Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Shane Helms on Becoming The Hurricane, Beating The Rock, Producing Logan Paul's Matches

Episode Date: August 22, 2023

DESCRIPTION: Shane Helms (@shanehelmscom) is a professional wrestler known for his time in WWE as "Sugar" Shane Helms and in WWE as The Hurricane and Gregory Helms. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet in Detroit, MI to talk about how his career started in WCW as a Cruiserweight, being part of 3 Count with Shannon Moore and Evan Karagias, what happened when WWE bought WCW, his "stripped down" debut match in WWE, becoming The Hurricane, leaning into being a comedic wrestler, working with The Rock and getting a victory over him, Super Rosey and Mighty Molly, getting serious with Gregory Helms, his current job as a producer for WWE, producing Logan Paul's matches and much more! Sponsors:  MANSCAPED - Get 20% off and free worldwide shipping with the code CVV at manscaped.com   To get 15% off go to http://mudwtr.com/cvv to support the show and use the code CVV15  Upgrade your sleep with Miracle Made! Go to http://TryMiracle.com/CVV and use the code CVV to claim your FREE 3 PIECE TOWEL SET and SAVE over 40% OFF  Use the code CVV to get your first month of BlueChew for FREE at http://bluechew.com  Get $150 off your Plunge with the coupon code CVV150 at http://plunge.com Quote I'm thinking about: “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” – Winston Churchill For more information about Chris and INSIGHT go to: https://podcast.chrisvanvliet.com If you enjoyed this episode, could I ask you to please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcast/iTunes? It takes less than a minute and makes a huge difference in helping to spread the word about the show and also to convince some hard-to-get guests.  Follow CVV on social media:  Instagram: instagram.com/ChrisVanVliet Twitter: twitter.com/ChrisVanVliet Facebook: facebook.com/ChrisVanVliet YouTube: youtube.com/ChrisVanVliet TikTok: tiktok.com/@Chris.VanVliet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

All systems are gathered. Ladies and gentlemen, Chris Van Bleas! It is awfully good to see you here, my friends, and welcome back to another one on Insight. I'm CBV, Chris Van Fleet. Thanks for being with us. And thank you for making Insight one of the top wrestling podcasts in the world by tuning in each and every episode. I'm guessing you're already following the show, but if not, please take a second right now to click follow, or just take a second right now to see if you're following the show.

Like, oh, I feel like I followed it a few months ago. Just take a second right now to see. Does it say following or does it say follow? Because we've got three huge, dare I say, legendary interviews that we're working on. We're just figuring out like what are the dates for these? What are the recording dates going to be? Oh, it's true. It's damn true.

So eat your vitamin. say your prayers and follow the show so you don't miss out on these legendary secret interviews that we have coming up. Speaking of legends, man, how can you not love Shane Helms? Whether he's Sugar Shane, he's Gregory Helms, or he's the hurricane, here's a guy who gives 110% to everything that he does. He was so great to be able to sit down with in person. We recorded this during SummerSlam weekend in Detroit. He was also on the show back in in May of 2020. So if you want to go back, man, back to when the show was not even a year old. You can go check that one out. But we talk about it here. I think that you put the hurricane up there

with Art Truth and Santina Morella as some of the best comedy characters in the history of the business. I mean, the way that he committed to this character that he wasn't even really sure about. So good. Staying back. There's a hurricane coming through. And now he's taking all that knowledge that he got as an in-ring performer, and he's putting it to work as a backstage producer in WW. And actually, he's the guy who has produced all of Logan Paul's matches since he's been in WWE. So say what you want about Logan Paul, whether you love him or you hate him. The guy leaves it all out there every time that he wrestles. And his matches have been every single time they're memorable, right?

They are so memorable. And Triple Age said it. Logan Paul is no business being as good as he is at this stage of his career. You got to give some credit to Shane Helms for the way that he's produced these matches. So we talk about that and a whole lot more. I hope you enjoy this. Please snap a screenshot, share it out and tag us so we can share it as well. He is at Shane Helmscom.

I'm at Chris Van Fleet. And here we go, the one and only sugar Shane Hurricane Helms. I put it all together there. in one. Enjoy this. Well, it's good to see you again. Actually, good to see you in person, because the last one we did was most definitely not in person.

Okay. I should I hold this up? That's usually how those things were. You ever talked into one of those before? Usually these are gimmicked. We got the wire and we hold the prop. That's true. Yeah. No, we did that interview in 2020, like when nobody was leaving their houses. Like, this is one of the first, like,

pandemic interviews, I guess. But now you're back with WWE. Now I'm back yet. That was a short vacation as it was. Was it enjoyable? Yeah, yeah. I actually ended up taking some writing classes and stuff I wanted to do anyway. So I was in contact with the company pretty much the entire time.

Yeah, you were furloughed, but like, it wasn't that long. Like maybe five months, six months? Yeah, because I had, like originally I was, because I had a talent contract. Yeah. And they were working on the leg, uh, the ledges deal. Yeah. because of that my actually being an employee as a producer I was in a temporary phase uh so when the when the pandemic hit you know from just the temp workers are the ones they get the acts kind of right

away so that's kind of like why that happened so what exactly is the role that you have now oh now i'm a producer agent is what he used to say right and i think for the average person who watches raw since i'm not going to read these questions i can take them off wait does this mean you're a superhero now He took off the glasses. Does it work? Oh, my God. Hurricane, is that you? Wow.

The green hair used to be a dead giveaway. When someone, like when a fan hears, producer or agent, I don't know if they fully understand exactly what that means. And I'm not going to fully tell them. You can't have all my secrets. You know, we're kind of the go between, between creative and the talent. We get with the talent. We, you know, we get the assignment from creative to what we wanted to do for our segments at night. We get with the talents, and between us and the talent, we go out and try to put out the segment that they're giving us to the best we can.

So what's been some of your handywork recently that we'd be able to go, ah, I see. Okay, awesome. The fun stuff, I mean, the fun, the funthest thing I've done in years was the Johnny Knoxville match at WrestleMania. Wow. Was that 38? Yeah. Last year, Dallas. Yeah. I don't know what year it is anymore.

That was fun, you know. And I get a lot of the creative matches, a lot of the crazy stuff that goes on, you know, the zombie match. I was, I had that, which I don't think we're supposed to talk about anymore, but it slips out every now and then. You know, but, you know, it kind of varies. You know, we've got a really good, we've got a deep cast of producers here, you know, a good team. You know, so with Michael Hayes being, you know, the head of the table, so to speak. I see what you did there. I see what I did there.

And just learning from him. You know, I don't know, we got a solid team, and I forgot what the question he was, but, you know, what? I'm jet lagged as hell, too, by the way. You should know that. I appreciate you. I'll struggle through this. Well, you talk about the Johnny Knoxville match. That's a match a lot of people point to us.

Like, that was just incredibly entertaining. Yeah, yeah. And I knew going in, there's going to be some people that are going to hate this. And so I just completely ignored those people from day one. I was like, there's a certain portion of the audience that I'm not going to. that's not going to like this no matter what so to hell with them i'm aiming for you know the audience that that i thought would like it in i know being in gorilla for that your own headset just the laughter in gorilla gorilla gorilla is popping as loud as anything i've ever heard it's the most

pops i've ever seen in gorilla i think you guys definitely convinced a lot of fans because i think maybe there were fans that went in going oh man another celebrity i can't believe this what's going on after that match they went oh my god that might have been one of the best matches the night yeah it was just So, and too, you know, that same weekend, I had my first time coaching Logan, because that was Logan Mez versus the Mysterio. Right. So I had that match one day and then Knoxville Sammy the next. So that was probably, probably, that was my coming out weekend in terms of, man, we can give this guy anything and he's going to come through. And you're still working with Logan now?

Yeah, I've, from the beginning. I've been with him from the very beginning. So you're the guy that we have to thank for the incredible matches he's been putting on. Well, he's the guy. He's the guy. He's still, you know, no matter what. you know, Belichick can make the play, but Tom Brady has to do it. Sure.

You know, so no matter why, yeah, I got to give Logan all the credit in the world. He works so hard. He's a hustler. He works hard as hell. And, you know, I'm just the guy kind of training him behind the scenes yet. But, yeah, behind the scenes, yes, I'm like that. During the press conference right after WrestleMania, Triple H is like, I've said it before. I'll say it again.

That guy has no business being as good as he is right now. True. Yeah. And you got a guy like Triple H that sees that. And even before, you know, Vince kind of saw something in there, too. You know, this is what you need to be doing. Forget all the other stuff. Yeah.

But, of course, Logan has a ton of other stuff that he's doing. So can't really forget everything. But there's so many things that he does, though, like it's not just, and you know this better than anybody. It's not just the moves. It's the facials. It's the selling. It's the timing. He seems to be nailing everything.

Yeah. Well, I mean, if you know his history, he's been a performer since he was very young. So I knew the guy from Vine, you know, I'm a social media girl. and pioneer myself. So I was on everything at one point in another. So I knew him from Vine. And so it kind of just kind of worked out that I happened to be the producer chosen, you know, to work waiting. It kind of just fit.

Do you think the hurricane at some point might, you know, work his way into a Logan Paul match? I think the hurricane would have to fit in his costume first, you know, we're not quite there at the moment. Is this black? Is this coming? It's very slimming. It's very slimming. And the slimming crocs you've got on here, too? You got to rock out with your crox out, man.

That's how I live. But I feel like we saw the hurricane in the rain last, you know, was it two years ago? You looked great. Yeah, the rumble. Yeah. Why didn't until I got thrown out? Well, yeah, that was terrible. What do you mean?

That hurt so bad. That was the first time. That's the first and only time. This is a true story that the referee came and asked me, was I okay? And I said, no. Why weren't you okay? Because I thought I broke my back. Like when I hit, I kind of landed.

My heels hit first. It was Bobby Lashley and Biggie, gorilla pressed me and threw me over. Yeah. And I kind of hit hills first. And they kind of shot out from underneath me. And I just went down on my tailbone. And I kind of had probably what would be described as a little bruise, you know, probably on my lower spine, something like that. Because, like, everything hurt.

That was one of the most painful bumps I've ever taken in my entire career. But that's one of those bumps that looks like it shouldn't have hurt at all. Like when you look at it, it's like, you never know. Well, it's because people see what we're doing out there. And they just like, oh, you know, this fine. that one looks normal. Like, none of this is normal. You know,

a normal human being, if you just fall down in your living room, it hurts, you know? Right. But they say, yes, falling down all the time, and there's still some people going,

do you guys really get hurt? I've had somebody ask me that when I was in a neck brace one time. It's like, so you guys really get hurt? And I'm just like, I'm not Robocop, right? Yeah, well,

maybe they think you're 30 years into this now, like the higher body just gets used to it. No, there's no getting used to anything. You get toughened up. a little bit, but I will say this. I've seen people I went to high school with, and they're beat up too, and they didn't do anything. They didn't do anything physically. So at least I got an excuse for why I'm limping around. Well, before you got tossed out at the Rumble, that spot's so fun. That spot where you go for the double choke slam. Yeah. That's such a good spot. One day I'm going to learn, though. I got to figure it out. I know how to go for it. It's just the application. That's where I'm getting stuck. when you went for it originally,

Triple H, then going for it on Stone Cold Steve Austin, and them throwing you out, that spot was so brilliant. How'd you come up with that? Well, all I knew was I was going to go in and get thrown out. That's all I was told him. I was like, okay. And now I knew Triple H came out before me, and this is his big return.

Yeah. So you got to think, like, here's where the performer in me thinks. Like, okay, he's going to get this monster pop. So whoever comes after a surprise, sometimes that pop is comparatively is going to look diminished because of who goes before, you know? And I'm like, man, I got to follow this monster

pop. You're going to have Triple H and Steve Austin, two of the biggest stars in the game going at it. And here's my little green ass coming out there. So I was just trying to figure something out. So I came up with the idea. It was, you know, 100% my idea. But I'm so new to this company. I don't know

how to pitch this. How do I go to these two megastars and go, hey, I got an idea. I grabbed both y'all up by the neck. And I'm going to be running this thing for a hot second. You know, I just didn't want to come across as, you know, big-handed or anything. So what happened was I knew Kurt Angle a little bit more than anybody else, any of the WWF regulars at that time.

Yeah. Outside of Manjave, of course. And I just went to Kurt and I was just hoping that somehow, if I explain the idea to him, that he would help me go pitch it. He loved the idea. And he goes, go run it by Steve. And I'm like, you know, so. Okay, so I go to Steve and I pitched the idea.

He goes, oh, I love it. Go run it by Pat. Paterson. You know, so I have to go run it to Pat. Pat goes, oh, I love it. Go run it by Hunter. So I had to pitch it four times. Each time just like such a nerve-wrecking thing,

but they were all just so gracious and like, yeah, I love it. And understood the entertainment of what I was going for with the spot, making the most out of that moment. And to this day, when somebody brings that up, I'll ask them who won. And most of the time, they can't even tell me who won. Yes. And to me, that's a perfect example of what making a moment means.

I made you remember that, and you don't remember who won, and then went on the main event, WrestleMania that year. So of the two, I would rather have been the one that won and went on the main event WrestleMania. But as it stood, that's a perfect example of making a moment. I had a very similar conversation with Santino. You know, he has the fastest elimination in Rumble history. he wasn't ready so he wasn't i wasn't ready i wasn't ready and he's like we we talked about the

exact same thing nobody could tell you like that who won that rumble and it's like you know this is this is what you guys are in the business of doing it's about creating moments about making moments and those are the types of moments that people remember yeah santino is probably the best comedy wrestler ever but a lot of people and this is the hurricanes in that so a lot of people throw your name into that conversation i i definitely think i mean it between me santino and our truth. Like, that has to be the top three. I mean, if there's going to be a Mount Rushmore, you three are on it. I don't know who the fourth one is. You just have that

revolving Freebird. I don't know. Yeah. The revolving horseman. That one that kept getting kicked down and come back. I mean, Kurt Engels, a great comedy character. 100% him too. But he's also a great, you know, in-ring performer. Oh, does that mean we weren't? Oh, wow. See? See, Gregory Helms would be very upset. But that's actually

why I had to, that's why I did the Hill turn because everybody got so swept up in the comedy, creative and my company included that they forgot I could wrestle. And that's why I had to turn Hill and be Gregory Helms. Was that a... That whole reason, you know, because it's still to this day, even when I

worked with some talents, if they only knew me as Hurricane, it's like, oh, this is just the funny guy. Not understanding that how hard that character was compared to all the tough guys stuff anyway. You know, having a character with layers is way harder than Big Mean Tough Guy Cuckeye cut promo go win match. That's the easiest thing in the business to do.

So that being at Gregory Helms, that was me having to remind them, hey, I can still do this other part of the business as well. Was that difficult saying, I know this thing is working, but I want to do this other thing here for a little while? It wasn't difficult for me because, I mean, I knew there was going to come a time when it had to happen. Everything gets watered down to a degree or hits a law at some point. And Rick Flair really kind of jump started it because I was, you know, doing a lot of stuff with them and he just one time just pulled me aside and Rick's been so, you know, such a mentor to me in different ways and, you know, he just pulled me to the side one day and he's like, you're too good

for this gimmick. And, you know, it wasn't about like the gimmick was bad, but I could only go so far and that the company was only going to let me go so far with that gimmick. And I understood that too. So, and I believed him and it's just like, you know, I do. I need to go and remind them of who I was before I came here because Sugar Shane is one of the best light heavyweights in the world. And then, you know, that same guy was Hurricane. You know, Tom Haines that did big, that's the same Tom Haines that did Philadelphia. Yeah. But in wrestling, that message wasn't coming across.

Sure. You know, so I, and too, it was, I mean, I did the hurricane really good. You know, part of it is, you know, it was because I did it really well and I committed to it. And I got so good at being the funny guy that that just became who I was. Yeah. You know, and I wasn't getting the opportunities to do serious. of stuff. So it was kind of, it was time for it at that point. It is funny, though, that in wrestling, when you graduate on from another character, like Stone Cold Steve Austin is also stunning

Steve Austin, but, you know, people don't want them to go back to that. They're like, this is great, this works. Let's keep going with this. It is interesting, though, that you were able to dip back into that, because, look, I was a big WCW guy. That first hour with the cruiser way, it's, oh, my gosh, was so good. And all the work that you did there, I think, if people haven't seen your work in WCW, it's some of your best work, I think. Yeah, and it's definitely different than what I was doing as Hurricane. Strangely enough, I had to wrestle down as Hurricane

to make the character work. If I was too good and, you know, and it's like I either got to wrestle real good or put this comedy in. I only got so many minutes I'm going to have on TV or even if it was a live event. There's only so many minutes I'm going to have out here. Am I going to be this serious wrestler or I'm going to be this comedy thing?

Right. And what do people, were reacting to at that time was the comedy. You know, and keep in mind when I became Hurricane, that's the most stacked roster that has ever existed in the history of the business. Yeah. Because ECW is done. It just brought out WCW.

Every big star that is currently active is in this building. Yeah. And that's my competition. That's why I got to compete with for airtime. You know, so when, because I get a question two every now and then. It's talking about my amateur wrestling background. I said, well, why didn't you really do that as Hurricane? I'm like, well, Kurt Angle was on the show.

And he has an Olympic gold medal. So all my little amateur medals, they're nice. Yeah. But it's not an Olympic gold medal, so let him do that. They didn't have anybody like me, despite how stacked the roster was. So that was a part of why I got to stick with this. This is my end. Yeah.

In WCW with, I mean, the matches that you were having there and the other cruiser ways that you were working with there, do you also feel that the stuff with three count kind of fell into that comedy category? A little bit. Oh, of course. Yeah. But it would be comedy stuff, and then you go in the ring and you'd be like, oh, my God. Look at these guys. Yeah.

And that, too, is kind of like with the three count, like people really hung on to that a lot. We only did it for nine months. But the song was so catchy. You know, but as much as I hear about three count, you think I would have done it so much longer. Because I do hear about it all the time. And it was like, really what? We went three count that long. So for a band.

As far as boy bands go, I don't know what the average is on staying together, but we didn't stay together very long. How long was Tank Abbott in it? Like not long. Like two months, maybe. Not long at all. But everyone remembers that. Yeah.

And that's another thing. Just, you know, if you're going to do it, no matter what the character is, and no matter what the gimmick is, if you're going to do it, you know, do it 150. You know, and I think that's what made me a sugar shame work. You could tell I was trying to dance. Whether it was good or bad, I was committed to it. Yeah. You know, the other two, I can't speak for them.

You know, but I tried. I applied myself. They were trying, weren't they? And then, I don't know. I don't know if they applied themselves to the dance moves. I actually bought a, I was telling, I forget who I was right. Anyway, it doesn't mind. Rickettsay, I was telling RICOA this story.

I bought actually a CD burner back then, which was like $7 or $900. It was so expensive to burn the song for them so that they could practice the dance at home. Like, that's how committed I was to making that thing work. Do you still remember the lyrics to the song? Yeah, but I only sang the rap parts. They sang the chorus. I could sing the other part for you. I love to get up on your feet.

That's Jimmy Hut. Put your hands together. I won't sing anymore for you. I just thought that what you were able to do with that, both in and out of the ring, I thought was really smart. When WCW came to an end, was there a part of you going, oh, my gosh, I was doing such great work here? Am I going to work anywhere?

Oh, yeah, everybody was, no matter what anybody says, when Shane McMahon walked in that room that day, everybody's heart skipped the beat. Did you know he was coming? Well, I mean, we heard everything back then. We heard this company's going to buy it. This company's going to buy it. It's going to be this.

Everything's going to be fine. You know, in some cases, management was just trying to keep morale up, you know. I don't think they would just, hey, let's just go tell him a lot. I don't think it was that. It was like, we still got a TV. be sure to put on. We need to keep their spirits up. There's definitely sprinkling in some bullshit. But, yeah, I think it was, you know, and they didn't really know. They were, you know, in flux, to put it nicely. So I heard so many different things, but I talked to, you know,

Shannon and Evan and the Young Dragons and different people. And I was like, I'm not in these meetings. I'm not in these decisions. The only thing I can control is the ring. So that's all I cared about. I mean, that's all I could control. So that's all I focused on. And you'll see us. in those last couple months, the WCW, if there's a match of the night, more than likely it's three-count or sugar-shane's in there. It's, you know, that group of the young guys that, man, we're fighting for this.

We're fighting for these moments. And for a lot of us, it paid off, not for everybody, of course, but, you know, but back to your point, when Shane walked in that room, and there wasn't that many people that knew for certain what was going to happen next. I've watched that last episode of Nitre a lot. Like, I watched it on VHS when I was, I was like 17 when that happened.

I've watched a lot. And I was always curious of like, you hear these rumors of what's going to have, what's going to happen. Then Shane McMahon walks into the room for you guys and then into the ring for us as fans. I mean, that's a history-making moment. That's also a moment where you go,

well, I don't know what's going to happen now. Right. Yeah. So it's funny, kind of when I was with TNA and Anthem bought them out, there was kind of a moment, too, where we were hearing rumors that WWE was going to buy it. And so now we're having this big meeting, and it's when the anthem guys show up, and everybody started joking.

What a shame of man walks in? And I was like, if he does it again, well, you know what, it worked out pretty well for me last time, so I'm going to be on his side right away. But it worked out for you pretty well that you got a contract, but like your character, I don't feel like at first in WWE was treated the way it was treated in WCW. Oh, no, I got stripped down, man. I had the worst debut of anybody that ever had a career. I, Buff Bagwell did not have a very good debut in WWA. Yeah, but he didn't have a career there. If anybody that ever went on to have a career there, I got you.

I had the worst debut, you know, because they stripped me down. I was Sugar Shane on a couple of live events leading up. Yeah. You know, so, and also, so they did the thing at Russellmania where some of the guys showed up in the box, and I wasn't one of those guys. So I was a little pissed off about that, a little pissed off, a little hurt, you know. But then we start doing house shows, and I'm sure. Shane on his house shows. I don't have the sugar babies with me or nothing, but I kind of expected that. I don't know who all they hired for sure. So now we get the TV, and so Booker T and Bag will

have their match. And what was supposed to happen, as far as I know, and far as what I was told back then, was I was supposed to be introduced in a match against Chavo. Established me as the Cruiserweight champion. And then I would go on to Russell Billy Kidman in Atlanta and lose to him. I was going to drop the title to him in Atlanta. I was always going to drop the title to Billy because he was a bigger star coming out of WCW. Remember, they had a lot of problems with some of their biggest stars not being

contractually able or not taking a buyout or whatever it was back then. So that title was going to go to Billy and then they were going to unify Billy and Xbox, those two titles. That was the plan for them. But when the Booker T. Bagwell match didn't go the way

they wanted it to for reasons on both sides of the coin. are kind of at fault for that. But they look to the locker room and they decide that, and this is a compliment to me and Billy, that of the talent they had there, the best match is going to be Kidman versus Sugar Shane. So we'll do that,

and we'll go ahead and throw a little extra sauce on it and switch the title. Yeah. So that's my debut. As far as I know at this moment, is that I get the debut and lose and then lose my championship. Yeah. Okay, it is what it is.

And then I'd already had this backstage thing with Bagwell, which I don't want to go into, but we've been talking about ad nauseum. And Marcus is a friend of mine now, so no need to go there. But so I don't know where I stand with this company either. You know, I don't want to be a troublemaker, but, you know, the redneck came out. It does what it does. It rears its demonic redhead. And so I don't know, you know, exactly what's going to happen here this night. But so then I find out for sure that I can't be shamed.

You know, I guess that might be a thing, you know, and I was prepared for that. I was hoping to keep helms because Triple H was helmsly. I was like, man, just as long as I can keep helms, that would, that would, you know, that would be nice for me. So that day I found out I can't be Shane, therefore I can't be sugar because sugar Shane was the joke. Therefore, and I ask about the girls, the sugar babies, definitely not getting them. I can't do my finisher, the vertebraker. My entrance is called the vertebraker, so I'm not going to do the edge of it. either. So I lose

and as I like I say I lose my name my gimmick, my entrance music, my entrance itself, the championship. I say everything you get stripped from one person and one day it happened. And they wanted me to be Hollywood helms. Yeah. And I hated that idea the second it was pitched to me.

I don't sound very Hollywood. You sound Hollywood. I'm from Canada. Most of the people listening to this sound like Hollywood. I do not. Me and Matthew McConaughey were from Hollywood, Florida maybe. We got to Dolph Ziegler He's from Hollywood, Florida Is he really?

No, he's from Cleveland. His character I mean, was his character from Hollywood, Florida? Yeah, okay. Because I actually made that joke I was like, Hollywood, Florida maybe, but I was like,

but Hogan was just Hollywood. Yeah. I didn't want to be, I mean, it's a monster shoes to feel, you know, within the same one year time span. And so they actually,

but it still said at that time on YouTube, people have sent it to me, it still says Hollywood when I come out that night. Yes. I think they've adjusted it at some point on the

various platforms, but I was just Gregory Helms that night, which is my shoot first name. Gregory Shane Helms. And I just hated that. And so this is a long-winded answer to whatever the question might be. I forgot what the question was. This is what I do. But that night on the plane from Washington State, me and Matt Hardy sat beside him and I still had this list.

I made this list of crazy-ass names. Any name I ever might have used and what you used, I'm going to come next week prepared with some ideas. And so Hurricane Helms is the one I kept going to because I was the hurricane kid in the early 90s for a brief second. And never did it again from that point. But so I went back to that.

And the next week I show up before the production meeting. So at TV, the production meeting arrives, the events and everybody, and they do their meeting and then talent arrives after that. Well, I showed up before the production meeting to catch Steph coming in. Stephanie was the one, you know, she was my liaison back then. Yeah.

She was producing. And so I went pitched Hurricane Helms. And she goes, you don't want to be Gregory, do you? And I go, hi, I said it doesn't have a hook. And when I said that, I can see recognition in her eyes. She's like, oh, this God knows what he's talking about. It's not just a knucklehead complaining about a name. Yeah.

And I was like, you know, I need something to grab on to, especially being new here. And she's like, okay, okay. And she said something like she'll mention it, you know. And I didn't think much about it. I didn't know what that meant. And but a couple hours later after the meeting, I see Vince walk in the catering. And he goes, Hurricane Helms, I like it.

And I said, yes. You know, and so, and then I wrestled as Sugar, you know, as Sugar Shane with the same kind of little tights and everything. But I was Hurricane Helms for a couple weeks until the hurricane itself came about. And that was really just them seeing your tattoo and going, oh, you like comic books? Yeah, I would always wear comic book shirts. You know, now everybody does it. All these Johnny Cummaley, you know, I always ask, even in the business,

to all these people are comic book fans. Now, where were you when I was fighting this fight by myself? Yeah, but I would come up with shirts and I had the tattoo. And Brian Gerwitz, who was the lead writer of Raw at the time, I think he'd always wanted to pitch a superhero character. And I think he might have tried at some point. It just didn't fit. And here I come.

Right time. Right time. Right guy. Right gimmick. I think the most important thing is the second one there. It's the right guy. Because a lot of people could be given a gimmick like that and go, well, I'll give him my best shot. You gave it your all, though.

Yeah. And now this is the thing as we sit here right now. 20 years later, this is a thing that people know you for. Yeah. For good or bad. I've come to terms of that for good or bad. You know, I won't get the credit I think I deserve because comedians never do in Hollywood or anything.

They never get the Oscars that they deserve. Every now and then they'll throw them one. But, you know, comedy's hard. It's way harder than people realize, especially when, especially when you get good at it, and now they want you to be funny every time. Right. You know, now you got to be funny all the time. But there's so many segments that you carry as the hurricane.

It wasn't just like a one-off like little one-liner. That backstage segment with the rock that everybody kind of points to, that's like seven minutes long. Yeah. And it's just like zinger after zinger and joke after joke with this great story that's being threaded through the whole thing, that is not easy to do. No. It's not easy and all the pressure was on me.

You know, people don't. I say, like if I go out there and stink it up with the rock, he's still going to be the rock you're never going to see me again even i mean even going into the match you know people uh you know we were talking a little bit earlier about uh logan and ricochet and who's the pressure on you yeah yeah pressures on you right the pressure's on me well as a producer yes the pressure is on me i'm gonna get y'all that if this goes sideways yeah but um yeah but with rocky i was like yeah all the pressures on me because if this when we have that match if this match sucks he's still going to be the rock he's still going to wrestlemania against steve austin

you won't see my little ass anymore. If I go out there and blow it with the rock, it's going to be over for me. But it wasn't just a segment, it wasn't just a match, it's a win against the Rock. Yeah. That's not a lot of people can say that. Not lately anyway.

I think it was his last match on Raw, too. It was the last main event or something like that. Man. Yeah. I ran him out. It was a loser-leave-Rall match. I mean, I've recently re-watched that segment, and I was like, the amount of heat that Heel Rock had,

I think people kind of forget, because he's so fun to cheer for. Yeah. But he had the audience in the palm of his hand, whether he wanted you to cheer or boo. It was amazing. Yeah, he was one of the best performers that has ever been. How long did it take you to come up with? What's up with that?

I don't really even remember the first time I said it, oh, I was just one of those things that Brian, like I said, Brian writer would encourage me to go off into these comment book tangents. You might have picked up that I'll go off on a tangent. He's a great story. So whatever the promo might be tonight is like, yeah, it'll be you against Christian and just go off. into one of your things. And I would just be talking normal when I was starting to introduce the Hurricane character.

And then it would turn to do, that reminds me at the time. And I don't know even why I decided to do that because no, you know, you watch superhero movies. None of them talked like that. I have no idea why I started doing that. And then just kind of getting lost in my own, like nonsense.

What's up with that? You know? And, but the cameraman would start laughing. And like, we would bust takes with the camera. So that's a good sign because they've seen everything. And, you know, they're, you know, just so like I said, they've seen everything. So to pop them, that generally would always tell me something if I can pop the production crew.

But I feel like if you had gone the other way with this character, if you'd been an actual, like, comic book hero who's just like staring into the camera and talking like this, that wouldn't have been very entertaining at all. Then it really would have hated me. I might have been a hill then. You might, yeah, I just, it wouldn't have worked. You would have been on there for a few weeks and that would have been it. Yeah.

But it started to work so much that they started bringing other people into this. with you. Yeah. That's a thing that I think when it's all said and done in my career is really examined by, you know, people that do those things. The fact that I gave a new character to three other people, like, that's how strong that character was because between Molly, Rosie and Stacey Keebley when she was super Stacey, three other people came in and did my gimmick and became new versions of themselves. And that's pretty unique. I don't think that's happened a lot. I can't, you know, every now and then. But, you know, you don't want to be. You know, you don't wants two stone colds. You don't want two

undertakers. So when you do that, you got to be careful about not watering yourself down to a degree. So when I had Rosie at first, like that one actually concerned me at first, because I'd already done that with Molly. I turned Molly from Molly Holly and the Mighty Molly. So when the Rosie thing was pitched

to me, you know, I wasn't sure at first, but I like Maddie so much as a friend because I'd worked with him when he was three-minute warning a couple times and then he was when he was managed by Teddy Long, I think they were still doing a white boy challenge or something like that of that nature of him at rodney mac and i worked with him then too and we got along really well so but i like that that's some of the stuff that people remember rosy the best for

um do you have a great rosy story you know they're all good you know he's uh man somebody just had some artwork done here we hear me that oh yeah can you move can can jemille move oh and he grabs this was a fan did this and they uh they just gave it to me monica monica had this made and i i bought i'm give one to Roman tomorrow. It's actually did Rosie as yeah, look at that.

It's three minute warning. And then Wow. They did, they did this one. This was Rosie and his family in Rosie attire.

Oh my gosh. Wow. Yeah, so they gave these to me, so I'm going to be hanging them up. Yeah, that was really great. Wow.

Yeah, it's fantastic. Yeah, I feel like with all the stuff you did with Rosie, you're kind of like an honorary. It was as well. I hope so. So, yeah, yeah. I've known that family a bunch of them throughout my career.

There's a lot of them in that family. There's a lot of them. And luckily, they all like me. I've had a weird attachment to this family because my first favorite mass wrestler ever. Now, keep in mind, I never was a plan for me to be a masked wrestler that just ended up happening. And even originally, it was face paint. It wasn't a mask. It was a face paint. Yes, face paint. So, but my first favorite master wrestler ever was sweet Ebony Diamond. who people might not realize. This is a deep cut.

Yeah, is Rocky's dad. Yeah. So, yeah, he came down to the Mid-Atlantic area and did some work down there. And so I had this magazine and it had, you know, Sweet Abidy Diamond. So he's in the mask, but he doesn't have a shirt on. And I see the tattoos and I recognize the tattoos from this picture of Rocky Johnson from a different magazine. And so I'm so excited. I have solved this mystery.

I'm like five or six years old. So I go in and tell my dad because my dad was a big wrestling fan. He's the one that got me in the wrestling. And I go, hey, dad, look, sweet it, every dime. He's Rocky Johnson. My dad goes, yeah, I know. Damn it. Okay.

I thought I saw some big mystery. Apparently, it was not a mystery at all. But to think, like, the guy that was my first favorite mask wrestler, ended up being the father of a guy I would have my biggest match with while I was wearing a mask. It's just a weird story to me. Yeah, that's like full circle. Yeah. But you mentioned, like, you know, that all of them like you.

I feel like everybody likes you. Like, when you bring up your name, there's nobody that's going, oh, that hurricane. Oh, I don't like that guy. He did this thing. A couple of them on Twitter seem to find me every now. Those aren't real people. They're not. Twitter's not a real place.

I said that one time. It doesn't exist on a map. Those are those people with, like, numbers after their username. How could anybody have a problem with you? I'm sure I've given some people a reason that I can't see it. Support for this episode is brought to you by Manscaped, who is the best. in men's below-the-waist grooming. Their products are precision-engineered tools for your family jewels.

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It's like it's too dangerous. This is a band move. At that time that a bunch of people, there was a slew of spinal injuries at that time. You know, Steve Austin. Lida might have been around that time. I can't remember Benoit was around that time. There's a couple of people that had really bad. And so they had restricted all power drivers.

Now, I have a good history. I've never injured anyone. You know, my ring, my total ring time was right around 30 years. And for 30 years to never, you know, nobody ever had to go see the doctor after a match with me. Yeah. I didn't break nobody's nose and break no teeth. You know, I was really, that was one thing I was really proud of and something that, really focused on in how I performed, you were going to be okay.

Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. Unless you're Matt Hardy. I did hit Matt Hardy. But that was intentional. I didn't hurt anybody on accident. I did intentionally hit him, but he's a heavy-handed, see, I'm trying to, I'm trying

to PG it up. It's okay. The first one almost came out there. I don't even know what the hell we were talking about. You're saying those were receipts for Matt Hardy. Yeah, just for being around him. That's what that was receipt for. I ran into them in the airport to do.

imagine you if they won my plane. I see them going to airport now than ever. I would imagine there's probably not too many people. Were you flying out of Raleigh? Yeah. Probably not a lot of wrestlers flying out of Raleigh. Not that meaning that I know of. Yeah.

But just the fact that crossed past with them, because we don't different schedules completely. Sure. It's still crazy. It's amazing how many people I actually see in the airport. But if you think about it, the world is big, but there's only so many airports. Right.

So you do travel a lot. That's true. You know, you should rush. But at the same time, like if we're both flying out on Sunday, for example. I might be flying out in the morning. You're flying on the afternoon. We're like two ships crossing in the night here.

And on the same flight. So that was great. All up front, I'm hoping. Yeah. Yeah. I wouldn't know front. I was in the back. Those boys were.

No, one of them was. Well, see, I was supposed to come in. I was supposed to come in on a different flight. I got to do a training session tonight. So I had to change my flight to come in early and it just put me in the back. I was fine. As long as I got an aisle seat. If I got an aisle seat, I'm fine.

So you're an aisle guy? 100%. I like the window just because it's easier to sleep up against the window. I'm just, I'm too, I'm not like super claustrophobic or anything, but I don't like to be touched by strangers. And so up against their window, there's always, I don't know, it's not comfortable. The worst thing is having to ask two people who are most likely asleep to get up so I can go to the bathroom. Yeah. That is never easy.

That's a part of it. Oh, did I wake you up? I'm so saying, well, now that you're up. That's a part of it, too. But we were talking about the vertebraker, and then we went off this incredible tangent here. Oh, yeah, yeah. They asked me not to do it.

So, I mean, believe it or not, I have a boss, and I generally do what he says. A lot of people don't understand that. Why don't you go do this? I just do what my boss says most of the time. That is one of those moves, though, that when you look at it, you're like, I mean, it looks like people can get really hurt

doing it. And some people took it a little bit more, maybe on the neck. Some people bent over a little more, more on the back, I guess. Yeah, I took a lot of it. I took a lot of the weight on my upper shoulders. If I did it a couple nights in a row, it would start to bang me up a little bit, too. I could see that. And at that time in WWF, there wasn't a WWF at the time. There wasn't, but a handful of people I could have even done it to because the roster was so physically big back then. So that, too, I didn't really have a problem going to the nightmare on Helm Street or as the hurricane. But I mean, the fact that, are you the only, person who has an entrance theme based around your finishing move?

I think you might be. I know, like, I don't know how many people ever yelled the finishing move out before me, because I remember a particular agent in WCW would, like, get mad at me. It's like, why are you doing that? It's like, you're telling them. And I go, yeah, but they're supposed to be so hurt they can't stop me. You know, that was my psychology behind it. And it gets a pop.

It started getting a pop, you know, that I would just yell Vertebraker and then go do it. I think it's brilliant. And it's also like, it's a total heel move of like, I'm so good. I'm going to tell you what's coming next. And you're still not going to be able to kick out of it. Yeah. So, I mean, I don't know if I was the first, but I didn't get it from anybody. But that doesn't mean, I mean, it could have been somebody in, you know, Germany doing the exact same thing.

I just wouldn't have known. Vertebraker will break your spine. Yeah. I mean, what a line in a song. And then is it, Vertebreaker does the trick every time? Does the trick every time? Yeah. I mean, that's it.

I wrote the lyrics for that, too. got I wrote all my hip-hop parts in the three count songs and then I wrote the whole Vertebraker song. But then Jimmy Hart got with this group, I think they were called Boys in the Base or Boys With the Base and they kind of restructured it to fit their rapping scheme, rhyme scheme. So they edited a little bit, but I still have an original version of it somewhere. I mean that all of that packaged together, you being that character, Sugar Shane, that song, that finishing move,

Chef's kiss. It was. And then the company went out of business. Nothing to do with you. Come on. The timing on it was, but timing is everything. It wasn't the time for sugar shane.

Like we talked about earlier, at least you got a job after that. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it all worked out, and I'm super happy with how everything turned out for me. I mean, the hurricane is an iconic character. Do you think that the hurricane

could get inducted into the Hall of Fame? I think you should. You know, and I think if you know, Shane Helm's story in terms of how, you know, I think I really helped light heavyweight wrestling as well as anybody, you know. Definitely there are people, you know, I think they did more and then definitely a lot of people that did less. But, you know, the style I brought is Sugar Shane. I think that's the style you see on TV the most now.

And, you know, I was definitely one of the first pioneers of that in terms of, I was studying Lucha. I was studying the European style and Japanese style. and in the American style, both old school and the northeastern style, you know, the Philadelphia area style. So I really tried to like combine all of that into this, you know, to this hybrid thing. And if you look at that and you look at what I did with Hurricane and what I did with the three-count gimmick, and then what I did with Gregory Helms, and as Gregory Helms, I think that was actually my best body of work in terms of, you know, matched structure and mechanical mechanics and technique. That was probably my best body of work, but to go from a beloved character to where people

want to absolutely loathe me. That's not as easy as one might think as well. So I was very happy with that. And then to come back and just to stay around as long as I have, and I think my producing gimmick, I mean, my producing career, I think that's going to go. It is kind of a gimmick, I guess. You know, that's going well. You know, I still got so much to learn.

So I'm looking for it. And I've done a lot of good stuff so far. But I think the more I learn and the more I grow as a producer, I think that's going to get better. I might actually be known more for that, I think, going forward. Well, I think that at least right now as we sit here, if Logan Paul's one of those things on your resume and the matches that he's had, it's a testament to both of your work and also his opponents. But there's a lot of eyes on what he's doing. And him along with you, you guys are knocking out of the park every time.

Yeah, man. And he's, of anybody I've ever trained, coached, you know, mentored in the business, he's, he's been the easiest. Wow. And maybe because he doesn't have this background of previous coaches and previous people in this business, at least. So, you know, I got this clean slate. But it's really like, hey, I think you can do this and can you do this? And then he'll get inspired and he'll start finding clips. And then he'll send me clips of him doing whatever off the top of over.

Like, hey, what about this? Oh, we're definitely going to do that. You know, he's a, I mean, he's a, he's a, he's a firecracker. And it's, it's been a real pleasure. It's been a challenge for sure, you know, because there's a lot of money invested, you know. Sure. So you want to, you want to give, you want to produce what the company wants for me, you know, for sure. So it's been challenging, but it's been, it's been so much fun.

I feel like he's kind of like the new Shane McMahon where he's going to give you a high spot. And that's going to be the memorable moment. And you may not remember six months from now or year from now who won that match, but you will remember when he jumping. jumped off the top rope and went through the announced table. Or you will remember when him and Rickashay met in the middle of the Royal Rumble. You'll remember those moments. Yeah, and I'm glad it ended up in.

And every match with him has been different, you know, and so I'm really, I'm really proud of that, too, you know, showing the different layers of what he can do athletically. And so this one's going to be different, too, you know, for the first time, he's going to be the bigger, you know, bigger, stronger guy with a guy that can, I mean, Rickishol is the best hoprower in the world. you know and if he's not the best and he's in the conversation there's a couple other people are in the conversation but he's definitely in there and you know as far as what i see on television on a week-to-week basis nobody nobody's doing it as consistently good as rick and so um so i think it's going to be pretty good i want to see more but i don't want just that either yeah you know i

don't want to just you know lock up flip lock up flip i like i actually like a story you know like what we did with roman and logan like i was very proud of that match i thought that match was super well done. When you talk about your body of work, I want to go back to that for a second, Hurricane's so over, Gregory Helms so hated, then you go back to Hurricane. Was that difficult to then go back to that character? Well, that came about because I, you know, I broke my neck, so I lost a bit of time, you know, on TV.

And that's when it was Gregory Helms, and we couldn't really even do a story. My neck injury was so bad. We couldn't risk me getting beat down. We couldn't risk me getting touched. You know, I literally had to. come to the building, say my goodbyes to events and whatever friends. I knew I wouldn't, you know, they weren't close enough to come visit me. You know, said my goodbyes and went home.

Within a day or two, I was flying to San Antonio to have the next fusion. So that Gregory Helms thing ended abruptly and without, you know, story. So then when I came back, I came back as Hurricane Helms again. Not the hurricane character. And I was going to, I had an idea in different kinds. for what I wanted to do with that, but then ECW got moved to the sci-fi network. And guess who's the only sci-fi character they have on the whole damn roster? So that's why her...

The Undertaker! The Undertaker could have been, but Undertaker wasn't going to ECW. He was smacked down. He was blue to the bone, you know. So that's why I ended up going back. All because of sci-fi. Yeah. Wow.

Yeah, because I wanted to, I did this at whatever year that Russellmania was. that year. So I was wearing these little MMA shorts. It had like the hurricane logo and even I remember Johnny's going, why you got the logo on it? Because I'm still the hurricane. It's still Hurricane Helms. I want to try to like evolve but use you know how Undertaker became the American

badass, but he was still the Undertaker. I'm trying to do something similar with that. You know, go in a different direction, but give the fans a little bit of the hurricane. Yeah. You know. And then at one of the WrestleMania's, what is it called when we do matches during WrestleMania? Access. Access, yes, yes. Doing one of those.

It was me, and I forget who, but Zach Ryder was on it. Zach Ryder and Kurt Hawkins were the opponents. And so I didn't, it was me and might have been Matt Suddell. Anyway, long story short, I have that trench coat that I wore as Gregory Helms. And so without telling anybody, I put on the hurricane outfit, but I didn't have the mask. It was when I had the long hair. And so whoever my partner was, they went out first. And then when I went out and I pulled that trench coat and I had that outfit on, that place exploded.

To the point where the main producer of the show, of actually. found me afterward. And it's like, that's one of the biggest spots we've had all week. And I was like, oh, and so I was just kind of doing that to give that particular fan base something at WrestleMania access because I wouldn't do anything on the show. I think I did like the Battle Royale or something before that. Yeah. But like that stuck in my mind.

I was like, okay, so let me just do this. Let me be not the superhero anymore, you know, because of how that limited me already. So I don't want to go back to it completely. So let me be me without the mask. Let me just wear the outfit without the mask. And I did that on a couple of live events and it was really working. But then the ECW, I'm really, I would be fascinated to see what would happen if I was allowed to continue that without having to go to the ECDV thing. Although there was a short period of time where you were wearing the mask with the hair.

And when you see the clips of that, you're like, oh, that guy looks like a real superhero, a real villain there. Yeah. It's Logan Paul calling you? We got to work. Vince big of my hand. Oh, my gosh. I can't see what I'm in glasses. I just, I didn't see a name.

I just saw numbers. So I'm guessing it was spam. It was something. But yeah, were you with the long hair and the mask? Yes, that was a lot. That was the ECW thing. Yeah, that was a look. I did like that.

I did like that. And then I started to do the little microbreeds. And that looked cool as shit while I was in the mask. Yeah. So fast forward went, so I leave the company in 2010. They say fired. I say leave semantics. So anyway, same outcome.

Same outcome. I wasn't there. I was there and then I wasn't. And so then I was doing the, you know, with that character, like the Indies were easy, so much fun and so much easy. And I'm booked everywhere, just all the time. And so I would do these little microbreys, and they looked cool while I was in the mask. But without the mask, I just looked like a middle-aged white guy that just discovered rap music. And so it was just like, man, I'm just really torn with this.

And that's why I ended up, you know, just one day just I had enough of the long hair. But between that, the microbraids or green hair, like when you're not in the gimmick, both of them are kind of like, that's this guy. Well, that's why the do-rack came about. The do-rack came about way before I became Gregory Helms. The do-rack came about because of the green hair, especially when they started making us do business cash when that came down. And there was a couple of guys that were dressing like hobos. So instead of just addressing those couple of guys, they made all of us.

dressed like carpet cleaner salesman. Is that still a thing? People still clean carpets? I don't know if they'd knock on your door and do it anymore. And so, yeah, I would have one like these nice slags and a dress shirt and this bright-ass green hair. I was trying to figure out something. And I wasn't a hat guy.

Not very much. It's very often a baseball hat in here, but it's still not. Then I found this du rags in it. For some reason, I was like, you know what? It looks kind of okay. Du-rags in a suit? Du-rags in a bit, not necessarily a suit, but the business. cash. The stuff I wore is Gregor Hens

when I would have a nice shirt in a du rag. Like for some reason, nobody ever said anything. Just to hide the green hair. Just to hide the green hair. And girls loved it. The du rag? The girls love the du rag. A lot of what I did if a girl liked it, sold. Ladies were very simple.

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My girl did not like that. Yeah, I bet. I will say that. You made an appearance in AEW. Is that doing a fair little? Oh, yeah, that was doing the furlough. The elite deletia. Yeah, yeah.

That was such a cool thing to see. Yeah. It was like, oh my gosh, what a pleasant surprise this is. I'm glad that worked out the way it did, too. That was a lot of fun. That was Sammy Gavar, I think, threw me in the water, right. Yeah. Yeah, that was terrible.

That lake is filthy. That is a disgusting. Doesn't something happen when you come out of that lake in the hardy world? We did that. I ended up coming out as hurricane, but that was during one of the impact ones. I'm trying to remember which one this was. Because I showed up as the reporter with Sammy, and Sammy threw me in the water, and I might have came out as Gregor Helms then, I mean as Hurricane then.

But we did one in the impact, too, where I got thrown in the water and came back as Sugar Shame with Cameron Grimes and Andrew Everett dancing with me. And then I got thrown back into water. Then I came out as hurricane there. And we feel like we could throw you in a bunch of times. You'd come out as every different character. Yeah. And they'd be pretty good.

But the one with the impact one, it was freezing out there, so I didn't go into water. But Matt, that was Matt's idea. Was that going this way? I'm not going in this cold-ass water? I mean, it was like 30 degrees out there. Oh, man. Yeah, go hop in this water. Like, no.

What's the one match as Hurricane that you're most proud of? Probably when me and Rosie went to tag time. battles, you know, and I say that because we weren't ever going to be champions. That wasn't in the books when they put this gimmick together. This gimmick was just give Maddie something to do because him and, you know, Eki had broken up at that point, you know, give Maddie something to do, something to, you know, give me for me to do and I could enhance another talent, you know, like Maddie.

And that was kind of it, you know, and it was the S-H-I-T joke. How many ways. Because remember we moved to spike at that time, the network for men. And it was going to be so edgy. Yeah. And so that was part of the gag was that I was going to say, holy shit, every week. That was the gag. And then Spike let us say that like once.

Then it got bleeped, and we never got to say it. So they weren't quite as edgy as we were led to believe. But now I got a 400 pounds of morning with SHIT on his chest. You know, so whatever. I got to figure this out. And so I got with an artist friend of mine. God. He's going to get mad at me because I'm so bad with names.

Anyway, I love you. You know you are. We designed Rosie's outfit ourselves, the one with the stylized R and all the colors they are. Mike Borkowski. Yeah. And so we designed that and we had that made because it was really important for me to get him out of that outfit. Like just, you know, that superhero training joke. That played, but once that's over, I didn't want people calling him SHA.

anymore. I just, I just didn't want that for him as a person. That bothered me. You know, once the joke was done, let's move on. Yeah. And so, you know, I was very happy that we got him in that. And then, man, we just really worked hard as a team. You know, you can see our, you know, tag team moves and stuff getting together. You know, we were crisp, not a lot, not a lot of miscommunication out there, you know, and we got over. And now Rosie's starting to, you know, his pops are starting to get higher and higher. And he's becoming his own thing. And so we worked really heart at that so that when we won those titles, you know, sometimes you're given a title to help you get over and sometimes you get a title because you earn it. You know, so this was one that we earned.

We deserved it, you know, and to the point when we came back, most of the locker room was at guerrilla waiting for us. Wow. You know, so it was a very special moment for me, for me and Maddie, but also when we came back at that locker room to be there for us like that, like that was, that was super important to me. And, you know, that's, that's always been my favorite title win. And, you know, I know people think it's the cruiserweight thing with winning that title and holding it was so long. But from an emotional standpoint, it was the, and then, you know, of course, the rock thing is right up there with it because that's, and hey, I proved I belong beyond the shadow of a doubt. Absolutely. Like, how can you not say, you know, even when there's people, like, to this day, every now and then there'll be some hey, that, whatever, you know, jobber.

I'm like, I was in a main event with the rock. Yeah. And that wasn't the only main event I was ever in. You know, anytime I had an opportunity to do a main event. you know, I proved I belong. So I'm very happy with wherever they needed me on that card. I'm definitely a team player. I love that part of the business.

But, you know, winning those tag titles at Rosie, that was one of my most emotional moments, I think, out there. When you list off all these characters that became superheroes, when Nikki Cross became a superhero, your name kept getting brought up of like, this seems like the hurricane. I love this. I don't like this. Where did you sit on that?

Well, she came to me and asked me what a thought of it. And they would, at different times when I first came, and I've gotten this question of many times, would you ever consider letting somebody else be the hurricane? I'm like, that's actually an interesting thought that. This happens in the superhero world over time. Yeah, that I become the mentor to the new hurricane. So I was like, you know, hey, if you guys present me something interesting,

I'll do whatever. You know, I like producing, but if you need an own screen character, if it helps another talent. And that was my thing with Nikki. I said, I will do something with you on screen if it helps you. I don't need it to help me. And I don't want to detract from you because right now, one of the things against her was that everybody would think of me when they saw her.

So now if you're trying to fight that, it's not going to help if I show up on screen with her. That's just going to reinforce it. So, you know, I was trying to help her figure out a way for her to do her own version of this thing that I had done so well. So it was a tough spot. for her too. But I was, I supported it from the very beginning. Like, whatever you need, I'll help you. And I, you know, I gave her advice whenever she asked for it, which, you know, she did a lot,

which was, you know, a good credit to her. I feel like you're not completely retired. I feel like there's maybe like one more. Maybe. That's got to be, right? Or somebody will beat the hell out of me. That's what, that's what I happen. It's always fun when, although when I go out to break up the fights with the ladies, Charlotte Flares popped me in the eye, I think twice. Rhea almost caught me one time. Rhonda almost caught me one time. Like, the guys I kind of jump in and grab them, but the girls just swing insane. Like, just elbows and I have to go in with your dukes up. You got to be prepared.

Those are the funnest little Easter eggs when it's like, oh, it's Jamie Noble. Oh, shit Helms. Yeah. So we got a good crew now with Ken Donne. So you got Spirit Squad, you got Petty Williams out there sometimes, me, Davarie, Jamie Noble. So there's a nice little squad of people that did, you know, each in their own way did a lot of cool little stuff in the business. Yeah. Well, look, man, it's been so good to be able to catch up with you. Has it?

It has been great. Am I as jet lagged as I feel? You feel great. You look great. I end every conversation with the same question because gratitude is such a big part of my life. I wake up, I say I allowed three things I'm grateful for. I do it before I go to sleep too. What are three things in your life? Now, the three things in the morning the same as at night?

Not usually. I mean, sometimes, like, you know, family, health, like those are kind of through lines. But, you know, a lot of times it's different. A lot of times it's like, I'm thankful that today. day I get to do boom, boom, boom. What are three things that you're grateful for? Honestly, I think about stuff like that all the time because I worked super hard in my career, but a lot of other people did too that didn't make it. And I'm very aware of that. And I always, you know, so I'm very aware of how, you know, things, fate plays a hand. Fate and fortune

definitely play a hand because there's been so many points in my life where if I would have went right or made a left turn, something would have drastically different altered my life, you know. So I'm very aware of how blessed and lucky I am. So, yeah, like, I pray every night before I go to sleep. And I'm not even that religious, like, at all. Like, I don't go to church or anything like that. But every night I say a prayer to something that I think is listening because I've been so fortunate. You know, how, you know.

So anyway, what am I fortunate for? My family, number one, you know, having my boys is the biggest blessing of my life. You know, I waited so long to have kids because I wanted to be, you know, I grew up so poor. So I didn't want to put my kid through that. And so I wanted to make sure I was financially set that I could, you know, at least get into middle class. Not where I was. I didn't want him to go there. But now the sport run, so I don't know if I did the right thing.

Oh, no. So I overcompensated like hell. But my family, I'm not very, of course, for my health, you know, I definitely beat my body to death. So the fact that I can still walk around, you know, halfway nimble, you know, for that. Family, family and the health. That's really kind of all you need. It really is. Other than that, you know, my fans, you know,

just the people that have stuck with me through, you know, my good times and my bad. I don't think I gave them that many bad times, but I think it was definitely a few, you know, definitely was a knucklehead a time or two, but, you know, they didn't kick me too much when I was down. But that is the best time to kick somebody when they're down. So I didn't hold it against anybody that did.

That's a lot easier to kick someone where they're down. Yeah. They're already done. Way easier. It's right there. Yeah. But, yeah, just, you know, family number one, health, and just the people that have stood by me through it all.

How about what's up with that as we end things? Yeah. So you've been listening to Chris Van, Vleet. Is that I say that right? You did. Bleet. Because that shit is on bleat. And kid vicious, aka Sugar, Shane, Hurricane Helms, A.S report at Gregory Helms.

And if you don't like that, what's up dead. There we go. What a way to end that episode. What's up with that? Nothing but love for Shane Helms. And a big thank you to him for finding some time to squeeze us in during a very busy SummerSlam weekend in Detroit. Like, they were just on the go all the time.

It was like, I think he had like two free hours from like landing, then getting to the hotel, checking in. He had like two hours before he had to then work on the, the Logan Paul Rurcay match that evening, then get to the arena the next day. So a huge thank you for him, to him for making the time here. I hope you enjoyed this conversation.

What a freaking legend. I love this. If you enjoyed this as well, please snap a screenshot and tag us. He's at Shane Helmscom. I'm at Chris Van Fleet, and I love this quote from Winston Churchill to wrap things up here.

We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give. Be great and be grateful. We're getting ready for an Ask CVV episode a little bit later this week. So if you have a question that you want me to answer, just send me a tweet or a Facebook message or an Instagram message using that hashtag AskCVV. But we've got one more interview between now and the Ask CVV episode. So keep an eye out for that on Thursday.

Be great. Be grateful. We'll see you on the next one for some more insight. Jim Rome takes on sports. Why? Because I have a job to do. With rapid fire takes. So I don't want to hear from you lava pigs on this notion today. No idea what you're talking about.

You're complaining more than you like to breathe air. It's like you get up in the morning only to complain and cry and moan on social media about things that you don't even understand. He's the spitfire of sports smack. Take advantage of it, but get up in here. The Jim Rome Show podcast. What's your beef? Follow and listen on your favorite platform.

You've been warned.