 Show: The Interactive Interview courtesy
of
www.WrestlingEpicenter.com
Guest(s): Al Snow & "Simon Dean" Nova
Date: 6/4/09
Your Hosts: Patrick Kelley, James Walsh, & Nick Noel
We're in June! Just a few short weeks away from the biggest ECW reunion show
of all time, Legends of the Arena taking place at the building where it indeed
did all start in South Philadelphia, PA! Check out
www.thearena.biz and
www.MySPace.com/legendsofthearena for event and ticket information. To celebrate, and to help get the
word out about the before mentioned event, we welcome two ECW originals who
performed in that arena and really came into their own in front of that arena's
fans.
First, Al Snow joins us. Every single time Al is on our show, he gives an
education on wrestling with an intelligent presentation citing not only modern
examples but how history got us to this point. In other words, Al Snow simply
gets it. And, if you think you do, maybe you should listen to this interview
because he may teach you a thing or two!
Then, "Simon Dean" Nova does a very rare interview with us that was recorded
the night before... It went so long, we have cut it into two parts! Nova
has said that he doesn't like to do many of these because normally the hosts
have an agenda or act as though they know more than the guest. But, since
we came highly praised by the "Queen of Extreme" Francine, we scored an interview
that I can't tell you how proud we are to bring the wrestling community...
From working at a fast food restaurant while cutting his teeth on national
TV in ECW to being one of the most hated superstars in the WWE to being involved
in talent relations, Nova has seen the business from every angle. This interview
gives you the chance to hear all about the backstage aspects of the business
as well as what makes for great characters. Simply put, this interview is
an education. And, it is a freaking blast too! Again, we are so happy to
be able to bring this to the wrestling community and we sincerely hope everyone
will listen not to make us feel like we're stars but because the viewpoints
expressed simply are worth hearing!
All this plus a little wrestling banter about the release of Mr. Kennedy
and more!
Don't miss out, tune in to this one!
"SIMON DEAN" AKA NOVA
- The interview begins with Simon talking about why he
hasn’t done many of these interviews. He puts us over and says most
shows don’t know what they are doing. He also says that Francine put
in a good word for us and was more than happy to do the show.
- Right away we plug the “Legends of the Arena” event. He hasn’t
wrestled much since leaving the WWE, but was more than happy to be a part
of something that Francine is running. He is also excited to be a part a
show taking place in the ECW Arena, which he hasn’t been in since early
2001.
- He kind of knew that ECW was coming close to shutting down and figured
he would never go to the arena again. He also mentions how a lot of other
federations have booked the arena hoping to recapture that same spirit (quoting
Field of Dreams by saying “Book it and they will come”), but it
hasn’t been met with the same success or passion that ECW had.
- When asked about what made ECW standout, he says a large part of it were
the fans. He is going there to see them just as much as they are coming to
see him. He says the product was a combination of hard work, passionate fans,
and just a great & fun atmosphere.
- When addressing the critics of ECW and its hardcore style, Nova says that
ECW offered much more than that. It featured comedy, attitude, drama, great
action, and the hardcore was all in addition to that. He specifically says
that he only went through two tables his entire time there.
- When talking about the WWE’s ECW, he says that right now it’s
a way to get people out of developmental and on TV, and it offers chances
to sell merchandise and make money, which is not a bad thing.
- In the old ECW, Nova says that as long as you worked hard, the fans would
get behind you. The fans really took to him, especially towards the end,
and he evolved the entire time he was there as he moved higher up the
card.
- He says that he worked part time at Wendy’s and some people would
recognize him from the MSG channel ECW shows. He says a major problem with
wrestling today is that most young guys start their career in WWE rather
than being a complete wrestler with lots of experience before they get there.
He also says that the only way to really improve in wrestling is to work
with guys that are better & more experienced.
- When talking about the young wrestlers of today, he mentions that a lot
of them don’t take the time to improve and as a result they wind up
lasting a short time and they blame creative for not knowing what to do with
them. Nova then states that Creative does allow more leeway than people
realize.
- He says that the Simon Dean persona was his creation and he was allowed
to work on the character to make it what he wanted it to be. Vince called
him into a meeting while he was working in OVW and he pitched the Simon Dean
character in the meeting. Vince came by to visit OVW only once and asked
to see Nova and he told him that he loved the character. He then mentions
that it was Stephanie McMahon’s idea to put his face on the back of
his gym suit, stating that his smile was pure heel heat. Nova later came
up with the idea of carrying a gym bag & riding a scooter to the ring.
He also says that they never really gave him a script when he did his
promos.
- When talking about today’s promos, he says that a lot of guys probably
can’t talk without having a script, which is why the WWE does it. He
also says that this can be attributed to guys not having experience before
going to WWE. He advises that if promos are your week point, then you should
either practice more and more or take an acting class.
- Nova then mentions the politics of wrestling with guys in power trying
to hold him down, but says that eventually talent will shine through and
the opportunity will come.
- When asked why Simon Dean was treated as a jobber, he never understood
why they decided to take him in that direction. He says that he was one of
the most over heels on the show and as a result, all babyfaces looked good
when put up against him. He accepted the role though and he did the best
job possible in getting other guys over. Vince put a lot of faith in him
in being able to do whatever he asked and recalls Vince saying that “I
wish I had 10 more heels like him”
- A question comes in from a caller: He asks about the process & reasoning
for his release. Simon puts over his time in WWE. He says that he’ll
never go back, but thanks them for what they gave him. He was released while
doing the talent relations job, and honestly didn’t like it. He loved
working with John Lauranitis, Howard Finkel, and various others, but lots
of guys tried to backstab him.
- Another called question comes in: The caller asks him about Tommy Dreamer
and Nova puts him over as one of his best friends in the world, but doesn’t
know what he will be doing after his contract expires.
- We then go into a discussion about Nova appearing on the Signature Pharmacy
list. He says that he never failed a drug test and was never a customer with
them. He doesn’t feel like the WWE used him as a scapegoat and doesn’t
know how his name got on there. He then talks about his post WWE career in
handling loans as a Broker.
- He puts over Bobby Lashley heavily and liked working with him upon
Lashley’s arrival with the WWE. They worked together on house shows
with great reviews. They had a Dark Match scheduled for a Smackdown taping,
and eventually the match got moved to the main show and he made Lashley look
like a monster. The reaction to their SD match was so good that they decided
to give them a PPV match as well, and he is very proud that he was able to
be creative in those matches.
- Simon then goes into a long discussion about the talents in developmental.
He says that too many young talents just showed up and expected to be called
up right away. He says a lot of them just went out and partied and put little
effort into improving their craft. He doesn’t mention names, but says
that a lot of them got released & two of them are still on WWE TV, but
aren’t doing anything significant.
- When he was part of talent relations, he talked about watching the OVW
guys wrestle and how terrible a lot of it was. He says they didn’t even
know they were going to get fired, but when they do, they’ll blame everybody
else.
- He talks about working with The Shane Twins (called the Gymani in WWE)
and says that they were underutilized and a very good team that he loved
working with.
- Creatively, he wasn’t going anywhere, so he took the talent relations
job and was disappointed with the laziness of the developmental talents.
He also says he feels sorry for Indy wrestlers like Claudio Casignolo who
work hard every night, and they don’t get a job, and a lot of the young
wrestlers he dealt with were lazy. He also mentions that he gave them Eddie
Guerrero’s Book to read and write about what they learned, and he mentions
that one girl (who is currently on Raw) wrote the assignment without reading
the book.
- Another disappointment for him was when Dr. Death came down and gave the
talents his book to read and he said he was going to test them. The talents,
for the most part, they failed, and Dr. Death was heartbroken by that lack
of respect.
- In his job, he never actually fired or hired anybody, but he was allowed
to recommend talents & let people know that they were fired. He specifically
mentions Kofi Kingston, Santino Marella, Natalya, TJ Hart, Ted DiBiase, &
various others that he helped get hired. He said that there were two talents
that he had to inform they were fired, and he really didn’t want to
because he was very high on them: Danny Inferno & Angel Williams AKA
Angelina Love, current TNA Knockout Champion.
- Continuing on his points about the young talents, he argues that if you
try hard enough to get your name out there, eventually you will have your
talent recognized. He talks about a new girl in the WWE named Serena who
worked as a Waitress part time before finally being brought into the WWE.
Simon mentions people like her & Claudio have to get recognized eventually
because they are too talented to overlook.
- Another talent he was very impressed with was Idol Stevens and says they
put him together in an ill advised tag team with KC James (who Simon got
frustrated with a lot) and things didn’t work out when he was sent back
to OVW. He says that he has the talent to be a main eventer. Simon also puts
over the valet of the tag team, Michelle McCool, as a very hard worker and
he’s proud of what she’s been able to do.
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