Filed to GERWECK.NET:
So when you became Wild Man Marc Mero, Vince McMahon asked you if you could do a Tarzan yell?
“Yes. Okay, well what happened was, I think they were thinking they would get kind of a knockoff of Johnny B Badd, something similar like they do with some of the characters. But because the lawsuits were really going back and forth. Now, remember, guys are jumping ship. You’ll see one guy on Raw one week, and next week he’s on Nitro or something. So it wasn’t going to happen. So they had to completely change my character. Of course, I’m trusting them. Whatever they’re going to come up with is going to be great. I mean, they made The Undertaker, they made all these great characters, right? I remember they flew me in to talk about what they’re going to have me do. We sit around a table, and Vince looks at me and goes, ‘Marc, what do you think of Wild Man Marc Mero?’ I go, ‘What’s a wild man?’ He goes, ‘Can you do a Tarzan yell?’ I thought they know what they’re doing. I go, ‘Vince, I don’t have a very strong voice, and I cannot do a Tarzan yell.’ He goes, ‘All right, we’re gonna go with Wild Man Marc Mero.’ And I go, okay, am I from the jungle? What am I? I’m doing this Tutti Frutti character in WCW, coming out now, where am I from? So it was very hard for me to relate to, which the audience doesn’t relate to. So it was very hard. And not only that, they hired my wife, Sable is my valet, and now you got this beautiful woman going to the ring with you and who they’re going to cheer for. So it was very difficult right off the bat, but they really wanted to push me and give me some momentum. So they have me enter this Intercontinental tournament where I had to beat Owen Hart, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Ron Simmons. I mean, these are some top guys that you’re they’re putting you over to win the Intercontinental title. So I was thinking now they’re really going to start giving me that push I always dreamed about, why I went to the WWF or WWE. The next thing you know, I’m wrestling the fake Diesel, the fake Razor, TL Hopper, The Goon. Wonderful guys and good workers, but they’re not the guys that is going to take you up the ladder in the WWF.”
What shifted?
“That’s the thing, maybe it’s a great question for Vince. I don’t know, maybe my confidence wasn’t there. I thought it was very hard for me to work with guys. First of all, this is really kind of hard to talk about in the sense that I wasn’t well-liked. My whole life, I had a lot of friends. I was always popular in sports, captain on my teams, and then you go into this new organization where you’re not very well liked, and you didn’t really understand why. Well, come to find out later, I got this guaranteed contract, I have my wife flying everywhere I’m flying, so I’m not hanging out with the guys, not going to the bars. I’m not staying up and doing things with those guys, or hanging out with guys. I’m with my wife all the time. And then I start realizing that no one really wants to work with me, you’re kind of an outcast, and it’s the worst feeling in the world.”
Is it jealousy?
“You know, part of it is. I guess, when you think about Stone Cold Steve Austin and Mick Foley just came in months before me for an opportunity. Next thing you know, I’m the first guy that gets this, not only a guaranteed contract, a big signing bonus, on top of it.”
You wrote in your book that you think Sable should be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.
“Oh, absolutely. The woman’s division, they didn’t really have a woman’s division so much back then at all. But she brought eyes to the channels. The ratings and everything were very high because of her.”
Do you think you’ve had a Hall of Fame career?
“You know what? If you want to look at my WWF stint, no. But if you want to look at things I’ve done with WCW as Johnny B Badd, they were very entertaining.”
I feel like you’d be the perfect recipient for the Warrior Award:
“Something like that would be wonderful. If I ever did, DDP would be the guy to induct me.”