The following is an exclusive interview granted to WrestleZone Radio with former WWE Superstar and current TNA Superstar Tyrus. Tyrus is interviewed by WrestleZone Radio’s Nick Hausman.
You can find the full audio of the interview and transcribed quotes below:
On winning the TNA Bound for Gold match, becoming #1 Contender to the TNA World Heavyweight Championship and the tension it causes with his friend Ethan Carter III was was champion when he won:
BC: It was a chance for individual achievement. Quite frankly up until that point I hadn’t really been given an opportunity. I had always been thrown in to situations that had always had to do with EC3. Knowing what was involved going in to it I had his full support. If I didn’t have his full support he would have probably politicked me out of the match. Or, he would have gotten me in another match or something else. In the sense of, “If he was champion and I was champion?” Two friends put the title on the line and it’s like Apollo Creed and Rocky Balboa. Two men go out there and let the best man win. That way the championship stays in the family. It doesn’t necessarily have to be sinister or back stabbing or anything like that. Something greedy that people want to hear because it’s not like that at all. We know it’s us against everybody else.
On what it was like to be a bodyguard for Snoop Dogg:
BC: The biggest thing about Snoop is, you gotta understand, everybody wants a piece of him. They want to touch him. They want to talk to him. They feel like Snoop is the kind of guy that they can have a beer with or hang out at their house and play video games with. Fans are very aggressive when it comes to Snoop. They just want a piece of him so much. I would probably say more so than any other celebrity because he’s so tangible. He’s always around. So, you have to be very aggressive in setting boundaries with people. Letting them know that it’s not something they are going to do. During my time with Snoop we never had a situation where somebody got hands on him. They tried numerous times. Especially in Europe. Very, very hands on huggy people.
On being a big man in pro wrestling today:
BC: I think the climate of wrestling has changed. I think the big guy, The Giant, The Big John Studd’s of the world are an endangered species because the business has become smaller. A lot of the smaller guys don’t like the big guys. A lot of those smaller guys are… this is all speculative. I’m just saying, generally speaking, you can’t in terms of whether a culture is hard on you or not… it just gets tougher when you are in the WWE. There’s people that will smile in your face every day and as soon as you go in to that meeting will say, “The hell with this guy.” I’m sure that I was a part of that just like every body else is. That’s just the reality of the business. That mental toughness that I endured in Deep South with Dr. Tom. Dr. Tom was more psychological in terms of making your stuff mean more in the ring. He worked you hard. He busted your ass and he was easier to talk to about certain things. The American Dream Dusty Rhodes, rest his soul, he was hard as hell on me. He was tougher on me than anybody. He’d come out all the time and say my ass didn’t belong to be here if I was being lazy or I had a bad match or something. Dusty was rough on me. He didn’t pull me aside. He blasted me in front of everybody, “Play or go home Clay!” But I responded to that.
On his reaction to being given the Funkasaurus gimmick and what he remembers about his first match:
BC: I thought it was career suicide. I thought I was going to walk out and the crowd was going to go, “What the hell?” Just boo the hell out of me like I was Max Moon. When I walked out you could have dropped a pin. You could have dropped an absolute pin. Straight silence. Corpus Christi, TX was like, “What?” There was a guy who had shaved his head like me. Had the “Monster Brodus Clay” tank top on. He was just starring at me with his mouth open. I made eye contact with him and went down to the ring and he was saying, “Damn it. This is going to be bad.” Then when I am in the ring doing my thing I hit Hawkins with something and the guy stands up and yells, “You suck Brodus Clay!” I just yelled back, “My bad!” I just didn’t care, you know? I’m just going to do this. The crowd popped when I said, “My bad!” Then I just started talking to the crowd during the match and it was one of those things we are not supposed to do. At that point I figured it couldn’t possibly get any worse. You just don’t know. So, I did the thing and the music hits so loud and they may have been cheering kind of loud. I walked through Gorilla and every body clapped and I was like, “Uh huh.” Then Triple H came around the corner and said, “Whatever you do don’t look on the internet.”
In the full interview Tyrus speaks candidly with Nick about beating twelve other men to win the TNA Bound for Gold match at Bound for Glory, his current relationship with Ethan Carter III, what made him sign with TNA, working as a body guard for Snoop Dogg before becoming a wrestler, his relationship with Snoop Dogg today, his days under WWE contract in Deep South & Florida Championship Wrestling as G-Rilla, Bill DeMott as a pro wrestling trainer, how he chose the name Brodus Clay, being on the least viewed season ever of NXT, getting busted open at Extreme Rules 2011 by Christian from a tiny ladder, how the Funkasaurus character came about, whether or not he thought it was career suicide, the infamous dance with a hundred “Mamas” at WrestleMania, his current viral feud with John Cena, more
You can find the full audio from the interview by clicking HERE or listening in the embedded player at the top of the page.
A portion of Tyrus’ interview was also played earlier today on WrestleZone Daily. You can listen to that episode in the embedded player below:
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You can watch Tyrus’ most recent “Cousin Johnny-John Cena” themed viral video embedded below:
