Impact Wrestling star Robbie E recently appeared on Interactive Wrestling Radio, which you can listen to in full below. The following are some interview highlights:
On the changes in TNA Impact Wrestling:
“The thing is, change is always good. So, when people hear things, new faces, guys gone… Right away, it is like “Oh my God” into the negative. “How is it going to be this with this, how is it going to be that with that.” It is change! It is good! It gets people talking! Make it different! New people are in charge. A lot of things have to be done to #MakeImpactGreatAgain. That is what is going to happen! Fresh faces are a good thing. It is time for some changes in TNA… Impact Wrestling now, no more TNA. Things have to be different and that is what you’re going to get.”
On his longevity in Impact Wrestling:
“It is kind of crazy, isn’t it? If you really think about it, I debuted in 2010. It has been almost 7 years since my on television debut. Abyss, James Storm, Gail Kim was in and out… Madison Rayne. There are really only a handful… Some of the referees. But, it is crazy that Robbie E is a veteran in Impact Wrestling. Dude, I’ve been through so much and so many different people in charge that I always think there is a place for a Robbie E. I’m different than everyone else. I think there should be all different kind of things in wrestling. I find that no one is like me and no one will ever be like me. Wrestling is confidence. You have to be confident inside and outside of the ring. I’m confident enough to say there is only one Robbie E!”
On working 3PW as a very young man:
“That was like my first time, “Wow, I’m on a DVD you can buy at a music store in the mall! Oh my god, my name is on a DVD!” That was like my first time to get my name out there. It is crazy. I did not realize how big 3PW was but still, like you just brought it up, people in the UK a lot bring that up and say they watched me in 3PW. It is pretty wild. At the time, I didn’t know it branched out that far.”
On what made 3PW stand out:
“At the time, it was one of the first places to run the ECW arena before everyone started to run there. It was one of the first so it was kind of a big deal.”
On the ECW Arena versus a setting like the Impact Zone:
“Well, the ECW Arena was a lot dirtier. You definitely don’t want to sit on the toilet in the ECW Arena. I don’t mind sitting on the toilet in the Impact Zone! Granted, of course, you know all the cool things that had happened in that building… That was like my first show outside of wrestling school and I walk in and there is Sabu, Sandman, New Jack… I’m getting offered this and that. I’m like 19 years old and going, “What is going on?” Scared for my life! But, it was definitely an experience. But I mean, the building was filthy but the fans were great. There was energy, it was special. It made it cooler that you could see blood stains on the floor and that there is holes in the wall. (laughs) You know what I mean? It had a funny smell also.”
On if the renovations to the ECW Arena:
“I have been back. It is almost not like… Well, I guess you can kind of tell it is the same place. But, you really don’t. It is different, you know?”
On how “Simon Diamond” Pat Kenny helped create Robbie E:
“I’ll tell you the story. He didn’t create it but he kind of helped it happen. I was there for a tryout match… Well, originally I might not even have been there for a tryout match. I was a young, hungry guy. Had been doing it for 10 years. I was going to take any opportunity I could. If I get invited there, I’d go. I’m sitting in catering with Pat Kenny who is my long-time friend who helped me trained years ago, he lived in the same area as me, he always took a liking to me, so we got along pretty well. We were eating and Vince Russo comes walking by. Pat yells out, “Hey Vince, you said you wanted to do a Jersey Shore character. This guy is from Jersey” and pointed to me. Vince stared at me, he said, “You’re from Jersey?” I said, “Yep.” He said, “Can you get a girl?” I said, “Yep” even though I couldn’t. They ended up getting Cookie but I just said “Yep”. They talked privately (Pat and Vince) and came back. They said, “Spike your hair up, tonight’s your match. You’re going to wrestle Bobby Fish. We want to look at you as a Jersey Shore guy.” So, if Pat Kenny had not made that joke, I might have still gotten that match but I would have been Rob Eckos. It would have been a really good match. And, 99% probability, nothing would have happened. Because they told me spike the hair up… I had a few hours to become Robbie E. Luckily, I am from Jersey. I had watched the show. I knew what the deal was. And, at the time, I was 25 or 26, I partied at the same clubs the guys from the Jersey Shore did. That was kind of like my life anyway! So, I spiked my hair up, luckily I was growing it out, and fist pumped my way to the ring… Dixie and Vince were sitting in the crowd and said just by my entrance alone, “Sign him to a contract.” We had a great match. They said it was the best dark match in TNA history! They pulled me in the back, had me do a promo immediately, I nailed it. They pulled me in a room and offered me a contract. It was all surreal. It all happened within an hour. It was crazy!”
On how quick he was involved in featured segments:
“It all happened really quick. At the time, they weren’t always live. The debut happened live on a Thursday, Saturday was a fan fest, and Sunday was the biggest pay per view of the year, Bound for Glory which I was on doing a run in on Jay Lethal. Then on Monday and Tuesday, we’re doing TV tapings with J-WOW from the cast of Jersey Shore which was like the hottest thing on TV… All of these things happened within like 5 days! It was a lot being thrown at someone brand new to the company. It was very surreal. But, I was ready to take it on because, dude, I was wrestling for 10 years at the time. I wanted to make it! A lot of people want to make it in wrestling, it doesn’t happen overnight and they quit. I hung in there. I said, “Damn, I’m good enough to do something.” I was waiting for my time.”
On calling Cookie a “Sinking Ship” in the past:
“She knows it now. We have no beef. It is what it is. I’ve not talked to her in a long time. She just kind of… And, she’ll tell you. She didn’t take her job seriously at the time. There is a time to party and there is a time for business. Hers was always kind of just party. What she didn’t realize is I was the leader of the show… I wasn’t the leader of any show in Impact but I was given the opportunity but out of me and her, I was the leader. She didn’t look at it like that. Instead of wanted to work as a team and make it work, she kind of only cared about herself. Her being gone from the company she only did to herself.”
On being paired with Rob Terry:
“The thing about it was, that is where I started to realize they had faith in me. You know, no one knows me and Cookie. We’re only there a short period of time… She has an attitude and is late for stuff. I easily could have been looked at like that because I was with her. They kind of saw that I wasn’t like that and that I knew what I was doing. I had a good head on my shoulders. So, they kept me. Still, nothing forming. So “Hey, here’s Robbie E. Here’s Rob Terry. Lets put them together.” It was meant to be nothing. It was meant to be “Hey, lets kill a little time.” I am the one that came up with Big Rob and Bigger Rob. I came up with the red velvet rope that we walk through. I came up with “The List”. I came up with our web show. I came up with us having matching sweaters which, by the way, when I walked up to Rob Terry and handed him a pink sweater, I wish you could see his face! But again, these were my ideas that I think made it into something. In my opinion, it was different. It was over. No one really had a bouncer before, they had a bodyguard. No one ever had a red rope before. No one really had “The List” before… These were all new things. I feel we made it pretty cool.”
On Brooke Adams’ recent Jim Ross interview where she said not to date someone in the wrestling business:
“No. You can date someone in the wrestling business. If it is a work, it is a work. That had nothing to do with wrestling. We just didn’t work as human beings. It is what it is. I don’t want to say anything bad. It just didn’t work out.”
On being on The Amazing Race:
“Dude, it is a once in a lifetime experience that most people don’t get once in a lifetime. It was so surreal. It happened over a month. You’re traveling so many places. You’re living out of a back pack. Everyone looked at us, even the others on the show, like “These two are super stupid.” Which, we kind of are! We were definitely the team that should have been off really early and somehow we made it to the finals! I’m proud of how far the team made it. Do I wish I had ran the race with somebody different? Of course I do! But, I still think I was awesome on the show. (laughs)”
On if TNA could have milked the Amazing Race for more value:
“I mean, a thousand percent. We were on the roster. We were on one of the biggest reality shows of all time. Currently! Not before I was on Impact, not after… While I was on Impact. Granted, it was mentioned. It is what it is. I love our show. But, I do think it could have been more.”
On the “Bro-Mans” with Jessie Godderz:
“I like that TNA had faith in me to put me with a Rob and a Jessie. Rob was in TNA before me but it was still very new to wrestling… The same with Jessie. It is kind of like a challenge. Jessie was very green and he’ll tell you that. But, I think by the end of the “Bro-Mans”, he was just a totally different person. By us hanging out together and becoming friends, it helped him let loose a little bit and we just gelled as friends. We were the first ever team to be reality stars. There’s been reality stars before. But, we were the first ever team that were both reality stars that were both on CBS on the same network. I think that could have been mentioned more also. And then, us having our own DJ. Who has ever had their own DJ before with introductions? No one! We had our own DJ! “Bro-Mans” was a joke. “Hey, Bromance.” But, I think we made it cool and more than it was ever thought to be.”
On where he fits in TNA Impact Wrestling right now:
“I’m sure I’ll fit into the picture somehow. The future looks bright for me. The picture looks bright for Impact Wrestling. I’m excited to see what it is going to be. And, whatever it is, I’m going to make the best of it because that is what Robbie E does. I’m 33 years old. I still feel like I’m 23… Actually, I feel like I’m 13! I still feel that I have a lot to give. And now that I have baby twins… Between the twins, my wife, and my 5 pound chihuahua … There’s a lot going on!”
On TNA branching out with working relationships with Pro Wrestling NOAH:
“Yeah, we’re also working with CRASH in Mexico. There’s going to be opportunities for me overseas. I’d love to go back to Japan and wrestle. International stuff is fun for me. I go to the UK a lot and wrestle. I just came back from Australia last week. I’m going to Israel for the first time in a few weeks which is super cool. I’m going to Chile every few months for the huge shows they have over there. I’m all over, man. I wrestle all over the world!”
On the ups and downs of TNA:
“Change is always positive. Even if you think it is bad, you’ve got to think it is positive because you’ve got to give hope. When i said that when Hulk Hogan left the company, we were going to be fine, by fine I meant we’re still going to exist. We’re still going to be in business. Now it is 2017, there’s a lot of wrestling competition out there, that (being in business) is not easy to do… And we are! So, I was right. We’re still here. We still exist. We still are fine. Jeff Jarrett is back. He was here when TNA started. He has a great mind and he was a wrestler himself. I have all the faith in the world in him. And then there is Dutch Mantel who is awesome, Scott D’Amore… It is going to be changes for the better!”
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.
