Former WWE Tag-Team Champion Nick ‘Eugene’ Dinsmore was a recent guest on the ‘Pancakes and Powerslams’ podcast, which you can listen to the entire interview at this link. Below are a few of the highlights from the podcast:
On Starting in WCW as an Enhancement Talent:
It was a good time. 1998-1999 I had done maybe 15 shows for WCW, including some Nitro and Thunder matches. I got the opportunity by meeting Terry Taylor at the very first Brian Pillman Memorial show when he was working for WCW in the office. He got released and got me into a WWE Developmental deal in 1999.
On Facing Kane at the USWA:
He was Unabomb and also Fake Diesel so I was able to work with him for a couple of shows and he did Smoky Mountain and USWA. I was there for the very last show. I was supposed to face PG-13 with my tag partner Flash Flannigan but I no-showed the event. There was backstage politics going on that caused me to not make the event. The first check I got was for $25. I grew up in Louisville and Memphis TV was on in Louisville so I was on TV in my hometown. It meant more to me than that $25 because I was on live Memphis-TV and a week later the broadcast was shown. It was a big deal to make it to TV in Louisville.
Training with Danny Davis in OVW:
Danny Davis started OVW in 1993. I started in OVW in 1996, USWA in 1997, wrestled for WCW in 1998-1999 and got hired with WWE in 1999. OVW and Danny Davis got the Developmental contract in 1998.
On Being a 10-time OVW World Heavyweight Champion:
I was there and a focal point of the storylines. Danny Davis was training a class, Rip Rogers was training a class and Jim Cornette was training a class doing television. I was the hometown boy, plus all the time when the WWE talents were there I had more experience than all of them and I was the one who was helping in the ring with training sessions. Stars like John Cena, Dave Bautista, Shelton Benjamin, Brock Lesnar, and Randy Orton—all those guys when I first started I was facing them on TV. Along the way, I was able to win 10-Heavyweight championships, 12-Tag Team titles, whatever the number is.
On How the ‘Eugene’ Character Started:
I pitched the idea to the writers and they were biting on it. I had also pitched the idea to the Agents, Arn Anderson and Dean Malenko. They said that the idea is decent but wrestling has gone beyond this idea so I had somewhat shelved the idea. About six months later I was sitting in a meeting with Vince McMahon and Stephanie McMahon. Vince said that he wanted to get back into character-based wrestling, which was in 2004. I pitched this idea that I had and he said that we should start it on Monday. It took some learning of who Eugene was. At the time, everyone still wanted to be a strong heel like Austin and Goldberg. I wanted to be a comedy-sympathetic babyface. I wanted to sell and do comedy because that was something no one else did. The only kid character that they had was Hurricane [Helms]. At the time the shows were split so I knew that one show wasn’t going to have a kids’ character. So, I saw what the company was missing and I tried to fill that void.
