Source: Adam Martin of WrestleView.com
Wrestling News Live welcomed former WWF, WCW and ECW star and a good friend of the show Tracy Smothers this past week. Smothers pulled no punches and got right to the issue of what took place involving the Blue Meanie at the ECW One Night Stand PPV two weeks ago, what he feels about WWE’s JBL and his challenge to him. Be sure to log on to www.wrestlingnewslive.com (where you can hear the full audio of this interview) for more information on how to listen to the show *live* every Sunday night or catch the archive every week with hosts the Trey Dawg, JSK & Adam Martin!
– Tracy Smothers joins the show. Smothers lets the hosts know he is currently on the road on his way back from Lexington, Kentucky to his home in Nashville since he hadn’t been home for a while due to his new busy schedule. Trey brings up how much Tracy had been in the news all last week. Smothers laughs and said that is what he heard.
– Host JSK brings up how Tracy is coming off a few ECW reunion shows as he worked both the Hardcore Homecoming event on June 10 and then the One Night Stand event two days later on June 12. Smothers said the Hardcore Homecoming event was great because he got to see a lot of old faces he hadn’t seen in a very long time. He brought up how much the ECW Arena had been renovated and that he heard they run boxing there now. Smothers said it looks great and you probably wouldn’t even recognize that it is the same place. He noted how much hotter it gets in the building as it use to have a few lights and now it has close to 50. Smothers said the building was packed that night and the crowd was electric, making it feel just like old times. He said it didn’t matter what they called it because the energy of the people that night made the show and that it was something you had to be there live to experience. Smothers said that place is where it is at and that you get pumped with so much adrenaline that you are prepared to go through a wall so to speak. He said it was well run and well organized as Shane Douglas, Scott D’Amore and Jeremy Borash were all on the ball that night. Smothers said everyone else involved was great and he heard they are going to try to do some more shows like it soon.
– Smothers brought up how he faced The Blue Meanie on the card and how JT Smith was out there as well. He brought up how much Smith connects with the people. Smothers described Meanie as being “over like Rover.” Trey brings up how he heard that a “dance off” took place during the match and noted that he has been at ringside with Tracy before and wondered how in the blue hell (no pun intended) he won a dance off. Smothers laughed and said he has no idea. He joked that he has no rhythm and can’t even spell rhythm. Smothers said he was having fun with it that night and turning loose like always. Trey noted how he saw some pictures from the event on HardcoreHomecoming.com and how Tracy has buffed up. Smothers said he is trying and working hard at it. He said he has started to diet a lot more and worked on having smaller meals. Smothers brought up how he is doing his best to keep up with the “young guys” in the business today and described them as jacked up.
– Talk turned to the ECW One Night Stand event later that weekend. Smothers said it was a cool event to be apart of and mentioned how Paul Heyman and Tommy Dreamer were basically running the show with everything going through Vince McMahon in the end. He said they were able to pull off an authentic ECW show just like Shane Douglas and his crew did with Hardcore Homecoming two days earlier. Smothers said it was great to see the old security guys and how back in the day you would never have to worry about a thing with them around at ringside. He put over how great WWE’s production style was, but gave them credit for making it ECW authentic the way it came across on pay per view. Smothers talked about how great the matches were on the card and felt the Three Way Dance involving Tajiri, Super Crazy and Little Guido was outstanding, including the spot where Crazy did a moonsault into The FBI. He noted how much heat the guys from RAW and SmackDown were getting that night from the crowd in New York and said that is the most heat he ever saw anyone get in a quite a long time, especially JBL. Smothers said Joey Styles truly captured the moment when he said he wished time could sit still during the event.
– Trey brought up how he read that many of the WWE talent who were asked to appear on the show really didn’t want to show up because they knew the kind of heat they would get if they showed their face at the event. He asked if the heat on the WWE guys was really as loud and strong on pay per view as it was live. Smothers said he did his best to balance time watching the show on a monitor in the back after the Three Way Dance and then stepping out live as well. He said the crowd was all over the WWE guys and noted how much heat guys like Kurt Angle and JBL got when they ran down ECW on the mic. Smothers said he can’t remember seeing a wrestling crowd that mad before in his career after they heard some of the stuff JBL said and joked that if the fans had guns that night all of the WWE guys would have been dead. He talked about how others felt having WWE guys apart of the show took away from the meaning, but noted he wasn’t so sure about that opinion because it really got the fans involved. Smothers said JBL did a great job of feeding off the energy from the crowd that night and thought it was cool. He quickly noted he didn’t think it was cool what he did to The Blue Meanie later in the night though, calling him a “chickensh*t.”
– JSK then dove in to that controversial situation that took place at the One Night Stand event involving JBL sucker punching Blue Meanie during the brawl in the main event and asked what it was like to see that live and be around it. Smothers said many of them didn’t know what to expect when they came down those stairs and described them as a bunch of tough strong guys. He said when Kurt Angle and Tazz went at it, that is when everything started up in the ring between the ECW and WWE guys. Smothers said the first person he went after was Matt Morgan and noted how he almost broke him in half. He said he went after Tyson Tomko next and noted how strong he was as well. Smothers said after that he went in William Regal’s direction and saw him get hit with a cane. Right after that, he saw something out of the corner of his eye take place involving JBL and Meanie. Smothers noted how “the tape doesn’t lie” and that he went right to where the trouble was. He brought up how JBL tried to make up an excuse about why he did what he did. Smothers strongly shot that down and said “f*ck him!” He said it took a lot of guts for him to do what he did, especially when Meanie was already stapled up from the Hardcore Homecoming event two nights earlier. Smothers called JBL a “punk ass bitch” for what he did and that there was no reason to do something like that with 50 guys brawling in a ring.
– Smothers said when Bradshaw first started in the wrestling business he was a really nice guy. He said he watches his promos and knows that he truly believes what he is saying. Smothers said he doesn’t think it is funny or cool to make fun of the ECW talent and call them garbage. He said a lot of the guys that worked in ECW were guys he trained and they are like sons to him. Smothers said that is not very respectful on JBL’s part to say stuff like that regardless if it is for a storyline or not. He said he didn’t care if people in WWE didn’t like that and said, “what are they going to do, fire me?” Host JSK asks Tracy if he thinks JBL was telling the truth when he said he was only defending himself against The Blue Meanie in the ring doing what he did. Smothers said that was not the case and that Meanie never saw him coming when he sucker punched him. He said Meanie would never bother anyone or intentionally start something like that. Smothers said that doesn’t mean that Meanie could never take care of himself, calling him a tough guy. He notes that he doesn’t take anything away from JBL, calling him a successful guy in the business with a book and his own radio show. Smothers said JBL is great on the radio and does a good job with that. He did say it was too bad his attitude got the better of him that night. Smothers mentioned how JBL started with Bobby Duncum Jr., describing him as a “hell of a guy” and how Duncum would be rolling over his grave if he knew what JBL was doing right now.
– Host Trey Dawg asks Tracy why with all the things JBL does he doesn’t feel any type of repercussion from the WWE for his actions. Smothers said he doesn’t know, he doesn’t work there and doesn’t know how things operate in a situation like that. He notes that JBL needs to be very careful about the things he says in his promos, especially things like selling out Madison Square Garden when there is another 20 or so guys on the card who helped sell that show out as well and not just one person alone. Smothers said whether JBL likes it or not it doesn’t all revolve around him. He does note that he is doing a good job right now of staying hated because he can’t think of anyone else right now doing it better than him, adding that the fans are paying to hate him at the moment.
– In the end, host JSK asks Tracy if he were to get a call from WWE to push this situation, would he go and further it. Smothers said he doesn’t see anything like that happening and makes it known that he isn’t looking at the situation from a business standpoint. He said it will never be about that because it is personal to him and that he is ready to meet him anywhere at this point to resolve it. Smothers said to bottom line it, he just wants to fight him and he isn’t trying to get jobs elsewhere because of what took place. He said what makes it bad is that he won’t get punished in the end for what he did and noted that if this took place in the “old days” that guys would have “beat his ass” for what he did to Meanie in the ring. Smothers called JBL low and said he could have been man enough to let Meanie know he wanted to fight instead of attacking him the way he did.
