Mike Sanders Interview: WCW experiences, His release from WWE, more
Submitted by Matthew Tremley on Wednesday, April 16, 2003 at 1:32 PM EST


• Aaron Rift sent in the following:
  
  The following are highlights from Xtreme Mayhem's interview with "Above Average" Mike Sanders! The interview was conducted by Mike Nagel and Jeff Meacham on April 15th, 2003. Visit http://xtreme.themayhem.com/ to listen to the streaming audio or downloadable version of the one hour interview!
  
  - Sanders grew up watching Georgia Championship Wrestling as a casual fan. He wanted to get involved in the entertainment avenue. He first joined the WCW Power Plant in 1998. At first, he thought going to the WCW Power Plant would be a stepping stone to another areas in the entertainment industry. He didn't consider himself a hardcore fan growing up, but once he got involved, he fell in love with the business. He talked about doing six hours of hindu squats in the Power Plant, and he felt has could last a day if he just made it to the parking lot. He said the Power Plant wasn't as easy as some people thought it was.
  
  - Vince Russo's idea was to put all the young Power Plant guys together and try to get the ball rolling with them. He said they had a great time on the road, and he still keeps in contact with Jindrak and O'Haire but not Palumbo.
  
  - He believes it was a politic reason for him being released from WWE. He was backstage at King of the Ring in 2001 and creative did have something for him but it was apparent to him that Paul Heyman was worried that Sanders would be taking too much of Heyman's spotlight. Also, Heyman didn't seem to like who Sanders was hanging around with. Stephanie McMahon had sent him a perspective writer packet to possible write for WWE, since he had been writing for HWA, but things fell through.
  
  - He enjoys working for TNA and said there is always a positive atmosphere in the locker room. He also said that the guys always busted their asses there weren't any huge egos. He's not sure where they are going with his character in TNA He put over Harris, Storm, AJ Styles, Daniels, Low Ki, and others as guys who work really hard and always try to put on a better show than WWE. He has liked working matches with D'Lo Brown and AJ Styles since he never got to work with them in the past, even though D'Lo was in HWA.
  
  - Sanders said he was really close with Vince Russo. He claimed that Russo always tried to help the young guys and Russo wanted to see everybody get an oppourtunity. He said that Russo was put on the Titanic after it already hit the iceberg, and he said anybody who claims Russo single-handedly killed WCW is out of their mind. He said that WCW had many problems, including a lot of the top guys in WCW that were making all of the money, but weren't producing. He felt that Vince McMahon took the top guys, and mixed them with the younger guys and made new stars.
  
  - He talked about how he had a problem with Mike Tenay and felt Tenay needed to put his personal differences with Russo aside and think more of business.
  
  - He's met Eric Bischoff a couple of times, and he thought it was funny that Bischoff was in WWE. He then went on to talk about how Bischoff filmed a skit at the Power Plant hyping a so-called match with Vince McMahon.
  
  - He hasn't been watching much WWE lately, but has been watching more since Kevin Nash returned. If he went to WWE, he would do anything they asked him to do. He felt wrestlers should do what is asked of them since that's what they are being paid for and not complain about the direction of their characters.
  
  - He talked about how he got screwed out of money so many times. He joked about how he did all the moves for the WCW Mayhem video games and WCW got closed when he was working on another game.
  
  - He said HWA was more like a "gut-check" thing and they gave the wrestlers a year to see if they could amount to anything. He claimed they didn't give "two-shits" about the wrestlers. He doesn't think that Johnny Ace liked him, even though Ace claimed that he was shocked that Sanders was being released. He doesn't think he'll a chance in hell with WWE if Ace takes over JR's role as head of talent relations. He called his year in HWA a waste of time, and he felt being in OWV would have been better for him.
  
  - He said his most memorable match was one he had with Sting in Australia, and another highlight of his career was being WCW Commissioner and working with Ric Flair.
  
  - He didn't have a problem with the incident where Lollipop went topless because the company was just attracting their target audience. He said parents shouldn't complain about it because they allow their kids to watch all the violence and swearing in the first place.
  
  - He used "Longevity" to describe Ric Flair.
  
  - He called a HHH a professional.
  
  - He put over X-Pac as an excellent talent and a great guy.
  
  - He said Buff Bagwell was a waste of good talent.
  
  - He said Goldberg was fortunate.
  
  - He called Kevin Nash a mentor.
  
  - He called Paul Heyman a whiny jew, but he was only joking. He said Heyman was the guy who cost him his job.
  
  - He said Mike Sanders was fortunate and dared us to put down "humble pie" for him.
  
  Real Audio: http://xtreme.themayhem.com/xm.cgi?shows/xm041503.ram
  Windows Media Player: http://xtreme.themayhem.com/xm.cgi?shows/xm041503.wma
  
  If you want to book Mike Sanders for an indy event, both Mike Nagel and Jeff Meacham are taking bookings for him and you can contact them at the Xtreme Mayhem website!
  

  
  

  
  
  

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