Big Vito Talks WWE Lawsuit, How Homophobia Ended His Dress Gimmick, Working Hurt in WWE and More

“Big” Vito LoGrasso appeared on the IN THE ROOM podcast this past Tuesday, April 21, 2015 with Brady Hicks and former WCW wrestler The Stro. This show can be downloaded at both vocnation.com and thebradyhicks.com. Check it out as Vito talks about his reasons for suing WWE, getting challenged by fans to fight, shooting on Dan Severn, Kurt Angle, and Bobby Lashley, and what it would take to get wrestling back on track. Here are some highlights from the interview:

On Suing WWE:

You weren’t allowed to be hurt … You had to suck it up and take it. If you got rocked, you couldn’t say nothing … When I go back and look at things now, a little bit older … physically speaking, I do have some issues … I look back at it sometimes after I go to a doctor visit [and see what] I did to myself that I didn’t know because I wasn’t educated … A lot of people have their opinions about this lawsuit, but do you know how much guts it takes to stand up for what you believe in and to have the integrity to stand up and say “Hey, this is what happened.” … People who are in the business who say they’re with you, they’ll knock it because they’re all wanting one more chance. If Vince hasn’t called you in five years, he’s not going to.

On Wearing Dresses:

I’d been an Italian tough guy for so long. They wanted to do something different. They said, “You have this mean, killer look like Adrian Adonis, but you’re a very handsome man. How about if you wear a dress?” And I said, “Ok. I could deal with that.” … There is nothing that anybody could do to hurt me. So I did it. It took a lot of cajones, a lot of guts, but it took a lot of self confidence in who you were as a man … When it came to an end, it came to an end because someone didn’t like gays and they didn’t like black people and there were certain things, because somebody became the head writer of Smackdown. And that’s why the dress ended.

On How Other Wrestlers Perceive Him Now:

I have a lot more friends. As soon as people don’t have to compete with me … and [can] like me for me and not what’s in front of them. I let people in my world. Before, I never let anybody [get] close to me. I never let anybody near me. For the first time in my life, I started to let people in, and they’d say, “Hey man, you’re really funny.” And I’d be like, “I’ve been funny my whole life.”

IN THE ROOM airs live, weekly, Tuesday nights at 9 PM ET on the VOC Nation Radio Network (vocnation.com / thebradyhicks.com). Join Brady Hicks (Pro Wrestling Illustrated contributing writer), as well as The Stro (WCW’s Maestro), Kathie FitzMatt Saigon (independent wrestler), Ray Bogusz (former Bleacher Report editor), and Derrick McDonald as they run down all that’s going on in wrestling, and sit down with some of wrestling’s top stars.

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