On the latest edition of the Busted Open satellite radio show, ECW original Tommy Dreamer shared his thoughts on the controversy surrounding Bill DeMott.
Below is an excerpt from the interview.
“I ran the WWE developmental center, I ran OVW, and I ran Deep South. I like to say that wrestling training is different. When I was trained by Johnny Rodz, I was stretched in holds to the point of crying. I remember sometimes driving back on the BQE, and my hands were literally shaking, because I was stretched. I was pushed to a peak physically. With that being said, that is training. I think there could be some merit, but it doesn’t help that these accusations are coming from ex-talent. Because then it looks like its sour grapes. It would have to come from someone, and no one would speak up, if they are current talent or just walked away. I walked away from the WWE because I was not happy. I was not happy, not happy because of something that anybody did to me. I just wasn’t happy at my job, so then I walked away.
“Training is hard. This business is very, very hard. I have my own wrestling school. I don’t believe in going in and beating people up, but Bubba Ray and Lance Storm have schools as well, and they will look at it and say ‘if some of these people were actually in a real fight, or beat up, they would learn how to sell.’ When I was there, I had one problem with the WWE developmental center. I went down there and kicked everyone out. I said, ‘Guys, gals, I hired each and every one of you. I need to know if something is wrong so I can fix if for you. If you don’t want to tell me, you can tell me privately.’ I handed every single one of them, all sixty of them clipboards with my hotel and you can meet me privately. Not one person stepped up.
“If there was a problem I had with Bill DeMott, or any of my trainers, I would go to my boss, who would then go to Vince McMahon. When I did have a problem with Bill, I said let’s put a video camera in there. They said ‘ok, no problem.’ I never had a problem with Bill personally or professionally, and I do think he is a good trainer. Not all coaches like their players. I’ve seen on Twitter people stick up for Bill, and I have seen people not stick up for Bill. Everybody’s situation is different. If there were homophobic slurs, then yes that has to be addressed. I know that when he worked for me, everything that I asked, he did. I had a problem where someone brought up racism. I said, ‘Hey, let me hear it.’ Then no one said anything. I was willing to help you. There were no ramifications, no ramifications whatsoever. Let me cure this problem, then there would have been no problems.”
