Former WWE star Pete Gas was the recent guest on the “Sam Roberts Wrestling Podcast”, which you can listen to in full at this link. Below are some interview highlights:
On Not Getting Any Work After His Release Due to 9/11:
When I got released in July of 2001 and then 9/11 hit, there weren’t a lot of places to go, not a lot of Indy shows because Vince [McMahon] owned everything. Jeff Jarrett in September of 2001 had to cancel a show. He had asked me to be part of a show where they were going to do a tour in Australia for 10 days. It was the start of TNA actually, and then come home for about a week and then go to Europe for a couple of weeks, but 9/11 destroyed any dreams of that happening.
On How the Mean Street Posse Was Formed:
It was 1999. I was just about to turn 29 years old. True story; I used to see Shane a lot because I used to work out at Titan Tower. We weren’t making any money, we were broke so Shane let us work out there at Titan Tower. When we would go there throughout each year there would be a new class working out with Terry Funk and Dr. Tom Prichard. The talents that went through those camps were off the charts; guys like The Rock and Edge. Back then he was ‘Dwayne’ he was there; Prince Albert, Test, Christian, Mark Henry—all in the gym working out. I was the person that wrestled someone special for their tryout in WWE. We were there training and Randy Orton walks through the door to tryout. He had a tryout in 1999 before being sent to Louisville. He had a tryout in 99 with me. I went to WrestleMania as a fan at the last time it was in Houston, sitting in the front row with the crowd. The talent came through and came to their seats. Orton went out of his way to say hello. He came up to me and thanked me and said, ‘thanks man. I’ll never forget who my tryout match was against.’ That just shows you the kind of guy he is. Shane was starting to come into his own. He came out in his leather jacket; was cocky and had sunglasses. It was a great character.
I had asked Shane when I was 23 years old that I wanted to get into the business. I was a fan since I can remember, big Hulkamanaic. I remember when I was 23 I asked Shane what it was that I needed to do to get in. He said to me that I wouldn’t want to do that. I would empty my bank account because no job is going to let me leave at 2pm to drive to some city in Memphis, go set up the ring, and basically in the beginning you won’t be treated well. He was just trying to talk me out of the business. Part of the reason he did was because if I was really that bad then what would he have done? It was a tough thing to do. Even after I was released, it must of been a tough thing, so that day I remember leaving, I was crushed. I really wanted to do this; Shane is one of my best friends and he’s telling me that I wouldn’t want to get into the business. About a month and a half before Mania, it was like a Wednesday. Shane came into the gym when we were working out. Rodney would play the same Prodigy disc, could have been Alanis Morissette, he would crank that thing in the gym and all the walls would be shaking.
We would be in the gym and Shane walked in and said, ‘hey, Friday, can you guys come by the office around 5pm. So we did, we sat down there at 5. I remember him sitting behind his desk, and said, ‘hey, can you guys do me a favor on Sunday?’ He said, ‘here’s the script.’ He tore it in the garbage and said that he wanted us to dress real preppy and meet Chris Chambers down at the studio, and I want you to talk about how we grew up on the mean streets of Greenwich, CT, and we’re laughing because there’s no such thing as a mean street. He said, talk about how we got into fights and ran away from cops when we were kids, so we did. Rodney and I that Sunday; we were supposed to be there at 10am, came to my house at 8am and drank a 12 pack of beer at 8am because we were so nervous. We had no idea what we were doing.
On Not Receiving Favoritism From Vince McMahon:
Vince Russo really liked us. He saw our vignettes and saw the smug we put behind it and said to us that we have something here. Russo and Ed Ferrara ran with it and just did it. When we weren’t traveling with WWE, we were meeting with Dr. Tom Prichard and taking bumps. Growing up we were different—we were treated as one of Vince McMahon’s sons, but it was different when we get to WWE. Now we become employees. There was no favoritism; we weren’t allowed any t-shirts, action figures, they took shots of us and we were hidden characters for video games but we didn’t have a lot of perks. When they went publicly traded, everyone was allowed to buy stock except for us. Not sure if it was insider trading or what.
On Vince Being Proud of Them For Their Match Against Brisco & Patterson:
So now here we are, we were there for about a month and a half until the ‘Loser Leave Town’ match against Gerald Brisco and Pat Patterson, which was supposed to be it. It was a way for us to get out the door, and it was one of the highest rated 15 minutes in cable history. Vince never showed us any favoritism in the business, but after those ratings came out for Monday Night Raw we were driving home the following day, the phone rings, it’s Shane. He says how great of a job we did the previous night and that someone wanted to talk to us. Vince [McMahon] told us that he was proud of us. He was like another father to us, never gave us that type of statement. I remember driving and Rodney was in the passenger seat—we just looked at each other and didn’t say anything. He said, ‘do you guys realize with the talent we have; The Rock, Stone Cold, no one’s had a higher rating than you guys. I don’t know if it has ever been broken. I remember seeing Brisco in Orlando the year he was inducted into the Hall of Fame. I saw him the night before at Universal for City Walk. He saw me, gave me a hug and whispered in my ear that we still had the record.
