Shane Douglas interview recap from www.IYHWrestling.com
by Taso the Greek
Jack E. Jones and OneInchBiceps were joined by “The Franchise” Shane Douglas to start the show. JCW is having the annual Gathering this Friday and it will be broadcast “Legends and Icons” on iPPV and Shane was happy to be on the card and to see so many stars of the past were also scheduled for this weekend. Shane touted JCW as a grassroots company that has promoted wrestling in the right way, and that technology has changed over the years so much that now it is possible to have these shows broadcast all over the world cheaper with the internet than traditional PPV. Shane will be in a match facing Raven, Rhyno, Balls Mahoney, Al Snow, & a mystery man. Shane is looking forward to wrestling the guys from the “Island of Misfit Toys”, and lauded ECW as a company that changed the face of wrestling and didn’t fall in step with other promotions or kissed “Eric Bischoff’s ass” and carved out their own niche in the business.
Jack asked for Shane’s opinion of WWE’s version of ECW. Shane compared it to having your eyeballs stabbed and that ECW was never meant to be apart of any mainstream form of wrestling or entertainment. He felt that Vince’s main objective was to kill the legacy of ECW and to have people stop chanting E-C-Dub in the arenas all over the world. He felt that with all the ECW-raised talent like The Dudleys, Tazz, Justin Credible, etc., in the WWE at the time, there was no reason Vince, with his millions of dollars, could not resuscitate the ECW brand, and that Vince should not have cared whose name was on the marquee as long as he was going to reap the financial benefits. Shane concluded his argument with the memories he had of being in WWE for a short stay and McMahon would never utter the letters E-C-W, but he would refer to the company as “that bingo hall” or “that blood & guts promotion”.
Jack asked Shane about ICP. Shane felt they were at first written off as non-mainstream but “latched on to the underbelly” of society, and were either lucky or brilliant, and are smart business people. He likened them to having unique ideas and that any genre in any artform can neither be right or wrong but success was measured simply in its purest form. JCW wrestling was drawing good crowds and ICP was making music for so long and had such a large following, so they must have been doing something right. He said they simply had the balls to try something different. Jack pointed to the fact that most wrestling people did not like ICP but that JCW was beginning to have a following in the business. Shane said that he was still running into fans everywhere who used to watch wrestling but not anymore because the current product was terrible. Jack asked about the TNA PPV tribute to ECW, and Shane buried TNA as a huge money-loser that has spent millions on old wrestlers, which he thought was preposterous in 2011, and that Dixie Carter was a rich spoiled brat that had no clue about the business. The pay the ECW originals were getting, at $250, was also ludicrous and Shane wanted no part of that PPV endeavor. He thought ECW originals should protect the legacy of the company. His thoughts on Dixie Carter, she is smart, corporate-like, attractive, articulate, but he feels her ideas and style didn’t fit in with pro wrestling. TNA has great talent, Heyman could do something with them, they have the a great network, so they should be doing great. Bob Carter should get her out because she is “easily worked”. About her on-air character, Jack says a woman in power feels wrong, and Shane feels it’s not in her chemistry and that she’s not good in her role, and that she at one time said she wouldn’t go on air, but she eventually did and he doesn’t know why. Jack mentions Ultimate X and Shane says TNA has missed the boat, period, so it doesn’t matter what they do. He questions their booking of Samoa Joe and uses it as an example of why TNA is a failure. He puts Bobby Roode over, compares him to Curt Hennig, says he could have been a top guy during his first singles run, and then buries the Roode vs. Eric Young program that he felt made no sense. He also puts over Tracy Brooks, but again, TNA’s booking of her as Roode’s manager was awful.
Brainz called in with a “what if Heyman was the booker?” Shane says he hasn’t talked to Heyman since 2004. If Heyman was the guy he was in 1993, TNA would be successful. Question #2 was if Shane had his old skateboard and Shane says he does have it, but he wasn’t proficient and WCW didn’t make the effort to make them look like they could skate. Jack asks did he think Johnny Ace would end up behind the scenes as a corporate guy, and Shane says Ace was once working for Honeywell and had a corporate background but working for Vince means making changes in your ideals and Ace has to be a yes-man to survive in that environment.
Fontana calls in, brings up the NWA title tournament in August of 1994, and what was going on in his mind the night he threw the title to the mat. Shane says he can’t remember what he was thinking at that time, but that Heyman gave him choices, did not order him to drop the title, gave him all the options but said the birth of the ECW angle was the way to go. Shane did not want to shit on the NWA and the guys like Race and Steamboat who he admired, but the night of the tourney, Dennis Coralluzzo was trying to sign him to an exclusive contract with the NWA and was badgering him all night, even following him to the bathroom. He was adamant about signing him, but Coralluzzo had also buried him on Mike Tenay’s radio show, “don’t book Shane Douglas, he will no-show you.” This ultimately made his decision. Shane says when he went to the ring he remembered something his father told him, and that is what inspired him to cut that famous promo.
William calls in, question is what is Shane’s favorite match and favorite title. Shane says the UWF, the angle with Sting and the TV Title, his first title, were fond memories. He also says the Eastern Championship Heavyweight Title was huge because he felt that they had something with ECW. The night he threw down the NWA title was a defining moment of his career and another favorite. He is proud he never held the WCW Title, he is proud he never wrestled on a Wrestlemania, and he did things his way.
In conclusion, Shane puts over Terry Funk and Roddy Piper as guys who are alive and still contributing to the business. He feels wrestlers have lost too many of their colleagues and that a union would be good. He wants people to start a new revolution in wrestling by tuning into JCW and that it has to start somewhere, so why not here and now.
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.
