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0:00 The Rockers are such a kind of synonymous tag team with the late 80s and early 90s. And one of the things I was interested about was when you get to WWF and you know you you've been working for a couple years already, but um you're now known as Mr. Wrestlemania. That's like the tagline for everything. Um and your first Wrestlemania was Wrestlemania 5 and Trump Plaza against the Twin Towers. Um what was Wrestlemania like back then? Like you know now it's just this like you know it's the Super Bowl and all sort of stuff, but like what was it like when you got to your first Wrestlemania? Did it feel big at that point to be on that show um in 1989? Yeah, it was it was still big then. Um guys were uh I can remember so that's where sort of you know as you see you know guys almost train differently for Wrestlemania and guys try to get into
0:45 the best shape uh for Wrestlemania and to look physically you know even better at WrestleMania and that's where sort of we learned that was seeing that process happen. um WrestleMania the event wasn't what it is uh today, but certainly in the mind of of you know a WWE superstar at the time or WWE wrestler whatever it is or calling him these days um uh it yeah it was still the biggest show that was still going to be the biggest show most eyeballs more people were going to see you Wrestlemania than saw you any other time that was still where you wanted to put on your best performance and all that kind of stuff for the most part against certain Guys, one thing and again I don't mean it uh in a you know whatever to stir anything
1:32 up that there was a there's a fairly decent size of the crew at that time that were of the mindset that you know you know this is just about making money and and you know let we're still not going to kill ourselves. But there were certain guys, again, you see a Savage in a Steamboat and all that. There was still a still a another group of guys that knew that, you know, again, Wrestlemania and even, you know, the pay-per-views in general, but especially Wrestlemania was that place where you could go out there um and set yourself apart. Terms like Mr. Wrestlemania, terms like Steel and Michelle and all that stuff hadn't been coined by this unbelievably cool young man yet. Um, so, uh, but I digress. No.
2:19 Uh, but it but no, for certain guys it it certainly was. Um, for us it was just, you know, you wanted to see if you could get on the show. Um, I can remember when Marty and I first came into the WWF at the time, it was, you know, it was a big deal for us to just get on our first pay-per-view because again, this was a time when if you one, you didn't work, you didn't get paid. You weren't on a pay-per-view, you didn't get paid. Uh, you didn't get paid pay-per-view money. anytime you were off, you didn't get paid. Um, uh, you made significant more money on pay-per-views than you did anything else. So, there was a huge incentive for a number of different reasons to get on pay-per-views. And then clearly that incentive goes up drastically when it's
3:05 Wrestlemania. So, for all of those reasons, um, Wrestlemania was important. And of course, as soon as we knew, you know, you see who you're booked against, you know that, okay, well, it's not going to be, you know, it isn't going to be, you know, glamorous. But that's also the sort of our first experience with like, hey, you can still, uh, you know, sort of make an impact or get over, so to speak, and lose and, you know, and heck, you go back and I think that match is like eight minutes, something like that. Um, and I can remember again at the time, eight minutes in Wrestlemania, it's not much, but you know, you're at WrestleMania, and I think Marty and I did a pretty decent job of putting ourselves on the map, so to speak, uh, at that show. And again, at the time,
3:53 you don't have the maturity or the, you know, the intelligence sort of to to grasp that, but we knew that, you know, we knew that it was a decent match, that it went well. And so from our standpoint, we had done certainly everything that we could do. We had a decent match, uh, good, exciting match at WrestleMania. Um, you know, hopefully that makes us look in the eyes of the company pay-per-view ready. And honestly, I think it is it's one of those things that if you if you if you now look at the career of the Rockers, I mean, they sort of made sure we were sort of um that group that could always, you know, start out the pay-per-view because you wanted to start out the pay-per-view with a, you know, come out of the gate strong and we were those guys that you could go to because you, you know, you'd start the pay-per-view with a tag team match and the Rockers
4:38 could, you know, start you off with a bang usually. And um like there's it's it's a shame in a sense because for Marty Janetti there is that kind of thing where like with new tag teams they go I hope he doesn't become the Marty Janetti of the tag team because of the success that you had post rockers. So just for people who maybe you know all they know is kind of the highlight clips and all that. Talk about working with Marty Janetti. What did you like learn from him? How important was it working with him? It was huge. You know one of the things I look at uh and and uh so and it is it's a shame you know the wrestling business has changed a lot. Marty was 100 times more talented than than I was early on and knew more. He had more charisma. He had more comfort out there. If you go back and you look at the all the stuff, you can if you look close enough, you can see how unbelievably
5:24 uncomfortable I am trying to, you know, because I don't want you and it wasn't until again even later on, you know, in the Heartbreak Kid character to where and and thank God for the music and every everything else, but it's it's all the same. It's all the same movements because I can't dance, not a lick and never and never have been able to. Um, and and and was never comfortable with it. But he it is and we've we haven't talked about this on the entire thing and I'm I'm so glad that you asked because I do I look I've been looking at that and I thought to myself, gosh, he was so important in getting me to that comfort level because again, Marty had no inhibitions. Marty was cool with anything, man. Hey, yes, eventually that got to a point to where it, you know, did work in his favor, but in the ring he was so unbelievably comfortable and
6:11 he is the person that got me to that comfort level. He he got me to that point to where I wasn't self-conscious about the way that I looked. And you can't you you can't be that way in that line of work, you know? I mean, it's so totally not the way, you know, anybody who's in the entertainment industry or, you know, who wants to perform for a living, if you've got fear about looking a certain way, man, you don't need to be in front of people, you know, that that's a that's the last place you want to be. And I just I had a real hard time with that. And he is 100% responsible for getting me, you know, and chipping away at me. And I can remember long before the rockers, it was when we met each other in Kansas City and I was
6:56 sitting there, you know, just sitting there by myself and he came up to me and he said, "Hey, uh, you and I are going to start hanging out, you know, and he goes, I see something inside you." He said, he said, "It's just dying to get out." He said, "But you know, you're afraid, so come on." I mean, and he was talking about the early and everything, but he knew he knew then. Um, I don't know. You know, again, he just as he, you know, he told people later on and even told me, he goes, "You just, you know," he said, "You were just, I could see that you were this shy kid." He said, "But there was a there was something that you could tell that again wanted wanted to come out. You wanted to do it, but you were just petrified, you know, to do it." And he was he's that guy that got me to, you know, to get me to take those chances.
7:44 And um and and you know it is it's a shame that that the other stuff uh you know happened since then because he's he's when when when people ask those questions you know of getting like who was one of the most you know uh talented guys and never you know I never got there I'd put him on uh the top of that list all the time because he was unbelievably talented. I just want to say for the people who weren't at the VIP earlier, my favorite question that somebody asked Sean, it's like you have so you got to Shawn Michaels one question. What am I going to ask him about? What's your favorite sandwich? Which was you? That was your question? Yeah. Well, we had the turkey and Swiss turkey melt, right? Yeah. Um but
8:30 so random. Either that or Philly steak and cheese, I guess. There you go. You can rest easy tonight knowing what melt of sandwich Shawn Michaels likes. Um I appreciate after you know after 30 years of doing this it's like tough for anybody to ask you something you haven't been asked and like I like dude that's awesome you know. So yeah I thought it was great. Easily the biggest thing that helped me I think turn the corner would be Sherry, you know, just having her there. And then of course, you know, I can remember the boy toy thing and me thinking like, oh my goodness, what is it? But then all of a sudden and of course it dawned on me like oh my goodness yeah this this older lady and I'm a younger dude and it the you know the the sort of uh you know
9:17 the implication of what we're doing there you know like Sherry was the cougar before there was cougars you know I mean well you know what I mean those terms weren't even around back then and uh and and and all of a sudden that's what sort of got me thinking like okay that's because so clearly I'm the you know I'm her, you know what I mean? And and that's again, well, again, that that gives you some direction and you feel like now you've got some sex appeal and you're, you know, you're feeling it a little bit and then all of a sudden, you know, driving down the road with Kurt and Kurt tells me, you know, Henrik and he says like, "Hey man, what do you think of this? Remember Chris Leoo showing he goes and I threw it out there on uh what Vince and I were doing VO is the heartbreak kid and and uh it's like,
10:02 oh, you know, I don't know." And and again back then you when you're searching for stuff again I don't know nothing there aren't that many things and I went oh yeah that's perfect I'm going to use that. Uh it was just such a feeling out process and then you're cutting a promo and all of a sudden the heartbreak kid just comes out and it feels natural and you're out there with Sherry and then I don't know I mean gosh and you know and I'm asking her like what you know do you mind you know you used to wear the dresses do you mind wearing leather J wanted to dress Sherry up all sexy and hot and then and then then it's just and she's like sure I mean Sherry would do anything. She was just so awesome and and again it's more of that when you find other people and again I'll go off track here hopefully
10:47 not too long but uh so anyway uh I did a movie recently and filmed here in in London it's here like a month so James Nun the guy that directed the the the movie is up there and I only bring that up you everybody stare at him I I bring that up because because like working with uh Miz the first time you know we just I mean he and I worked with each other and it was like instant chemistry because we both decided right away we're just going to we're going to we're going to trust each other. We're just going to dive right into this and it just and and and it worked right away. And Sherry was that way. She was just so phenomenal. I mean she's like yeah I mean she she pulls them on the fish nets. she's got the, you know, and that, you know, Sher was an attractive lady and uh and and
11:33 that just helped me really be able to get, you know, again, back then it wasn't get into character, it was just feeling the gimmick and all that. Uh um but in today's terms, that really helped me get into character and sort of find my groove and made me very comfortable with becoming this heartbreak kid. that thing. I didn't like the boy toy thing, but then it was like, oo, the heartbreak kid, that's still sort of the same thing, the same implication. And again, it just all started to flow. And then once you get that comfort level, or certainly, I guess I'm guilty of this. Once I get a comfort level, man, I'm uh you know, it was it was full steam ahead. Um, and unfortunately, I guess for everybody in the wrestling world, I
12:18 got extremely comfortable pretty quick. And uh I started steamrolling down here when uh you know the rest is history. Well, we should mention since we're in London, you did uh have the match at SummerSlam 92 with the model Rick Martell. And that night Sherry, she didn't wear chaps. She wore some sort of assless dress. Yeah, it looked good. But um so but the rule the rules of the match were you know Rick Martell was starting to kind of check her out and then you were getting a bit annoyed about that and then you guys couldn't hit each other in the face and then she kept fainting. Um do you want to talk about that match? Uh well if I recall I think that was like uh I want to say it was probably one of Pat's ideas or whatever but it was just it was just hilarious. I don't
13:04 again and that was just one of those things that somebody throws out there. It sort of fits both characters. Um, and it's I guess to me I I I think about it. So nowadays we put sort of something like that in place and again they said nowadays we call it you know we'll put it in a you know it's a story line. It's a you know uh you know it's you know we're going when we do a story line so to speak we can now take this match and work completely around that one story line. Um, and in this particular case, it would be no hitting in the face. Well, back then we didn't have all those terms, but of course it's like, so, okay, I guess we're going to have to have this match and, you know, do
13:50 something to where, you know, we're not hitting each other in the face or whatever. I mean, do we start do we make a big deal out of that or how do we do it? Um, and and it's been just I don't know, forever. I don't it's been so long since I've seen that match. I don't know how far we went with that. I don't know if we did a good job with it or anything like that. I mean, I think to myself, my goodness, if if you know, Rick and I could have that match now, how much mileage we could get out of, again, not hitting each other in the face and where it wouldn't seem I I I mean, it would still be silly because everything in, let's face it, everything in pro wrestling is silly if you ask me. But, you know, but but again, I um I just I guess I always I'm so intrigued by some of the stuff that we were doing back then and like what that would be called now because we didn't we didn't call it
14:36 that stuff back then. you against like somebody like hey back in '92 who was working creative like that stuff didn't even exist man but who was booking like you know like you know I don't know we all went and talked to Pat you know I mean I mean Pat single you know Pat Patterson singlehandedly came up with every freaking idea within the WWE for 15 years until you know until Vince you know until you know he you know Vince drove him crazy and he you Well, I I got to leave, you know, you know, you know, and then we just was forced to find somebody else. And then all of a sudden, you know, people started to realize it's going to take more than one person to have to deal with that guy all the time. You know what I mean? So, um, but we didn't have
15:21 that stuff back then. So, any um, uh, you know, that is something that, um, again, we came up with. It is one of those things you come up with and you go, you know, you know, it was funny then, just like it's funny now. But again, it's it's, you know, it's something that you do your best to try to work with. And again, for me, I'm looking at it as, again, that's one that's another one of those uh sort of things that to me, it's still a step up. It's a match with a stipulation. It's it's it's, you know, it's a guy, you know, again, I'm on a pay-per-view. I'm moving up the card. It's a match that means something. We're both fighting over Sherry. It's getting a little um, you know, TV time. That's honestly when you're, you know, moving up, that's it. It isn't the winning and losing you worry about. It's it's how much TV time
16:06 and where you're, you know, where you're going, how much interest, how much time they're putting into you from a television standpoint. And again, all these things were, I think, before we clearly before we had RAW.
