Gangrel looks back on the origins of The Brood.
During a recent interview with Battleground Podcast, Gangrel shared how he originally got hired by WWE and how the company didn’t want him to use his vampire gimmick. While it’s now a staple of his, WWE hired Gangrel and initially asked him not to use it, but later changed their tune.
“I had a few tryouts in WWF at the time, and they said they were gonna hire me, but they weren’t gonna use the vampire character,” said Gangrel. “They didn’t want nothing to do with it. I actually had the fangs implanted at the time, they said get rid of the fangs… So they said they’d hire me, I got rid of the fangs, I trimmed down to 228, I actually had a few abs in there. And they hired me and they told me we’re not gonna use you for a year. You probably won’t do anything, you’re just gonna sit home.
“And I was super bummed, but not even a week later, Vince Russo called me and said, ‘Hey bro, can you do that vampire thing? ‘ And I’m like, of course. This was a Friday night. He goes, ‘Good because you got a flight Saturday.”‘
Gangrel explains how he pitched the gimmick as a staple, comparing it to the Fabulous Freebirds with an updated twist.
“I pitched The Brood thing a lot. Not the name The Brood or anything, but because of The Lost Boys movie, I kept saying, ‘We’re like cool Freebirds, man, but we’re vampires.’ Not that The Freebirds weren’t cool, because they were my favorite six-man, I loved The Freebirds. But I was just saying it doesn’t matter if you win or you lose every night, vampires can get their butt kicked every night, as long as they look cool doing it. They were like, ‘We don’t get it’, and I said, ‘It’ll work, it’ll work.'”
Gangrel says it eventually paid off and he was teamed with Edge and Christian, and noted that they weren’t together very long but he still has special memories of their run together.
“They did go with the Brood thing and the group,” said Gangrel. “And it was very cool, it organically just happened. Great entrance on my music and then they put us all together. You know it didn’t last very long, it was no more than eight months, it was a short, short run. People talk about it like it lasted forever. It was just very special. It was just the right place, right time, and everything, the stars aligned and the universe was looking down on us that day.”
RELATED: Gangrel On Becoming A ‘Happy’ Vampire, How The Ministry of Darkness Signaled The Death Of The Brood
If you use this transcript, credit WrestleZone and link back to this post.
