Kevin discusses the weight he lost and shape he is in:
“I think I move better. I think my movement is better than it’s been. I think, really, the biggest thing is being with Kurt [Angle] and watching Kurt’s work ethic night in and night out – He sets the bar very, very high. He does it by example and he fires you up. He makes you want to push yourself. I’m a jock. That’s just who I am. And Kurt’s the captain of the team. And when he sets the bar and goes out there night it and night out as beat up as he is and goes as hard as he does, it makes it very difficult for me to not at least try to do the same.”
One of the reasons he negotiated to return to WWE before resigning with TNA:
“My whole thing was that I came into prominence with Shawn. And I know that Shawn is thinking about – I don’t think he’s going to be doing it that much longer. And I kind of wanted to have that circle of life. I wanted it on my wall of shame in my house to have that 1993 picture of Shawn Michaels doing a double-bicep pose with the black headed Diesel behind him and then I wanted a 2010 photo of Shawn Michaels doing the double-bicep pose with the gray-haired Diesel behind him.”
Scott Hall:
“I don’t feel guilty, but I don’t think sad even begins to cover it. Because, to me, Scott Hall is probably one of the most talented guys I’ve ever been around in my life. One of the most charismatic. It crushes me. I’ve tried. Everybody’s tried. But as much as you want somebody to live a sober life, unless they want to, it’s just not going to happen. And I’ve been around it. Scott’s been a close friend of mine. I’ve seen the demon of addiction and, God, it’s just horrible. And people say, ‘Well if you want, you can get clean.’ I’m of the mindset, being around it as much as I have on so many different levels with so many different guys, that it’s a disease. It is absolutely a disease and it has to be treated as a disease. And, you know, some people don’t make it from a disease.”
Kevin Nash as TNA Booker:
‘I have a 13-year-old son who needs a father way more than TNA needs a booker… I don’t do anything half-assed. If you put me in there, it means I’m thinking about it 24/7. You have to, because when you’re lying there in the sun, you get an idea and it’s like, ‘God, that’s way better than I thought.’ And you’ve got to get up and you’ve got to write it down. And you’ve got to change in and so on. I’m really good friends with [Vince] Russo. And I see what he has to go through and the situation that happened where kind of right before the pay per view, some political things go down, and he’s left with a show with a bunch of gaps in it and he’s got to do his best to fill it. And those are the things that take years off your life. And at this point, right now, like what we talked about earlier – I’m closer to dying. So, I don’t need the stress and they can’t put enough zeros at the end of my paycheck.
“…For years Stallone and Shwarzenegger – they said what horrible actors they are. But you know then they do $240 million at the box office. So, I believe there’s something to critics. But, you know what, I believe that the 10-16-year-old kid, who’s really the meat and potatoes of your demographic, and then from there the 18-35 year-old demographic – I’ve never had a 9-year-old kid come up to me and say, ‘I think you need to pick up your workrate.’ ”
Abyss’ thumbtack spots and similar stuff:
“Every time I see it, I go back there and I shake my head and I go, ‘I don’t get it. I don’t know why you would do this to yourself’ and I state my opinion. I say it’s wrong. It’s like when you watch the old Dusty things and everybody says, ‘Dusty! Dusty! Dusty!’ You know, you take a blade to your head and bleed for 25 minutes while people pound on you – that ain’t working. That’s a shortcut. That’s all that is.”
For the entire interview visit http://www.newsday.com/steelcage
