Neal Jones sent along the following:
Greg Gagne Interview Recap
By: Bob Colling from http://chroniclesoftna.bravejournal.com/
(TNA recaps starting from day one at the above link)
Greg Gagne interview recap from www.inyourheadonline.com
Jack, and OIB are joined by former AWA wrestler and WWE road agent Greg Gagne.
Jack asks Greg if he ever worked in Massachusetts but Gagne was never given the chance to do so. Jack is from the area, so they discussed working New York and how he wanted to work the Boston area.
Greg says that the AWA had longer matches as compared to the WWF but the crowds weren’t really different. Gagne also says that the AWA were more popular than the Vikings and Twins around this time.
Jack brings up Jim Brunzell. Greg says that Jim has been having a rough year as he just had his shoulder replaced. Greg remains in touch with Brunzell as well. Greg says “their isn’t a spot on my body” that hasn’t been affected by a injury. Greg goes into detail about some of the injuries he has had over the course of his career.
Greg talks about Jerry Blackwell and the leading events that ended his career, following one of his slams on a concrete floor. Greg tells a story where Bobby Heenan ducked a chair being thrown by a fan and broke his nose. Greg also tells a story where he got his nose broken three times in a matter of days.
Greg puts Bobby Heenan over as being the best manager ever. Greg tells a funny quote where Heenan said “I’ve been hit with a chair so much, my head smells like ass!” Greg also goes into a story where Heenan was able to mess people up, and loosen them up at the same time.
Jack brings up Ray Stevens, and Greg puts him over as one of the best. Greg also puts over the timing that Stevens had in the ring over the course of his career and it was a honor to compete with him.
Greg says that he hasn’t done a lot of autograph signings as he is just now getting into the scene. Gagne talks about his car dealership and how he is recognized around town and that he gives a lot of autographs while working.
Jacks asks Greg if he kept anything from his career, and Gagne says he kept a International Championship. Gagne says that his kids “busted up” his action figures because his kids messed them up good.
Greg liked to work with the tag team of Ray Stevens and Pat Patterson as they were the most fun to work with. Greg talks about a full scale riot that occurred during one of their matches. Greg list several tag teams combos that he enjoyed working with. He does say that the Sheik wasn’t much fun to be in the ring with, though.
Greg talks about Jesse Ventura saying “he talked himself right into the governor spot here”.
Greg talks about the AWA DVD and says that it was swayed towards WWE. Greg believes that they could of gotten people to worked for the AWA, but he otherwise thought it was a fine DVD. Greg wasn’t surprised when the WWE did something with the AWA because Vince is trying to make money off everything he has bought. Greg says that you need to expect the motives that the WWE did, and he did.
Jack asks if it was tough for Greg to work for the WWE. Greg didn’t realize what it was like in their office and how they produce everything. They wanted Greg to write a show, but Greg isn’t a writer and can’t write a show word for word.
Greg discusses a match where Shawn Michaels fought someone (he didn’t remember) and how the match was more of a old school style and Vince McMahon wanted more of that. Greg talks about a writers meeting where they said they needed a pirate and called up Paul Burchill. Greg says that within two weeks, the writers were saying he needs to be fired, but Greg thought it was a ridiculous statement because he isn’t a pirate! Greg believes the WWE is all about characters and marketing.
Continued on page two …
