On Whether He Was Somewhat Flattered To Be Offered A Backstage Role:
No, not at all. I love wrestling. I will die wrestling and I’ll be happy. I will die with a smile on my face. Someone will pin me…no, I did not want that spot. I’m happy in hindsight because I got to hire a lot of men and women.
On WWE’s ECW One Night Stand Pay-Per-Views:
Vince was awesome and he was like, ‘This is Tommy’s show. Tommy’s in charge of it,’ and it was really really cool and Paul [Heyman] added to the show. I really thought WWE was gonna see it in me, as a performer, see it in me as a writer talent. I was on the WWE writing team for about three to four weeks. I got let go from that one before I went into the office because it wasn’t a fit for me. We did that and thought they were gonna see the world in me….Three months later when we got the pay-per-view buy rates and it did so good. I thought, ‘Vince is now really gonna see me.’ I didn’t even get a great job email. I got nothing, so it was like, ‘Hmmm.’ It was the second largest grossing house next to WrestleMania that year. It was the second largest pay-per-view (money wise) that year.
On WWE’s ECW & Choosing Not To Work W/ Stephanie McMahon:
For me to have perfect nirvana – I actually had it for two months, maybe three months – where I was in charge of it all. I was gonna be in charge of it creatively. I was gonna be in charge of it like I kinda was in the original ECW. Then it slowly started morphing into WWE, more and more product, so I kinda started backing away. Then I was given the opportunity, ‘You’re gonna be a full-time wrestler, but you’re still gonna work in the office. Who do you want to work for? Do you want to work for John Laurinaitis or do you want to be in creative with Stephanie [McMahon] as your boss telling you what to do about ECW?’ Of course I’m gonna stick with the person I know as opposed to the person I don’t know. Not that I don’t know Stephanie, but I didn’t work for her and also, you telling me how to run ECW or anyone telling me to run now House of Hardcore would be very very difficult for me to swallow that pill because I have a mouth and an opinion and I don’t play the political game, so that’s why I wasn’t a part of that.
On His Happiest WWE Moment:
My contract was coming up. I was not happy. I said, ‘Hey listen. You’re not doing much with me. Those three years with the original ECW, the highest rated matches were me. I was involved in every single one of them.’ Myself and Chavo Guerrero was the highest. Then myself vs Mark Henry. Then myself vs The Great Khali. They were the highest rated shows. Then I went to Vince and the cool thing with me and Vince’s relationship is that he always made time for me…I was like, ‘Hey man, you’re supposed to be this great business man. Here’s your numbers and yet you’re not going with me. I don’t think that’s great business, so my contract’s coming up. Let’s do this angle and if I don’t win, I’m done and I’ll just leave. If you want me here, then I’ll win and we’ll see where it goes.’ That’s how that happened. They told me that Jack Swagger was retaining all day and I kinda knew that was bs because Johnny was talking about my contract, ‘Vince loves you. You’re gonna be here.’ ‘OK, cool….’ I knew they were kinda ribbing me and they went with me winning it, so we had two finishes going out there and we went with the one that we knew was gonna happen, so even in my happiest moment I couldn’t be totally happy because I had to be angry. [I didn’t fully know I was winning] until the second guy’s music hit.
On Leaving WWE & His Farewell Match vs Zack Ryder:
I was three months into a five year deal and I realized I was back in the same position I was. I went to Vince and said, ‘This ain’t working out. I would like to leave.’ He said, ‘I don’t want you to do that.’ I said, ‘How can I stay? I don’t want to be one of those guys that just hangs around. He was like, ‘OK.’ Actually my last night was supposed to be the week before in Orlando against Lance Hoyt (Vance Archer) and then I was done. That was it. We had a nice party. You can see the pictures of that online. Everybody came out to say goodbye to me at a Friday’s. There’s a big picture online of like 40 of us out and then I went home and I want to say that Wednesday I got the phone call. I won’t say who it is, but he said, ‘Just when you think you’re out, we drag you back in. Vince doesn’t like Matt Hardy vs Evan Bourne main event and kinda then yelled at us for you quitting and said you didn’t quit. Can you come back and leave again? We want to do something nice for you with Zack [Ryder].’ I had hired Zack into WWE and said, ‘Sure.’ That’s what you saw. I got to bring my girls on television and the best part about that was when I came back, first person through the curtain was Vince and I had a standing ovation and had a nice lineup from everybody and it was a really really cool moment for me to be able to say goodbye. I never said I was going to retire. I said I would leave ECW and I…stick to every single stipulation that I ever make and if ECW was to come back tomorrow I would not be a part of it because I’m crazy and I stick to fake wrestling stipulations. I will never wrestle Raven again. I will never walk the aisle with Beaulah again. I will never wrestle Abyss again because I used those in stipulations to help sell a pay-per-view or a show and I will not screw over wrestling fans.
On Wrestling Being Real To Him:
It’s real…I use every life experience because everything about wrestling is 100% real and what I put my body through, what I put my family through, what I put myself through and I just go out there and convey that. You were there and I just cut a promo on the microphone on Saturday and it’s just me expressing my feelings toward situations and it is real and that’s me. I went to the Meadowlands to see wrestling. I remember when Roddy Piper did a Piper’s Pit and he had somebody from Yonkers on there. I was like, ‘Oh my God, I’m from Yonkers,’ and I never lost also my fandom for professional wrestling. I love wrestling. I watch it every night.
Readers may listen to Why It Ended with Robbie E in its entirety below:
