Prior to being named WWE co-lead writer of SmackDown, Road Dogg sat down with Chris Van Vliet for an in-depth interview for his popular INSIGHT podcast.
During the discussion, the WWE Hall of Fame legend spoke about the biggest difference between the WWE Attitude Era and today, why he thought CM Punk hated him, the infamous WCW invasion angle, an idea he had that was shot down and more.
Featured below are some of the highlights from the interview sent to us directly by Chris Van Vliet where Road Dogg touches on these topics with his thoughts.
On the biggest difference between The Attitude Era and today: “I think the talent to be quite honest with you. The talent is a different animal, man. So I’ll tell you this quick story, and I’ve told it a million times, but when Edge and Christian came in I used to scoff at them because they were on time and healthy and limber. They were doing exactly what a person in their line of work should be doing. I was still a party animal, so I scoffed at them and thought [differently]. Well now that’s what the athlete is, because that’s what the athlete has to be. You have to be that dedicated to your body and to this field and all that to be that. I would have never made it today. I mean, look at me for the love of Pete, all these guys we just saw, Carmelo Hayes, and they’re all chiseled out of brick. They look like Greek Gods.”
On why he thought CM Punk hated him: “I thought me and CM Punk hated each other’s guts for 10 years. [Why?] Because in my head I hated him and I thought he hated me too. Yeah, a lot of stuff [happened], went down back and forth, good times and bad times, but yeah I just thought [he hated me]. So then the first time I saw him when he came back here, he stood up and he hugged me and it broke my ice immediately. It also hit me right then, Hey Brian, he hadn’t thought a thing about you. It doesn’t matter what he thinks about me anyway, and I damn sure don’t matter. Doesn’t matter what I think about him. He realized that, and I was here at 55 and holding on to that, and I was holding on to nothing. There was nothing there. There was no bad feelings. I don’t know. It was weird, and he’s a different dude today.”
“I told him not long ago at live events and stuff, ‘Hey, I really appreciate your attitude.’ He said, ‘Well, that’s the first time anybody’s ever said that to me.’ Well, I mean it from the bottom of my heart, because he’s a different dude. Me and him butted heads. He butted heads with a lot of people. He says what he means, he means what he says. He don’t mind if it ruffles your feathers. I kind of respect it.”
On the WCW invasion angle: “There was very little direction to be quite honest with you. It was literally run and gun. We had done that when I was the Roadie with real Double J. We did that in Brentwood after the OJ Simpson trial, me and Jeff and Vince Russo went out there, you take a camera and you run and gun. It’s not legal and it’s not morally right, but we had fun with it. And again, there’s no direction, just you’ll hear Bruce Pritchard come by and go, ‘Come on, get in the van.’ We’d all run and get in the van. But it was great. It was guerrilla warfare. [The police grabbed me] a couple of times, and I had weed in my pocket. Just crazy stuff like that where you just go man, what were we doing and what were we thinking? But it was stuff that wins wars. That’s what it was and it worked. It was guerrilla warfare, and it worked.”
On the storyline he pushed for that did not happen: “I’ll tell you this, and I’d love to have a conversation with you about it. It worked out exactly how it was supposed to work out, but I was wrong. I wanted Big E to win the title at KofiMania. I thought Big E was the guy, and a guy on my writing team who now writes for NXT said, ‘You’re wrong boss. You’re wrong. It’s Kofi.’ And I didn’t realize that Kofi had such a personal connection with the fan base. I was just looking for who’s the next guy and I didn’t think oh, the guy’s sitting right here. I was trying to make this guy over here and yeah, never been so happy to be wrong though. What a moment.”
“You can go back in time and fuss about what happened the next week or the next year or whatever. Who cares? Kofi won the title at WrestleMania, and nobody can ever take that away. [Big E had his moment]. 100%. It was gonna come around, just it wasn’t time yet. I saw something that was there, it just wasn’t time yet. The timing was Kofi. It was Kofi’s time and have I never been so happy to be wrong and couldn’t be more happy for the guy it happened for too. If I was writing again we’d do it one more time, because I think it would work again. I 100% think it would work again.”
