On Misconception About His Drug Use:
That’s one thing I want to clarify too. A lot of people think automatically that it was performance enhancing drugs or steroids with me when my problem – I didn’t have a problem with steroids. My problem was painkillers and basically prescription pills and that was the demons I was battling at that time. It wasn’t, ‘Chris Masters couldn’t stay off testosterone for two months to pass a drug test.’ No. I had personal issues with those prescription pills, which a lot of people are facing today obviously.
On Backstage Issues In WWE & An Altercation W/ Bob Holly:
Big time. Big time. Big time. The first time I went to a SmackDown taping – there was a time when I was in OVW where everybody wanted to go to RAW and it wasn’t just because RAW was RAW. It wasn’t just because RAW was RAW. It was because RAW had a different crew. SmackDown was built up of JBL and Bob Holly and a lot of the older veterans at that time that were known for giving younger guys a hard time. I had a big problem as far as learning all the unwritten rules and etiquette. Bob Holly basically wanted to kill me at my first SmackDown taping because he already had a bad impression of me from OVW because I missed an OVW TV taping, which was a whole other story. I was doing the whole shaking hands things with everybody and for whatever chance, I had missed Bob Holly in the locker room. I think it was because he was with a group of people and they were talking. Bob Holly took it as a sign of disrespect and basically called me out and started yelling at me in the locker room. He tried to change his dark match that night from him vs Carlito to him vs me. It was a real uncomfortable scene. I left that TV taping not knowing if I’d even make it up there.
On His Reaction To Bob Holly’s Verbal Assault:
I couldn’t believe it. I was in shock. I couldn’t even believe he thought I disrespected him because, to me, I looked up to all these guys. These were all the guys I watched throughout my lifetime and I didn’t have any disrespect toward anybody. It was just the way I looked and probably the fact that I might have kept to myself or been shy might have rubbed people the wrong way and specifically Bob. Like I said, I left SmackDown that day not knowing I would even last, if I ended up getting called up there. I was really worried.
On Wrestling’s Unwritten Rules:
It goes back to…a young guy coming in and automatically when there’s big guys that have been up there a long time who have had spots and I think their automatic impulse is to worry about this person taking their spot or they have resentment toward somebody getting a push. I’m not necessarily saying that’s what they were feeling at the time, but a lot of things play factors in that type of stuff. Being a veteran and being involved in this business as long as I have, I do see a need for some of these: the handshaking and just showing respect to the guys that kinda paved the way for you.
On Who Took Him Under His Wing:
One guy that just automatically pops in my head is Viscera, King Mabel, whatever you want to call him. God rest his soul, but he was definitely a veteran who throughout my whole time up there was there to kinda wisen me up and let me in a little but on what is happening because there are so many unwritten rules and so many things you don’t know coming in as a kid that you kinda gotta follow. You need somebody to kinda smarten you up, as they say. Viscera was that guy for me because he’d been around. He’d seen it all and had been through it all. He was just always a great guy to me and a great guy to have around in the locker room.
On What He Has Learned During His Time In Professional Wrestling:
As much as we have close relationships with people in the business through shared experiences and what not, one thing you don’t look for out of your peers in professional wrestling is sympathy. That’s one thing I’ve learned. You just don’t. That’s not a place you look for it…if I’m going through a hard time, I don’t expect anybody to put their arm around me, so to speak.
On His Relationship W/ JBL:
JBL was a big headache for me. He was one of the guys on SmackDown that gave me the hardest time. I had my first trip to Afghanistan; he was in the same group as me. He made my life a living hell. He was the WWE hazer at the time, but it’s just one of those things you had to deal with. I just kinda had to take it and shut my mouth. At that time, although it would have probably been better to Joey Styles him, but that happened the way it was supposed to. That was a storybook kind of thing right there, but he made my life hell. He really fu*ked with my head a lot and really tried to mind fu*k me and break me down, but he wasn’t successful.
Masters also talks about whether he holds any grudge against Triple H for public comments he made. He also addresses his second WWE run and reveals whether he would consider returning to the company.
Readers can listen to all that and more in the full episode of Why It Ended with Robbie E below:
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