Former WWE Superstar/Producer Shane “Hurricane” Helms is the guest this week on Tommy Dreamer’s “House of Hardcore” podcast. This is the second of a two-part interview.
Here are some highlights:
Helms talked about working with Rosey and Molly Holly: “The whole Rosey thing was so much fun. I wasn’t for that in the beginning. I was getting to that point where it was hard having all the battles with creative and some of the agents on how this character works. Knowing that they are not going to take it seriously, I thought maybe I should try something else. That’s where Gregory Helms came along later. I was already starting to get to that point. Flair always took a liking to me. He pulled me to the side one time and said, you’re too good for this gimmick. I was stuck in a place and this gimmick was paying the bills. I was still over and getting good reactions. They were still using me. Maybe I wasn’t in a position where I wanted to be, but I was on everything and making good money so I was really torn. When they pitched the idea for Rosey for me, this is me taking another person, same thing with Molly. They liked Molly but they weren’t doing anything with her so they were going to give her my gimmick. That’s the same thing they were doing with Rosey. They liked him but they weren’t doing anything with him so they are going to give him my gimmick. Have they ever given anybody Stone Cold’s gimmick? You have to be careful doing that because you can dilute yourself, but I like Matty a lot. I thought ok, I’ll give anything a shot. I’ve heard Arn say this on his podcast: I didn’t know I could say no. I was that guy too. I would say yes to everything, even if I bit*h a little bit, eventually I’ll say yes and do the best I can.”
Tommy Dreamer responded to that: “You can say no, but you really can’t say no. They will replace it or then you become deemed difficult or like you said, you lose the European title. I remember Danny Doring was in catering. Johnny (Laurinaitis) walks up to him and said, hey what do you think about being a referee because you are a good talent but your size is…Doring said yea, but I would like to try to be a wrestler first and was literally fired the next week because in Johnny’s head, Johnny asked him to be a referee and he said no. But he didn’t. He said you asked me my opinion. So it brings back some bad memories. I think of Rosey, literally going out there as S.H.I.T. I remember, maybe there was even discussion of having underwear as his mask, like literal tighty whities. Then what they gave him was like a jockstrap.”
Helms described his motorcycle accident and injuries: “A bunch of knuckleheads were drinking and then said let’s get on our bikes. The place we normally ride is a big soccer field. There is a street we normally drive around that goes around the soccer field. That’s the street I thought we were on. It was dark. We were actually on the street that drives straight into the soccer field which has a chain link fence surrounding it. I just didn’t see it. We went through it. As we hit the curb, I reached back and grabbed Karen. I pushed off the bike to try to pull her on top of me, so she actually landed on my chest. I couldn’t push all the way off the bike with one hand and the bike landed on my left ankle and crushed it. As we went through the chain link fence, my helmet hooked the fence and the strap on the helmet cut my throat. We landed in the field. I remember thinking who is pouring water on me because I was so wet. I reached up and put my hand on my face and I pulled it back and it was drenched in blood. I’m dragging myself because I couldn’t walk. I dragged myself over to Karen, put my head on her boot and passed out. I woke up in the hospital. One of my best friends was a state trooper and he was on duty that day. He showed up and said he never saw anybody with that much facial trauma and lived. Luckily I had one of the best surgeons in the state happen to be on duty that night at that hospital. He was a plastic surgeon. They reconstructed my face. I had a lot of damage. My teeth were all fuc*ed up. My jaw was broken. My chin bone was actually sticking out. That was rough. That was my lowest point in my life. I couldn’t walk. I was bedridden for months. I couldn’t walk for a year. I was in a wheelchair forever. They almost took my foot off (in the hospital). I woke up. The conversation was about saving my foot or taking it off. That’s how crushed it was. The doctor said it was a bag of smashed potato chips.”
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.
