Former WWE star Hornswoggle was a recent guest on the “Sam Roberts Wrestling Podcast” which you can listen to in full at this link or in the player below. The following are some interview highlights.
On Tommy Dreamer Being His “Road Dad”:
We traveled together for a long time. He took care of me, and the guy that hired me for WWE. he made the call to me; I ignored a few of his calls because they were from a blocked number, and when I finally answered and thought it was a debt collector. When I finally answered, Dreamer replied with; “I’ve been trying to call you Dylan. I am glad you picked up, we want to hire you.” I said ok. I was happy I answered. So, we traveled together for a while. I just listened to an interview with Karl Anderson when he saw the 203 area code. At the time I saw that but didn’t want to answer because I thought I had to pay my credit card debts.
On His Connection to TNA:
I did a year and a half of independent wrestling before I got into the WWE. It was nothing really. I didn’t make the towns. I don’t even say I was an indy wrestler. I learned everything from WWE. Ken Anderson trained me in Green Bay. The were looking for a midget for Fit Finlay, and Ken said that I have the guy. He can take bumps. He can work. He will do great, it was literally off to the races from then on.
On His Split from Finlay:
The first five or six years were great. I was constantly being booked, and then it slowly diminished, and then I would get a little bit of a push and then back to being diminished. But, they gave me just under 10 years of living my dream, so I can’t be mad at that. When they moved me to Raw away from Finlay I was so scared because that was all I had. They said I was going to manage Sheamus, but that never happened, and it’s like, ok, now what. Thank God the Chavo feud started, and then the DX stuff, then it was off to the races again. It was great, but scared me to death.
On Characters He Didn’t Want to Portray:
There has been bad things. I wore an Afro at the Slammy’s with Booker T. If you don’t look at that and say to yourself, something shouldn’t be happening. I also remember wearing the cow suit, I knew it was probably a little shot at my weight. I get it, but if you do it and do it to the best of your abilities, then that is all that matters, where I can shove it to them. Not really shoving it to them because it was what they wanted anyways. The fans booed it, none of the fans liked it. I knew it wasn’t going to be good going into it. I told them, but there’s nothing I can do at that point. Everyone has bad matches or bad segments into their careers, if you get through it, you know there is going to be another segment another day.
Everyone talks about WeeLC, but then we did the Payback match, the Hair vs Mask match, which we killed it on that one, but everyone remembers WeeLC, and I will say that WeeLC was the greatest moment of my career. There are three things that stand out. WeeLC is #1, taking the Kenton Bomb at Mania off the ladder, and my very last match in Green Bay against Heath, where Ziggler coordinated it where my son was in the match unbeknownst to me. I had no idea, but he talked to the Producer and security guards. It was 1,2,3 in my hometown with my son sitting front row, and they bring him over. I’m waving to the crowd and then I’m face to face with my son in the ring, I lost it. I balled like a baby, but it was one of the coolest things. I never thought it would be my last match, but it couldn’t have been a better moment. It was in my hometown against Heath, who I texted that day. I asked him that if I did a dark match, would he mind doing it, he said of course, and he had no problem. One of my buddies brought it up, how I have that as my last match and it was pretty awesome. I have a picture with me hugging my son in the ring, it was a special moment I’ll never forget.
To listen to this entire podcast, subscribe to the show to the Sam Roberts Wrestling Show on iTunes.