During a recent appearance on the “Talk Is Jericho” podcast, Keith Lee commented on his release from WWE, what he believes led to it, Vince McMahon’s vision for the “Bearcat” character, and more.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On what he thinks led to his WWE release: “I wish that I had an answer for you. The reality is, what happened is, when I was about to come back, they kind of hit me with the vision for the Bearcat thing. During that time, I was like, ‘I don’t understand what that is. I’m not sure if I’m feeling that.’ They brought me back just as myself. Then, I don’t know, my second match, I think, yeah, so first match, I lost to [Bobby] Lashley. Second match, I lost to [Karrion] Kross. In the middle of the show, Vince [McMahon] pulls me to a room and wants to sit down and have a talk. In the middle of RAW, like, he’s got the semi-main event coming up. He’s just like, ‘Let’s go chat.’ I’m like, ‘Wow, dude, you’re the guy on the headphones. What are you doing?’ But it was in that conversation that he basically said, ‘Listen, I need you to do this. I need you to be this.’ I was like, ‘Listen, I work for you. So if that’s what you want, then that’s what we’re gonna do.’”
On Vince McMahon’s vision for the Bearcat character: “So the weird thing, and this is something I’ve also discussed recently is, obviously, you mentioned the way that I speak my cadence, the way that I seem very thoughtful about how I deliver things, my choice of diction, all of those things. That is something Vince was not a fan of, to the point where he literally told me, he’s like, ‘You sound too smart for your own good.’ I’m like, ‘I don’t understand what that means. Like, what is that?’ He just wanted something more grimy. I don’t know, I don’t think I delivered that for him. He wanted some intense guy. I think that I can be intense, but I need a reason to be intense. It’s easy for me to flip a switch, but if it doesn’t make sense, it’s hard for me to do that. So I can’t be just, and I say can’t, I tried, but I don’t think I’m very good at it. I think that that’s something that kind of facilitated that. But I’m just not a big, angry, grunty, yelly guy. I’m not that until someone makes me that, and it’s usually a match that causes that, or a story that causes that. But when there’s no competitive match that pushes me, or when there’s no story that gives me a reason for a character to be that, it’s something, and maybe that’s what he means when he says I’m too smart. To me, it’s illogical. I’d like to do my best to make sense of what we’re doing.”
(h/t – 411 Wrestling)
