During a new interview with Lilian Garcia on her “Chasing Glory” podcast, Heath Slater commented on never seeing himself as a World Champion in WWE, his future plans, and more. You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On how he’s dealt with the release: “Getting fired, I really believe I needed this. The times are crazy, the times are weird now because you can’t go out and make money and all that stuff. But I really believe I needed this to get the fire, get the hunger, focus. I can honestly tell you that out of the last four to five years, besides me and Terry [Rhino] winning the tag titles which was an awesome little run, I have been so burned out and just not even really caring. To where this happened, to where I have to say thank you for lighting that fire for me again. Giving me that, ‘Oh, what? I’m gone, so I can spread my wings and fly a little bit?’”
On if he thought of himself as a potential world champion: “Hell no. I was there for a decade, a whole decade like this [lower card]. Faction here, faction there. Man, I was in so many daggone factions, too. I was always that little puzzle piece in the group. I didn’t see myself as the champ. Why? Mentally, I wasn’t there. Wasn’t there, period. 100%, that’s a fact … I wasn’t mentally ready. I wasn’t even physically ready. I gave up in the gym too, and that’s a fact. Why do you think I was wearing the tank top, you know, coming to the ring? I wear my shirt, you know. I wasn’t really ‘promoting’ it, it was, ‘My goodness, I’m like, hanging over a little bit right here. I don’t know if I should put on my spandex,’ you know? But no, hell no.”
On how he’s feeling now: “The way I’m feeling now, I just want to see where I’ll be two years from now. That’s where my mindset is. Because like I was saying, I have just not been this motivated in a very [long time]. And another thing, I have never, ever been outside of WWE. You know, I’ve never got to go to Japan, Puerto Rico. I’ve never been to any other federation. No — can we say them on here? AEW is amazing, they’re doing good stuff, good people over there, I like that. TNA, doing good things. I’ve never ever got to go to ROH! ROH, they have so much good talent coming out of there. NWA is even back up with their old school look. There’s so much cool things out there that you can do. To where, that’s what excites me. I want to dabble into some of this, because I have never in my life done it. So it’s like, this is like a new journey for me.”
(h/t – 411 Wrestling)
