On the latest “Haus of Wrestling” podcast, Nick Hausman interviewed Rick Bassman. He is most known to wrestling fans as the person who helped bring in names like Sting, The Ultimate Warrior, John Cena, Chris Masters and others into the wrestling business. Here are some transcribed highlights and scroll down to listen to the entire interview.
Bassman on the rumor that Sting will be retiring:
“I positively believe the rumor to be true. I talk with Sting, Steve, maybe once a month, once every two months, and the impression the rumor you’re referencing is probably pretty accurate. He’s 63 or 64 now, and unlike most guys, especially from his era, he’s in relatively good physical condition. He’s in very, very good financial shape. So what else is there for him to do really at this point. He’s been the top guy in the world for decades. He’s well liked. He’s well respected. He’s still reasonably good in the ring. He’s a guy that absolutely could afford by every metric and measure to go out on top so, why the heck would not?”
On Goldberg possibly having a retirement tour:
“First of all, I’m actively in touch with Bill. I’m working on a date right now. I don’t promote much these days, but every now and then something fun comes up and it’s worth diving into. So working on a day in Jerusalem, Israel, for September of this year and that would involve potentially both Goldberg and Sting. Then on the latter, you have the AEW clearance issues, of course. So that’s something that I really hope to put together. Only because I’ve been in touch actively with Bill and then also with his agent, Barry Bloom, who is a longtime good friend, they are working on exactly what you described, but to my knowledge, it still needs to all be nailed down. Now that said, I would not be surprised to see Bill end up back at WWE for something massive.”
On why he attended WWE Backlash:
“I have a day job these days and I run all entertainment and sports industry relations for a company that does hyper real synthetic media, which is often known as the dark, nefarious, Deepfake. We’re verifiably the number one company in the world doing this now, far and away the number one. We recently did things like we brought Elvis Presley back to life to perform on America’s Got Talent, which was hugely viral. We create and produce and distribute Deep Tom Cruise, which is a very viral thing on TikTok and YouTube and whatnot. We just wrapped a movie in London with the director Robert Zemeckis, where we were aging Tom Hanks and Robin Wright up back over a period of 50 years. So we’re at the pinnacle of t industry right now. We’ve got a really cool activation potential underway with WWE, so we were there meeting with the top brass about that. They’re excited, we’re excited, and now it’s making the deal work. I can’t say what the deal is. It’s all under wraps and NDA’d to death and all that sort of thing. So I was there for that purpose.”
What it was like backstage at Backlash:
“It was super happy and harmonious. Maybe It’s because I’m not wrapped up in the day to day anymore and worried about conduct and reaction and all that, but to me it was far and away the most relaxed I’ve ever seen that company backstage. It was really cool.”
If Vince was backstage:
“No, he was not there. I was actually supposed to meet with him, but he wasn’t there. I got a really nice email from him Saturday morning saying, “Hey, I’m not gonna make it, but I’ll talk to the guys after the meeting and we’ll continue on from there.”
If he came to Backlash to meet with Vince:
“I did end up meeting with the top guys in the company after Vince, but he was initially scheduled to be part of that.”
On Triple H running things backstage:
“I barely saw him when I was there. For years, decades, you would see the signs of Vince’s office with the arrow pointing to wherever. That office has been replaced by Paul Levesque’s office, so you can see that. The only time I saw Hunter was when we were backstage during the Bunny match and he was in gorilla with Prichard. It didn’t look to me like the right time to say hello because they were really engrossed in the Bunny match as they should be. I don’t have a lot of data to answer your question, but my impression was he’s certainly the guy running the show.”
His thoughts on AEW:
“I have a lot of friends at AEW. It’s like any other startup, again, it’s dynamic and ever changing. My impression is that, Well, I don’t believe they or anybody else will ever be a WWE, certainly not after or even before the WWE buyout, but especially not after that, but I believe that AEW is here to stay, a lot more than WCW was because it’s being run by very, very smart people. That’s not to say Eric Bischoff is not a smart guy, because he’s an incredibly smart guy, but there’s a true organization and infrastructure here, a great talent roster, great TV deals, there’s going to be missteps along the way. It’s the nature of that business and any other business, but I think for the most part, I’d say they’re in pretty solid shape and will continue to be.”
Click below to listen to the interview.
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit HausOf Wrestling.com with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
.@Nick_Hausman's full conversation with legendary pro wrestling trainer, promoter, and talent agent, Rick Bassman, is now available on the Haus of Wrestling podcast feed!
Apple Podcasts: https://t.co/11MnfvMZNQ
Spotify: https://t.co/jYwRvQM8ashttps://t.co/fi47I0wV59
— Haus of Wrestling (@WrestlingHaus) May 10, 2023
