On the latest Hall of Fame podcast, WWE Hall of Famer commented on WrestleMania weekend.
Thoughts on Rey Mysterio going into the WWE Hall of Fame:
“Konnan definitely was graceful in his speech when bringing Rey Mysterio into the Hall of Fame. That right there I think was the highlight moment for me, just getting a chance to listen to Rey go down that journey for a second from the way he started in this business and never in a million years perhaps thinking that he was going to make it to this level but still wanting to be the best guy in the locker room. That’s what Rey Mysterio’s mentality was. When you got that mentality, it catapults you to the next level no matter what. Cream rises to the top and that’s Rey Mysterio. He’s truly one of the best that ever did it.”
Talking about the Bron Breakker – Carmelo Hayes NXT Title match at NXT Stand and Deliver:
“On a scale of one to 10, I give it a 6. I ain’t gonna go too high, a six, just because I know what I’m looking for as far as, just like say for instance, if you were a gymnast and you were doing the vault. What am I going to be looking for most importantly in that vault? I’m looking to see if these guys stick to dismount, and I’m still looking. I’m still waiting. Did they go out there and perform? Yes, they did, but I just thought they were walking their way through it as opposed to trying to feel their way through, and that’s wrestling talk right there. That’s wrestling jargon. I thought they did a good job, but on a scale of one to 10, I would give it a 6.”
On Cody Rhodes not winning the WWE Title from Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 39:
“Would I have liked to see Cody win? Yeah, I would have. Could the storyline have been a little bit stronger if Cody wouldn’t have went down and we would have been able to do that work over those four months? I think that right there definitely threw a monkey wrench in the storyline, the build, to Cody actually being able to win at WrestleMania. I think that might have a little bit of a monkey wrench into it. Would we have still been happy to see Cody cash in? Would the story have been complete? Yes, I do. But I do think that four months, not being able to have to build that story, mixing in other guys with Cody, don’t just jump from zero to hero, would have been necessary. That’s just my opinion.”
“I’ll pose questions to you. Are you going to stop cheering for Cody Rhodes because he didn’t win that match? Are you going to cheer for him against Brock Lesnar? Are you going to want him to overcome Brock Lesnar to get back to Roman? If he beats Roman Reigns after doing that, are you going to pop for it? I think so. So when people get lost in the weeds on, ‘This should have happened’, and not really knowing why it should have happened other than it’s something that they wanted, that’s when you can get lost in the weeds. For me, I’m always thinking about the big picture, and for Cody Rhodes losing that four months, it definitely put him behind the eight ball as far as really delivering what we need to deliver, and my thing is this, I’m thinking about time. I’m trying to stretch time as much as I possibly can. I’m trying to bend time as much as I possibly can, and when you just do something like that, you can book yourself in the corner and you go, ‘Okay, where do we go now? Cody’s the champion? Where do we go?'”
“I mean, these fans today will turn on you in a heartbeat. I mean, they would turn on you in a heartbeat, so you can definitely not write the card thinking about what fan’s emotions are feeling at that moment in time. For me, when Cody comes out, if I’m a fan, I’m gonna cheer for him. I’m going to cheer even more for him now because, ‘Man I think you got screwed.’ Let me tell you just for comparison, when I didn’t win against Triple H, do you think the fans turned on me? They cheered for me even more. They wanted me to win even more after I didn’t win that match, so I don’t look at wrestling as today. I’m always looking at what we could do with that. Where could we take this?”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit The Hall of Fame with Booker T & Brad Gilmore with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.