Road Dogg talks WWE career, current creative role, more

[Chris]

On looking back at his career:​

"I've been there for a minute as far as realizing, man, I achieved a dream that millions and millions of people dream. I had a leg up, and I know that's not fair to everybody, but I pray I carried the name even though I didn’t have the name Armstrong on my jersey. I pray I did the family well in representing it. But I also feel like I just stood on my own two feet too, and that feels really good. Well, I'll tell you what I did when I did my podcast for a minute after WWE fired me for the fourth time [laughs]. I learned that DX was only like a 18 month run, it was not this great [long run]. You know what I mean? The Attitude Era was like a meteor that flew by, and it flew by really fast. I thought it was like a five-year deal. No, in 16-18 months DX was split up and then put back together again. It is all so crazy how fast it happened and how high it went."

On why his podcast ended:​

"So once they hired me back, it was kind of the task that I was tasked with, which demanded more time of me. It just demanded that I be on and last year, especially, some things up and down throughout. But I was on the road last year. I made every television show. I made every PLE, I was in the office. I was on live events. I was moving last year. This year, so far in the first quarter, just doing more content creating, and a lot of opportunities coming up for all these different platforms that are purchasing live action content. So we got the LFG that you probably saw on A&E plugged."

On WWE LFG:​

"I’d love to talk about that for a second if you don't mind. So LFG, let's f*** go, and I've edited myself. But it's four coaches, they each have four individuals underneath them, and the coaches are The Undertaker, Bubba Dudley, Mickey James and Booker T. So this is literally at the ground level of these people learning to become professional wrestlers, sports entertainers and they got Undertaker teaching them how to do it. It's the most access that I've ever seen given, because it's uncomfortable for me, an old rassler, to give this much access to the public. But man, we are giving away the farm. It's eye opening for me to sit back there and watch every episode and hear Bubba Dudley talk to some young talent, and I think to myself I was lucky, I had my family to do that for me. But holy mackerel, to have Bubba Dudley, one half of the most decorated tag team in the history of professional wrestling, The Undertaker, Mickey James, Booker T. You're sitting under the Learning Tree of these people, and you're in the infancy of your career. I get goosebumps talking about it, because it really is super exciting to see. You get to know The Undertaker as a dude just talking to another dude about wrestling. So it's so cool, and the access is so unlimited that A&E's got a hit on their hand. I can guarantee you that."

On if WWE is giving too much away to the fans in the modern era:​

"I’ve asked that same question to myself a million times, because it rubs you the wrong way as soon as you hear oh wait, we're gonna say that. You're gonna let that cat out of the bag, and it's the finish, or whatever we're going to talk about at the end of the day. I think the people, the WWE Universe, wrestling fans, they know what we're doing. They know what's up, and I think they're okay with us not insulting their intelligence, but also not just go, ‘Here's how you make a blade.’ We don't do that anymore anyway. But I don't think they mind us keeping some things to ourselves, but they don't want their intelligence insulted."

On if he saw the creativity in Triple H 25 years ago:​

"So no would be the quick answer. However, I never saw him as my boss, but I saw him as he was going to be somebody in the wrestling world, because I saw how he thought. We worked, a bunch of you have probably seen Brian Armstrong versus Terra Ryzing 100 times on WCW. I knew then, I didn't have a clue what I was doing in there and he was thoughtful putting stuff together in his head and I was like, Yeah, let's do that. So yeah, I knew he was gonna be somebody and be something just because of the way looked and the way carried himself, and like I said, his brain."

On what his current role is in WWE:​

"So really, I'm still in charge of creative of live events. But now we have scaled live events back. Domestically, especially this coming year, we're going to find out where our sweet spot is, but a lot of overseas live events coming up this year, there's huge money there. The business side of things right now is so far beyond what they have ever been before, even Attitude, all that stuff is just putting shame what the business is doing now with Hunter at the Helmsley [laughs]. I know, I'm sorry. I'm a granddad."

On the difference between The Attitude Era and today:​

"I think the talent to be quite honest with you. The talent is a different animal, man. So I'll tell you this quick story, and I've told it a million times, but when Edge and Christian came in, I used to scoff at them because they were on time and healthy and limber. They were doing exactly what a person in their line of work should be doing. I was still a party animal, so I scoffed at them and thought [differently]. Well now that's what the athlete is, because that's what the athlete has to be. You have to be that dedicated to your body and to this field and all that to be that. I would have never made it today. I mean, look at me. For the love of Pete, all these guys we just saw, Carmelo Hayes, and they're all chiseled out of brick. They look like Greek Gods."

On how he became self-aware:​

"Sobriety. I've been sober 15 years now. I did it to save my life because when I got sober, I was just done. I was done living, literally. I wanted to kill myself, but I was scared my kids are going to find me with my brains blown out in the lawn mower shed. That really went through my mind a lot, 100 times, literally 100 times. But because it was, I was on a vicious cycle of wake up and do drugs and wake up and do drugs and wake up and do drugs and it was like oh God, I don't want to live this way anymore. This ain't how my mom and dad raised me."

Did you see a way out?​

"No, I didn't know that there was one. And at that point I thought, well, one of these handfuls of pills is going to kill me and when is that going to happen? So look, I don't know what happened. Finally, I was just with my brother. We were on a drive. We came from a show. I was hammered on Xanax, he just talked to me, and I just cried and broke down. I wasn't working for this company, but the next day I called this company, and a certain lady I knew to call, and I called her, I was in rehab the next day, and that was 15 years ago. But even then, one of my biggest fears today is not being self-aware. That's probably my biggest fear. I know I’m not. I say things and people will go [groans]. I just feel like I'm not fully self aware. Man, I want to be. I don't want to be I want to know my motives. I want to question my motives. I question my motives. I'll be honest with you about something. I questioned my motives about doing this interview. Because I said, why do I want to do it? You called me and I jumped at it. I was excited, and I told you earlier off screen, it’s for me, it's for my ego. It's to talk about how cool I was for a minute. Let me be back in front of the camera for a second. So I had to sit there and think about is that the right thing for me? This is where I ended up. I said, Well, what's wrong with that? I'm not the guy that needs my name at the credits at the end of the show. If I contribute somehow, and the show's cool, cool. But this was a moment from I'm enamored by you and your stardom and how far you've come and what you're doing. So I thought, man, he asked me to sit down with him, I'm honored, but I'm also in it for selfish reasons, to try to stay relevant, for no reason at all."

On R-Truth wanting Road Dogg to induct him into the Hall of Fame:​

"I would be more than honored. I love him. I got some people in my life that I love, and he's one of them. [That guy could wrestle for another 20 years]. Oh yeah, because he doesn't have to do anything. That's the magic and look, that's what we do. That's what we talked about earlier. People want to know the trick, they do, but they still like to be surprised. They still like to see an Easter Egg, or have to think to follow the story, and that's what's Hunter's giving them. Hunter’s giving them good stuff, good wrestling. Oh, my Lord, it's been a minute since we've had good wrestling that's watchable, and three hours of it? Holy crap. And you're three hours in, and you go okay, yeah, I did that. I remember three-hour Raws that I couldn't make an hour into. I feel like you do too, but those don't happen anymore."

On if he had to mend some fences upon his WWE return:​

"So it wasn't hard at all. After I went there to TNA, and we were the Voodoo Kin Mafia, I said horrible things about him and Shawn and the whole deal. For one thing, I don't think they ever watched or saw it. I don't think they cared, because the front runner doesn't look back. So I don't think they really cared, but it literally was a conversation that happened when I came back. He literally sat me down and said, What was all that crap? I said Hey man, I was high. I was just trying to make a living, and that was the truth. I wasn't going to fight nobody. I'm not going to go fight somebody, but we were supposed to meet him at the Alamo."

On the fact that the door could have been closed:​

"100%. Again, I commend his [Triple H], I don't know how to say level-headedness in any other way, but he can look past that superficial nothingness because it was nothing and nothing became of it. He sees value in me and said, 'Hey, do you want to come back?' This was the conversation we had when I came back after I guess 2011. ‘Hey, do you want to come back and make some fun TV like we used to do in DX?’ And I said, Hell yeah, I want to. And he goes, Okay. And there it was just off and running. Me and him were the kind of the guys behind all the backstage stuff of DX. Chyna would chime in too because she's hilarious. X-Pac and Billy were always there and on point. But it was when we were setting it up and how the camera was going to come in here, it was always just me and him talk, shooting the breeze and doing it. So it was natural for him to make that call and go, Hey, you want to do that again, and yeah, I do, it's a blast."

On why he thought him and CM Punk hated each other for 10 years:​

"Because in my head I hated him, and I thought he hated me too. Yeah, a lot of stuff [happened], I went down back and forth and good times and bad times, but yeah, I just thought [he hated me]. So then the first time I saw him when he came back here, he stood up and he hugged me, and it broke my ice immediately. It also hit me right then, Hey Brian, he hadn't thought a thing about you. It doesn't matter what he thinks about me anyway, and I damn sure don't matter. Doesn't matter what I think about him. He realized that. I was here at 55 and holding on to that, and I was holding on to nothing. There was nothing there. There was no bad feelings. I don't know. It was weird. And he's a different dude today. I told him not long ago at live events and stuff. Hey, I really appreciate your attitude. And he said, Well, that's the first time anybody's ever said that to me. Well, I mean it from the bottom of my heart, because he's a different dude. Me and him butted heads. He butted heads with a lot of people. He says what he means, he means what he says. He don't mind if it ruffles your feathers. I kind of respect it."

On the dumpster angle with Cactus Jack and Chainsaw Charlie:​

"That was a great day and a great time. If you go back and watch that, it got so heated and real after the push down. I remember Bradshaw always beating me up for some reason, reaching over people and hitting us and stuff. It got crazy in a frenetic way that helped the situation. Yeah, it got real for a second. And it kind of felt real even to us for a second. Because all the talent came around, and we didn't talk about that, we didn't rehearse that. So all of a sudden, everybody's coming, and people are [upset]. Like I said, it's 40 guys out there who are idiots."

On how they rehearsed the segment:​

"We didn't rehearse with them in the dumpster, but we rehearsed with Vince in the dumpster. Yep, that's a true story, and I'll say this about him. He would never ask anybody to do something that he wouldn't do himself. That's the truth. Look, there were boxes and padding in there, and they drilled handles in there so they could hold it. We did the top down so the top wouldn't open, so their hand wouldn't go out or nothing. We made it as safe as possible. But then two humans just got pushed off the off the edge. And it wasn't a huge drop, but it's far enough to where you're gonna hit, you're in a crash."

On if he instantly realised it was special being in DX:​

"No, I knew that they thought we were special. I knew that obviously, there was Shawn’s back injury and how do we carry on from here? I knew that they thought highly enough about us that we were the answer and we weren't a substitution. We were the answer to carry it on until he's better. That was the whole thinking, and that made me feel real good. So I knew that because those two in particular, Hunter and Shawn, thought that to ask it of us that we were going to be taken care of. When I say that I mean creatively we're gonna get looked after. When you have the landscape of a show in front of you, not everybody gets looked after. That's just a fact of the business and how much time you have. A three hour show will help, but you're going to get some mid stories that in a two hour show you wouldn't get to. So I soon learned oh okay, they're all in on us. But at the time that made me even more cocky. It made me even more arrogant, because I again, said damn right you think we're great. Acceptance and perspective are the two most important things in the world to me, because if I can accept whatever happens, then I'm fine with it. I'm not going to kick against the bricks if I can accept it. And then you accept that whatever just happened and put it in the proper perspective. It's like the apostle Paul preaching in prison in biblical terms. Holy Mackerel he was in jail, but he was his perspective was such that he could still preach a positive message. So that's perspective, if I can keep my mind in the right space, I'll be all right today."

On the WCW invasion:​

"There was little direction, to be quite honest with you. It was literally running gun. We had done that when I was the Roadie with real Double J. We did that in Brentwood after the OJ Simpson trial, me and Jeff and Vince Russo went out there, and you take a camera and you run and gun. It's not legal and it's not morally right, but we had fun with it. And again, there's no direction, just you'll hear Bruce Pritchard come by and go, come on, get in the van. We'd all run and get in the van. But it was great. It was guerrilla warfare. [The police grabbed me] a couple of times, and I had weed in my pocket. Just crazy stuff like that where you just go like, man, what were we doing and what were we thinking? But it was stuff that wins wars. That's what it was and it worked. It was guerrilla warfare, and it worked."

On a storyline he pushed that never went through:​

"I’ll tell you this, and I'd love to have a conversation with you about it. It worked out exactly how it was supposed to work out, but I was wrong. I wanted Big E to win the title at Kofi Mania. I thought Big E was the guy, and a guy on my writing team who now writes for NXT said, 'You're wrong boss. You're wrong. It's Kofi.' And I didn't realize that Kofi had such a personal connection with the fan base. I was just looking for who's the next guy and I didn't think oh, the guy's sitting right here. I was trying to make thisguy over here and, yeah, never been so happy to be wrong though. What a moment. You can go back in time and fuss about what happened the next week or the next year or whatever. Who cares? Kofi won the title at WrestleMania, and nobody can ever take that away. Big E had his moment. It was gonna come around, just it wasn't time yet. I saw something that it was there. It just wasn't time yet. The timing was Kofi. It was Kofi time and have I never been so happy to be wrong and couldn't be more happy for the guy it happened for too. If I was writing again, we'd do it one more time, because I think it would work again. I 100% think it would work again."

On sudden creative changes:​

"That's the WrestleMania that broke me, that kind of broke my spirit and was the kind of one where I went home after that. There was a lot of all that leading up to it, a lot of talk about I'd been writing the show for a while, and it had been successful and not successful and successful. We were in a good place with it. But the times they were a changing and I felt a little less like it was my show, and when I fought for it I always lost. It was just one of those things where I said, Yeah, I'm done fighting this fight. It was really fun at first. I feel like I had a lot of creative freedom at first. I don't know if you remember, but that first Backlash when Dean Ambrose was the SmackDown Champion, and it was, and it was Heath Slater and Rhino were the Tag Team Champions. It was a fun little wrestling show, a little two-hour fun wrestling show that was gaining some traction, and then it just felt like it drew the attention of everybody, then everybody wanted to play, and the sandbox that was mine was not mine anymore. That's hard. I knew it wasn't my show. I know the deal. But if I'm the head writer and this is my creative that I'd like to close the show ending like this, on the build-up to that Kofi Mania, I'd like to end it like this, and I don't get good reasons why we not doing that. And again, me maybe being cocky and narcissistic. I think I know better than everybody. But here's the truth about me, and this is cocky and narcissistic. I'm good at this wrestling crap. I'm not good at the physical aspects of it, but I'm good at putting it together. I'm good at thinking about what will get good reactions. I'm good at it. I know what I come up with for this segment, for this show, is gonna work. I know that for a fact. What you come up with the show, I don't know if it's gonna work. I can watch it work and go like, Damn dude, good. That was awesome. It worked, but I didn't know it was gonna work because it wasn't mine. But because I know how to go out there and make the people talk about me for a second, or get their attention and keep it for a minute I feel like I can do the same here, and I wasn't being given that opportunity at the end. And so it was frustrating. It was creatively frustrating. And I think that's the maybe creatively frustrating should be the era of that, because I'm sure I wasn't alone in that."

What is Road Dogg grateful for?​

"Family, God and sobriety."