Kevin Sullivan was a recent guest on VOC Nation’s In the Room Podcast. Sullivan talked about his start in wrestling, people who inspired him, the importance of kayfabe and its impact on the current product, the downfall of WCW, and more. Here are a few highlights:
On the current product lacking kayfabe:
“These kids are the greatest athletes of any generation. They’re fabulous… Look at the guy who has drawn the most money in the history of wrestling. Nobody has drawn as much money as the Undertaker for as long as he’s gone, ever. Ever. Just this year he decided to get on social media. Do you think guys that have great matches (are supposed to) get on social media and say ‘brother we had a barn burner tonight, it was wonderful, thank you very much, see you next week.’ I mean it’s like going to a movie – the willing suspension of disbelief… The problem I have, is because they are much more talented – they are so far above our generation – if they would watch what they would say a little they would be better off. That’s my opinion and everybody has an opinion.”
On how to fix the WWE ratings:
“If I was Vince McMahon, I would ask (the Undertaker) ‘what do you need and we’ll give it to you and stay out of your way and you book it.’ I think the Undertaker would turn that business around in six months.”
On the downfall of WCW:
“They went to comedy. Funny doesn’t earn money. It’s that simple. I’m a boxing fan; do you go to see a fight that’s just going to be a joke? No… Then they tried to bury Ric Flair in a desert?.. They wanted to get rid of him. They wanted to get rid of Ric Flair since 1989. They don’t know where to drive the stake… He’s the greatest champion of all time and they tried to get rid of him, that’s how silly these people are. Egos!”
On Eric Bischoff:
“Eric did an amazing, amazing job. But he had to go out to the north tower… If someone wanted to (say) foreign object, he had to listen to them (change the name to) international (object). (It was) wasting his days. He could have been using his time (better). They succeeded in spite of themselves, and they succeeded because of Eric Bischoff. And Eric was a smart enough guy to listen to guys that were very smart. And in the end, they made a huge mistake and they went to comedy, and comedy doesn’t draw money.”
On AOL buying Turner:
“I think it was destined to die because they didn’t want it to work. AOL didn’t want wrestling, didn’t want it.”
Sullivan also talked about the NWO and what went wrong, Vince Russo, ECW, and even the cult classic promotion TWA and promoter Joel Goodhart who was the precursor to ECW.
Read More: The Undertaker: Wrestling Is Too Tough On Your Personal Life Just To Be ‘Middle Of The Road’
