Recap of Konnan and Rick Steiner on GIR Radio
    Submitted by Calvin Martin on Monday, October 27, 2003 at 7:40 PM EST

    Sir Adam sent in the following:

    This week Get in the Ring Radio was joined by two veterans of the biz. Konnan and Rick Steiner decided to talk about the current situation in Sports Entertainment and had some really interesting insight. Check it out for yourself at http://www.getinthering.tv as the show is now archived. Next week, November 2nd, Sunday 7pm Eastern 540 AM WLIE in the NY area Stone Cold Steve Austin talks writing books and kicking ass on this great show. Then, on November 16th live, Kurt Angle will join the festivities as the GIR Radio train just keeps rolling along!

    -Konnan joins the show and Phantom tries to sound hip but fails miserably when he answers Konnan’s “What’s cracken?” w/ “What’s crackalaken”. Talk turns to people trying to copy Snoop Dog’s language and Konan likens it to when Buff Bagwell and DDP started to wear Fubu gear, then no one wanted to wear that stuff anymore. “We actually have to change the genre now since Macho Man cut a rap CD” Konan says, Phantom can’t believe how much press he’s gotten, “Because it’s Macho, but it will actually work in reverse after people get wind of a show in Tampa where the DAT or whatever he was using started to skip or something, that was embarrassing enough.”

    -Konan thinks that Savage ends up looking bitter by constantly challenging and talking down on Hulk Hogan. He thinks Hogan is ending up looking good by keeping silent on the whole situation and Savage “looks like his bitch”. “If you got a problem with a guy call him up or confront him, don’t go on every major radio show and talk about it..Don’t write a song about it. What rap fan will actually buy that?” He thinks the whole rap community is laughing at Savage now.

    -Phantom asks if Savage had any aspirations back in his NWO days for cutting a rap CD. Konnan tells a story of riding in a car with Kevin Nash, and Savage listening to rap. Nash and Konnan were commenting on how a rap singer sounded like Savage and started busting his chops about it. Savage didn’t even know who the guy was, or what the song was, but he just started going crazy about it in the car. “He never listened to that type of music…it’s just something he’s trying to take advantage of and someone is giving him bad advice

    -While he likes working with Ron Killings and BG James, Konnan believes that the TNA writers still don’t understand his character. “Because they’ve never been on the streets never been to jail, never seen what I have.” Konnan thinks that the power struggle in TNA has calmed down recently. He thinks that Jeff Jarrett has done great in calming people’s head backstage. “I think we are a TV deal away from giving Vince allot of competition.”

    -Konnan comments, “I hated Raw for the longest time, but enjoyed it for the last two weeks” Phantom points out that someone has taken a break, to which Konnan says “Oh yeah”. He compares the situation to WCW where instead of elevating new guys one week they’d turn DDP heel and Hogan babyface, and use the same 8 guys in spots where they could have utilized Raven, Jericho, Benoit, or Rey Misterio. “the same chess pieces moved laterally”. Talk turns to Kevin Nash “There are things I like about him, and things I don’t. Out of everyone I’ve ever met in the business he’s the biggest charmer. I compare him to Paul Heyman, but at least Heyman revolutionized the industry…Nash is the type of guy who will bury you to the office then swear it wasn’t him…he’d have you laughing before you knew it and then you’d forget what you wanted to talk to him about. He was very political, but he wasn’t the only one, but at the end of the day the blame is squarely on Eric Bischoff because he let it happen.” Talk turns to Bischoff as an on air character in WWE, “That just shows, Vince isn’t afraid to sleep with the enemy, or ex-enemy. Let’s say he pays Eric $1,000 a day, you’d be sure he’s getting $5,000 out of him. He’s just being prostituted, just like every wrestler, just like I am…” Feels like Goldberg hasn’t been booked strong and is surprised he’s getting over at all. He likens what Bill is going through now as paying dues in a way, “He’s a person who never respected the sport, never respected half the guys in it. His mind set was ‘well if he isn’t tougher than me why should he go over’, to which I always said, if he (Goldberg) was really tough why didn’t he get into the UFC? Now, he’s learning it’s his time to go out on the road, do jobs, sell, you know Bischoff created a monster and he believed the hype.”

    -Konnan says he’s a straight shooter and won’t go on a radio interview and rip on only guys he doesn’t like, he’s going to tell it like it is. Sir Adam asks if it’s hard for him to bite his tongue in TNA when he is doing commentary in Spanish. Konnan says he really doesn’t because no one really understands what he is saying anyway. But, has heard TNA is getting someone to monitor what he says in the next few weeks, “But you get what you pay for, you get Konnan you know what you’re getting.” He says he has allot more fun than Don West and Mike Tenay do. “We keep it lighter, it seems like they are going to spontaneously combust at any moment…We are almost the opposite, we aren’t that high strung…it almost seems like (don West) is going to pass out at any moment.” Talk turns to www.inyourfacebookings.com owned by Dave Penzer and how if you book TNA talent through that website, your Indy show will be mentioned on TNA Explosion as well as on TNA’s website, and gives smaller indys a chance at national advertising.

    -Konnan talks about how he and Vampiro made the peace with each other. He compares the two to “Rock and Austin at their Zenith.” They both had people in their ears trying to get them to hate each other.

    -Konnan thinks that Hulk Hogan refusing to work at TNA if Vince Russo is involved is “kind of stupid”. He thinks that the litigation Hogan has against Russo is over and now Time Warner is the only one involved, and that shouldn’t be a reason for Hogan not to want to co-exist with Russo. He thinks TNA will miss a golden opportunity at a storyline because “our fans are so hardcore”, they would appreciate the insider-type storyline. “I know Vince Russo doesn’t feel the same way as Hogan. I heard so many versions of the story, that I don’t know what to believe”. When it happened “it was almost surreal”.

    -Phantom asks if the TNA locker-room is pissed that management is banking on Hulk Hogan to take them to the next level, or that it’s the same old story. Konnan says “It doesn’t matter what they think…it doesn’t matter that I agree with you that Hogan is old news but when you go to a TV executive they won’t know who America’s Most Wanted is, the bottom line is name recognition, and Hogan has it. Business-wise I think it’s a good idea, I don’t even think that Sting carries half the weight that Hogan does. When you are talking international you are talking Hulk Hogan….these guys who are great workers don’t mean anything to TV Producers directors. That’s the beauty of paying your dues and making a name for yourself”

    -Rick Steiner joins the festivities as Konnan talks about wrestling the Steiner Brothers in the Pat O-Connor tag tourney at a Starrcade PPV.

    -When asked about Steiner’s pal Eric Bischoff being used as an on air talent in WWE, Steiner says that “Eric Bischoff could always talk…I just don’t know what to say about it” Konnan puts over the way Eric works, and his character and says he’s good at what he does, “if he wasn’t Vince wouldn’t still be using him.” Sir Adam asks Rick if he thinks Eric will eventually get any booking power in WWE, “I personally don’t think so, because there is always that WWE-WCW thing, Vince never forgets a grudge. You can see how he uses the WCW talent, as opposed to his WWE-created talent. And to have the boss of WCW and come up with ideas for the WWE show and if things come off good, and Vince have to give him the credit? I just don’t see that happening.”

    -The boys ask Rick about the WWE use of his brother Scott. “He’s been moved out of the main mix of things, he’s a heel and always has been a heel. If Vince looked at everybody as drawing money, why not use Goldberg, Scotty, Rey Misterio to make money? Why still look at WCW with a vendetta,, and have a mindset of ‘If I didn’t create it, it isn’t good’ I just don’t understand that.” Steiner brings up how Verne Gagne hated allot of guys, and allot of people hated him, but “if you could draw money for him he’d use you.” Konnan agrees with Steiner that Vince holds grudges and says that McMahon has a grudge against him that’s why he’s not in WWE. “In my mind the MVP of RAW is Chris Jericho. Look how long it took for them to do what they are doing with him now. With Goldberg, they had no choice he’s the only one they could put with Hunter and make money from. Scott Steiner, who’s always been my favorite heel character, when he’d been ranting and raving on the microphone he’s a loose cannon. Booker T is so over, and Rob Van Dam as well. They don’t do anything with them because they didn’t come through the WWE infrastructure.”

    -Konnan and Rick Steiner were in different circles of friends, and never really socialized. “On the road Rick really kept to himself. Never really went out to the clubs.” Rick says “I went to clubs every now and then.” Konnan then says “We didn’t go to the same type of clubs.”

    -Steiner talks about his friendship with Bill Goldberg. “In WCW, he was in the right place in the right time. I told him that ended in 2001 and he’ll never get that situation back again. They could do so much more with him in WWE now though. Everybody in the world knows who he is, why not do something with him?” Konnan says that Rick became a mentor to Goldberg when he first came into WCW, “Without saying any names, Bill was getting allot of bad advice. From allot of different guys, who were afraid of how big he was getting.” Sir Adam asks why so many guys don’t name names anymore, to which Konnan responds “Well you heard my feelings on Kevin Nash, and he was one of the guys giving Goldberg bad advice, Rick won’t say anything about that because Kevin is his dog.”

    -Phantom brings up the period of time when Eric Bischoff came into WCW power as when Rick was used poorly. Despite all the talk that they were such close friends, Eric never pushed Rick the way he should have. Rick agrees, “I think allot of times he let me simmer, he didn’t beat me, he didn’t push me.” Rick points to Sting as being a hot babyface “and look what happened to him” Konnan says “Politics” as to why he never got his heat back. “Politics overruns everything” Steiner chimes in. Steiner believes that in the 80’s Bill Watts and Verne Gagne pushed the best wrestlers because there was so much competition they couldn’t listen to the politics. Now, that Vince has control, politics control every move he makes. HHH’s name is brought up and Rick says “Didn’t they get married yesterday? I wonder what his thoughts are that lead to that decision?”

    -When asked about the McMahon overload don WWE TV, Steiner thinks it shows “they’ve run out of ideas.” But, Konnan thinks it’s because of WWE profits being down, “What’s the first thing Vince did? Got back on TV and paid himself as an on-air talent.” And that using Stephanie and Shane, is “one less wrestler he has to pay..one less headache.”

    -Konnan believes now the wrestling hiring criteria has changed. Now when promoters are considering bringing on a new worker, “It’s who you know not how good you are. The first question is how you get along with certain guys, or how much heat he has in the locker room.” Rick says he’ll see Konnan “on Wednesday” and that TNA wants him at the next PPV.

    http://www.getinthering.tv




    *NEW GALLERY* Very COOL and RARE Photos of WWE Stars and Divas OUT PARTYING!

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