Rico Constantino sat down with Chris Van Vliet in Arizona to discuss the many jobs he’s had on top of being a pro wrestler, winning American Gladiators, starting wrestling in his late 30s, wrestling John Cena and Brock Lesnar in OVW, how he became Billy and Chuck’s manager and The Stylist, why he was released from WWE, his appearance in AEW, if he is open to one more match, and more!

We recently saw you in the ring with AEW. You look like you could go again.

“I could, and I wanted to. But I was a manager, and things didn’t happen. I told you off-camera what I thought of, and it was shot down.”

Because what a wonderful surprise. When people think of you, they think of Billy and Chuck. For you to be in a segment in a match with Billy Gunn in there, it just seemed perfect.

“Oh yeah. I just wish we could have told a story in the in a pre-tape, because people weren’t really getting it, because the crowd had changed over 20 years, and Billy just off the cuff, went down, and he cut a promo off top of his head, saying, ‘You’re the guy that almost made me marry Chuck.’ So then maybe brought some stuff back, and we did the match, and Billy got his revenge at the end. I interfered with the match and stuff like that. Then Billy snuck up behind me, and all of a sudden, you saw the match, and oh, I know this face. I know that ass. Turn around, ‘No Billy, No!’”

Do you consider yourself retired? I don’t just mean from the ring. Are you retired now?

“Well, right now, as I’m going through the blood clots and the blockage right now, I am retired. But if they can clear the blockage, either with a stent or remove it, and these go away, I’ll return to part-time work. I’ll go and work again. Maybe, you know, if somebody wants me to make a special appearance, I’ll get right back into ring shape.”

Would you wrestle another match?

“I would. As soon as I get into ring shape, I would, and it won’t take me long. I’d love to in one of the bigger promotions and stuff like that. I’d love to do a tag match. Not ready to do singles yet. I would love a tag match.”

So when you’re in OVW, did you ever think you’d get a call to go on the main roster?

“I was hoping for the call, but my age played something on it. I was too old. I’d get the reports, you know, they’re saying you’re too old. So here I am trying to do everything and just get a shot. It finally came down to you’re going to be cut in 90 days. [Well] there it goes. Well, Cornette was upset at it. So Cornette, Danny Davis, JR, because I was always in the JR report, and I got to do a spot with Stone Cold at Christmas Chaos in Louisville, they stood up for me. So when SmackDown and Raw came to Louisville, Cornette had a meeting with Stephanie and said, ‘You’re going to cut him anyway. Just call him up to be on the road, do dark matches, maybe you’ll think of something.’”

You had dark matches with some legends. There’s one where it’s you and John Cena versus Shelton Benjamin and Brock Lesnar.

“Benjamin and Brock were the Minnesota Stretching Crew. Cena and I were the Southern Tag Team Champions. I was the role model. He was my prototype. So we’re going to go out there and titles are going to switch. So we go out there and do this big bang match, really good match, and they win, and we go to the back and they say, Good job, good job. And then Kenny [Bolin] comes up. He goes, ‘We’re going to have to gonna have to go back out.’ I said, What? ‘We’re gonna have to go back out, do another match and switch titles again.’ And I go, why? He goes, because the first match isn’t ready. And I went, oh no. So we got together and start talking, and we were in gorilla 30 seconds ready to go out of the curtain and do a rematch, and then the first match pops up. This is in a WWE ring.”

So you debuted in WWE in March 2001, got released in November 2004.

“Well, I wasn’t going on any shows. My final release was 90 days later. So I was under contract until February 2005.”

Were you surprised when you got released?

“Yeah, and I went and asked Vince for a raise because I had already gulfilled my three-year rookie contract. I’ve held the tag titles twice, once with Rikishi, once with Haas. I was going to almost every show and on TV. I said I want $1,000 a week.”

What were you making before?

“Minimum, which was $75,000 a year.”

But $1,000 a week is less than that?

“No, I wanted a $52,000 raise on top of the $75k. A thousand a week [extra]. I thought I was worth it, and Charlie and I and Jackie were about to come out on the SmackDown magazine front cover, and he told me I wasn’t popular.”

So that’s what led to you being released?

“Yeah. Vince didn’t like me because of my age in the beginning, he was forced to put me there. And if anybody out there looks at my background, I’m an Action Man. I’m a straight to law enforcement. I’ve been to two police academies, graduated number one in both of them, I’ve got life-saving awards. I was voted one of the officers of the year by Crime Stoppers for catching a person who was escaping her parole, who led me to a person who was wanted for murder, and I caught a homicide suspect and shipped them back to LA. So I’m that type of guy. EMT, paramedic, people running this way, I’m running to trouble. I want to help people. So here Vince gives me this style in some feminine character, maybe hoping I fail. Well, I turned it around.”