During a recent interview with “Sportshadow Wrestling,” The Godfather discussed quite a lot of topics, including his WWE Legends deal, the sort of treatment he received from Vince McMahon, today’s generation of wrestlers, and more.
You possibly can try some highlights from the interview below:
On his WWE Legends deal: “They began that in 2003. That’s once I finished up. I had been on it constantly since 2003. That’s what 23 years I’ve been on it, and so they just signed one other five-year deal. They simply got here out with an motion figure, some pants. They’ve been so cool with me. But my characters, despite the fact that they were short-lived, people remember them.”
On Vince McMahon: “Vince has done so many wild things. Where do you begin, bro? I mean, Godfather, Papa Shango’s not even on the list. Dude, he’s a really creative, very smart, superb person. Regardless of what you hear about him. Don’t imagine what you see on TV. He’s all the time been superb to me and my family. I used to be at his eightieth party. I used to be invited to that. That whole McMahon family has been nothing but good to me and my family.”
“All I’ll say is the cash appeared to be higher when Vince was running things, and I’ll let it go at that. But my royalty checks have gone way down since Vince left.”
On today’s wrestlers: “I don’t hate on anything, bro. I mean, it’s a special time. It’s different people. It’s different management. It’s a special era. So things are different. The wrestlers, so far as I see, don’t have the creativity that we did. One thing about me, I used to be never scripted. As Godfather, I might need to say a town, an event, but I might never be scripted. I don’t know in the event that they still have that. Last time I used to be there, I used to be amazed since it’s a lot different within the locker room and stuff. It’s a lot different. It’s more business now. After I was there… Everybody was, it was a bunch of friends and buddies. It was the blokes that frolicked together. Now it’s more of a business.”
“The fellows are more concerned about what number of Instagram followers or TikTok followers they’ve than what they really do. So it’s a special business. I tell people, ‘You desire to turn out to be a wrestler now? Get 1,000,000 followers. They’ll put you in there immediately.’”
“I ain’t mad at them, bro. I’m not mad at anybody for getting cash. People hated on me once I got here in as Papa Shango. They thought I used to be going to be the top of wrestling, you understand? So I ain’t mad at no person. God bless them. I hope they’re all getting cash.”
On The Undertaker: “I met Mark like in ‘88. We became a tag team called Death Express within the Mid-South with Jerry Lawler in Memphis. We became really good friends. After I met Taker, he didn’t ride. To begin with, once I met Taker, he didn’t drink Jack Daniels. That’s for me. After I met Taker, he didn’t hearken to country music. That’s for me. After I met him, he had no tattoos. You’ll see pictures of him getting his first tattoo, and also you’ll see me behind him like this. Most significantly, he didn’t ride a Harley. That’s for me. What I tell people about, because Taker will inform you, he’s like, ‘Dude, all of the American Badass is that this dude over here talking about me.’ But all I tell people about Taker is I just introduced him to a brand new lifestyle, and he took to it real well.”