 Show: The Interactive
Interview courtesy of
http://www.WrestlingEpicenter.com
Guest(s): Scott Norton & Kevin Thorn
Date: 5/21/09
Your Hosts: Patrick Kelley, James Walsh, & Nick Noel
Special Contributors: Erik Clancy & Andres
In a night that once again brings it back to our namesake,
The Interactive Interview, we bring you 2 incredible interviews! We forgo
a lot of the wrestling banter for the interviews but bring that same banter
in to the interviews making these light and yet very informative and strong
interviews that we think will have staying power!
First, the former Kevin Thorn joins us in a telling and strong interview
where he offers his take on why his gimmicks were pulled and tweaked and
what he's up to now. This is a fun and enlightening interview with a wrestling
cult favorite.
Then, Scott "Flash" Norton joins us in an interview that takes us from the
US to North Korea, Japan, and beyond in a wild and entertaining journey.
This former nWo member tells all about the behind the scenes happening of
WCW, New Japan, and some hysterical stories about Ric Flair, Goldberg, Chris
Jericho, Scott Hall, Hercules, and more. This one is really, really
strong!
SCOTT NORTON
- Former IWGP champion and member of the nWo, Scott Norton
joins the program. The interview begins with Norton plugging that he is actually
selling his house on Ebay. He wants to move to be closer to his dad who has
been diagnosed with cancer. He has always had a lot of respect for his father
& wants to spend more time with him. To find out more on Scott Norton's
home for sale, visit him on MySpace at
http://www.myspace.com/nortonsan.
- Viscious & Delicious (Norton & Bagwell) got back together at a
recent Indy show and Scott enjoyed it. He's always enjoyed working with Buff
and the fan response was very good. He doesn't know why WCW didn't really
get behind the team initially, but says they got over in Japan and says the
team works because they are so different from each other.
- Scott talks about some of his past tag team partners like Hercules Hernandez
who he enjoyed working with because they just killed people, but with Buff
it was more entertaining. But he credits Herc for helping him out when he
first got into the business. James then tells the story about how Herc stopped
Billy Jack Haynes from shooting Vince McMahon, and Scott says that Herc told
him that same story. This then leads into a disccusion about Billy Jack Haynes
and his past & current problems.
- The interview then shifts towards the "Rise & Fall of WCW" DVD that
will be coming out later this year. He hopes that they give the company the
respect it deserves and says there is a great video library for them to work
with to make the DVD a hit. But they also talk about how Vince might let
personal vendettas get in the way of making money, and Scott talks about
how Vince bought WCW and then just got rid of it.
- This leads into a discussion about WWE 24/7 where alot of that great WCW
footage is utilized and Erik specifically mentions a great match that Scott
Norton had with Randy Savage. Norton also talks about how great that old
footage is and even mentions ESPN doing their old AWA show nowadays.
- James then brings up a match that Norton had iwth Benoit, and Norton says
he loved working with him because he was tough and could adapt to any
style.
- In Chris Jericho's book, Jericho said that he was good friends with Norton.
We then hear a story about how Norton encouraged Jericho to stand up to Scott
Hall. Norton says that he was getting tired of watching some guys push around
the lower card guys which is why he pushed Jericho to do it.
- Norton was a member of the nWo, and he says that he can't believe how big
it got at one time. He says that the exposure of being on Nitro combined
with the Hogan heel turn really put it on the map. He didn't realize how
big it was until he got to Japan where the nWo was huge. In a funny story,
he says that it was actually Scott Hall who got him into the nWo, which came
about at DDP's Christmas party.
- Scott feels that the nWo probably could have kept going, but bad booking
slowed it down. He specifically references the creation of The Wolfpac as
being a bad idea that watered down the concept. He also didn't like how everybody
that remained in the White & Black nWo was considered the
B-Team.
- To highlight the problems with WCW, Scott Norton was on a flight to the
live Nitro with Bischoff who handed him the basic outlined plans for Nitro.
Norton read through it and liked it, and Bischoff told him that none of that
was going to happen as the whole shot had to be re-written because there
were guys that didn't like the direction. He specifcally mentions Hogan having
a lot of power, even though he usually got along with Hogan.
- Scott was an IWGP Champion during his run in WCW and there were plans to
showcase the belt more to enhance the relationship with New Japan, but Hogan
& Sullivan didn't like the idea of showing him off with the
belt.
- He also talks about the large roster that WCW had, which was close around
130 guys or more, and Scott says the main reason it was so big is because
nobody knew what they were going to do.
- The North Korean Wrestling Festival that Norton was a part of was a complete
disaster. Norton says that they were the first plane to land in the airport
in 10 years, and they were constantly observed by North Korean officials.
He finally got a chance to call his wife and when he complained about how
bad it was there, the phoneline got cut. He was then interrogated by military
officals about his comments. After that incident, Ric Flair was scared to
death & kissed the ground when they got back. Scott says that the only
thing that made him feel safe was that they had Muhammed Ali with
them.
- When talking about the really long promo segments that the nWo was a part
of, Norton says that he never really had a problem with it, and says that
you'd be amazed at some of the coversations going on in the ring between
the guys that don't have the mic.
- Norton says that it never bothered him that he never became a huge star
in the States because he always did very well in Japan. He also had a lot
of fun being in the nWo when he was going back & forth to Japan &
the States. After leaving WCW in 1999, he says that he joined a group in
Japan that was led by Chono called Team 2000 that did pretty well for a
while.
- Back to the nWo, it is agreed that the nWo started the Anti-Hero "Its cool
to be bad" phase that eventually led to the popularity of "Stone Cold" Steve
Austin. Norton knew early on that Steve was a great wrestler and knew he
had something, but never knew how big he'd end up becoming.
- He always thought that WCW would survive, and that wrestling in the states
is suffering by not having them around. He says that the WWE being the only
major game in town is what Vince Jr. always wanted. Scott says that Vince
Sr. never wanted to step on any toes and leave the other territories alone.
When Vince Jr. took over, he called Gagne and other promoters telling them
that he was going to put them out of business, which of course eventually
happened.
- He got one offer from the WWE back in the early 90s which he turned
down.
Word Associations
Konnan = "Great guy...good dude...chicken shit"
Scott Steiner = "Not a chicken shit" he then recalls the famous story of
when DDP & Steiner had a backstage fight.
Brian Adams = "What a great friend...one of the guys you could really call
a friend"
Eric Bischoff = "Lot of people give him a bad rap, but he wanted us all to
be successful...Eric's a good man"
Bill Goldberg = "Big Star and he knows it" and then tells a funny story about
how guys in the WCW locker room loved watching the Gillberg gimmick.
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