Full Episode Download Link: http://tmptow.podomatic.com/entry/2015-10-26T21_00_00-07_00
Rene Dupree’s Opinion of WWE’s Concussion Protocol & Working Hurt: (w/ exact proof of injuries) https://youtu.be/6vU_JFuS3kM
Asking for time off while his Mother was suffering from breast cancer and WWE’s partnership with Susan G. Komen:
This thing with breast cancer awareness, this thing that is a big deal. I read an article that CM Punk said that this whole deal with Susan G. Komen is a scam. In 2004 my mother got diagnosed with breast cancer and it was during the run with me and Cena. I went to Johnny Ace because he always said “well I’m your boss Rene and if you’ve got problems you’ve got to come to me”. So I went to him and said what was going on with me and is it possible for me to fly home once a month or once every couple of months just to be with her and he said they could look into it. Well asking for time off is like the kiss of death, especially during the biggest push of your career. I don’t know if you guys realize this but cancer doesn’t go away in a weekend, it’s a process. So, I never heard from him again and basically they don’t give a sh*t about what is going on in the wrestlers personal lives. You are there to work and make them money and that’s all they care about. It makes them look good because they are a publicly traded company and if it makes them look good well whatever then. Good luck to them is all I have to say.
Should he have gone to Vince McMahon directly:
That’s what I should have done. I should have went to Vince or Stephanie but then again Johnny tells you that “I’m your boss and you’ve got problems then you have to come to me because I’m Talent Relations” then that is what you do. You go to your boss. Sometimes Vince has a lot on his plate so looking back if I could and this goes out to the talent out there if you have issues go to the f*cking horse’s head not the horse’s ass.
An in ring accident with Matt Cappotelli that went untreated and Cappotelli’s revealed brain tumor soon after:
When I was in the ring with the guy at a house show one time and he came off the second rope and I hit him with the dropkick it knocked him out. It wasn’t intentional and accidents happen but he gets knocked out and he is back in the ring again the next day. Fast forward about a year or so and the guy ends up getting a cancerous brain tumor and are they directly related? I don’t know but that just shows you the seriousness of treating concussions and diagnosing concussions. That happened in 2006 and they didn’t bother looking into it and maybe seeing a direct correlation between the two. They waited two years later until they were forced to by Congress. Cappotelli had a lot of potential and was just a really good human being. He was too good of a person to be involved in this type of a business. He was a great worker too. I remember having really great matches with the guy. But it’s like that Johnny Cash song “What’s been kept in the dark, shall be brought into the light eventually”.
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.
