The following are highlights of a recent VOC Nation interview with Scotty Riggs:
On his current status: “I’ve retired from wrestling due to injuries. The final straw was a fractured ulnar bone in my left arm. 13 screws and 2 steel plates to fix it, and after 2 surgeries it’s still not right.”
On the American Males theme music: “That was the creative genius of Jimmy Hart. He and Michael Hayes did a lot of the music over the years in WCW. (Jimmy) saw in me and Marcus, a mix of the Fabulous Ones, the Fantastics, and the Rock and Roll Express. His passion for those three tag teams came overflowing through that song. The first time we heard it, Jimmy was all excited, and (Marcus Bagwell) and I looked at each other and our jaws dropped. (I thought) ‘Oh my god it’s horrible but it still works.”
On whether or not he could have been a main event talent: “I don’t know; to be honest with you, there’s always a main event run in somebody. I just didn’t play the BS politics game. It really got heavy and deep. Everyone coming in had creative control in their contracts. I was the 47th hire in WCW and creative control didn’t exist back then. I had many influential friends, so I could have played that card, but that’s just not me.”
On Eric Bischoff: “Eric Bischoff never had the final say so in what was being done. Vince McMahon has the final say so. There were too many chiefs in WCW and not enough Indians. Eric was a great business man when it came from going from Saturday night shows to getting us on (primetime) TV. He was never groomed as a booker. He was never groomed to understand the inner workings of an angle or storyline. The booking committee was getting things done for him; he left things in the control of people like Kevin Sullivan and Arn (Anderson).”
On Vince Russo: ““Vince Russo came in and tried to turn WCW into another WWE. He didn’t care about wrestling; he cared more about his ‘crash TV’. He had skits and promos longer than the matches.”
On Bischoff versus Vince McMahon: “Eric saw everything in the short term. There was no long term agenda. Vince has a long term agenda. In terms of Wrestlemania, everything (all year) builds toward that one big event. Bischoff ran things week by week, and you can’t be successful without that vision.”
On the eye patch: “It was real. It was a chair to the eye. When the chair landed the wrong way up, the corner of the chair caught my eye. I had a bruised eye and it became part of the character.”
Check out the complete Scotty Riggs interview at VOCNation.com.
