Former WWE Cruiserweight Champion Paul London was interviewed by Journey Of A Frontman. Here are some highlights from the interview:
Being a plant during the Undertaker vs. Ric Flair feud:
They actually did that show live on Thursday. So they said, “Well, your thing’s gonna air this weekend on Jakked/Metal, so we don’t want people to be confused. We’re not gonna have you in another match, but how about we put this Stone Cold shirt on you with his arms are turning into rattlesnakes and he’s doing his pose in the corner and we’ll put this Adidas hat on you so no one can tell it was you.” So I’m like, “Okay, cool.” They told me they’d put me in the front row and that they’d do this thing where they battle out here and Taker’s gonna duck and Flair’s basically gonna deck me. They’ll have security guards come and sweep me away. Sounds good enough. (laughs)
It’s so silly, it was in San Antonio and I remember banging on the barricade like I had some sort of disability. Then here comes the punch and everyone bought it around me. The security guard, Jimmy Noonan, sweeps me off to the back and he’s like, “You alright, kid?” “Yeah, it was great!” Then he said, “Okay, cool. You’ve gotta hurry up because you’re doing this live shot after commercial.” So I hurry upstairs and this is the stupidest thing, it makes no sense. I was told, “The cops are gonna be taking you away and you need to be yelling out that it was that guy, that man right there. And you point at Flair. You point him out directly and you say it was that man right there. So I go, “Okay, so I say hey it’s Flair!” And they go, “No no no, don’t say that. That man. That man right there.” You have a wrestling fan with a Stone Cold shirt who doesn’t know who the hell Ric Flair is? What? I should have been saying it was definitely Ric Flair! (laughs) I would definitely know it’s Ric Flair. I just thought the attention to detail was not that great. But it was a neat experience because now people look back on it and asked if I was this plant and also the plant for WCW Greed with Scott Steiner and if I was a security guard for the last Thunder getting beat up by Steiner again. The audience has better attention to detail than the guys with all the dough.
His rumored heel turn on Velocity in 2005:
“There was no angle. That was the thing about Velocity. We really wanted there to be angles for those of us that were on there pretty much every weekend. It was so much to the point that I pitched for there to be a Velocity Presents pay per view and I wanted to call it Paulocity. I think they just turned and looked at the door and looked back at me and didn’t say anything. There wasn’t any angle behind that. The angle was, “Let’s teach this kid a lesson for coming in and speaking his mind to the boss who wasn’t in the mood to hear that.” So let’s really stick it to this kid and have a title switch on Velocity that no one will notice. At the time, it was a slap in the face. Now, especially since you mention it, it’s quite the honor. (laughs) No one will ever take that away from me! No one will ever duplicate it! Ever! The only one. So kudos to Nunzio.”
Getting severely busted open in a match with Billy Kidman on Smackdown:
“I would have filed a lawsuit for their ring being in s–t condition. There was a bolt exposed on the turnbuckle of their state of the art twenty or thirty thousand dollar ring. It was on the metal twist between the pole, the ropes, and the turnbuckle itself. So I got the ol’ trunks pulled into the turnbuckle and my head went right into that bolt. I needed eighteen staples in my head. That was pretty cool at the time. But it was really irritating to me also because I really wanted to run as far as we could with that because it was a natural accident. It was something that occurred that you couldn’t predict. It created this sympathy without the need to try selling, it was real. The blood was mine and it was very bloody. Everything became gray, I went colorblind. I went into this weird colorblind autopilot and I just finished the match. I just remember thinking this is gold because it’s real. Chavo and Kidman then double teamed me, it was in San Diego and they are booin’ the s–t out of them. It was really genuine heat, probably the most I’ve ever been a part of. And then I remember going to the back and they said they needed me to cut a promo. So there’s this room and I cut this promo up against the brick wall, just a white brick wall. I was so bloody, I looked like Patrick Bateman. It was pretty neat and it was a pretty intense promo. It was pretty much from the heart. Then I went and got stapled up. But then they went and put that promo online for literally twenty four hours. They did it in black and white, which pissed me off, and it was online. Not their television show. The only coverage they did of that match was maybe the week after saying something like, “This is what happened last week!” So it was just a video online in black and white for literally a day. Then it was never heard of or seen again or anything, it was just completely erased. That was a wake-up call to what I was in for.”
Almost having a backstage confrontation with Mark Henry:
“I know fights that I wanted to happen. But it’s so much hot air, it’s no more than the coolest fight from high school. There’s this sad misconception that they’re really tough and it’s just not the case. Here’s a fighting story for you, I remember we were at the end of a tour overseas somewhere, it might’ve been a South American tour. And I remember we were in catering at the hotel, it was at night, and it was a dinner catering. I just remember everyone had to be up real early the next morning because it was the end of the tour. And I got my meal, I went through the line, and I went and sat down at a table by myself. It was fairly early and I just needed some space. I wanted to detox for a little bit from everyone. It wasn’t me being rude or anything, I was just keeping to myself and being quiet. So I sit down with a full plate of food and a Coke. And I realized I forgot my silverware, so I go back, and it wasn’t really a line, guys were just filing in. I went in and got some silverware. Then I turn around and I remember Mark Henry’s sitting at my table helping himself to my plate and my Coke. The only thing I really remember after that was Regal kind of intercepting me, taking me outside, and said, “You have this look on your face like you’re gonna kill somebody. So if you do, start with me please. I beg you to start with me.” And he said, “Just calm down for a little bit.” I just thought about that. I went back in and I got food and went back up to my room. It doesn’t matter how big I am. But under the right circumstances or under the wrong circumstances, my animal comes out. Size isn’t really an issue. Fortunately, my issue with Mark never really got to that point, but it was close. It was really just sad. A sad story, really.”
