“The Hurricane,” Shane Helms is our guest on Sean Waltman’s X-Pac 1,2,360 show this week. Here are the highlights:
Shane explains to Sean what’s wrong with TNA’s X Division:
That style I did as “Sugar” Shane, and you’re one of the guys that needs credit for that too, because that’s the style that is the most over right now. It’s one of the things that in TNA kind of hurts our X Division. The X Division isn’t unique anymore, because everybody’s doing it. So it’s hard to define what that X Division even is anymore. It’s lost its identity because they got over. For the best of reasons it lost its identity.
Shane’s opinion on WWE’s revival of the Cruiserweight Division, and whether he would return to compete:
I’m not getting any younger, and that’s a division where athleticism has always been at an all-time high. It’s just very high. So it would depend. Right now I’m with TNA and I’m going to be with TNA for the foreseeable future. But I love that division. I love what I did with it, what guys like Sean did for it. So I definitely would be open to somehow going in there and helping them out again. It’s something that needs to be highlighted and left alone. That division needs its own identity.
Sean and Shane discuss being labeled as a cruiserweight.
Sean:
Was there ever a point where you were like, no, I don’t want to be labeled a cruiserweight? I went through that. I was like, no! I don’t want that ****! I don’t wrestle that style anymore. I wrestle a main event style. Also my deal was I never made any money with that belt, compared to the money I made working with the bigger guys. So that made me not want to be labeled as a cruiserweight.
Shane:
That decision was kind of made for me. When I was the Cruiserweight Champion as “The Hurricane” they wanted me to do other things. So that decision was kind of made for me. Then when I had the big run as Gregory Helms I was wrestling the United States Champion, I was wrestling the World Heavyweight Champion. I wrestled the World Tag Team Champions. I was always in these scenarios that were outside the division anyway.
Sean:
When you have that belt it reminds people that you’re a small guy. That was my problem with it.
Shane talks TNA and WWE:
All the legalities are finally settled down. So we can get back. I think over the past year our show has been consistently more solid and more entertaining than anything out there. I know every time I say that it’s like, oh it’s because you’re with TNA….But I’ll tell you when it’s good and I’ll tell you when it’s bad. I watch everything, and I think we’re the most unpredictable show. Other than the Goldberg/Brock [Lesnar] thing, which to me, I loved, just for the unpredictability factor of it. I popped. I about woke my woman up beside me. I love unpredictability. I love not being able to predict every single match. I love that. So I love what we’re doing.
The challenges TNA faces moving forward, according to Shane:
I think the best analogy I can come up with for TNA is that we’re a restaurant that has new cooks, we got a new kitchen, we got a new menu. But people can’t forget the e-coli breakout that we had a couple years ago that killed about eight people. So we’re constantly fighting the ghosts of TNA’s past. I don’t know if we need to rebrand. If we do, that’s fine.
Shane responds to a fan who wants to see an OMEGA reunion on TNA:
She needs to watch ‘Total Nonstop Deletion’ on December fifteenth and I think she’ll be pleasantly surprised. That’s all I can say…I’ll just say that the water’s pretty cold this time of year in North Carolina.
Was WWE going to buy TNA? Shane thought so:
The last set of tapings, right before we went down there, that’s when all the rumors that the WWE’s was buying them out, that they’re getting the library, and all that [were going around.] So the Sunday of the ‘Bound for Glory’ pay-per-view we’re going to have a talent meeting. I was in that talent meeting at WCW when Shane McMahon walked in. So now we got one down there with all these WWE rumors. I’m like, if Shane McMahon walks in this room again, if I have to go through this **** twice. But then I was like, actually it worked out for me pretty well last time.
What happened when Shane got caught under the ring during Kane’s pyro:
I’ll tell you a story. I was under the ring one time. It was one of the deals where I had to appear out of nowhere. So I was under the ring. They loaded me under there and they just forgot to tell me that Kane was going to do pyro or whatever. So I was underneath there when it went off on those poles. It blew my head apart. It was so loud, I could feel the concussion…It felt like I got punched in the head on all sides. I was just down there and honestly, I’ve never been shoot knocked unconscious. But there was a moment there where I was like, was I asleep? What just happened? Did I get knocked out? I didn’t know where the hell I was at.
For all that and more check out the full X-Pac 1,2,360 interview video, on AfterBuzz TV:
Nick was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, and lived there until the age of 18, when he decided to pack his flack jacket and move to New York City.
