Almost going to WWF instead of WCW:
“I approached WCW, well they approached me a number of times, and then I actually called Jim Ross and I had a meeting with Vince McMahon. I did not like that meeting with Vince McMahon. The next day I called Eric Bishoff and I said “listen, you know I’m going to make a decision here and the World Wrestling Federation has a contract on the table for me and that’s not where I want to be”. So push came to shove, I told him; I remember the quote like it was yesterday, I said “I’m not going to be one of those 500 dollar a week throw-around-the ring dudes. I’m gonna come in and make a difference.”
Not being used right in his run with the WWE, being told not to use his Spear finisher and what it felt like being there:
“I mean let’s be honest, let’s look at it right now. Let’s look at it in real time. You know wrestling moves are hollowed entities. You know, you don’t take moves from other people. Now when I was at the WWE and they wanted people to start spearing people and they wanted me, they actually had the nerve to ask me to stop spearing people. And now you look at the company and it’s the set up move for, I don’t know, 40 percent of the guys, girls included you know, part of the McMahon family for god’s sake. So I don’t believe that they took that from me or chose to use that because it was a great move. I think they wanted to water down my legacy. So looking at that from today’s stand point and then looking back at how they used me, with me being one of the guys that was kicking their ass in the Monday Night Wars, and being on the other side, and me telling Vince ‘no’ in the beginning and going to the opposing team, and then when he buys them out then I’m acquired; you know It was just a totally different deal. I wasn’t the product of Vince McMahon. At the end of the day they may be the best business entity in the wrestling business, but they’re not the end all. Because of their ego, they forwent a bunch of opportunities that we could have made a lot of money in. And lets be honest, I mean I beat Brock Lesnar in my last match and if I had any desire to stay there whatsoever, if there was any type of a positive, I would have stayed. But it wasn’t. So it just was a negative part of my life. I just didn’t enjoy being there.”
Thoughts on his match with Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 20 and if he enjoyed the experience:
“Oh hell no, I was miserable. I try to repress it. He and I both – the reality was it could have been one of the biggest matches in their history if done properly, but nobody cared. Nobody cared. And since they didn’t care, I mean when I looked across the ring at him he didn’t care, I didn’t care. We just wanted to go, and that was a shame. They could have made a lot of money in it, but they didn’t. So it was a…I feel really bad about it for the fans, but they s–t on it too. I mean they could have not done what they did and we would have probably had a much better match, ’cause we wouldn’t have been as pissed off. I thought he was gonna try to kill me and I wanted to kill him at the same time, but for real. Because we were so mad at what was going on, we just didn’t have anything else to do but beat on each other. And we’re good friends, I love Brock to death. He’s one of my best friends in the business and…..let me rephrase that……he’s one of my only friends in the business, and you know it was a shame. You had two absolute physical monsters with great characters going against each other and it turned out to be a s–t-fest.”
Nick was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, and lived there until the age of 18, when he decided to pack his flack jacket and move to New York City.
