Justncredible818 sent along the following:
Cody was welcomed with The Big Mosh & Blade for his most revealing & candid comments since parting wars with TNA Wrestling several weeks ago. Once Hulk Hogan & Eric Bischoff both signed with TNA, many skeptics & critics began to say that "The Hulkster" could very well keep who he wanted around, and anyone else would end up going to the back of the line. In his exclusive interview with The Monday Night Mayhem Radio Network last week, Bischoff said publicly that no matter how long someone was with the company, they would be observed, and if they were not with the new TNA model, they could be let go. Mosh asked Cody what were the reason(s) he felt why he was let go from the company. "I’ve got a lot of e-mails from fans defending me, saying how they can’t believe that Hulk Hogan said my gimmick was ‘low-budget’ & ‘low-class.’ As far as that rumor goes, I don’t take that rumor to be true, because that’s not what I was told by TNA. There’s no reason the management of TNA would lie to me; that’s not the reason they gave to me for as to why I was released. It was kinda’ the case that Cody Deaner had kinda’ run his course in the company, in the sense that with the new guys coming in & the new regime you’re talking about, I was a victim in that in the sense that there was a lot of guys coming in, and there was not room for me on the TV show for the character I was playing." He went onto say that it was a very professional release, and the door is always open for him to return by Dixie Carter herself.
Blade asked Cody that if he was able to speak to Bischoff & Hogan publicly, what would he tell them about the character & what he can do as Cody Deaner? "I heard that the wrestlers would actually have a sit-down and talk to Hogan & Bischoff. I really wished I would have gotten the opportunity to do that before I got released, because what I would say to them is there’s so much more that I could offer the company than what I was offering. I was offering the comedic element to the show only because that’s what I was asked to do, and that’s what the company wanted me to do. I was told by Vince Russo that I was almost ‘too good’ at what I was doing, because it was going to pigeon hole me into that role. I really wished I’ve could have shown what I could do between the ropes & presented the character in a more serious light as opposed to a goofy, stupid redneck, because I think a redneck character who’s serious & whoops ass, is really gonna’ get over, especially to the Southern fans that make up a large part of the wrestling audience."
When it came to Deaner vs. the TNA Knockouts, Deaner did his research, and actually looked back at tapes of Jeff Jarrett against Chyna back in late ’90’s in the WWE, but there was one big difference in his fights against the Knockouts vs. other men who fought women in the history of professional wrestling, including the legendary Andy Kaufman. "The main difference between me & Andy Kaufman (and a lot of people don’t know this) is that I wasn’t allowed to touch the women I was wrestling on Spike TV. What ended up happening is that due to some things that went down in the media, Spike TV told TNA they didn’t want the angle to go as planned. I wrestled two matches, and they were both supposed to be competitive matches, and I think I could have had a lot of fun with those matches & had more of an Andy Kaufman feel to it. Unfortunately when I got to the tapings that day, they said I was no longer allowed to touch my opponents, I couldn’t even lay a finger on them. So I had to wrestle matches where I wasn’t even allowed to get an offensive maneuver in. So I think the matches could have been a lot better, but I was still very proud of how the matches turned out."
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