WWE Hall Of Famer Kevin Nash, who famously worked for WWE as the top star and champion in the mid-1990s, claiming in a recent interview with Sports Illustrated that he was promised a year run — which was cut nearly in half — as Nash’s reign starting in 1994 lasted 358 days.
Nash recalled the story to S.I., pointing out that his first pay-per-view as champion went to a draw, and the company did things like having him in segments wearing a Santa Hat and singing “I Wish You A Merry Christmas” to the WWE employees at Titan Towers.
“They built the Diesel character in Providence at the [1994] Royal Rumble when I lasted over 17 minutes and eliminated a few guys in a row, and then they basically castrated it as champ when they put a Santa hat on my head and had me sing I Wish You a Merry Christmas to the Titan Tower and WWE employees.
“I went to a draw in my first pay-per-view match as world champion. A draw. As a performer, you know then that they’re not going with you. If they were going with me, I’d have beat Bret. You can use run-ins to cause the win, but I’d have to beat Bret, and I didn’t. From there, I went on the road with Backlund and [King Kong] Bundy as my house opponents. That’s not exactly setting the world on fire. Bundy is a great guy and he’s great in a certain role, but for me, there is nothing I can do with him. I can’t chain wrestle, I can’t pick him up, I can’t toss him around. Then they brought Jeff [Jarrett] and Road Dogg [Jesse James] in so they could bump and feed. That was a lot better.”
The co-founding member of the nWo in WCW, nicknamed “Big Daddy Cool” in WWE and “Big Sexy” in WCW, also spoke of the time he met with Vince McMahon and was surprised with a pitch for him to fight Mike Tyson … with the money he generates being donated to charity, only for things to end up with him finding out that it was part of McMahon’s way of breaking the news to him that he would be dropping the title quite a bit sooner than he was originally told.
“They brought me up to WWE Headquarters, which was called Titan Tower at the time, and Vince went into this elaborate idea of me fighting Mike Tyson in Central Park. I asked him, ‘How much am I going to get paid?’ Vince said it was for charity, and I said, ‘F—. I ain’t fighting Mike Tyson and getting knocked the f— out for charity.’ Then he told me, ‘By the way, you’re going to drop the strap to Bret at Survivor Series because we’re going to put it on Shawn at WrestleMania.’
“It was an incredible smoke-and-mirrors move. So, I asked him, we just went over a bunch of horses— for an hour to distract me? I didn’t care about losing the belt or getting it back. I’m not a mark. If you want to beat me, beat me—as long as I can turn my character back after I get beat.”
Check out the complete Sports Illustrated interview with WWE Hall Of Famer Kevin Nash, a.k.a. Diesel, by clicking here.
