Shawn Daivari made one of his first live appearances since his WWE release on the October 18th edition of The Shoot. He was welcomed by hosts Gary Cantrell and Justin Bailey and without wasting any time dove right into the terms of his release.
“This whole process has been out 6 months in the making now,” said Daivari. He stated that he was approached for re-signing with WWE for another 3 years, but had some stuff that he wanted to do within the company before he signed a new deal. The two main issues were wanting to be on more of the live events and wanting to do more from a creative standpoint.
He shed a little bit of light on the Smackdown and ECW brands stating that it was harder to get on those shows as they had so much talent to choose from. “I need to be on the road for my own sanity, If I’m home too much I kind of go stir-crazy.”
He noted that it was much better when he was moved to RAW because he was then on all of the live events and traveling all over the US and the rest of the world. He was then approached by management again to resign and still had some things he wanted to do, creatively speaking. He noted that when he wasn’t able to agree with WWE on his character he approached John Laurinaitis, Vince McMahon, and Stephanie McMahon all separately to inquire about not only not resigning but getting out of his current deal a bit early. He said that they all thought he was very professional about it and were glad that he was up front about it and he believes that he would absolutely be welcomed back.
Host Gary Cantrell asked about creative specifically and how approachable they are. “There’s not an exact creative system that I was able to figure out. Sometimes I would go up to a writer that had only been there 2 to 3 days or weeks who’s just a brand new guy, doesn’t even know what talents are RAW or Smackdown and they would blow me off” said Daivari.
He added that whenever he approached Stephanie or Vince and needed to talk with them one on one, they always made time for him regardless if they had a million things going on. “So, to say that creative is or is not approachable that’s debatable. Like I said, some writers wouldn’t have the time of day for me but the highest guy and woman on the totem pole always did”
Justin Bailey asked what the backstage morale was like in the wake of the Chris Benoit tragedy, the Signature Pharmacy scandal, and Congress getting involved. “Backstage morale now, I think is just as good as it was before all this stuff happened.” Daivari talked about how the media jumped all over them after the Benoit incident happened, but then challenged anyone to find any coverage of it now in Television, Radio, Magazines, etc. He believes that the business will be able to adjust and work around any kind of influence Congress may have. “The business will always survive” said Daivari.
They then talked about creative and the ratings. “There aren’t enough hours in the day to produce 5-8 hours of original TV a week and give 100% thought to the first segment on the show and the last segment on the show.:
Daivari was then asked if he was surprised about the ratings drop, he said no. “I think it shows the quality of the product at a given time compared to what else is on TV.” The interview runs about 30-35 mins as he talks about all this plus Muhammad Hassan, TNA, ROH, and answers listener questions as well as taking phone calls before wrapping up. To listen to this interview in its entirety point your browser to: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/theshoot
