In an exclusive for WrestlingNews.co, Steve Fall spoke with Impact Wrestling’s Johnny Swinger about his days in WCW, his 2001 WWE tryout, getting signed by WWE in 2005 and why it didn’t work out, working for Paul Heyman in ECW, his interactions with Hulk Hogan, wrestling Triple H in WWE and more. Scroll down on this page to watch the interview. Note: You can watch Johnny Swinger on Thursday nights at 8/7c on AXS TV. Click here for details on how you can watch Impact.
Johnny Swinger on if Paul Heyman owes him money from ECW days:
“I’ve been asked that question a lot and to be honest. No, I am not owed any money in compensation because I was paid so little. I was not on a high paying deal there and that’s not what I was there for. I was there to increase my visibility, increase my equity so to speak, to be attractive to go back to WCW or to the WWF in a higher position.”
On wrestling for WWE before he was 21 against Triple H:
“I wasn’t even two years out of high school. I had been wrestling maybe a year or so out in West Canada for a guy named Tony Condello. He started Roddy Piper and a whole host of people. I got the first call from Scott D’Amore. I never met him before. He saw me on a Winnipeg TV show and he said, ‘Man, you look like you could be on TV. Would you be interested?’ I’m like, ‘Sure.’ Next thing you know, I’m at Monday Night Raw RAW wrestling Marty Jannetty, and like you said, Triple H. Then I was in WCW, WCW Saturday night. This is before Nitro even started right. That’s it. I’m wrestling on TV and not even old enough to buy beer yet.”
Johnny Swinger on how Hulk Hogan treated him backstage in WCW:
“He wasn’t that accessible in the back. I never changed in the same room as him. I think he always had his own dressing room. When I would see him in the hallway, I would of course go up to him, or I would initiate ‘Hey Hulk, how are you doing?’ Shake his hand. He’s always very cordial. I saw him, he was in WWE in 2005 when I was there. Same thing. Just one of the boys. I never saw him act out or give anyone a hard time or raise his voice or anything like that and whenever I said hello to him or anything, he said hello back. I had some small conversations with him. Actually, there was a company called XWF that came out after WCW closed and he was involved with that. I actually talked to him a little bit there about his son and all that. He was always a cool guy.”
Johnny Swinger talks having a WWE tryout the night WCW was purchased:
“I actually had a tryout on RAW the night that Shane McMahon was on the Panama City Nitro. If you remember, that was 2001. That was before the internet was really big and information didn’t get out. So I’m sitting in catering in Cleveland, Ohio trying to get a job with WWF and that’s how I found out they were buying WCW because he was on the show. We all found out that day. It’s not like it was a rumor. The rumor was Eric Bischoff had a company that was going to buy it and I thought I would have an opportunity with that. I remember sitting there thinking, oh my gosh, there’s 100 guys down there now that are going to be, you know what I mean. Like the Invasion, there were many people not brought in for that because it was just too many people. There’s just too many bodies. They didn’t need that many. So luckily, it worked out for me that TNA came about, otherwise, that might have been the end of my career in wrestling.”
This interview is exclusive to WrestlingNews.co. If you use these quotes, please include a link back to this page.
