Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Hurricane Helms on beating The Rock, working as a WWE producer, 3 Count, the Vertebreaker

Episode Date: May 12, 2020

"The Hurricane" Shane Helms chats with Chris Van Vliet from his home in Joco, North Carolina. He talks about being released from his job as a WWE producer during the layoffs on April 15 and compares it to his release in 2010, making his debut in 1991 and next year being 30 years in the wrestling business, being in WCW and forming 3 Count with Moore and Evan Karagias, how Stone Cold and The Rock led to the creation of The Hurricane character in 2002, his sidekicks he had in Rosey, Molly Holly and Stacy Keibler, why he wanted to turn heel and become Gregory Shane Helms and much more! Thanks to Bet Online for supporting this episode. Use the code BLUEWIRE at BetOnline.ag to get a Welcome Bonus on your first deposit at http://BetOnline.ag to get a Welcome Bonus on your first deposit. Also a big thank you to BlueChew! Visit http://bluechew.com and get your first order for FREE when you use the promo code BLUEWIRE. Just pay $5 shipping. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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This is the Chris Van. Vliet Show. Chris Van Vleet Show. Ladies and gentlemen. Chris. Oh, man. Welcome back to the Chris Van Fleet Show. And thank you for making this one of the most listened to podcasts in the world last week.

We're not just talking about wrestling podcasts, but all sports. I mean, it's such an honor to see the show on the Apple Top 200 with shows from ESPN, Barstool Sports, Fox Sports, NFL. of course, you know, talk is Jericho, MLB. You get the point. I'm just so grateful for you, and I appreciate you. This episode is brought to you by Bet Online and Blu-Chue and Stand Back because there's a hurricane coming through.

Shane Helms, Hurricane Helms, the Hurricane, Gregory Shane Helms, whatever you want to call him, he is so awesome. And so is this conversation with him. You're obviously familiar with his work in the ring with WCW. WWE and TNA, but he had most recently been working as a producer for WWE until April 15th when he was part of the release along with so many other superstars and employees, both on camera and behind the scenes. But it sounds like he has a lot lined up now, new merch, and of course his podcast Highway to Helms, which you can find in the same place where you're listening to this episode. and we are getting so close, so close to that goal of 1,000 reviews on the podcast. We're now at 885, and as I mentioned two episodes ago, we've moved the goalposts up.

So back, we've moved the goalposts. I think we're moving them back. Yes, no, we're moving them. I don't know. But the original goal was 1,000 reviews before the end of the year. The new goal has become a thousand reviews. in the first year of the podcast. So our podcast anniversary is June 24th.

So that gives us like six weeks to get 115 reviews. That seems like a lot, but you know, I know we can do this. And if you're listening to this on your iPhone or iPad, please take a few seconds right now to take that out of your pocket. Or if it's an iPad, it will not be in your pocket. That'd be a really large pocket if your iPad was in your pocket. but leave those five stars or even even type out a few words like Razurian. Razurian? Yeah, I think that's what it is. Razurian.

Listening all the way in Belgium. And I, look, I know the internet's been in our home for the last like 20-ish years and it's been in our pockets for like the last 12-ish, 13-ish, but it still blows me away that I'm sitting here in my spare bedroom and you're in some other state or some other country or some other country, continent and you're listening to this. Ah, the internet. But back to Rosarian in Belgium, who says,

Great interviewer. Chris is a true artisan when it comes to interviewing. Each and every time he continues to set the bar higher. Subscribe, and you won't regret it. He gets amazing guests and isn't afraid to ask the tough questions while always staying respectful of his guests. Well, thank you for the kind words. And thank you for subscribing and for leaving a review and helping to spread the word about the show.

Let's get it out there. Let's get it on the Apple Top 200 every single week. Right now it's like every few weeks. How about every single week it's on the Apple Top 200? That'd be incredible. I know that you want to let all your friends know about this interview with Shane Helms. It's such a good one. What a great guy.

Take a screenshot. Tag me at Chris VanVleet. Tag him. He's at Shane Helmscom. And when he made his debut in 1991, I mean, that was almost 30 years ago, which means actually next year is 30 years in the wrestling business. Like you, you might have first become familiar with him as a cruiserweight in WCW. We talk about how he got signed there and how three count came to be with Shannon Moore

and Evan Corrae. Get up on your feet. Put your hands together. You know what I'm talking about. He also talked about how Stone Cold and The Rock were the ones who led to the creation of the hurricane in 2002. And of course, it changed his career completely with one of the most likable and creative characters in the history of wrestling. He talks about the sidekicks that he had in Rosie, Molly Holly and Stacey Keebler, and how he wanted to turn heel and become Gregory Shane Helms. Let's dive into it.

Here we go. It's Hurricane Helms. Well, Shane, thank you so much for joining me. Thanks for making the time. Oh, man. My pleasure, man. Great to finally chit-chat. Yeah, it's about time, right? From one little podcaster over here myself to someone like you who's been doing very well with it. Yeah, I just realized I started podcasting for the very first time when I left WWE back in 2010. Oh, wow. So that's when we first brought Highway to Helms to iTunes and all of that kind of a platform.

him. So 10 years later, released from WWE again, my podcast. You had to be podcasting 10 years ago. That makes you like one of the OG wrestling podcasters. Oh yeah, for sure. In terms of like mainstream pro wrestlers, you know, I know Colt Cabana came out with his around at the same time. I started doing video podcasting. I was live streaming it. I would record the shows, put them on DVD, sell them at my indie shows. I was, yeah, I was kind of a head of on a lot of stuff. But also what I did too was I kept taking breaks because our podcasting is

more difficult than people realize, as you will know, and I would just get kind of burnt out, you know, especially because I would do a live video show. I would have people in my own. Now we got all these, you know, up-to-date studio, in studio, you can stream it a lot easier. Back then, it wasn't quite as easy. Yeah. Internet traffic is the most unpredictable traffic of all time. So if I did something over Skype back in those days, you know, it would one day it'd be great. The next day it would be awful.

And that just really drove me crazy. So it's one of the reasons I kind of hiatus from it for a while. I always tell people podcasting and YouTube, it's such a labor of love because you put so much time into it, so much effort into it. And then you put this thing out there that you put sometimes weeks into and like, you know, a handful of people consume it. And you go, oh, is this really? really worth my time to do this. Yeah, so the, uh, totally agree with everything, single thing you just said this. So the recent rendition of version of Highway to Helms, I just do myself, 51 episodes in,

and it's just me every week. I try to keep it 30 to 45 minutes because there's a lot longer podcast out there that I listen to and sometimes I'm kind of like, come on, and just get to the end of it. Uh, so I kind of keep mine a little bit shorter than that. And it's just me. So sometimes I've run out of shit to say. So how are you all that? with everything that's going on. Not bad, not bad at all, man. I'm in a super fortunate situation. I've been fortunate to make a lot of money in the progress of the industry. Actually, one of the few that saved some of it, not all. Definitely wish I were to save more.

A couple of investments I wish I hadn't made here and there, but I did okay. You know, and my family's kind of isolated anyway. We're on a farm. So when I'm not on the road, I don't go anywhere anyway. So this wasn't a big change for me. And because I was getting paid to sit at home and basically do nothing, I was kind of preparing for the worst in terms of employment. So I'm a proactive kind of guy. So I kind of started making plans for that phone call or in this case, the text to come through. But the text for people out there that love to bat mouth WWE. The text was followed with a phone call.

And I had good conversations with the WWE. and it's just a situational thing, man. The world's in a crazy place right now. So I'm a sometimes annoyingly positive guy. You know, sometimes he might detriment. I look for the positive side of things. So that's just what I do. I'm trying to stay positive and have fun and find a way to make the best of a bad situation, I guess.

So what's the silver lining in this one, Shane? The silver lining is it's a new challenge. You know, I mean, anytime you get knocked down, you have to get back up. I've said a million times when you're walking through hell, the only way to get out is to keep walking. That's the only way out. And I've always stayed busy, you know, pro wrestling,

although that is my main love, it's not the only thing I do. I've been podcasting for years. I've been involved in several different things throughout my life. So, I mean, I've got a couple other projects that are in there works right now. And nothing I really want to talk about until the ink dries. Sure. I'm always going to be involved in progress. That's my number one love.

That's my number one passion. I know I still got a lot to offer. So I'm always going to be involved in now. But I stay busy, you know, and I got a family too. So my boys, you know, they're a light of my life. So if I hadn't have been furloughed, this time has been really good for the family. We've done a lot of stuff together, you know, being on the road with WWE, that schedule is rough, you know. So it was a small blessing to be at home with my family.

So you say you were getting paid to sit at home. That was during these shows without the fans. Up until then, you were on the road every single week, right? Oh, yeah, on the road every single week. And, you know, the first half of 2019, WWE had allowed me to complete all my indie obligations because I was a very active performer. You know, 2017 and 18, if there was a big show, Hurricane was on it, you know,

basically. And that's because I love, you know, I still love doing this crazy stuff. I have my first match in 1991 and all the way up to 2019, you know, so that's a lot of years and a lot of banging on the body. But WWE, like I said, in 2019, they will let me do all my indie. So every weekend, I'm doing an indie. Then I go to Monday Night Raw and then I'd have to do Smackdown and then the pay-per-view. So it was rough. You know, the first part of 2019 was pretty rough. The last half got a little bit easier because I didn't. didn't have to do in these, but not easy compared it to not traveling. Yeah.

Yeah, a lot of time on the road. For those that might not know, because they weren't seeing you in the ring, you were working as a producer. So what's some of the segments that you kind of had your fingerprints all over before you were released? Oh, man, that's kind of hard to say. Whenever you started talking about that, because I had a recent instant recently where I was talking about the winner take all, you know, I was the one that came up with that

stipulation. And then there were people that said, oh, you took Oscar out of the match. No, no, the match was set. I just came up in the stipulation, you know. So anytime you mention something like that, you really open a can of worms that really suck, you know, but I had my hands in a lot of good things. But fortunately, I was working with a lot of talent that people, too. So if I mentioned that what any segments I was involved in, I don't want to take credit away from the talents. Because no matter what, if I called to play, they had to run the play and they deserve the majority of credit. So how did you make the transition? from, you know, almost a 30-year career in the ring to starting to do some stuff behind

the scenes because you were working for TNA behind the scenes, a ring of honor, and, you know, now most recently, WWA. Well, yeah, I was a producer with TNA first, and that really came at a good time because I had torn my ACL, so I was really inactive physically. I just actually couldn't perform. So that opportunity came along. John Gaborg was the one that hired me, gave me that opportunity. And when they first offered me the job, I said, no. I wasn't sure.

I'm not sure I want to do this. I need to be, because I seen some of the producers and agents in WWU that I had dealt with in my career, and it's a thankless job. You know, you get no credit, you get chewed out by the boss for shit

you had nothing to do with at the time. So I wanted to make sure that I liked it. And in TNA, I fell in love with that position. I was working with a lot of good people, and people trusted me too. You know, they trusted my opinion.

They trusted my vision. And so I had a good relationship there. You know, it kind of, when the new owners came, in with not necessarily Anthem, but when Jeff Jared and them came in and he had a problem with the Hardee's, I got caught up and shrapnel heat there. And that's kind of what happened with that story. Now, me and Jeff have made amends and moved on, but, you know, that's still what happened.

Then I did a little stuff with Ring of Honor, but that was all just in ring talent with them. And I started to do some coaching down at WWE while I was in Ring of Honor. and WW knew that producing was what I wanted to do. Like if they wanted me to be a coach without a doubt, I can do that. I feel like my strength is more of a finishing coach, not finish your maneuver, but once you get to a certain level to keep you better, I think teaching basic moves, you've got a lot of people that can do that. But to get you to go from, you know, to get you to go from good to great,

you need a finishing coach. And so that was going to, I feel. like in coaching would have been my stream, but they knew I wanted to be a producer, but I was going to have to move down to Orlando at one point. And I was kind of wrestling with that because I got a good family situation here in North Carolina. I got a situation set up in North Carolina that this, this is the last home I'll live in, so to speak. So I wasn't sure about the moving to Orlando thing, and I was wrestling with that. And then I got a call from Triple H, you know, offer me to go to the main roster as a producer without having to be a coach. And I was like, wow, without

out of doubt, yes. As I was doing that, but also they gave me a talent contract. You know, if you've seen, if you follow me on Instagram, you know, they put out a new action figure of me and actually two that were doing really well. So I kind of had a talent contract too. But I love producing, man. It's a coaching, it's being a mentor, it's helping people out. And, you know, if I can't be in there, nothing makes me feel as good than coming up with an idea and it actually works. Right. Did you have someone in your career that was the finishing coach, the one that took you kind of from good to that next level that, you know, we've seen you performing at for the last pretty much 20 years? You had a lot of people, man. And that roster, you know, I was very fortunate,

you know, with the group of people that I got to work with and the people that I got to befriend. You know, The Undertaker was a huge help for me. Rick Flair was a huge help for me. Guys like Chris Jericho were a huge help for me. You know, you got to pick and choose, you know, I mean, find people that can really help you. And believe it or not, you'll get some advice from some of the weirdest people, you know, and sometimes that really is going to work. You know, you can't close yourself off to any information, but, you know, there was a time in the business where, you know, if you watch Monday Night Raw, if you were on Monday Night Raw,

Tuesday when we would normally film Smackdown, they would have a monitor and catering. And everybody's around that monitor, watching their matches from Monday night the night before, having a veteran never side of them or an agent going over their match, watching the instruction. That disappeared. And that's a huge mistake. Because that were all the things that in WWE helped me more than anything, watching that. Because sometimes you're going to think it's great. You get lost in the moment sometimes because the crowd might react, but they might react just because they like you. you know what that's the good thing about you know when they said less is more about once you get

over it yes that is true but there's a there's a flip side to do that to that fans sometimes would cheer for you even if it's not good right you know so you have to be careful about that and you can very easily get stagnant when that happens so um that was a huge benefit to sit there and just watch the match with somebody that's going to give it to you not pat you on the ass because patting you on the ass isn't going to help you get better you need somebody to go hey this sucks or hey hey you need to fix this, you need to work on this. That's the only way you get better. If next year is going to be your 30-year anniversary since you debuted,

are you going to have some matches? Are you going to work some indies maybe? Yeah, like I never actually said I was retired. That never came out of my mind. Never heard her can't say that. When actually my last match happened in 2019 with Chakar was the company I was working for, when that happened, I really didn't even realize that this was.

coming up. I'm sitting there. I'm doing all the WWE stuff. I'm doing my Andes. And sometimes it's just a signing. Sometimes it's just an appearance. And then I realized, oh, man, like two weeks before I think, oh, man, this is going to be the last match that I have on the books. And that hit me like a ton of bricks.

That hit me hard because this is all I've ever wanted to do. I went to my first live event in 1979, five years old. You know, I got involved in the industry with the first company in 1988. I was a referee. at 15 in 1990 and in 1991 at 16, I had my first match.

This is all I've ever wanted to do. Then all of a sudden, I'm not going to do it anymore. And that was rough, you know, I'm an emotional guy. I pull a big player and start crying in a heartbeat. I'll cry right now. And then we call it too, man, Mike Crackenbush, son of a bitch. They all come out there and they start, you know, cheering for me. And I had to do this speech and I was sappy as a tale.

It was rough. And not only that, then every week I had to go and look at a ring every single Monday. And I was just saying this yesterday on this interview I was doing. I was like, it's like a drug addict, but you're looking at the drug every single week going, there it is. There it is.

That's where I would be. And so, yeah, I'm definitely want to have more matches, you know. Everybody that knows me knows that. So I want to have more matches. And more than likely I will. When the whole virus thing, virus thing happened, I immediately got back on the treadmill, just in case I got to be what I like to call spandex friendly. Because right now, I'm getting there now, I'm getting there now.

Something will come out tonight is, I don't know when this is going to air. Is this airing live? No, we're not live right now. Don't worry. Okay, so something that's going to come out tonight that you'll see me in the spandex. So I'm back in the spandex. That producer workout regimen wasn't strict. I've seen catering looks like backstage.

I don't know how anyone stays in shape. Catering is awesome. It's fantastic. So, yeah, but I'm back in spade of shape. So I think you'll see me in the ring again. I was so excited to see you at the Royal Rumble in 2018. I feel like, you know, that was such a nice surprise. That's what the Royal Rumble is all about is those nice surprises.

At what point did you get told that you were going to be a surprise entry in the Rumble? It was only a couple of weeks before. Maybe like a week and a half, two at the most. And that came across, that came about, and I've told this a few times, but I'll share it with you. I had put up a post on Instagram. I got that booking because of Instagram, or at least partial. I got to get partial credit to Instagram. Because WW has wanted me in the Rumble before, but I was either with a different company or I was injured.

It just wasn't the right time. Now fast forward to 2018. And Enzo Amory had gotten in trouble. He got released or something, and he was the cruiserweight champion. And I don't remember if he was getting. But something didn't happen with him. And I don't want to speak bad about him because I don't know all the details on that situation. Sure.

And he would be a perfect villain for the hurricane. By the way, I said that before, you know, still say, but something didn't happen with him. So I had, you know, I had the WCWCW Cruzeweight champion. That was the last WCWCW cruise weight champion. So I still have that. And I put up a picture of that and a replica of the WWE Cruiserate title. And I was like, hey, I know a guy. Like I know a guy has been one of my sayings for a long long time.

So that just kind of went viral. And it was at a time when WW was like, man, we need to, who do we get as a surprise? This viral picture pops up. It's like, oh, yeah, we can finally get a hurricane. Yeah. They called and asked me about it. And I was like, yeah, sure. and what I love the most about that is how

back was myself and my fiance bent over to keep it a secret. We didn't entail nobody. We flew to a different airport. She's in a disguise because she's in a lot of pictures with me. So wrestling fans, they'll probably see her first. She's 10, blonde, just jacked, stack, anything you can imagine.

So they would see her first. And wait a minute, that's Hurricane's Woman. If Hurricane's Woman's here, then Hurricanes here. They would put it together. Right. So you put on a wig and glasses. I had a scarf wrapped around my face in the airport. They flew us to actually Newark, put us in a limo to take us to Philly.

And when we get to the arena, they come out with the big umbrellas to hide us getting out of the limo. Wow. And so we, you know, we worked really hard to keep this a secret. And I was so happy with that reaction because you, you know, you got a lot. have the confidence to think you're going to get a good reaction, but you never know. Maybe they're going to get into it. Philly was very kind to me. It was one of the pops of the night, and I still say that without confidence.

It was a nice pop and a nice moment. John Cena going along with the idea was a true professional. That was very cool, Tim. Well, that's still one of the pops that people have on like the top 10, top 20, like biggest pops or biggest returns, because it came out of nowhere. Yeah, and I think, and it kind of harkens back to something I had to struggle with in WWE previously with that character. They always underestimated the popularity of the hurricane for whatever reason, you know, I was a guy that never struck out at base. You know, every time you put me out there, I'm either hitting a home run or at least I'm getting on base. My back average

was immaculate. So they really, I think they still kind of underestimated it with, you can tell with how quickly I was eliminated and that's not a choice. That's not my decision. And I wasn't going to show up and go, I think I should be in no longer. I'm not going to do that. I'm like, hey, I'll do it whatever you want. You know, I'm that type of the guy. So, but I do, they did realize that I should have been out of the longer.

Yeah. I was a really, really big fan of your work in WCW. And I still am blown away whenever I watch clips of the Vertebreaker. Where did this idea come from? because it looks terrifying to take. Yeah, that's the Kudo driver. That's a Japanese move that a female wrestler that's named Kudo does. And so definitely got that from her 100%.

Another guy that I saw it was Mike Modest. He did it. And I had experimented with it on the Indies, but I never did it on WCW. And especially at that time, there wasn't a lot of guys because I would wrestle heavyweights on the Indies a lot. There wasn't a lot of guys that I could actually pick up. And fast forward to WWE when it got banned,

that was one of the reasons I didn't fight the banning of it because there wasn't, but two or three guys in the whole roster I could pick up. Not in that particular move because you circle underneath them and you're basically deadlift in their body from a bend over position. It's really, you know, if they're really heavy, that's hard to do. But there was a time in a three count when I was kind of the, I was the glue of that team.

Shannon really, Shannon's wrestling training was. and where it would later come to be. Shannon was a really good high flyer, but he wasn't a chain restaurant or any sort. Evan was really new. At that point, 1999, I mean, I still got eight, eight and a half years in the business. So, although everybody thought we were young, you know, I was the one putting the matches together. Okay, we need you here. We need you here. We need you here. But I was giving them the limelight. All right, Shannon, you do a high spot here. Then Evan, you do a high spot here. Well, then what was happening was they were getting all that spotlight. And Sugar Shane is the one doing all the detail work, which is the important work.

I started to realize that. I was like, okay, I got to get, I got to stop, stop worrying just about that. I need to be a little selfish here. And when I started doing the vertebricker, immediately I became a threat, you know, and that's something I've tried to encourage other guys that if all you got is how, if flashy, you know, there's a difference. Raymond's stereo, when he started doing that 619 and knocking people. people out, all of a sudden, Ray Mysterio was a little different. You know, he wasn't just a flip

fly guy. Now he can knock your ass out. Yeah. And from a psychological standpoint, you're more of a threat. So that's what the Burda Breaker did for me, too. I went from being just another high flyer to a guy who could cripple your ass, and it just changed my perception. I'm so glad you brought up three count because I thought the theme song was so catchy. Do you still know the words, the lyrics to the three count theme song? Oh yeah, no doubt, man. I can't get it out of my heart. I just can't. And the other one, get up on your feet. Yeah, yeah, that one. Be honest, I didn't like that one as much because we were making fun of ourselves. The other one we took seriously, and that was the heat. Once you start making fun of yourself, the fans are going to realize, okay, they think

it's a joke. And that's a slight difference. Like the first one, we sung that like we really, they can't get you out of my heart. That was the heat song. They really have. They really hated that. There was one house show, uh, loop that we did. And for some reason, Evan Courageous was in a singles match with one of the Valanos. And so, um, everyone out there and for whatever reason, the Valano went over. I don't know why. It was WCW. Bush. It was in like upstate New York that we need a strong Valano win tonight. All right, whatever. And so we did the song before the match. And then after the match, we did the song again, even though we lost it didn't matter. The heat was the song, and people are just blowing like crazy.

Well, now after intermission, because that match was probably second or third of the night, we go to intermission. After intermission, here comes out three count for a special encore presentation. And these people are booing like hell. And we start doing it. We're all into it. And they start throwing trash. And this is NWO level trash.

Wow. It looks like a snowfall in there. It's coming down. And Evan Corrie just did one of the coolest things. ever because somebody threw a um it was just a drink but it looked like a kFC chicken bucket coming it was huge and evan even even bent down and grabbed the circle and blocked it like captain america and i remember thinking that was so damn cool so i picked up my circle and i started blocking someone a truck well what that did was invite people to throw more shit because now

and now it's coming down even worse dude but they're throwing coins cigarette light It's just throwing shoes. It was insane. And so we're still dancing. Meanwhile, here comes Sid Vicious behind us. And we don't know. We're still in there doing that shit, you know? And Sid Vicious is right behind Evan.

Me and Shannon, and we're on the outside. We look and see, Sid, we powder out of the ring. We powder out of our respective size. And we go around to the front of the ring. We're like, Evan, turn around. And Evan is just doing fantableness here. He's just going, yeah, yeah, y'all get it. Now, the fans are going crazy because Sid's there.

but Evan's playing it like they're actually finally cheering for him. And he's really into it. He's breaking this shit now. And we're trying around, turn around. He turns around and Sid power bombs him or chokeslams him or something. And we're supposed to pull Evan out after the bump, right? But we said choke slams and boom, all the trash flies up in the air and it comes down and covers Evan. And we can't even see him.

So we're like swimming through his trash trying to find a hand to pull him out. And it was so much heat. And we get to the back. and Arne Anderson is there and on as a kid he said I've been with the horseman I've been with the NWO that's some of the most heat I've ever seen

and you're not going to get a bigger compliment than that and we're like yeah we're so ecstatic here's the downside because they had to clean the ring and take a second intermission they never let us do it again no

just because they had to take a second on the mission but so much heat so we had so much fun with that now who were we were I actually pitched this idea of three counts here. Jimmy Hart. Jimmy Hart 100%.

Me and Shannon, now, we were teaming in Nashville, Tennessee. We were with, it was me, Shannon, Joey Mercury, and Christian York, who you might remember from Tone. We were called the Bad Street Boys. Now, that was the brainchild of Brent Prentice and Bill Barings. They were the bookers of Nashville. And we didn't actually go out and sing and dance, but we were a boy band, and you can actually YouTube Bad Street boys, Bad Street like Michael Hayes boys. Yeah.

There's this music video that we did to walking in the sun. You remember that song? Dun, dun, dun, dun, whatever that she is. And so they got this video of us and it was really good. And we knew that WCW got the tapes because Nashville Music City Wrestling was the company. We knew that WCW got their TV and we knew that WWE got the TV as far as their tapes. So me and Shannon would drive nine and a half hours every other week one way.

Nine and a half hours one way, nine and a half back for a $40 guarantee just to be on this TV in the slim chance that WCW or WWCs that TV because we were told they did in a slim chance to get noticed. So, and two, so now with a bad street boys, me and Shannon, Joy and Christian. I found out through the Graveind somehow that Chris Canyon, my dude, is helping hiring cruiserways for some kind of secret project that WCW had. And so I go to Shannon and say, hey, man, we need to get a tape to Canyon. You know, we need to send a tape about stuff. Because I love tag team. I just love it. And I was kind of like, hey, let's send a tape of us.

And Shannon's like, cool. Well, Shannon goes and sends the tape of just himself. He didn't mean it like that, but that's just what he did. You know, it didn't mean it back. But Canyon, if you saw Shannon's highlight real tape, you would have hired him right away because it's all of this stuff, especially at that time. I'm talking about 1999. Now everybody does a Moonsault first day of business.

Back then, it wasn't quite as prevalent. Sure. And they were looking for American cruise rates, too, you know, because they had a lot of other luchadorers. you know, people from Japan and other countries, they didn't have a lot of Americans. So they were looking for that to build that cruise rate division, even bigger. And so Canyon had literally just came out of a meeting with Bischoff when Shannon called him on the phone. And Canyon, he later told me in the story, he goes, I just thought that was fate.

He goes, I'd seen the kid's tape. I was blown away by it. The second I get done with this meeting, there he is on my phone, he goes, I just thought that was fake. Shannon basically got hired over the phone because of that tape. That's how good. That's how cool Canyon was and how good that tape was. And fate may have something to do with it. I don't know.

And Canyon asked him, is there anybody you know any other cruise? And Shannon, here's what Shannon came through like a champ. He goes, yeah, my boy, Shane Helms. You know, he's very experienced. He's one of the more experienced guys we have talking about we, Omega. And so they brought us in for a trial. And they brought us in for a tryout, but that was the night after Owen fell. So Bischoff wasn't there.

And that's the only reason I remember that, you know, because everybody's all, you know, of course, sad and shook because of what happened to Owen. But we did this dark match, and Jimmy Hart immediately comes to me and is pitching to me the three-count idea. And Shannon had dressed, I always loved this story because Shannon had dressed kind of grungy, just because, no reason. Sure. And Jimmy's like, you know, can your partner afford some new clothes? And I'm like, yeah, yeah, he's just, that was just his style for this weekend. He's got a lot of cool shit.

And he's like, so you guys can dance, right? And I goes, yeah, we can dance good. He goes, can you sing like a bird? I didn't give him a shit what he asked me. The answer was going to be yes. And I had this other kid ever courageous. And thinking about putting you guys with him, you know, he'll be the heater and you guys be the workers. I was like, okay.

But that was it, 100% Jimmy Hart. Wow. I think that the story of how you then became the hurricane a few years later, I think it's so serendipitous how it was basically Austin and Rock. I mean, you can fill in this story much better than me, I'm sure. But you were wearing the Green Hornet Ring and Austin was like, you know, what's this? And that's kind of where it came from. Hold on. Did you say green hornet?

Oh, green lantern. Geez. Security. The interview is over. Let me go ahead and... Oh, my goodness. Don't snap. My apologies.

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Once again, that's Blue Chew, B-L-U-E-C-H-E-W.com, and the promo code. code is Blue Wire. Do you ever think about where your career would be now? Obviously, Hurricane was such a mega hit, what an incredible gimmick that people could relate to in so many levels. Do you think about where your career would be if Austin and Rock hadn't see that, if it hadn't turned into what it had with your character?

I mean, yeah, because it was such, that wasn't anything I had planned on whatsoever. You know, I was a really good amateur wrestler. I got 22 gold medals. I never envisioned myself in a cape and a mask. But I'm one of those guys that, you know, comics, when I was a kid, weren't that popular. And neither was pro wrestling. You know, I didn't care.

That's what I loved. And I wore it on my sleeve. I laid it. Everybody knows I love comic books and I love wrestling. And so I didn't hide it. And now, you know, when comics have dominated Hollywood for two decades straight, now everybody's a superhero fan. Yeah.

where were you people where were you in 2001 when I was doing it? That's what I want to know. But yeah, I would wear comment book shirts to TV all the time. You know, we didn't have the dress code back then, but I wore comic book shirts all the time anyway. I had the Green Lantern tattoo. I guess I'll get a green hornet tattoo at some point just to know. That way I won't even have to deal with this anymore.

I'll have it covered. They just knew. And Brian Grohl, it's head writer of Raw. He kind of always wanted to do a superhero game. I mean, you just never found the right guy. If you remember, and this is one thing that I have tried to really get people to understand. That roster at that time was the most stacked roster that has ever been assembled. It was the Avengers endgame.

That's what it was. The most stagger roster that there's ever, ever been. I mean, it's Austin, Rock, AAA, Sean Michaels, the Undertaker, Kane, Kurt Engel, for tag teams you had the hearties, edgarish, the Dudley's. And then you have to WCWCW guys too. Yeah, and well, they're gone. I mean, WCW is gone.

ECW is gone. So everyone's under one roof. And it's just, man, it's just insane, the amount of talent that's in there. And everybody's clamoring for TV time. And there's not enough TV time to put everybody on there. And so when they presented me with that idea,

you know, for the superhero, I was just like, yeah, I wasn't sure. or would work, nobody was. The first time I walked down that hall and that cheesy-ass outfit, the first one they gave me, man, the looks I got from some of the boys, they're like, all right. And I mean, some of them were encouraging, but it was one of those things.

Like, oh, man, well, good for you and take it on for the team. That's your food! You know, they first saw me. But as it started to get over, here they come out of the woodwork. I knew it would work. I knew it would work. You're like, man, every one of y'all shut the hell of. Y'all did not know.

But it was so much fun, just growing with that character and making it work. It wasn't easy. And that's the thing. Everybody thinks that character was easy. It was incredibly hard. But it only worked because you put the effort in to make it work. I think you give that gimmick to nine other guys and it fails and you're the 10th guy, the one out of 10 that actually makes that gimmick work.

Yeah, 100%. I definitely agree with it. that, you know, it was just perfect for me, and I don't know why, like I said, I was a serious wrestler. If you saw me at Sugar Shane, if you saw me as Gregory Helms, like whoever, when I went, had my heel run as Gregory Helms, is that anything like how I wrestle this hurricane? And I don't think a lot of people have been able to do that in the business. There's been people that have taken different identities, but they still wrestle exactly the same. I wrestle different. I walked different. I talk to different. I look different. You know, and I'm very proud of being able

do that. And I think that's one of the most understated elements of my career. How I was able to do that? I think what's so great about the hurricane character is it was so over the top. And I feel like there maybe was a point when you were starting out where you're like, do I really want to take it to that level of, you know, cheesiness? Did you, did you struggle with that early on? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, without a doubt because, you know, I mean, if you go back and watch your shame, that hybrid style that's so popular now. Yeah. I was one of the few guys doing. that back then. And you're looking at 2000. Like I started on TV in 99, 2000 and 2001 was, you know, sugar shame. That style wasn't easy to convince people of what I was doing. And I really

didn't understand what I was doing. I was just, I knew I liked the European style. I like the Japanese style. I like the Lucha style. I like the American style. I was combining it all, but it wasn't like I wrote that wrote it down on paper that that was my plan. That's just, I took a lot of stuff I liked and combined it to work for. me. Now everybody does that. No, but at that time, no. You know, especially when I came out with the little trucks and kick pads, there wasn't another lightweight in America doing that.

But I was serious and I wanted to be that serious rush. So I grew up on Rick Flair and the Horseman. That was what I wanted. You know, that was the goal. So now fast forward to this fantastic character. I wasn't quite sure on how to pull that off. There was a lot of experimentation. a lot of stuff on the house shows that just slowly developed and listening to the crowd. And Paterson really helped me out a lot. And he was just like, just listen to the crowd, listen to the people. He goes, on these, I can't really do his accent.

I won't be able to do it justice. But he goes, on these house shows, he goes, you try everything in the world. And what they pop for, you keep. And what they don't, fuck it. It was absolutely true. because and something that's really interesting. And I caught some heat with this from the wrestling experts and the journalists because I started to wrestle differently.

And it's like, man, he just doesn't wrestle as good anymore. And I'm like, it's a performance. Have you guys ever stepped on a wrestling mat? I was an amateur for seven years. I never did a collar and elbow tie up. Yeah. I never did a figure before. You know, this is, there's a performance art to this.

So I actually kind of had to wrestle down. Because I went out there in that Cape and Matt. And I wrestled like sugar shame or what later became to be Gregory Helms. They didn't care. They didn't react. I tried this. I experimented with this. I would go out there to have those type of matches, all this technical wrestling that I can do.

They didn't care. But when I had to hit them with that, here they come. I hit them with one of these. Here they come. And I tried to choke slam with some guy 300 pounds. Here they came. Yeah. I was doing.

And then you started hitting the choke slam, which I thought was a nice addition. And I saw in another interview we talked about, he actually asked permission from the Undertaker to make sure he was okay with you doing it. Yeah, yeah. Well, the Edith came down from Vince. Vince wanted to finish that match. It was when I won the Cruiserweight title from Tijuri.

It was a three-way. I believe Tijri was a champ. The match was me, Tijri and Billy Kibman. So one of them was the champ. I left with him. But yeah, and the finish was Hurricane with the Choghlam. That comes from Vince. And I had never hit it before.

Yeah. For me, I just wanted to, and that was something I did early on too. Like I would try to do everybody's finish against them and feel miserable. That was just a comedic thing that I had added to the character. I feel like a lot of people started doing that later too. But hey, that's what you do. You still shit that works. Nobody still shit that doesn't work.

Sure. So yeah, I finally get to hit it. But now I'm like, man, I came up from a time where you just don't steal somebody's shit, you know, especially that's on the show. You know, if you're stealing something from Mexico, that's always been open, you know, but if somebody's on the show, you know, one of your teammates, you don't go do this yet. I still believe that.

I think it's one of the things that is definitely hurting the business. You know, it isn't a death, nothing that's going to kill it, but it's definitely hurting. And I think if you're creative enough, you should be able to come up with your own shit. Soapbox, a little soapbox. there. But I was, but you know, out of respect, I wanted to go to The Undertaker. And I did. I asked him about it. He was, he didn't give a shit. I had to go to Kane. Same thing. I showed Kane that

respect. Big Show wasn't there that day. But when I finally did do a show with Big Show, I explained my situation to him. He didn't care. Every one of those guys was super cool about it. But, I mean, basically you can say Vince wants me to do this. I mean, even if one of those guys didn't agree, they're going to have to do it anyway, I would guess. Yeah, you know, I'd say like if Undertaker would have not been cool with it, I would have, I would have had to go to Vince and say, I just want you to know, that's the Undertaker's finish and he wants, you know, whatever, one of his finishes. I would have had to do that, but Undertaker was cool.

He goes, actually he was joking. He goes, just do it better than Big Show and you, okay. And so I tried to do it definitely too. Like a lot of times I would go down to my knee. Yeah. I would go, boom, and I would get this big ricochet. If I would do it to guys like Jamie Noble, I might stay up on my feet or guys that were my size, but when I would do it, that it would take a lot of effort, I would kind of go down with it. So I tried to at least spin it to make it a little bit of a moment.

I think the match that really put you on the radar for a lot of people, at least on that next tier, is the work you did with the rock. What was it about Dwayne that, you know, he really gave you the rub. What was it about him that, what did he see in you that he wanted to put you to that next level? I mean, you know, DJ just likes entertainment. He's the entertaining guy. He sees, again, you can be the best wrestler in the world, but is it entertaining these people? I mean, you have to be honest about what pro wrestling is at some point. If fans were just interested in the wrestling, then the Olympics would be having paperbees.

Yeah. That's a hard pill for some people to swallow. I mean, I have a little amateur wrestler. I love that. I'm not knocking it. But once you get to a higher degree level of that amateur wrestling, it's really only cool when you get somebody that's really good and they're slinging the shit out of somebody that sucks, what we call a fish in amateur wrestling. That's what's really cool. You know, when guys are really good, sometimes it's such a stalemate and all these little nuances that if you have to train die, you enjoy it because I still enjoy it.

I go watch the NC State of Wolfpack all the time. I still love amateur wrestling. But progress on the ads a huge degree of entertainment to it. And DJ loved that. And he loved the craziness of the character. And he loved my commitment to it. You know, what you were talking about earlier. I've seen guys that had gimmicks.

And the reason they didn't work was because they didn't commit to it. You know, I didn't believe in the hurricane. Then the fans wouldn't have believed in me. So I had to commit to it. And, too, like, we were only supposed to do one pre-taped. That whole feud that me and Rock had was on. going to be one pre-take, but it went so well, so good that it snowballed. You know, luckily the office, they felt it when, because we touched later on in the ring

that night, there's a battle royal. We did the one, the first pre-taped, the one we called me the hamburger, which was fantastic one. And that's live, too. I'm sitting there on all my reactions is just me being an idiot. I don't, you don't see superheroes do that. Even the way the hurricane talk, there's no superhero to talks like that. I don't know why I did any of that shit, you know?

It's got to be funny. But we played off of each other really well. So later that night, there was that battle royal, and he's laying a smack down on this guy, and he goes to lays a smackdown on this guy. And then he comes to the hurricane, and I block it. And I start firing back, and you can just feel it in that crowd.

That crowd starts rumbling. And it's a really good moment. And, you know, I hope the audience, I mean, I hope the office, I should say, I hope the office heard that, and I hope that they felt it too, but I don't know. Sometimes they miss it. You know, they're back with headphones on,

and sometimes with this headphones on, you miss the actual reaction of the audience. But they did. They liked it. Duane liked it. And we just snowballed after that. And we kept having a couple good promos until we had what would be his last match on Monday Night Rawls

with me in Cleveland. And you won. Yeah. I didn't want to say it at all. I'll say it, boy. You got wins over the Rock. You got wins over Rick Flair. I mean, that's pretty impressive.

Yeah, not bad. Not bad at all. At what point did Rosie come into the fold? Because, you know, did your character really need a sidekick? And when they presented that to you, what was your first reaction to that? No, I didn't need it at all. Whenever they gave me sidekicks, you know, there was a lot of superheroes have sidekicks, but a lot don't.

I definitely didn't need it. You know, you don't need two undertakings. You don't need two stone codes. Anytime you got somebody, you know, duplicating your gimmick and your character, they water it down a little bit. Sure. So, no, I definitely didn't need it. But in the case of Molly, in the case of Rosie, in the case of Stacey Keebler, they had these. And before that, it was ivory.

And they had these talents that they were very talented and they wanted to do something with them. And then they had the hurricane. And the strength of that character, they could add a layer to these other talents. So it gave something from Molly Holly to show a little bit different side of herself, a little bit more personality than she had been able to show as Molly Holly. Same thing with Rosie, that he wanted to do something with Rosie. And this super talented, huge Samoan, who, believe it or not, we were patterned off of, if you've ever seen the TV show Lost, we were patterned off of Hurley and whoever the little guy was.

I was the little guy, I can't remember his name. Wow. That's who we were actually patterned off of. So when he came with me to the idea, I was just like, initially at first, I was like, I've already done this. I've already had sidekicks before. Are we going to do this same shit again? You know, but this was when we were on Spike TV. Raw had moved to Spike TV and Spike TV was going to be, you know, it was going to be the network for men.

It was going to be cutting edge and we were going to be able to push that envelope. And the hurricane was going to be able to say, holy shit, every week before Rosie was the superhero in training. But as it turned out, Spike TV wasn't quite as cutting edge of state. They were to believe in. Then I wouldn't allow to say, holy shit no more. And now I got a 400 pounds of mowing with SHIT on his chest. That's right. But I like, as a human being, you know, Maddie, I fell in love with him as human being right away.

Super nice guy. He would take up for me. Like, if anybody was talking shit to me, he'd be right there. He's like, that's my buddy. don't talk shit. And so, man, and we worked really hard. I actually got with an artist, Mike Borkowski, out of Syracuse, and we designed Rosie's outfit because I wanted him out of that S-H-I-2.

Harking back to what I was talking about, three counts, you have to believe in yourself. If you're laughing at yourself, the audience is going to know you don't take it serious. Right, yeah. I knew I needed him out of that. And although he wouldn't say it, I mean, he laughed at the joke once. or twice, but you don't want to walk out of that way they say JIT on your chest all the time, right? So I wanted him out of there. So I added that outfit. So we designed his outfits to get him a more superhero look. And dude, we just, we just worked. We put in the work to get over. I mean,

they gave us, that wasn't a push. That was a pat. You know, I can't really say I ever got a super push. I got a couple of pads here and there. You have to make the most out of them. And we got, we had the pat, but we just worked so hard to the point where we were the most over team they had. We were selling merch, the crowd, the reactions are there, the crowd loves us, and they literally had no choice but to give us those tag team titles. Even though they were trying, bending over backwards to push this team and that team and that team, we were the ones that were getting the reactions and selling the merch. So they almost had no choice. I mean, they do always have a choice, but that was my favorite championship win. Of all, you know, the cruiserweight title is what I'm most

known for, I guess, in terms of championships. Sure. But my favorite is me and Rosie, because we worked so damn hard to get to that position where they would make us champs. And when we came through the back, 90% of the locker rooms there waiting for us, standing in ovation just because they knew. They knew how hard we worked and that we deserved it. And that doesn't always happen in the business.

And it's one of my favorite moments in my career. So so many of these moments you've talked about are with the crowd basically puts you over or gives you a certain reaction and makes the back see like, oh, these guys, you know, deserve this push. What happens now when there's no crowd in these shows to drive that narrative? You get no one-sided story, you know, most stories have two sides. We can only one side of it. Pro wrestling needs an audience more than any form of entertainment that exists out there except stand-up comedy. That's what this is right now. If you go to a stand-up comedy show, I don't care how hilarious this guy is. If you're the only one in the audience, it's not going to be as funny.

It's just not. That's what we're dealing with right now with the, in the COVID era of watching wrestling without fans. Fans are a huge point. I've always known that, you know, and I think a lot of people that might have taken up the audience for granted, thinking that they're good, no matter what, they're learning. They're learning a hard lesson right now. You know, that audience is super important. They're a powerful part of the equation of what makes pro wrestling what it is, a powerful part. I don't know what the alternative is, though, because I'm happy there's at least still some sort of tiny little bit of normality in the world because pro wrestling's live every week. I think that if that wasn't there, it'd be even more strange. Yeah, yeah, it's definitely better than it without a lot.

And my hat's off, my collar and elbow hat. Very nice. I'm a big collar and elbow fan myself. Would you like to tell everyone your coupon code that they can get 10% off? It's generally hashtag Helms is what I try to make it. for everything. And call it melbournebrand.com slash, I believe it's Shane Helmscom.

But just search for Helms or her again. I should come up. And they actually are working on a new show for me too. Oh, nice. But I don't know what I was talking about. You were saying your hat is off to them. Yeah, take my hat off to, yeah, all these companies and these talents that are going out there and working

to give us some form of entertainment in a form of pro wrestling. And my hat's off to them, you know, so it's, like I say, it's better than nothing. And it is brave, you know, because it is a weird time that we're living in. And nobody has all the answers, whether you agree with it or disagree with it. Nobody on either side of that argument has all the answers. Are you hopeful that when stuff does start getting back to normal, that your job will be there waiting for you?

Yeah, yeah, I did like feeding my family. I was very fond of that. And I'm definitely hopeful. You know, I love being a producer and I love working in wrestling, you know. But I love TNA. I loved Ring of Honor. I loved every company I work for it. I love WWE.

So if that's there, I hope that it is. If it's not, I'll find something, you know. I still have a lot to offer. I'm pretty diverse in my skill set, you know. So I'm definitely hopeful, but at the same time, I'm not counting on that. I think it would be a mistake for me to sit back and do nothing and wait on this for me and call. I've never done that in my entire career. And it's not going to start in 2020.

Yeah. I've always wondered, how many hurricane masks do you own? Not that many. Those leather masks would last for a while. I'd make them last for a couple years. So how many do you have in your house right now? Oh, you have them there? Well, this is a plastic replica one.

Okay, yeah. They made that for me to when I do like promos and videos and stuff. but I still have to do the eye makeup, so I normally just put on my real one. This is kind of a decoration piece. I don't know if you can see this, pro wrestling teas too, my little. Yeah.

Yeah. Things called. But probably overall, only got like five or six. I don't have as many as you think. Definitely not Raymond stereo, you know, hundreds and probably thousands of them at all.

My leather mask, because they were really expensive. When the solid leather ones were probably five, six hundred bucks a piece to make, and when I went to the ones when I came back after the neck injury in WWE and I had the long hair and I had more of an evil-looking mask

that was a leather and latex combination that was made by a special effects studio out of Atlanta and that thing was really expensive so I only had like two or three of those because I think to make the mold was like $1,200 bucks to get the mold and the mask of that first one. So I'm not going to run around

and spend $1,200 a week on a mask on a bunch of different masks. But the first thing, time you did it wasn't a mask, it was face paint that you had on. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's a funny story with that if you've never heard. Because when they presented the idea to me about wearing a mask, I'm like, yeah, sure. So they bring to me, and this is no lie, a Long Ranger mask that they got from like Party City or somewhere like that or family dollars, the cheapest 99-cent looking shit you've ever seen. And it had a very thin string on the back, like on this cheap Halloween

mask, if you know what I'm talking about? Yeah. I'm looking at this from what the fuck? It's this ain't going to work at all. But I don't want to be a problem, child. I never want to be one of those guys that complains to the office and creative about the deal. I will, but I don't want to, you know. And so I see Vince McMahon. He looks halfway in a good mood. So that's how what I always did.

When I wanted to talk to Vince, I would gauge his mood. If he was happy, I'd go over. If he was ill, that shit could wait until next week. But luckily he looked in a good mood, so I went over. And I haven't had one creative conversation with Vince at this point whatsoever. This is early on in the career. It's always just been, hey, sir, how you doing? That's shit, so of shit.

And so I went up to him and I was like, sir, I don't think this mask is going to work because you don't want to wear a mask. He immediately thinks I'm trying to back out or something. You don't want to wear a mask? I was like, no, I just don't want to wear this mask. This mask is a piece of shit. It's going to fall off in like 10 seconds. And I'm going to look like I don't even care.

I'm going to look like I'm not committed to the gimmick. And he loved, he immediately caught on what I was saying and loved what I was, where I was coming from. He goes, what about makeup? Like right off his hand, he goes that. And I go, this is the best part of the story. I go like the road warriors. He goes, like the ultimate warrior. And his mind is a difference.

And I was going, okay, like the ultimate warrior, shit. I don't know. I go, yeah, anybody here that can do that? He goes, yeah, the makeup lady Jan, go to her and tell her I want a mask. And I go, okay. And so I go to the makeup lady. And on TV, she would do it at TV. And it would be all these nice little swirls and shit.

And then at the house shows, I'd have to do it myself. And it looked like a terrible did the shit. It was terrible. How long after we're in the face paint, did you finally go, you know what? I think we need something more permanent than this. Oh, we immediately started working on something. But I think I only had to make up for a month or two, whatever. We got Terry Anderson, who's one of the seamstress.

had a friend that made Canes mask. So I went to his house. He did the mold of my face, which is fucking terrifying if you've never done that. They just submerged you and they put this shit all of your face. They got to like put like little straws in your nose so you can breathe. Wow. And then that you just submerge. They're like, I don't know this guy.

I don't know. This could, he could murder me right here and that would just be, I could be the gimp from Pulp Fick and I don't know what's going to happen. Yeah, you end up making that mask. but I couldn't see for shit out of that mask, man. Like if you were like, if you were this close to me and trying to shake my hand, I wouldn't be able to see down. It blocked so much of my downward vision.

And that's part of the reason I kind of developed that bent over a hurricane walk because I couldn't see for shit in that mask. And it's one of the reasons I took out like springboards. Like I would do them sometimes on a live event, but I was like, I can't see that rope. I'm just, I can't feel it. And I hope it's there. But you're like, when you do a springboard,

you're not necessarily looking. looking at the road, but through your peripheral, you can kind of see the pads and you know where it's at. I was, my vision was so obscure. I had to kind of tone down a lot of stuff. Man, I think that, I can't believe we talked this long without mentioning how awesome this shirt is. And I'm sorry for anyone who's just listening and not watching this, but what a design. Yeah, this is an homage to Jimley. That's an homage to Jimley's art. You can find this on pro wrestling t's.com slash Shane Helms. They got a bunch of different ones like that. this. And I'm going to be honest. I love that sight. My shirts are better than anybody's.

Especially if you love comic books. You got to love comic books. And let's be honest. I've been wearing a mask telling people to stand back for 20 years. Now everybody's doing it. Way ahead of the curve here. Yeah. That's a curve. I wish I wouldn't have. This has been such an honor, it's such a privilege to be able to speak with you. And I've heard so many great things from so many people about you, but so amazing to be able to spend this last hour with you, Shane. Is that how long has been? It doesn't seem like that long, man. That's a part of a good interview. Well, thank you. And I just, I super appreciate your time. And, you know, I know it's a weird time in the world right now, but I'm really stoked to see, you know, where you rebound from here

because I know it's only going to be bigger and better things for you. Yeah, yeah, I definitely. I'm looking forward to the challenge, you know. Like I said earlier, that's the only way you get through stuff like this, man. You got to come out swinging. So I was prepared. And too, I definitely want to reiterate. I'm in a blessed place. You know, very fortunate. There's way more people with, you know, in more difficult situations than I'm in. So I'm in no position to complain. I don't want to complain. I'm very fortunate and I'm aware of that. As we wrap things up here, what if there's, you know, a upcoming wrestler that's watching this right now that's been handed a gimmick that maybe they don't think is great or they have an idea for a gimmick and they're not quite sure

where to go with this. What kind of advice would you have for them? Commitment. Do you have to commit? You know what I mean? You can't imagine every actor in Hollywood has wanted to do. You think Captain Kangaroo wanted to be Captain Kangaroo for 30 fucking years? That's that I'm actually still in the Sam Kinnison bit there. But you got to commit and everything has to match. Your music has to match. Like they had a little hip hop beat for me when I was first, The Hurricane. And I'm a hip hop kid. That's what I grew up on. I was actually just on an MC Search's podcast, which blew my mind because I came out in the third base in 1991.

But the hip hop beat didn't match. It didn't match the superhero. My style matched. You know, there's guys that in the back, they're doing the character, and then in the ring, they're just a wrestler again. How do you make it match? you know, you make everything complement every other element of the gimmicks. So that sounds complicated, but it's really not. I was a superhero through and through.

A guy that believed he was a superhero through and through. This has been so enlightening. What a conversation. So, Shane, again, thank you so much for this. My pleasure. My pleasure, man. I appreciate you. And I want to encourage everybody to keep listening to this podcast,

but also check out Highway, the number two, Helms, also on iTunes, you can find me there. It's just me. I don't have any guests, just my lonely ass. Actually, I got that from Bill Burr. Bill Burr is one of my favorite comedians and I listen to his podcast. It's just him. And I'm like, I can do that. I'm going to try to do that. And strangely enough, people have liked this version more than a version that I actually had guess. It's very helpful. Thanks again, man. My pleasure, man. Let's do it again. Sign me up. Sounds great. We'll do the next one in person, all right?

Sounds good. Sounds good. We'll do that. I won't chop you. Thank you. My chest is very tender after that. Such good stuff there. Take a screenshot.

Tag me at Chris Van Vleet. Tag him. He's at Shane Helmscom. Let us know that you were hanging out with us for this last hour. So good. Highway to Helms is Shane's podcast. You can find that wherever you're listening to this one. And what a career he's had.

And it's so exciting knowing that it's, It's not over yet. Future Hall of Famer, for sure. I think we can all agree on that one. But the question, I guess, now is, who should induct him? Hmm. I don't know.

Maybe one of the Hardys? Like, the really close friends with the Hardys, maybe one of the Hardy. I don't know. I guess we'll find out soon enough. And I'm loving the conversations that we've been having over the last week. Well, I mean, I genuinely appreciate all the conversations that we've had.

But these last few with Zach Ryder, with Heath Slater, and of course Hurricane here, so good. And now we've got our interviews lined up with Aiden English, Kurt Hawkins, and Bully Ray, and many more on the way. Those are the three that we've locked in.

We haven't done them yet, so I hope this isn't the case of me announcing that these interviews are going to happen and then them not happening, but I guess it's too late now. So Aiden English, Kurt Hawkins, and Bully Ray are on the way, and we got a few people that are like, that were recently released from WWE that want to do the interview,

but said, you know what, can we wait till the 90-day non-compete-caths thing is up? So that means in July, I think we'll be getting some more. Man, I'm excited about this. Zig Ziglar said, you don't have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great. Chew on that. Enjoy your week. We'll see you on Friday for Aiden English. Back in the 80s, there were a thousand bands trying to make it in the world of rock. But there was one band that had it all. Hammer Alley.

Whatever happened to Hammer Alley? How did they go from top of the rock? I'm looking for a music video. They're a band from 1987. Hammer Alley. Ever heard of then? To Rock Bottom. Dude, I was born in 1987.

I can't believe he's doing this. Hammer Alley. Follow and listen on your favorite platform.