Article: Radio Interview
Conducted By: Arda Ocal & Jimmy Korderas
Date: 18th July 2011
Credit to: Right After Wrestling
Page 2 | Page 3
Arda: Joining us on the line right now is a former WWE Superstar who carries a very famous and illustrious last name, one of the great wrestling families in the industry and he himself is one of its brightest lights. He’s fresh off his stint with the WWE; you can follow him on Twitter @Mexwarrior. We welcome none other than Chavo Guerrero to the program.
Arda: Chavo, thank you so much for joining us. How are you?
Chavo: Hey man, great, thanks for having me, I appreciate that.
Arda: So before we get into... it seems that life post WWE you’re very very busy, and we will get to that throughout the course of this interview. But the first thing that we have got to talk about is you seem to be blowing it up on Twitter Mr Guerrero! With a lot of comments directed towards the very top performer in the WWE right now, that being John Cena. Based on what you saw at Money in the Bank yesterday, this interview is being recorded the day after Money in the Bank; do you feel like maybe he heard your messages?
Chavo: Oh, you know, I don't know. If he did, he didn’t contact me. Something that everybody’s been asking about is the actual “Why didn’t you call Cena directly?” “Why did you do it on Twitter?” and I was like, “Well, we did talk to him directly.” You know, a lot of us did but he’s just doing his own thing. I called him lazy on twitter, but I’m not saying that he’s lazy because the guy works his butt off and nobody can take that away from him, you know… in the gym, with his body, in the ring, you know he does work hard but what I was referring to as lazy was just doing his exact same comeback, and the exact same match that we’ve seen 100 times where he just, it was, get boring, to be honest. And it was just something that I thought that… you know, we always taught him to think out of the box, that’s my thing. It was never a personal attack on John, because John’s a friend of mine and I do regard him as a friend. It was just to try to challenge him thinking, “Look, me & Eddie didn’t teach you like that. We didn’t teach you to sit and do the same comebacks and be repetitious. We taught you to think out of the box.” And I know he can do it, because I’ve been in the ring with him and done it with him. But he uses constantly that same shoulder tackle, shoulder tackle, hip toss, swing, duck, suplex, five knuckle shuffle. I mean, that’s in every single match, the guys gotta start thinking outta the box and he wasn’t, so that’s what I was challenging on him. So that’s why I was calling him lazy. In his thought process, not in his actual work.
Arda: Personally, I didn’t see it as an attack on John Cena, I saw it as you being frustrated. That was the first thing that came to mind. Is Chavo Guerrero frustrated at what he is seeing? Is that perhaps a little bit of the reason why you decided to ask for your release?
Chavo: You know, it was really a long time coming, and it was just something that... if I was a single guy then I would have asked for my release a long time ago, years ago. A few years ago. But because you have a family… you got a kid, you got a mortgage, you can’t just… you gotta think things out. I spoke to my wife and she was like “You gotta do what you gotta do.” So I was like... Hey, when the new idea was for me to put Yoshi Tatsu over on a Superstars show, with no angle, just a straight 1,2, 3, I’m like well, why? So I talked to the powers that be and they said, “Well, you know, Superstars is really big in Japan.” I’m like ok. So, let’s talk on a wrestling level here. If this is still a wrestling company. I go “If this is still a wrestling company, who is the better wrestler? Me or Yoshi Tatsu?” and they go “Well, you.” And I go “Who can tell a better story in their wrestling?” and they go “You.” And I say “Ok, great. Now let’s talk on a business level. How many countries speak Japanese?” they go “well, one…” I go “Ok, great. How many countries speak Spanish?” they go “A lot” I go “Ok.. now who have you invested 10 years of TV in?” and they go “Well you” and I said “Ok.. well you guys have no leg to stand on. Why are you doing this?” “Well, eh, we’ve not really thought about it like that” “Ok, well, I have been thinking about it and I’m not going to do this anymore. I’m done. I’m gonna leave.” You know… and that comes from somebody who put everybody over. Who put a little person over, even though it wasn’t putting somebody over, it was a work. I understand that. It’s a business now. We’re talking business. It didn’t make good business sense to me anymore. I was always somebody who got in the ring with somebody and I did my best to put, to make the match the best. Whatever they wanted, I made it the best that I could. And nobody can ever ever say that I didn’t. Put it this way, one time I got upset because Vince McMahon wanted me to do something and I didn’t want to do it. So I went to Vince and Vince goes “You know what Chavo. You know why you’re over?” I said “Why?” He goes “You’re over, not because of your wrestling. You’re over, not because of your family. You’re over because the fans know every time you get in the ring you will do everything you can to entertain them. Whether it’s putting a little person over, or wrestling a woman, or making Rey Mysterio quit.” And that’s what he told me. So I was like “You’re right. You’re absolutely right. I would do anything in my power to entertain those fans because that’s what they deserve.” And I just felt that the direction the company was going, we didn’t see eye to eye, and I didn’t feel it was the same company that had been there 10yrs ago.
Arda: I find it very interesting that after you went to them with, especially, your Yoshi Tatsu example, where you told them ‘Hey! Who have you been using on TV, and how many countries speak Spanish?’
Chavo: That was nothing against Yoshi Tatsu. I’m just saying that was the person I was talking to then.
Arda: Still, were you then surprised that you didn’t get any favourable treatment after that because that seems like a very logical case?
Chavo: Well, that was the day I said I would like my release, so there was no favourable treatment needed after that. And I’d kinda been bitching about it before then too. So, that’s the day that I asked for my release. It’s not the day I got it, it went back and forth with negotiations and stuff but that’s the day that there was really no turning back. After that I was leaving, one way or another I was leaving.
Arda: It seems like, yourself is a perfect example, MVP is another example, guys who are leaving the WWE for what they consider to be greener pastures when so many people consider the WWE to be the biggest pinnacle where you can ply your craft as a wrestler. I mean, for yourself, who has essentially been performing at the top level for at least 15 years, how do you feel today now that you are now doing independent shots? Independent events?
Chavo: Oh, that’s just one I did. You don’t understand, I’ve got calls from everybody; I shoulda left 5 years ago. I don’t even want to name names but I’ve got calls from everybody asking me to work. So, I did an independent shot this past weekend for, actually where I’m at right now, I’m in Puerto Rico having dinner with a good friend of mine, Eric Escobar, and his beautiful wife. I’m having dinner with them right now. I’m actually sitting down having a Sangria. But, I did a shot for Carlos Colon as a favour to Carlos because he’s always treated me really good and is really very good to me and my family, so I came here to wrestle for him, and I got to see Carli and Primo so I’m not exactly back on the independent scene and making my living like, say that movie The Wrestler, definitely not. You’ve got to realise that I’ve been on TV for 15 years, strong WWE TV that’s well known throughout the world. I was in Spain last month with my wife, Spain & Italy, and I’m in a restaurant in Spain and I’m getting recognised by 15 different people and I’m signing autographs and stuff like that, and I’m thinking I can’t just think small and think ‘Wrestling’ and that’s the problem a lot of the Guerrero’s have done in the past. We’ve always thought wrestling, wrestling, wrestling, because we love this business. In all honesty, sometimes if that company doesn’t have something to offer then you go somewhere else to do something else. We’ve always stuck with wrestling, but we now have to parlay wrestling into other things, unfortunately it’s just the way it is. We’ve got so many things on the table. Book deals, a DVD of me about it – a documentary, that maybe morph into a movie, I’ve got a vitamin company coming out. I mean, there’s a lot on the table. There really is.
Arda: Let’s go through those three things because I find it very interesting that this is how you’re parlaying your success as a professional wrestler in the WWE to these three ventures in particular. Let’s first talk about the DVD. I know it might be in the early stages right now but what will be included in this DVD?
Chavo: It’s going to be kind of the same thing as, people have approached me with a book and writing my book, writing my story, and it’s kind of the whole theme of it is growing up Guerrero. It’s not just growing up Guerrero in the sense of being in like a wrestling family, having grown up with a wrestling ring in the back yard, and being surrounded by just, you know, all I’ve ever really known was wrestling. Not just that fact, it’s about growing up and becoming a man as a Guerrero, and what that entailed, and also people always ask me and I’ve never really told the story of, you know, Eddie and Chris Benoit. Losing my best friend and him calling me hours before his death. There’s so many different things that came to me becoming a man really, and growing up, growing up Guerrero. That’s what we’re talking about, and one complimented the other, I hope.
Arda: And of course, I’m sure the book will encompass this as well. What about the vitamin company? How did that come about for you?
Chavo: I’ve always been into nutrition and working out and that kinda stuff so it was just a common direction to go into and helping people. People are always trying to get me to try different things, like try different supplements, try their supplements, represent them here, or asking me what do I do in the gym or what do I do with this and stuff. That’s something I decided I enjoyed. I enjoy helping people. I enjoy helping people better themselves, whether it be losing weight or adding muscle, that kinda stuff. That’s something I decided to go in to, and kind of just, the vitamin company was kind of the next step.