As heard above, TNA star Mr. Anderson recently spoke with Donald Wood and the Ring Rust Radio crew for Bleacher Report. The full interview is also available at this link. Below is a transcript:
Donald Wood: Over your long career in wrestling, you have fought legends like Shawn Michaels, Sting and Kurt Angle. Looking back, who did you enjoy working against the most and who in the industry now would you most like to step in the ring against?
Who did I enjoy the most? I enjoyed working with Taker. He was amazing to work with and so helpful. He took MYP and myself under his wings. I always felt like in the WWE that there were two mountain tops. There was the SmackDown mountain with Taker, Batista, Kane, Booker T, and Rey Mysterio on top of the mountain, and they were throwing rope ladders down. Lending helping hands, saying, “Come on up here, the weather is fine, we can all breathe up here, and we can all make money together”. On the other mountain, you had people who shall remain nameless, who were pushing boulders and hot pots of oil down the mountain to get you off. I remember Taker being enormously helpful in my career and really gave me some fantastic advice. Some of it I took, some of it I didn’t. Who would I like to work most with today? In TNA, I have yet to get my hands on Gunner and he is the total package. He has a tremendous look, his work is amazing, what he does in the ring looks believable, great on the mic, and passionate about the business. So I would really like to get my hands on him. I’m getting ready to do something with EC3 that I’m really looking forward to. He has been one of my favorite people to watch the last few years. MVP and I have never had a chance to wrestle each other. We tagged when we were in the WWE and have been friends for several years, but have never had the chance to do anything in the ring against each other.
Mike Chiari: One of the biggest pieces of news in wrestling right now is Samoa Joe’s announcement that he’s leaving TNA after so many great years with the company. As a veteran guy who has some tenure in TNA, what type of impact does Joe’s departure have on you personally and also on the locker room as a whole?
Joe was a locker room leader, no question about it. Not a locker room leader that raised his hand and says, “I want to be the leader, I want to be your leader, I want you to look up to me”. People just naturally gravitated to him and his respect is all earned. When a guy like that leaves it impacts the locker room. In the business, we have come accustomed to people coming and going all the time, that’s just how this industry operate. Were still friends and still all connected. You can go five, ten years without talking to somebody, and then bump into them and pick up like it was yesterday. Joe, whatever he does, even if it’s just indies, he will be just fine.
