In an interview with Chris Jericho on Talk is Jericho, Bill DeMott defended his actions at the WWE Performance Center, which caused so much controversy that he eventually resigned from his position.
He said: “If you can make it in NXT, then you’re so prepared for what the WWE is. From two hours of sleep and being at media calls at 4AM, to driving 500 miles. Some of them drive to Lakeland [Florida] and want the next day off. And you think to yourself, ‘we can’t let that happen.’ You’re gonna go from Buffalo to Wilkes-Barre, make the drive, you’re gonna have a meeting at 6AM, still make your RAW call-time, and then sit in front of Stephanie, Triple H, Vince, Paul Heyman – the guys that are up there on top that have that work ethic – and you’re either gonna hang, or you’re not. It’s not to break you down, it’s to prepare you.”
When asked about being known as a “hard-nosed” trainer in WWE, DeMott said he’s a “red-light guy” who acted like “an asshole” when the cameras were on. It caught on and that’s what they had him do on Tough Enough.
He also spoke about the “jelly doughnut scandal”. DeMott and Jericho said that wrestling has been a “boys club” and sometimes you do ridiculous things to keep up morale. He had something called “Make-A-Deal Friday” where developmental wrestlers would make a crazy deal to get out of their Friday workout, which was the day after a television taping. It because “something fun and ridiculous” that they did as a team-building and morale exercise. He said the problem is that one person took it out of context and used an incident from 4-5 years ago as why they were cut.
DeMott also gave his thoughts on Zack Ryder. He said: “I didn’t think that Zack Ryder would make it on his own. Only because the Major Brothers, back in Deep South, and how good they were. They’re such fans, both him and [Curt Hawkins]. They’re both good guys. And when I heard about the split, I was more concerned for Zack than for Hawkins, because he just had that aggressive thing – he wasn’t gonna take ‘no’ for an answer.”
Finally, the two talked about the end of WCW and DeMott being part of the Invasion. He said the group that showed up at Wrestlemania X-Seven was originally supposed to be in the ring with Shane McMahon. But they were moved to the audience because Shawn Stasiak leaked the names to the media on the night before the show.
