Robert Stone recently appeared as a guest on the latest installment of The Velvet Ropes with SoCal Val podcast for an in-depth interview covering all things pro wrestling.
During the appearance, he discusses the stars fans should be watching in WWE Evolve, his reaction to seeing SoCal Val take a Black Hole Slam from Abyss, his “cringe” TNA debut as Robbie E., the TNA Wrestling and WWE NXT partnership, and shares wild stories about legendary coach Terry Taylor.
Featured below are some of the highlights from the interview where he touches on these topics with his thoughts. Also below is a complete video archive of the discussion.
On his reaction to seeing SoCal Val take a Black Hole Slam from Abyss: “I saw a video today on X of something I never knew about you. Of you taking a black hole slam from Abyss, and just looking at it, even though it was 17, 18 years ago, my heart dropped seeing it. You’re not a wrestler, Val… I did not feel comfortable seeing that.”
On the WWE Evolve talent that fans should be watching: “There’s a group called The Vanity Project with these guys, their tag team called Swipe Right. And then also the leader is the Evolve champion, Jackson Drake. Those three guys are just awesome. They’re in great shape. They could speak well. They could wrestle. We talked about checking boxes… they could check every box. They could do it all.”
On looking back at his “cringe” TNA debut as Robbie E: “I watched Robbie E and Cookie deliver this in-ring interview for five minutes, and every word that came out of my mouth was so cringe. Hamster and grenades, believe me, it was hilarious to watch… If I showed my kids that they would be mortified.”
On the TNA/NXT partnership and the old mentality about TNA talent: “If someone in 2004 said to you, ‘One day, NXT, some form of the WWE is going to be working with TNA,’ it would have been laughable. There’s no way… There was always that feeling, or those rumors of, ‘WWE doesn’t want any TNA guys.’ And it’s just 15 years later, just the landscape has changed.”
On working with legendary WWE coach Terry Taylor: “He’s seen it all. He’s done it all. So to pass that knowledge on to some of these newbies to the industry, it’s priceless… he always drops a joke, or he opens a refrigerator and tries to slam it into my head, or reminds me of how he tried to get me a better paying contract when I was on The Amazing Race.”
On publicly apologizing for a “dine and dash” prank from his TNA days: “The younger version of myself… that was a different guy. I would never do anything like that now… I’m going to call them, and I’m going to mail them five bucks, six bucks, whatever it is for that soup. And I apologize. I’m making a public apology. That was wrong of me to do.”
