Rhino says it’s time to feed the beast again.
Rhino recently spoke with WrestleZone’s Bill Pritchard to promote IMPACT Wrestling‘s move back to Thursday nights starting April 8. When Rhino first arrived back in IMPACT after a near-five-year stay in WWE, he worked a feud with Moose and had a brief run at the tag team titles with Rob Van Dam. Last summer, he was reunited with Heath Slater, but that was short-lived as Heath was sidelined due to an injury suffered at the company’s Bound For Glory event. Both men’s jobs were on the line (in storyline) and Rhino ultimately saved them by winning the Call Your Shot Gauntlet match, also guaranteeing a future title shot of his choosing.
After months without Heath and a feud against Eric Young’s crew, Rhino shockingly joined the stable last month at Sacrifice. He says it’s nice to let the “ECW” Rhino back out again and he’s happy being in a role he’s very familiar with by aligning himself with Eric Young’s stable.
“We can definitely touch on that. The decision is, ‘you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.’ I really enjoy what Eric Young is doing. It’s a good fit,” Rhino said, “and I think it was time for me to follow him.”
Rhino said the decision to join VBD was quite simple—this is a role he’s familiar with and it’s one that he enjoys. Calling back to his history in the business, Rhino says he finally saw what Eric Young was doing and now he wants to let his more “extreme” side out again.
“First and foremost, Eric Young is the leader. And if you look at my career, I work best when I’m someone’s ‘heater’,” Rhino explained. “Steve Corino [in ECW], Edge and Christian when I first came into WWE, when I first came to IMPACT Wrestling in 2005 [then TNA] I was with Jeff Jarrett as his heater. At the Bound For Glory pay-per-view in 2005, things all changed [Rhino beat Jarrett for the NWA World Championship],” he explained, “so my whole career, I show up and someone [I’m aligned with] runs his mouth, and I back them up. Not that Eric Young can’t back his mouth up, but I was just like, ‘Yeah, I dig this. Give me the holy waters of change, Eric. I’m ready.’”
“The fans, from what I’ve seen and heard, they like it, and I think it’s because they get it. They see that old ‘ECW’ Rhino wants to come out and play, and now he is. You get married and have a kid and you try to bury that part of you, but guess what? I’m divorced and my kid’s 18—ECW Rhino wants to come out and play,” he professed. “Let’s feed the beast.”
RHINO HAS JOINED VIOLENT BY DESIGN! #Sacrifice pic.twitter.com/o0mk5uvjfb
— TNA Wrestling (@ThisIsTNA) March 14, 2021
When asked if it was as simple as wanting to return to his roots, Rhino agreed that it was and explained how he hasn’t really changed, but the fans’ tastes have. It also helps to change the perception of him by having Eric Young, Joe Doering and Cody Deaner with him instead of Heath, and the group’s physicality is something he’s very aware of.
“The thing is—Joe Doering, he’s a heater. You’ve got Cody, he’s a scrapper and sometimes I have to grab him, pull him back and say ‘let me get take this’. You mentioned Heath, and people loved Heath and I together. People loved the whole ‘Heath 4 IMPACT’ and all that stuff, but Heath has an open door with IMPACT,” Rhino stated. “Does he have an open door with Violent By Design? That’s not my call, that’s Eric’s call, so I’m not going to leave Violent By Design and if he has the opportunity with the holy waters of change, if that opportunity is given to him, great.”
Fans might be excited for Heath to return, but the question might be finding out where he fits in to things when he returns. Despite already acknowledging that it was not his call to make, Rhino joked that he wouldn’t say no to adding the ‘One Man Rock Band’ to their ranks when he came back and offered a little bit of encouragement.
“I say ditch the ‘kids’ and ditch the wife, come with us,” Rhino said. “I want to see that rock ’n’ roll Heath Slater.”
IMPACT Wrestling moves to Thursdays on AXS TV and Twitch beginning April 8. The company’s next special event, Hardcore Justice, airs on IMPACT Plus on Saturday, April 10 at 3pm EST.
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