little better. But funnily enough, and oddly enough, I didn’t realize he was a bit of an artist himself until after WCW was kind of done. Once WCW was done, then I saw some of his stuff online… I didn’t realize while he was in WCW that he liked to draw cartoons. He never mentioned it to me about what I was doing in WCW Magazine so I never had an opportunity to talk to him about it.
On conflicts of interest with religion and wrestling:
Actually, I always tried to carry myself in walking a way that didn’t conflict with my faith. It was always extremely important at the time. I was very young. And always paramount was maintaining my integrity and trying my best to maintain my faith and my beliefs. A very cool experience early on, was one of the first Nitros I was ever at, Sting came up to me, and he had spoken to Ted Dibiase, and I knew Ted pretty well at that point, and of course Ted was active in ministry then, and still is, and he (Sting) had heard through Ted about me being a person of faith, and being a believer as a young guy, and he made it a point to walk up to me and say, “hey, if you’re ever experiencing any difficulties or feel overwhelmed or have crisis of faith or need someone to speak to, come grab me anytime and we’ll talk about our faith.” And I always thought that was pretty cool. I don’t try to beat people over the head with it. It’s just near and dear to my heart. I don’t necessarily wear it on my sleeve. I have a thick skin if people don’t feel the way that I feel. But that doesn’t change how passionate I am about it.
On the formation of the Misfits In Action:
It was actually presented to us, and you can throw into the mix originally, Booker T. as GI Bro. A lot of people don’t remember that because it didn’t last very long. It was a couple of weeks and then they were doing something else with Booker T. But the way that came about, and again, if you’re young in the wrestling business, and you’re trying to create a spot for yourself, it’s so important that you’re versatile and able to think on you feet and think in terms of how can I take the opportunity they gave me and make the most out of it. Because they came to us and they had seen something in our work ability. Everyone of us could have good matches or we had something about us, especially myself, and I can speak very specifically about myself, Chavo, and Hugh. This is the truth, and by the way, to put it in perspective, this is when Vince Russo and Ed Ferarra first came in, and they sat us down and said, “look, we think you guys have great talent, and we’ve only got two choices. We’ve only got so much space on a television show, and we can either find a way to throw all of you guys together into one segment, or we can send you all home because we really don’t have anything creative for you.” We were like, “Ok, sure, we’re game for whatever,” and that’s when Vince (Russo) pitched us the idea of The Misfits In Action. And the way it was literally pitched to us was that every show needs a little bit of comic relief to it. So he said, “Bro, have you ever seen that movie ‘Stripes?’ That’s you bro. If you haven’t seen it, go watch it, and I’m telling you, you’ll get over. You guys are gonna be the guys from Stripes.” And we’re like, “yeah, sure, whatever you want us to do.” “You’re going to wear the camouflage and going to be The Misfits In Action.”
For more with Lash, visit www.shiningwizards.com and listen to Episode 581: Art & War