Former WWE/TNA star Shawn Daivari recently spoke with Sports Illustrated’s Extra Mustard about his wrestling career, including his tenure with WWE.
Daivari talks about breaking into the business, working with Muhammad Hassan, a bizarre gimmick proposed to him by Stephanie McMahon, and much more. You can read a few excerpts below:
Daivari on how he got recognized within WWE:
“I think that was when Vince came down to OVW, and he heard me cut a promo, and it was one of those things that like, a good promo always come from some place real in your heart, just like a good story or a good novel, or any piece of art, music or whatever. If it comes from inside your body like a piece of your soul, it’s gonna be better than something that is just factory generated.
After 9/11, I really started feeling like a minority. I never felt that before, so there was a little piece of me that kind of held that resentment, and when I was able to do those characters, I was like, ‘Holy crap! These characters are exactly how I felt in 2001! I’m an American. I’m one of you guys. Why are you guys turning your back on me? I don’t get it; I think we were buddies. And that was the ability to pull from some place real, and I think gave me a little bit of that extra juice that was something that caught Vince’s attention.’”
The gimmick proposed to Daivari after he and Muhammad Hassan were pulled from WWE TV:
“Stephanie came up to me and was like, ‘We’ve got an idea for you for like next week. We want you to debut as a character named George W. Bush, and we want you to wear Red, White, and Blue trunks, and be like a super American patriot.’”
Daivari said that his response to Stephanie was, “I would love to kind of do my own thing, but that is a terrible idea. I don’t know who came up with it, or whose idea was it to come up with the name George W. Bush, and take me from the hottest heel to wearing red, white, and blue, and what the purpose is or the explanation for it. But, I really, really, feel strongly against it.”
How the Undertaker was instrumental in getting The Great Khali over:
“Taker was on board the whole time. He believed in the angle, he believed in Khali, he believed in the look, and he believed in the fact that people would buy into a series of matches leading up to Taker getting a big win at a pay-per-view that matters. So, he had faith in all of it, and he was on board. He was cool with it.”
