Chris Van Vliet has posted a new interview with former WWE Superstar Erick Rowan, now using the name Erick Redbeard.
Redbeard discusses his release from WWE, being part of the Wyatt Family, why he started wearing a sheep’s mask, thoughts on Brodie Lee’s signing with AEW, The Bludgeon Brothers, wrestling The Rock at WrestleMania 32, the original plans for what was in his cage, whether he has an interest in going to AEW, his favorite bands and much more.
Erick was asked what the plans and payoffs for the cage was supposed to be. He has discussed this before but gave more details during his interview with Van Vliet.
He said, “The original payoff, well, first it was me saying, what and why? I was very miserable backstage. I think the first day I found out backstage, I asked, what the hell are we doing? What am I talking to here? I tried to explain my concerns going from where I was to this cage. The way they said it, they tried to make it sound like it was a good thing. They said I was going to work a said babyface because that said babyface was going to kill whatever was in that cage accidentally. It will drive you on a rampage so I can go back to that crazy, kind of psychotic, unstable character which I wanted to be. Then that babyface turned heel and they kept extending the cage gimmick for a long period of time. That’s when I started pitching different things to be in the cage because it was drawing so much interest. But at a certain point, you have to show them what’s in the cage and it has to deliver. Initially it was supposed to be a rat, like a sewer rat. I think they knew it was a spider all along because they had this mechanical spider being built this whole time and not telling the guy who was carrying the cage. You like to think they had a better plan for it. I was highly disappointed (in it being a spider) and kept trying to change their mind up until that day and they basically said, no, we have the No Way Jose segment and this is happening right now. I didn’t even know for esure it was happening until we started filming it and that was when the show already started.”
Specifically, I wrote a big pitch to Heyman to show Vince which was to have the cage built slightly bigger, and for one appearance, I wanted to bring in the lady who played Ma Petite from American Horror Story. She is a SAG actress from India and is one of the smallest women in the world. It would have been the shock and ah of having a relationship with this little woman and blossoming friendship that you can see. Just the unveiling of me taking her out of the cage and my whole pitch would be I’m not locking her in the cage because I’m some weird creep that wants to kidnap a woman. I’m locking her in a cage because I know how horrible the outside world is and I wanted to lock her away to keep her safe from the atrocities that are out there because the Rowan character throughout his whole life was treated so badly by everybody around him. I had Harper slapping me every week. You had Bray as the cult leader. You had Strowman taking the black mask and trying to imitate me and try to be the better version of me which as a character was very interesting. We should have been able to tell all these stories but we never had the time. It was always just something in the background. This was stuff I wanted to pitch with her. Since she is not a wrestler and not a regular on the television program, we could have brought her in for one day. We always film so much throughout the day. We could have filmed two or three weeks of television but had her for just one day. We could show the relationship blossom for a couple weeks and then something horrible happens to her and she dies which sets me on a rampage. You would see a different side of me whether I turned face or heel. I thought there would be enough interest to create a fun story for people to get invested in and want to know what happens next week. Another idea I had was for me to stalk the wrestler, not in a creepy sense, but I would find out what their worst fear is. That would be the character. I would be beating up the babyface and the babyface would have to overcome his worst fear to beat me. You could do it with everybody because as big and bad as the wrestler is, he is going to have a fear because he is a person. And everyone has a fear.”
Check out the entire interview below:
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit Chris Van Vliet with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription
