Former WWE star Adam Rose was the recent guest on Colt Cabana’s “The Art of Wrestling” podcast, which you can listen to in full at this link or in the player below. Below are some interview highlights:
On Getting to Do More on the Indy Scene:
I think for me, getting on the Indy’s, a lot of it has to do with that I can prove I am capable of doing something. I had two years in where I was told not to do anything, so for me now, when I get 20 minutes, and am told to do whatever I want, and I can actually go through false finishes and do some of my stuff, it’s really cool, it’s a whole different experience. From what I can tell, stories don’t really exist, but for me, now I break the crowds down with different demographics. So, the first demographic I have to hit, and I hit easily is the kids. I get the kids demographics right off the bat; and then I get mommy, and then there’s that market I was not ever able to get when I was in WWE, which was the 18-24 to 35 year old males, who just didn’t like me. Now, that the handcuffs are off I can get them. So first, I get the kids and mommy, and then I get that other demographic because I become more physical and more of me and get that demographic, so by the end of the match they are all in so it’s cool because I know now, when I come into matches and the crowd is like, oh, it’s this dude, he’s not going to do anything, so when we start and rumble then everyone feels differently.
On His “Sesame Street” Character:
I think once Adam Rose was called up, the character became Sesame Street [G Rated], especially when we did the Twisted Tea commercial, that was when I felt that we were more of Sesame Street. I told Hunter, I said, Hunter, how the [explicit] did we become Sesame Street, and he looks at me and goes, sometime you become the interpretation of your character rather than your character, and I was like, ok, and how do we fix that? So, by that point we were screwed. It wasn’t even two weeks in. I did my character for a short time period at NXT. Even now, looking back, it was starting to go more Sesame Street towards the end of my run at NXT, but that deal, was honestly, if we kept it the way Dusty [Rhodes] had created it, which was literally like, I come from the party, I just fell off the bus, I literally don’t know what’s going on, and I get in the ring, win a match and leave, then get back on the bus. I would get on the bus with hot chicks in it and smoke coming out of it, and you can guess what the smoke was going to be. It was like dry ice, lots of dry ice. It was supposed to be very edgy and have that Godfather feel to it, but it ended up becoming Sesame Street with a grown man dressed up as a Hot Dog.I think Adam Rose in the WWE demographic was for a 4 year old. I think that was my demographic and that’s not cool, so it was never intended to be that way. But, by the time it had already sunk in it was too late.
On WWE Changing His Character:
In my entrance in NXT we would drop the lights, make it dark, then weird music would start for all the Rosebuds to load, and then the music would hit, and what we did on Raw were bright lights so you can see now everyone loading, you can see now, everyone in outfits, and no where near the same feel. I can’t think of the word for the type of music it was, but it was more like Egyptian Belly Dancing, and that would be the loaded music, and there would be this weird vibe, and the lights would dim down a little bit. You can see a little bit of them with the Egyptian music playing, but then the music would hit and you you would really see them. That formula worked, but then when they changed the formula at the end of my NXT run with the music, I asked why they changed the song? It was really good, so why change it? The guy who wrote the song and sang the song even called me saying he would give me the song so it can be played, but when they called me it sounded like they just wanted to control everything. That was the first question was the music, and then with the entrance I was already questioning why it was different than in NXT, by Twisted Tea I knew the character was in trouble.
On What Adam Rose Was Based On:
Adam Rose I created with Dusty. I was given a two week notice deal, where it was like, change your gimmick or you’re out of here, so I created him, and the next day we ran with him. The character was based on Aldous Snow from Get Him to the Greek. Hunter told me it was going to be a hard sell because you have a 70 year old man [Vince McMahon] who has never watched Get Him to the Greek, it’s going to be a hard sell. It wasn’t a hard sell in Europe, but in other countries it was a tough sell. The demographic of 18-35 male just couldn’t stand the character.
