This is from Steve “Brooklyn Brawler” Lombardi’s recent interview on Talk is Jericho. The highlights are down below:
On knowing John Cena would be a star: “I remember Cena came in the room and he didn’t come in the room. He was standing around. He had a mohawk. He called himself The Prototype. And, I mean, he was just standing in the back and I said, ‘why don’t you come in here and cut a promo? I hear you can talk.’ And he starting doing this interview and then he did it in reverse. And then he, like, rewind, kind of deal. I went to Vince. I said, ‘Vince, we have a ringer.’ He goes, ‘really?’ And then, he [said], ‘take him off the dark match and put him on SmackDown.’”
On putting talent over to Vince McMahon: “A couple of times [Vince has listened]. I put [Cena] over, I put MVP over, I put Kennedy over one time because Kennedy came in and he had some good talent, but he didn’t work out, obviously.”
On turning down a chance to sue WWE after his release: “This investigator calls me up. He goes, ‘Apparently, you parted ways with WWE.’ He says, ‘Would you like to join the class action lawsuit for concussions because we’re really going after them?’ I said, ‘I’ll join the lawsuit, but it’s going to be on Vince’s side because your lawsuit is so frivolous. It’s stupidity!’ He goes, ‘Why would you say that?’ [Lombardi replied] ‘Because you’re asking me to join the lawsuit and you never asked me if I had a concussion.’ I said, ‘You’re the dumbest man alive.’ I said, ‘Have your attorney call me. I’d love to tell him he’s a dumbass too.’ Do you know what I mean? He goes, ‘You should be bitter!’ I said, ‘I have no bitterness in me.’”
On WWE being so scripted today: “It’s almost like Vince couldn’t trust the guys anymore because some of them took privileges that they shouldn’t have [taken]. Do you know what I mean?”
