Vader recently spoke about his
relationships with Vince McMahon, Eric Bischoff and more. Here are the
highlights…
On His Relationship with Vince McMahon: As
far as Vince is concerned, I’ve worked for so many great promoters such as
Misawa, Inoki, etc who were very good at what they did. But Vince is the best.
Everything he wanted to do with the WWE, he has done it and has done so
successfully. It’s the largest pro wrestling company in the world and has been
for a long time.
On His Relationship with Eric
Bischoff: Eric was a unique individual. He was an announcer and didn’t
really know a lot about wrestling. When he first moved into the top spot, the
top guys were me, Ron Simmons, Sting and Cactus Jack. The company drastically
changed when guys like Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair came in. But the thing you have
to admit about Eric is that he made history. What he did is on the record books.
He took the nWo and created a monster company that was highly
successful.
On The Interview Incident in Kuwait: I was
standing backstage watching a show on the air. The representative for the WWF
was next to me. The producer of the show was a friend of the interviewer. He
came over to me and said the interviewer was going to ask me if wrestling was
fake. He told me to stand up, act insulted, kick over the coffee table and scare
him, don’t hurt him. I said that we were told not to do anything of that nature
in this country. And he said “No, this guy’s a good guy, he knows it’s gonna
happen, he’s a good friend of mine and it’ll be funny.” The manager from the
agent in charge from WWF said, “Leon, do what they want you to do. I was acting
under orders from the producer, not the agent in charge. But when I did what I
did, the interviewer was caught off guard and was frightened. The cops were
called and I went to jail. I took the heat. But the point is that it was a skit.
They wanted to use this thing to increase ratings, but it just wasn’t the
case.
On Doing a Moonsault: I just have the
athleticism to do it. I guess it gets harder if you’re heavier. But to me, it is
just second nature and I am still able to do it to this day.
