Former WCW Cruiserweight Champion Disco Inferno was the most recent guest on Wade Keller’s PW Torch Livecast-Interview Thursday segment which you can listen to its entirety at this link. Below are a few of the highlights:
On His Backstage Role in WCW and TNA:
There is a school here in Vegas and was teaching one class a week, specifically, I would devote the class to teach the class on punching, kicking and selling, which was all I would teach, nothing else. When I worked behind the scenes, I worked in WCW and TNA I was on the creative team. My input in those meetings is that I was one of the ‘think outside the box’ kind of person and throws ideas out there. Vince Russo was usually the writer. Ed Ferrera would present the ideas, and then me and Terry Taylor, including Dutch would throw out ideas. I was more of the ‘soundboard guy.’ Throw out some ideas and perhaps tweak the idea; thumbs up or thumbs down. I was never a guy that drove the creative, just basically gave out my ideas. I always thought it was up to the main guy. I was also an Agent, but that was easy in TNA, and that was really easy because there were so many agents in TNA it was ridiculous. There were like 5 Agents for like 9 matches. Literally, back in the day, one or two guys could do it, but there were so many guys I would just work with the Cruiserweight guys or the X-Division guys back then, but would I want to do it today? I don’t know, it is all a matter of dollars and cents when you get to my age. Would it be worth it for me to do it? I still have a passion for the business, but it’s not like I am pursuing to work behind the scenes in professional wrestling.
On the Current Cruiserweight Division in WWE:
If you go back and go back to watch some old Nitros. The crops of cruiserweights that we had back then were the best in the world, and the roster that the 205 Live guys have are currently the best in the world at this time, which we can argue that. I’ve seen both generations, the guys back then were just way better than these guys. The show is more acrobatic, and the guys look more like kids today, where back then the cruiserweight guys looked more like adults back in the day. That is what I see when I see the difference between the two eras. The work was smugger back then; guys like Juventud Guerrera, Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit, Malenko, it’s very difficult to argue that. Those guys back then their matches were better than these guys today; you can argue that, but I can sit here and categorically point what these guys do, even with diving. When we would catch guys that would be diving, we would kind of eat it. You have to take a bump on the floor, it just looked more violent. Today, it just looks more acrobatic and they’re not really trying to hurt each other some time which is what I get out of this when I see it today. That is the difference.
On Austin Aries Being the Star of 205 Live:
Austin Aries looks like the star of the crew, he just sticks out and I really like him. Remember when Roddy Piper was an announcer, he was a huge star, which he then was drawn back into wrestling. I would love to see that with Austin Aries because the problem with the 205 guys now is that they are doing a lot of stuff live now with the crowd and a lot of the stuff and it is not doing them any favors because they are not over with the crowd just yet. The crowd response isn’t there. I would still try to do spots backstage and away from the crowd; the interview segments are just not going over really well. They’re just not getting the responses that they are hoping for.
On Jack Gallagher:
I think his gimmick is great. Here’s the thing; a lot of guys that are coming to the WWE within the past seven years is that guys that are given gimmicks just don’t embrace it. They are not comfortable out there doing it. A perfect example is Fandango. You can just tell he was never comfortable doing it, but Jack Gallagher, you can tell is very comfortable doing that, and that is when he looks very confident in his character. It is different these days, and I know that they are making a conscious effort to market towards kids, so the spot with the umbrella and everything—it is what it is, you would never see that in a real fight, but as far as entertainment, he’s got both things covered. I did not know this but he was an MMA fighter, which I just found out the other day. He has a 2-0 record, which I would like to see him snap a little bit at times and show that MMA side of him. Fans have to see that there is a vicious side to you and that you are able to snap at any time, and you have to show that once in a while. If they do that with him then yeah, absolutely. His stuff is very solid, very believable. He can be a huge breakout star—he already is since we are talking about him. He’s a character you want to discuss, but yeah, I am a fan of his.
