Exclusive Ring Rust Radio interview with former WWE Superstar Brad Maddox on his time in WWE, his depature from the company, and more

The hosts of Ring Rust Radio – Donald Wood, Mike Chiari and Brandon Galvin – recently had the chance to speak with former WWE Superstar Brad Maddox. Maddox made his debut on the main roster working with CM Punk and Paul Heyman and in addition to speaking about his recent departure from WWE, Maddox talks about his roles in the company, working with legends like The Under taker, his future after WWE and more.

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Otherwise, continue on and you can read the entire interview here!

Ring Rust Radio: The biggest topic of conversation for you recently has been your release from WWE. Will you explain why you were let go by the company and if there are any hard feelings regarding your departure?

Brad Maddox: Well at least I’m making news now. You guys know what it was all about at this point. I called the Indianapolis crowd pricks in the dark match of a SmackDown taping, which I didn’t consider inappropriate or a bad word knowing that it was a dark match. My job is to go out there and work up the crowd get them warmed up. You don’t have the rules you have while on TV. There I can talk to the crowd directly, make fun of their football or basketball team, tell them that they smell bad, and whatever you want to use to get them worked up. I just kind of threw that in there and was going to call them losers, but thought that was a little lame. So instead I called them pricks, and Vince did not take it as lightly as I did.

Ring Rust Radio: If WWE came back to you and said enough time has passed, would you be open to going back to them?

Brad Maddox: Depends on what I am doing. I am certainly not going to close any doors. I have enough experience in my 31 years to know you can never say never. We will see what happens, I have some other plans and things I am working on, but I am not opposed to it.

Ring Rust Radio: You debuted on the WWE main roster in a pretty high-profile spot getting involved with CM Punk as a referee in his world title match and then doing stuff with Paul Heyman and The Shield, but as a fan it didn’t seem like the payoff was everything it could have been. What was your expectation for how that angle was going to play out, and looking back, what do you think could have potentially been done better or differently?

Brad Maddox: I agree with you as far it could have led some where better than it did, but that is where I messed up early on. I wasn’t proactive enough. I didn’t go to Vince in those days or knock on his door; I didn’t go ask questions to the right people or ask where this is going or say, “Hey did you guys know that I can wrestle and came up through your developmental program?” I did all the things there that they said I had to do to get moved up and show that I am qualified. It was a lack of communication on my part with Vince and Hunter and the right people. It probably would have had a totally different impact instead of just sitting around and waiting on the writers to come hand me my script and assuming they had some grand plan for little old me. I can definitely say I could have been more proactive in those early days. I did love working with Paul and working with Vince in his office and working on promos in his office. It was a really cool experience.

Ring Rust Radio: WWE's creative team has been under fire not just from fans recently, but also former WWE legends. What was your experience like with the creative team and what are your thoughts of the creative process as a whole in WWE?

Brad Maddox: I mean, I got along with all those guys really well. It’s a matter that they have a lot of content to get through every week and have a lot story and a roster full of guys to write for. Obviously, I was in a pretty good spot, but I wasn’t one of the most important guys. They are focused on the main angles that are going to make money for the show and then of course everything has to be run through Vince, so there is a limited amount of time there. You can’t rely on someone else to handle your career for you. You have to go knock on Vince’s door and say “this is what I want to do” or “what do you think about this.” That’s where I should have taken care of business for myself. I am no John Cena and not making a ton of money for the company, so I am not going to be a priority upfront.

Ring Rust Radio: While everyone watched The Undertaker on The Tonight Show, starring Jimmy Fallon last month, it was your role as the turkey that really stole the show. How did you get the honor of working with Undertaker on national TV?

Brad Maddox: I knew the Undertaker was there, but I was a turkey on Thanksgiving, I felt that there is no higher honor. It was like, “Let’s book this turkey and see if we can get anyone to work with him.”  It was fun, and I might have been the only guy left in the states at that time since everyone was working the European tour. I don’t know why I was picked for it, but I had fun with it. I assumed at the time that it was going to be a full turkey mask. When I got there they showed me the outfit and I thought, “Where is the rest of it?” I guess everyone is going to know I am a turkey and that’s awesome. I did get to meet Jimmy Fallon and he let me know I had made it in show business. We were talking to their writers and to see what they were thinking about us. There wasn’t much for Taker and I to talk about. We pretty much walked around and just tried not to laugh about it. Then during rehearsal he said this is the part where he was going to tombstone me. I thought that yeah, this is the Undertaker, I’m sure he has done enough tombstones to where he doesn’t have to practice it and I was pretty sure I could trust him. I will say that I didn’t envision my first tombstone from the Undertaker being in that environment. If someone had told me nine years ago when I started wrestling that I was going to be tombstone by the Undertaker but it’s going to be on 30 Rock on late night television I wouldn’t have believed it.

Ring Rust Radio: You weren't given many opportunities to showcase your skills in the ring as a wrestler, but you were certainly able to generate a reaction from the crowd with your speaking skills and natural charisma. Do you think you would have excelled as a manager and why do you think WWE never tried to put you in that position?

Brad Maddox: I would never have stuck around to be a manger. I just wouldn’t have. I love wrestling and that’s why I started. I watched guys like Shawn Michaels and Chris Jericho be entertaining in the ring and that’s what I wanted to do. If I had gotten pinned into that role, I wouldn’t have made it very long because I wouldn’t have been happy.

Ring Rust Radio: Now that the WWE chapter in your career is closed, at least for now, what are you hoping to accomplish in the wrestling business. Where do you see yourself going over the next year or more?

Brad Maddox: I plan onto diving into acting. I don’t want to say that’s a priority because I want to do both. I am excited to get back into working on a regular basis and getting into ring shape. Being in ring shape is so much different than being in regular shape, and you can’t accomplish that working a dark match once every two weeks. I have no idea where I am going wrestling yet, but I know I will do both. I am going to focus a lot more on acting now that I have the freedom to do that.

WrestleMania 31: The main event debacle

I’ve really tried to restrain myself from talking about the build to the Roman Reigns vs Brock Lesnar main event of WrestleMania 31 (aka WrestleMania Play Button). And I’ve held back from talking about it because it’s been so spectacularly bland, bordering on bad.

But after the end of the March 23 Raw, I can’t hold back anymore. And if you watched Raw, you know why. If you didn’t – check out this .gif from www.wrestlingwithtext.com.

That is how Raw ended last night, with Roman and Brock having a tug of war over the WWE Championship, like they’re two kids fighting over a toy they both want to play with.

Are you serious, WWE? THIS is how you present your two biggest badasses, the guys main-eventing the biggest show of the year, the guys who, by definition of being in the main event, should be the biggest draws on the card?

And it’s not just that the imagery was bad (because it was) but it didn’t fit with either guy’s character.

Paul Heyman (who has been carrying the whole feud since the Royal Rumble, speaking for Brock and trying to put over Reigns at the same time) had LITERALLY just finished talking about how much Lesnar loves being the champion and how he wouldn’t stand for anyone trying to take the title from him, likening taking the title from him to trying to take his wife, take food from his table or rename is children.

So what happens?

Reigns comes down, takes the title out of Lesnar’s hands and Lesnar does NOTHING. He looks bewildered and grabs the title and they both tug on it and the show ends. That’s it.

In keeping with Brock’s character, he should have been FURIOUS that Reigns had the gall to not only grab the title and hold it over his head. But to take it out of Brock’s hands and raise it over his head TO BROCK’S FACE? Lesnar should’ve have pummeled Reigns for that. Lesnar should have eviscerated Reigns for that. Lesnar should have suplexed Reigns through the ring for having the nerve to take the title out of his hands.

But none of that happened. Nothing at all interesting happened.

And it made Reigns look bad too because he’s supposed to be the face, the good guy you want to look up to. They’ve been trying to build him up as some unbeatable badass who doesn’t take crap from anyone and who wants to prove that he is the best. So what does he do? He snatches up another man’s property and tries to show off. Cause I guess that’s what faces do now?

Because let’s make it clear, if not for Vince and company’s undeniable love for Roman and need to make him their new top star, there’s no reason it would be believable he could compete with Brock Lesnar. Sure, he’s a muscular dude but that’s about where the positives for Roman ends.

Brock is a former NCAA Division I heavyweight wrestling champion. Brock is a multiple time WWE Champion. Brock is a former IWGP Heavyweight Champion. Brock is a former UFC Heavyweight Champion.

Roman? Roman played on the practice team for the Minnesota Vikings, Jacksonville Jaguars and Edmonton Eskimos before being release, is a former one-time WWE Tag Team Champion and won the most recent Royal Rumble after entering near the end of the match. That’s about it.

On what planet could Reigns conceivably contend with Brock in any shape or form? The answer is “Planet McMahon.”

Just for reference, this is how the final Raw before WrestleMania 30 ended:

Now that is excitement. Each guy looks like they are fired up to compete at WrestleMania and each guy looks like they have a legitimate shot at winning, especially Daniel Bryan who is beating the hell out of everyone after weeks of being humiliated by The Authority.  Whereas the final Raw before WrestleMania 31 ended with two guys having a tug of war over the championship belt.

What’s really upsetting is that the rest of Raw last night was pretty good. Dolph Ziggler had a great match with Daniel Bryan; every guy in the IC title ladder match looks like they have a chance at winning; Paige and Nikki Bella had a really good Divas title match; Bray Wyatt delivered another great promo while carrying the feud with The Undertaker. Almost everything about Raw was good – except for the last 30 seconds (and the chicken fry ad and El Torito pinning Natty).

People have been complaining about Reigns’ ultra-push for some time now and while I’ve tried not to hop on board the rage train, I can understand the sentiments. People don’t want another John Cena character who constantly wins and overcomes the odds despite situations where he shouldn’t possibly come out on top, yet this seems to be exactly what they’re doing with Reigns.

On top of that, several interviews have come out recently where Superstars basically say “Get over the Roman Reigns hate, he’s going to be here for a while” which makes fans feel ignored and disregarded – that the WWE already has their mind made up about a guy that a portion of their audience is not sold on at best or completely hates at worst.

On top of that, Reigns has been giving interviews that effectively say “I don’t care what the fans think, I’m going to make money regardless.” And that’s basically a direct quote (http://www.wrestlezone.com/news/548453-roman-reigns-talks-fan-backlash). When Reigns says things like that, it only makes the haters more upset because here’s a guy that WWE wants to be THE guy, the top face. The WWE’s argument for why you shouldn’t like Lesnar is “He’s a mercenary who only cares about the money!” While at the same time, Reigns is saying the EXACT. SAME. THING.

Really, this all comes back to a point I made in an earlier column – that the WWE still treats fans like clueless rubes who believe wrestling is real when in reality, fans are smarter and wiser to “the business” than ever. WWE acts like fans will love what they tell them to love despite the fact that there’s a growing contingent of fans who will likely soon be former fans because they feel like the WWE ignores them and their opinion.

People have made it clear they don’t want Roman Reigns at the top of the card and that they don’t want him to the championship at WrestleMania 31. If they had let his career grow organically, work his way up the card and gain momentum by creating a solid base of wins, undercard titles and exciting feuds, the fans would be a lot more willing to accept him at the top of the card. But that’s not what’s happened. He came out of The Shield angle where it was clear the other two members were more talented, yet he is pushed the hardest. He continued to win and win and win for some reason, bouncing in and out of feuds with no real beginning or end and within a year of going solo, he’s in the main event of WrestleMania.

If Roman Reigns actually wins at WrestleMania 31 and walks out with the championship, I just hope they’re ready for a reaction similar to, if not more vicious  than, what happened at the Royal Rumble. Which would look something like this…(from www.wrestlingwithtext.com)

How many times was the WWE Network referenced on Raw?

Even JBL looks tired of this nonsense

How many times was WWE Network referenced on Raw? Anyone have a guess? Anyone want to guess? Because YouTuber TriMoon3 compiled all the times anyone shilled the WWE Network on Raw and well…it was a lot.

41 times. FORTY. ONE.

Pretty much all of the shills for the WWE Network came from Triple H, JBL, Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler but if you count the on-screen ads and hand-written signs held up by the announce team, it’s even more. (And I won’t even go into the lame Adam Rose/Oculus movie segment. How hard would it have been to have Leo Kruger in that mirror?!)

It’s clear the WWE doesn’t feel like they have the amount of subscribers they want for the Network right now (a conference call last week on WWE financials put the current number of subscribers around 700,000) but beating fans and viewers over the head with pleas to subscribe isn’t the way to market it.

How about promoting the ECW and WCW PPVs? The Saturday Night Main Events? The archive of older promotion material like WCCW, which will hopefully someday be joined by others like AWA or Smokey Mountain Wrestling. What about their stellar developmental product, NXT? Literally all of these points would serve exceptionally well selling the Network.

But what did we get instead? “Buy the Network for $9.99! Buy it to watch Total Divas and Legends House and SummerSlam! Buy it to watch Extreme Rules 2012 (where Brock Lesnar destroys John Cena for nearly 20 minutes until LOLCENAWINS)!” (Seriously – for a company who likes to dismiss history for the sake of storytelling, why bring up the last encounter between Cena and Lesnar where Lesnar did his best to murder Cena, only to have Cena win out of nowhere? Are they trying to spoil SummerSlam for us?)

I also have to give credit to the Botchamania Facebook page since it was where I found the above video.