Former WWE/UFC star Ken Shamrock spoke with Steve Fall about a number wrestling topics. Here are some highlights:
Being the referee for the Steve Austin vs Bret Hart match at WrestleMania 13:
“It was a risk. I mean, they had to take a risk on that because I wasn’t a pro wrestler and going into that match, I didn’t have any real experience, at least at that point. I did about five years prior or six years prior to that, but not at this level. So going into it, I truly didn’t even know whether or not I was going to be able to do what I needed to do because referees are important in making sure matches go over because there’s certain things they have to do to make sure those spots count. I was in a few different situations where I had to make sure that happened.”
“When I was going in there, I remember thinking, ‘I don’t know if I could do this. I don’t know if I can pretend to be involved in this.’ so I felt like well, I’ve always been that guy where I’ll just jump in and just see what happens and go out there and perform the best I can and we’ll just let the chips fall where they fall.”
“So I remember going out there and about five minutes into the match. I’m thinking to myself, man, I can’t believe what I’m seeing here. I mean, I couldn’t tell you the difference between what was happening when I was fighting in MMA as opposed to what they were doing in the wrestling ring. It was so believable and so good how those guys were performing, that I lost myself in the match and it just became normal to me. I truly believe that that’s why people really put that WrestleMania 13 as one of the best wrestling matches ever up there, not saying it was the best because I haven’t been around that long, but you know, people saying that it’s right there with all of them. I agree because I was in there and I couldn’t tell the difference.”
On why he feels he never won the WWE Championship:
“I had a lot of other stuff going on too. The company’s got to depend on you if you’re carrying the strap, right? For me, I had a temper. I was wild. If I go up and I get that strap, can I represent the company properly? Am I going to lose my temper and beat somebody up severely and put them in the hospital? That’s not going to represent the company well. So, like I said, there’s a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes where, you know, I was an aggressive guy and I was violent. Being a wrestler sometimes, you know, you got to be able to control those things.”
Ken Shamrock Explains Why He Never Won The WWE Championship
