Tracy Smothers appeared on the IN THE ROOM podcast this past Tuesday, April 14, 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 the self-professed “utility guy” talks riling up southern crowds, having fun as a Full Blooded Italian in ECW, mentoring young wrestlers, working with the Armstrongs, and being recognized while working as a bounty hunter! Here are some highlights from the interview:
On Not Catching On Better in WWE:
It was a lot of politics … I think I could have done better there as a heel at that stage. But that’s up to them … some people clip your wings and just kill you off. It was really political … It started out like an underdog thing and they gave me a couple wins. And then [when] a couple top guys don’t like it, they kind of squash it. That’s pretty much what happened … It wasn’t just me, it was a lot of guys that it happened to.
On Working Through Severe Injuries:
I had a broken ankle … [I] came down off of the ropes and I went on top of Brian [Lee]’s foot and my foot just went awkward and I snapped it. I kept ice on it and two braces on it and did a little isometrics. I had a few weeks … [of] shows around that [time] too, and I had a few-week Japan tour. You know how it is: if you don’t work [then] you don’t get paid. I worked about three months with a broken ankle. That’s what people don’t realize. How you can get hurt – and the freakish ways you can – and you have to keep going … Athletes in other professional sports, they’re out a few games, weeks, a year, or their whole career. Some of the guys in our business work hurt like that every night … Oh God it’s hard.
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 Fitz, Matt 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.
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.
