Jon Heidenreich has reflected on one of the most controversial segments of his WWE run, the 2004 backstage angle on SmackDown in which he confronted Michael Cole, calling it disturbing but a moment that kept his name memorable. Heidenreich discussed it during his appearance on Insight with Chris Van Vliet.
The segment, which featured Heidenreich cornering Cole and reciting a poem, has long been remembered by fans for its unsettling tone. Heidenreich said the presentation was not something he could have rehearsed. “You can’t practice for that,” he said. “It’ll always be disturbing, there’s no doubt about it. I do remember thinking, man, this is really off the wall.”
Asked about the pitch, Heidenreich said the direction was deliberately ambiguous. “They said I was gonna abduct him and bring him to the back and put him in a room,” he said. “It’s like you’re going one place with it, and then you say I’m gonna give you a poem, but it sounds like I’m gonna give him something other than a poem.” He said the closeness and heavy breathing were not specifically scripted. “I don’t think they told us that. We just did that. I just did what I thought felt natural.”
Heidenreich said the intent behind the angle was clearly to suggest something other than what was ultimately revealed. “There’s no doubt it was going this way, and I swerved it, as they say,” he said, noting the segment ended with him asking Cole to thank him for a poem.
He credited the segment with making him stand out, even if for unusual reasons. “It’s kind of made me infamous, more than famous,” Heidenreich said. “It definitely added something to my character. It definitely kept my name. It’s like you’re on YouTube, it’s like I’m still wrestling, all that stuff still on there, so it keeps you current in some way.”
Heidenreich said Cole was a willing participant. “I could tell he was down for whatever. It’s like we’re working together. It’s a scene, and we’re building a story,” he said. He added that the reaction backstage was positive and that Vince McMahon was a fan of the work. “Vince loved all this stuff. I know he liked it, because it was disturbing, and it was believable.”
Asked if he had any regrets, Heidenreich said he did not. “No. I think I did the best performance I could. I liked the way it ended,” he said. He noted that Paul Heyman once told him his unpredictable presentation worked because audiences could not tell how much of it was real. “Paul told me that everybody up there didn’t know when I was doing my gimmick. People really think you might be effing nuts. He’s like, it’s good because nobody knows what to really think of you.”
