Lee Sanders of The RCWR Show interviewed Brodus Clay, who discussed getting into the wrestling industry, working with Alberto Del Rio, why his Funkasaurus debut kept getting delayed, his WWE release and more. You can subscribe to The RCWR Show on YouTube by clicking here, and catch them live on Mondays at 11:15pm ET after WWE Raw and Thursdays after TNA Impact Wrestling. Here are some highlights:
Getting into the wrestling industry:
The first time mostly, I was always a lifelong wrestling fan. I actually tried a couple of times to get into wrestling and all failed miserably. I went to a wrestling school in Canada. That did not work out well, I think I was out there for like a week. I saw that was not going anywhere. I called the Power Plant (WCW) a couple of times. They never picked up though. Eventually I got together with some guys who were wrestling fans who wanted to be wrestlings historians. I used to work for a spot called the “Saddle Ranch”. Then Wrestlemania came to Hollywood. This was at the Staples Center. They had Tommy Dreamer, Mike Boche, Chris Masters and a few other guys were there at the club that night. I did not have them waiting in line and took care of them and put them up on stage. It was cool, we were just hanging out and unfortunately or fortunately a fight broke out. There were two little guys that were fighting over a woman that had already left them. It was kind of funny to think about it. I was telling these guys to be cool and have a good night. As I was walking away, one of them hit me. I could not even believe he did that. I looked at him like, “no you didn’t!” At that point I clocked the two guys heads together and suitcased them out. What suitcased is where you grab by the belt around and carry them out by their pants. So they look like suitcases when you carry them out. Tommy Dreamer thought that was hysterical and he said you need to be doing that on TV. I laughed back and said, “ya’ll ain’t hiring.” He said, “well actually I am part of the Talent Relations for WWE.” I said, “well actually I am the head of Talent Relations for Saddle Ranch so if you want a job you got it.”
He [Tommy Dreamer] started working with me throwing guys out and stuff. Just the experience that night hanging out with them and stuff it was cool. He told me to keep in touch and send pictures and stuff. He had asked if I had ever wrestled before. I had said I had watched it my whole life and played organized sports my whole life. But I had never got the chance to work in the ring. About four months later he called me up and said we want to bring you down for a tryout with Bill Demott and I was like, “what?” He (Tommy) said we will fly you down to Atlanta. He (Bill Demott) had a reputation of being tough on new guys. I wasn’t too worried about it. I did not do what I would say was spectacular but I did not quit. All the drills and stuff were a little different than what I was used to with football. Bill saw something in me and basically put in the word for me. Then I talked with John Laurinaitis and they signed me. They sent me to do some training to work on my bumps. It all happened kind of fast but I had a lot of good people looking out for me. Also the respect that I had for the business got me. Sometimes guys don’t like what you did before because you are basically starting over. For me it did not matter what I did before and I didn’t try to drop names to get myself over, I was trying to earn my spot. It was like building my own career. I am actually pretty proud of that.
