Former WWE star Gene Snitsky is the latest guest on Insight with Chris Van Vliet. In this interview, he talks about the Paul London Royal Rumble elimination, his recent cameo with Chelsea Green, punting a baby being part of his legacy and more!
On the Paul London Royal Rumble elimination:
“I dare say it’s the top elimination ever, in my opinion. Not because I was involved in it, but because just the crowd reaction, the bump. All things taken into consideration, I don’t think anything else really matches it. So Paul and I, he took me off to the side, I’m like, ‘Hey, what do you want to do?’ [He said] ‘Well, you know, this, this and this, let’s try this…’ and then it evolved into that. And he’s like, ‘Well, just clothesline me’, because I wanted to somehow to make it impactful. He’s like, ‘Why don’t you just clothesline me off the apron?’ I’m like, ‘Okay, well, how do you want to do it?’ He’s like, ‘Well, I’ll miss something, and then just hit me and I’ll flip off the apron.’ I’m like, ‘Sweet, but I’m going to have to clothesline you hard, pretty much in the face to get the momentum.’ Because if I was lower, he wouldn’t have room to flip. So I had to hit him high so he could get up and still rotate. So it’s almost like physics, I dare say. So I was like, ‘Well, it’s gonna be probably in the face or the throat area or the head.’ And he was like, fine. I f*cking crammed him, dude. I ain’t gonna lie, I hit him hard! But that f*cking bump. The crowd, they thought he was dead. It looked unplanned, that’s how vicious it looked as a fan watching it. Even watching it back, I still Ooh, because it’s like, if you slow it down and see where I hit him, I hit him square right where your nose meets your forehead, and I f*cking hit him. He took it like a champ. He’s awesome. Paul’s great. Another guy they could have done so much more with. I always loved working with Paul. But yeah, that was pretty awesome, even all these years later, looking back on it, because that was 2005, 20 years ago.”
On whether he is done wrestling:
“No, I still wrestle here and there. I just got stem cell shots in my knee though, on March 29. I’ve been dealing with a little bit of a meniscus issue. So I went down to the great people at LifeMed Institute in Maryland, and they gave me an injection with that and did some vitamin infusion with the wife. It’s freaking amazing, that stuff. I don’t know the science behind it but I’ve had the best freaking workouts the last few weeks since I went down there.”
On his recent cameo with Chelsea Green:
“It just happened. Daivari is one of my best friends. I traveled with him at WWE. He’s one of the road agents now. So he was like, ‘Hey, are you stopping by the Wilkes Barre show?’ I’m like, ‘Well, I wasn’t planning to, are you going to be there?’ He’s like, Yeah. I said, ‘Alright, we’ll take a ride up.’ So me and my wife took a ride up, and we’re just sitting and catering with Daivari, John Cohen comes up to me, he’s like, ‘Hey, they have an idea for a backstage segment with Chelsea Green.’ I was like, Oh, cool. I’ve known Chelsea forever, plus I think she’s awesome, the character is great. So I was like, hell yeah, I’ll do it! And then literally one take, and that was it, it was crazy. She’s just so good. It’s funny, just trying to stay in character is half the battle sometimes, because it was funny.”
On the baby punting being part of his legacy:
“I don’t really know how to respond to that. When I got into wrestling, I never in a million years would have thought that whole storyline, just being thrown into it, because I had never done a dark match. Nobody knew who I was. I was just there, and then all of a sudden I’m the biggest heel on the show. It’s crazy, literally that quick.”
On some fans thinking the baby was real:
“There were a lot of people who thought that the baby was a real baby. Dead serious. I don’t want to by any means talk down about wrestling fans, but there is a small majority of them that see things on TV and whatever they see, they think is real. I’m telling you, as I’m sitting here right now with this amazing beard and ruggedly handsome good looks. I’m telling you, it’s crazy. I’m just like, this TV show is fake. We’re not kicking real babies. Come on, man!”
