Tommy Dreamer welcomed former WWE star Brian Myers (Curt Hawkins) on this week’s “House of Hardcore” podcast.
Myers talked about his early days in WWE, how he landed with Impact Wrestling, his wrestling figure podcast with Matt Cardona (Zack Ryder), and much more.
Hawkins talked about his trainer, Balls Mahoney: “In 2015 we are at an indie show and Balls and I are literally sharing a gimmick table. I was on the roster with Balls for a year. I probably did more than 15 shows with him. He never remembered me. I was ok with that. We are sharing a gimmick table. All my merch is out there with pictures of my career and everything. He picks up my shoot interview and reads the back. There is a little synopsis on the back that says trained by Balls Mahoney. He said, ‘wow, this guy was trained by me, I didn’t know that’ and walked away.”
Hawkins worked for free in FCW for one year after his angle being aligned with Edge ran its course: “I was smart to the writing on the wall where I had to pivot. After 2 weeks of not traveling, I called John (Laurinaitis) and said, I’m 24. I’ll move to Florida and put myself in FCW and outwork all the guys down there and build myself back up. I know if I sit home, they are going to let me go. He said we don’t think you’re not a good wrestler, we just don’t have anything for you. I’m not putting you there so I’m not going to pay you to be there. I said, ok, that’s fine. I’ll bet on myself. I went to FCW for a year without getting paid to make it back to the roster another time.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit The House of Hardcore Podcast with Tommy Dreamer with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.