Former WWE Superstar Ken Shamrock recently did an interview with Andy Malnoske of Wrestling Inc. to talk about several professional wrestling topics. Here are the highlights:
Refereeing an I Quit match between Bret Hart and Stone Cold Steve Austin: “I think that without a shadow of a doubt that the match changed wrestling. It really launched us into the Attitude Era. I know that when they first pitched the idea of the match I was a little bit skeptical about being a referee because I was afraid that I was going to be in the ring with guys that weren’t really going to hit each other. You were going to have space in between when they threw a punch, and I was just not that person.
“I didn’t know how I was going to deal with that,” Shamrock said. “I said, you know what, these guys are going to do a good job and it wasn’t going to be something I was going to be embarrassed about, so when the match started, those guys went after one another. It was like watching an MMA match. They put on a great match and those guys went after one another.
“It is a match that I think anybody that watches it and sees it sees that those guys did a tremendous job and they changed the way that pro wrestling was going and turned it into one of those great times in pro wrestling, which was the Attitude Era.
“I mean, me being in there as an MMA fighter, and the reputation that I was carrying and those guys putting on one of the greatest matches I have ever seen and me being a part of that and suplexing them into the end, and tying it into that no holds barred era in with that match really changed pro wrestling. That was when we launched the Attitude Era.”
Having unfinished business with The Rock: “The Rock, I really enjoyed my time that we had with our little angle. I remembered doing house shows. I remembered doing pay per views with him. It seemed like we were really getting things going. I even took a chair shot to the face, which has never been done until Mick Foley took it to the face three times.
“I always thought The Rock and in our direction it was a really good time for pro wrestling. It was the Attitude Era,” Shamrock said. “Guys were really having pride in their aggressiveness, and when The Rock moved up to take the world title, I thought for sure that I was going to move up and we would have the match for the world title, but it never came about for whatever reason, but man, it would be great to finish that because it was kind of left open. It was never finished. So, it would be great to go out and have that opportunity and close that door.”
H/T Wrestling Inc. for the transcriptions
