• Old School WWF Attitude Era Veteran celebrates His Birthday
Old School WWF Attitude Era Veteran Val Venis (Real name: Sean Morley) celebrates his 49th birthday today.
Val Venis wrestled for the World Wrestling Federation (later renamed World Wrestling Entertainment) from 1998 till he was let go in 2009.
After a stint for Total Nonstop Action in 2010, where he wrestled under his real name, he retired from the sport of professional wrestling, and ended up becoming a pro-cannabis activist.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY VAL VENIS!
• Big Show Reveals How Brock Lesnar Saved His WWE Career
During a recent appearance on WWE’s After The Bell podcast, former WWF Champion The Big Show talked about his time WWE’s ECW, going to OVW, Brock Lesnar saving his career & more.
Below are the highlights:
On working in WWE’s ECW:
“ECW hated me! They booed Batista and I out of the building. I had to earn a lot of respect from the ECW fans, and it took a lot for me.
When I had that match with Dave at the Hammerstein Ballroom, [he] and I gave them a hell of a match, but it wasn’t what they wanted to see. They didn’t give a crap.
They may have liked Dave and they may have liked the Big Show independently, but not for their ECW. They wanted the guys that they identified with; that they were invested in.
That was the difference. It took a while to get emotionally invested with the ECW audience, until they realized ‘Eh, Big Show’s not such a bad guy – we’ll cut him a break.’ But it took me a while to not let that get to me, and just going out every night and trying to do the best that I could.”
On being sent to OVW (developmental territory):
“I’d already gone from the WrestleMania 2000 main event, to a few months later being in OVW. I went out there one night in OVW and there were 7 people, and some guy asked because he was selling hotdogs outside – as I’m in the ring – he says, ‘Show you want me to save you a hotdog?’
In all sincerity, I could have taken that experience and made it a negative thing, and b*tched and moaned. But you know what, in that OVW experience I got a chance to get away, to reboot, and to rethink and establish some friendships and relationships that I couldn’t make in WWE.
I got be friends with Batista, Brock [Lesnar], [John] Cena and Randy Orton – the next generation of main events. And it was good for me because I got to interact with those guys, and build relationships that made it easier for me, once it started picking up again.”
On Brock Lesnar saving his WWE career:
“I owe the entire resurgence of my career to Brock Lesnar. For the longest time I was still napalm when I came back from OVW.
Brock’s main event somehow got stuck in a plane, and Blackjack Lanza at a house show threw me in the main event against Brock, and we tore the house down. Before that I was working mid-card, and doing Body Slam matches; stuff like that. I filled in for that main event, and Brock and I tore the house down.
Brock can flat-out go. Now he’s the ‘Beast’ and all that stuff, but just like Kurt Angle, the amateur wrestling background made him a better performer.
I remember hearing the story that they were asking Brock who his next opponent is, he said ‘I want to work with Show. He’s a giant, and you guys are idiots for sleeping on him.’ You know how Brock is.
It changed a lot of people’s perceptions for who I was as a talent, and who I was as an individual. I really owe that break to Brock.”
WATCH: Brock Lesnar Tells Drew McIntyre To Pick Up The Belt:
