Source: Jim Varsallone of the Miami Herald
Current TNA producer and backstage agent and former ECW wrestler Simon Diamond recently spoke to Jim Varsallone of the Miami Herald. During the interview, Diamond commented on a variety of items regarding his appearance at HardCORE Justice:
On the HardCORE Justice idea:
I didn’t think it was going to fly. It started to take form about two months out, maybe a little longer than that, and then I saw the time and passion that Tommy Dreamer was putting into the thing. You start to talk to Rhino and Raven, guys who were involved in the initial angle on television, and then I started to talk to some of the other guys who were going to be brought in to be part of it. I was like, `Wow. I think this thing will be pretty good.’
On how he felt after his match with the F.B.I.:
I felt sore. Again, it is what it is. I say that so often, but it’s so true. If people bought that pay-per-view expecting to see great wrestling, then they were delusional. The guys are older. The guys are heavier. The body is not meant to do what it is that we do to it. Of course, there’s going to be a decline in the wrestling, but it was nostalgia. I go see the Yankees Old Timers’ Day all the time, and I go to see my hero Reggie Jackson. You know what? Reggie Jackson’s probably shrunk about three inches since his playing days. He still looks good physically. He’s bald, and he doesn’t look like the Reggie Jackson I grew up with, but it doesn’t matter to me. He’s still Reggie Jackson.
On the state of TNA Wrestling right now:
I think the crew we have now is very, very good. [Diamond went on to praise Beer Money Inc., Jay Lethal and Frankie Kazarian] The creative direction right now is very good. I love my job. I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I have no thoughts of ever wrestling again. If they came to me right now and said, `You can either be a wrestler or stay as a producer/backstage agent. Which one would you do?’ Producer/backstage agent. Love it. Absolutely love it.
On the best moment from the HardCORE Justice show:
For me, it was when we were all in the ring at the end, and the crowd started chanting, `#$%^ you Vince.’ Let me tell you why. Not because it was `$%^ you Vince,’ but because it was the anti-establishment. The show in that original hardcore concept was anti-establishment. The music, the characters. That time period, the 90s, the grunge movement, Kurt Cobain was very prominent. Paul E. took that music and put it out there. The Raven character was very Kurt Cobain-ish, and that anti-establishment movement saying `$%^& you Vince’ was saying $%^& the establishment. This is the original. We don’t want this glossy thing. We want this scratched up. We don’t want to hear John Mayer play Panama [from Van Halen’s album 1984]. We want David Lee Roth in spandex, and Eddie Van Halen with the black, white and red Frankenstrat [guitar]. That’s what we want.
On whether ECW could make it today:
That’s a tough question. You can’t have that type of product on national television today because everything is so politically correct. Lawsuits. You sneeze now, and there’s a possible lawsuit. I don’t know. I’d be surprised. We had trouble back in the day when [ECW] went on TNN [The Nashville Network, which is now Spike TV]. People don’t realize this. Television wrestling is [restricted] by the television industry. The television industry drives the wrestling company. They’re paying you to put a show on their programming, but at the end of the day, it’s their programming. They’re going to have final say. In a perfect world, sure, go out there and do whatever you want, but it’s not a perfect world, and anyone who told you that it is a perfect world is a liar.
To read the full interview, click here.
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