In an exclusive for WrestlingNews.co, former WWE/UFC star Ken Shamrock spoke with Steve Fall. Scroll down for some of the transcribed highlights and click below for the entire interview.
Ken Shamrock talking about being the referee for the Steve Austin vs Bret Hart match at WrestleMania 13:
“It was a risk. I mean, they had to take a risk on that because I wasn’t a pro wrestler and going into that match, I didn’t have any real experience, at least at that point. I did about five years prior or six years prior to that, but not at this level. So going into it, I truly didn’t even know whether or not I was going to be able to do what I needed to do because referees are important in making sure matches go over because there’s certain things they have to do to make sure those spots count. I was in a few different situations where I had to make sure that happened.”
“When I was going in there, I remember thinking, ‘I don’t know if I could do this. I don’t know if I can pretend to be involved in this.’ so I felt like well, I’ve always been that guy where I’ll just jump in and just see what happens and go out there and perform the best I can and we’ll just let the chips fall where they fall.”
“So I remember going out there and about five minutes into the match. I’m thinking to myself, man, I can’t believe what I’m seeing here. I mean, I couldn’t tell you the difference between what was happening when I was fighting in MMA as opposed to what they were doing in the wrestling ring. It was so believable and so good how those guys were performing, that I lost myself in the match and it just became normal to me. I truly believe that that’s why people really put that WrestleMania 13 as one of the best wrestling matches ever up there, not saying it was the best because I haven’t been around that long, but you know, people saying that it’s right there with all of them. I agree because I was in there and I couldn’t tell the difference.”
On why he feels he never won the WWE Championship:
“I had a lot of other stuff going on too. The company’s got to depend on you if you’re carrying the strap, right? For me, I had a temper. I was wild. If I go up and I get that strap, can I represent the company properly? Am I going to lose my temper and beat somebody up severely and put them in the hospital? That’s not going to represent the company well. So, like I said, there’s a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes where, you know, I was an aggressive guy and I was violent. Being a wrestler sometimes, you know, you got to be able to control those things.”
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