In Episode #3 Of The Triple Threat Podcast featuring “The Franchise” Shane Douglas and The Two Man Power (available and streaming on the IRW Network), Shane Douglas continues to take fan questions via the “Ask Franchise Anything” segment. Enclosed are highlights of recent weekly A.F.A segments. New episodes of The Triple Threat Podcast will be available every Monday exclusively on www.irwnetwork.com.
Below are some interview highlights, with a h/t to The Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling for the transcription:
Bayley using his finishing move and Bayley’s recent struggles on the main roster:
“First off it wasn’t mine. The belly to belly was around a lot longer than me. If anything I think it is more of an homage than anything and hopefully somebody that watches that will say I remember that Shane Douglas used that and it keeps you alive in some ways. But, I watched the pay per view with Bayley wrestling in San Jose. She looks like she is beginning to grasp the concepts of what she is doing, not fluent yet but clearly learning. What I couldn’t understand from that show is (and) Vince McMcMahon himself out of his mouth told me in a private meeting with him when they did the whole thing with Shawn (Michaels) handing me the (Intercontinental) belt and Razor beating me that; “We here in the World Wrestling Federation believe that fans should always go home happy.” My comment to him at the time was to make them go home un-happy once in awhile but also to send them home pissed off every so often as well. As a heel I saw that work throughout my career.”
“So I can’t understand why you would take Bayley in her hometown and beat her with a girl that is literally maybe not even half her size with a modified roll-up of sorts. I knew somebody who was in the building that day and they said the energy in the building dropped precipitously after that. Scratching my head, is it still believing in sending the fans home happy? Or is that just a asterisk next to that when you think you want to do something different? Whether it makes sense or not to do it.”
His original idea behind his first tenure in the WWF in 1990:
“I do remember in 1990 the whole idea for Shane Douglas at the time was that Vince McMahon wanted to see if he could create a legitimate rockstar. I had played bass and have written music when I was younger and it was Jimmy Hart who had come up with three songs for me. He had come to the Pittsburgh Civic Arena with them and I remember that one was called “American Girls” and one was called “Rocking Down The Halls” and I can’t remember the third song but he had three different versions of each song (rock, pop and heavy metal) and he played each version for me and I would sing along with each version and he came up with my voice was most suited toward the rock music. We were supposed to go into the studio and record at least those songs and I believe a full album but unfortunately at the time my Dad had contracted late stage emphezima and I had to leave the road but that was the original intention for the Shane Douglas character in the WWF in 1990 was to create a Bon Jovi like character. I was very much into that idea because I am a huge fan of music and I dabbled in when I was younger with playing bass, singing and writing lyrics and that is something that I was interested in doing.”
“Obviously my Dad was more important and at the time Vince was really understanding. We sat down and had a long talk in Niagara Falls and he told me that the door was always open for me to come back and like an idiot I took him up on that.”
Nearly using “War Machine” by KISS as his entrance music before Taz did:
That song “War Machine” off “Creatures of the Night” was a song that I had dabbled with for awhile and really being such a huge KISS I wanted to use it. But when I really sat back and looked at it, it just really didn’t fit my character or what my character would become but I really knew in my head where I wanted to take “The Franchise” character and that wasn’t for his character. For Taz it was perfect. He is the “human suplex machine” and “War Machine” certainly worked out for him and fit his character. When you go back and envision “The Franchise” coming out to “War Machine”, I just don’t think it would have worked and in fact I know it wouldn’t have but for Taz I couldn’t think of a better song for him to come to the ring.”
Fans can submit questions to “Ask Franchise Anything” by emailing [email protected] or by reaching out on Twitter @TheFranchiseSD & @TwoManPowerTrip. Please subscribe to the The Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling’s Channel on IRW to get every new episode of The Triple Threat Podcast.
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.
