Interview With Kevin Nash
Total Nonstop Action Wrestling returns to our area this weekend for a three-day swing that includes stops on Long Island and New York City. For tickets and more information, visit TNA’s official web site.
On Friday, the stars of TNA return to Westbury for the second time this year for a show at the Capital One Theater. I attended TNA’s first show at the venue in February, and can honestly say it was one of the best house shows I’ve ever gone to. Absent of the company’s often mind-numbing booking, TNA’s world class athletes got the opportunity to show off what they do best – wrestle. And the sold-out house loved every minute of it. I’d expect more of the same tomorrow.
Although he’s not scheduled to take part in any of this weekend’s show, TNA star and former WWE and WCW world champion Kevin Nash was in New York this week to promote the tour. I got the opportunity to briefly speak with “Big Sexy” as he drove around Manhattan trying to hook up with Triple H before leaving town.
In this interview, Kevin talks about performing in NY, the circumstances behind his first world title win 14 years ago, his role as the centerpiece of WWE’s “New Generation” campaign, and the Clique’s influence on wrestling.
AC: I know you’ve performed in your share of shows here in New York and I wanted to talk to you a bit about that. I just attended WWE’s last house show there at the Garden and I was thinking about how important the Garden house shows used to be. And yours was the last really big title change at a Garden house show. What does that mean to you – to have won your first world title at a Garden house show? Does it make it extra special?
KN: We ran the Garden once a month back in 93, 94, 95 – my first run in WWE back then. That was our big show, because back then we didn’t have the monthly pay per views. The first year I was there we added King of the Ring, which made it the fifth pay per view. But back then we just had four. And the Garden show was always deemed like a very special show, and it still is by the guys, because you’re still playing the Garden. But for me, when I sat at Vince’s house and he told me I was going over and he told me the fashion in which I was going over and he told me it was going to be done at a house show at the Garden. I was like… It’s one of those things, like Bret would say, “It’s real. It’s all real.” And I’ll say to this day, you know what, everything else I’ve done in my career might be fake, but boy there’s nothing that felt more real than that night.
AC: Was it kind of bittersweet for you that it didn’t get a chance to be a real match? It was just, whatever it was – a kick, a powerbomb, and that’s it. Would you have liked to have had a 15-20 minute match in which you won your title?
KN: I don’t know. I was watching Vince’s show a couple of weeks ago and they showed Shawn Michaels kick all his partners. And Jericho was basically saying how rotten Shawn Michaels was. He kicked everybody and they went down like they had been shot by a gun. And when Diesel got kicked, he went to a knee. I watched that and I just went, “God, I remember that. I remember how strong [I was pushed.]” I mean, Vince just made me really strong. That’s how he wanted me to be perceived. He wanted me to beat a legend in the business [Bob Backlund] in just eight seconds.
AC: What do you feel about the fact that at that time when they had you on top – and I don’t know that anybody has held the world title that long since. Maybe John Cena – it’s not thought of as one of the big business periods in WWE. Do you hold yourself responsible for that in anyway? Or do you think people maybe underplay how well business did at the time?
KN: Business wasn’t that great. I don’t think there was any huge drop between me and Bret, or any huge gain between me and Shawn. I think that business was just down at that time. What people forget was that when I got the world title, I had basically been in the business for four years. And for the first, basically, three of that was as Oz, Vinnie Vegas and other characters that maybe had a hundred matches. So I was very green – a very, very green champion thrown into that. It was a lot. I look back and I say, it is what it is. Was I the greatest champion? No Did I go out every night and work as hard as I could? Absolutely. I gave it all I had. In retrospect, I look at it and say there wasn’t a night I went out there and dogged it when I was world champion.
AC: What did you think of that whole “New Generation” campaign? Was it something that they discussed with you? Did they have a big vision for what this new generation was going to be about and what your role was going to be in it?
KN: What it basically was that the old guard just left. Hogan, Savage – everybody just kind of got up and left. I remember we were in the locker room one day and Scott Hall looked at Pat Patterson and said, “God, where are all the stars?” And Pat Patterson said, “You guys are the stars!” We looked around, and we were like, “Yeah, I guess we are.” I got a great picture that was taken on a European tour that’s got like ‘Taker, Austin, like basically the guys that reinvented wrestling and took it to the next level – Scott, myself, Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Shawn Waltman. And you look at them, and there’s basically the genesis of the 96 explosion sitting in the back of that bus. So even though times might have been what they were in 93, those collective 12 guys in the back of that bus in that picture basically took it to heights that had never been seen before. So as far as I’m concerned, yeah, , maybe we were all apprentices learning our craft, but we loved what we did. And in the end result, wrestling had its biggest moments.
AC: And you guys were so different from each other. From you to Shawn to Waltman to Triple H, you’re all very different guys. You were the big power guy. You had the light heavyweight. You had the wrestler. But like you said, you all went on to achieve tremendous success. Do you see some kind of common factor in all you guys besides your friendship?
KN: I think our psychology was very much the same because we sat in the car and basically learned from each other. I learned my psychology from Scott and Shawn. Hunter came in and Hunter learned it from us and Waltman. So it was a situation where we kind of learned from each other.
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Comments (5)
Kevin Nash is a very interesting guy.
Good interview, you often forget how inexperienced Nash was during his 1995 run.
I'd be interested to hear what he thought of his character change once he went face and how, when he lost the title and brought his edge back, he was much more entertaining.
I was at that house show, where Nash won the title, and that roof almost blew off the Garden. It was so loud and exciting as a 14 year old. Back then you never expected a title change on a house show. But this was truly one of the highlights of my many MSG shows. I could not tell you anything else that happened that night, but I do remember how crazy that audience was for a relatively new guy winning the world title.
Rumors circulated all night around the Garden...would Backlund face Bret? Maybe Luger? No one expected Diesel. If you remember just 3 days earlier at Survivor Series Bret lost the title to Backlund, and Diesel kind of just turned on HBK, but really no "full" face turn yet. It shocked the crowd for sure. Here is the clip, which they aired the next morning on WWF Superstars:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGoQWNElahg
For what it's worth, Backlund-Diesel was announced that morning on Superstars, with Diesel cutting a babyface promo (I believe this stuff aired nationally and not just here in NY, as the same footage aired the next day on Challenge). The title change was shown the next morning on Action Zone, which was at the time a pretaped show with live commentary.
I liked Kevin Nash as a wrestelr and as a performer ...He provided some good and funny commentary on TV and such but reading this interview makes and the way it is typed out makes him sound very stupid..."Well uh...like uhhhhhhh Duhh....."