VOC Wrestling Nation Radio sent out the following:
Former WCW wrestler The Maestro stepped IN THE ROOM last night with Brady Hicks and the gang to talk about his career with the company that was then the top wrestling company in the world. The Maestro talks about being part of WCW during its historic run, his thoughts on Eric Bischoff and Vince Russo, his potential as a main-eventer and how WCW would often cancel big plans, his lineage as a descendant of “Gorgeous” George Wagner and competing as Gorgeous George III prior to Randy Savage’s girlfriend adopting the name, his vision for Maestro and working with music legend James Brown, working with Symphony (Alicia Webb) and who was originally considered for her role, as well as Bret Hart’s thoughts on Maestro using a harness for his entrance.
The full interview is available at VOCNation.com and simulcast on TheBradyHicks.com. Highlights of the interview are below.
On being part of WCW: “When I first got to WCW it was awesome, I mean WCW as pretty much the top of the world at that point and you couldn’t ask for a better talent roster. You had the best from all over the world basically, I mean Mexico, Japan, Europe and you combine that with the great legends that they had, you’d find it hard to have a bad match with anybody and it didn’t even go sour until the end of my tenure. After I left, things really went down south.”
On conflict with Randy Savage regarding the “Gorgeous George” name: “In my first year with the company, I was known as Gorgeous George, but then during that first year is when Randy Savage all of a sudden pops the idea with giving the name to his new girlfriend/valet at the time. It perplexed myself and the whole company basically, because of all the provocative names you can give a lady, but I was with Eric Bischoff and we kind of talked things over and that’s where The Maestro came into play, but I was heated, I’m a big traditionalist, Gorgeous George was a legend, he was basically a pioneer for TV wrestling at the time.”
On WCW being disorganized: “There were a lot of times toward the end where like we didn’t even know what we were doing until like maybe a few minutes before we got out there. The board would come up and down in the back. I remember looking at it with my friends William Regal and Booker T, we were all looking around and looking at each other and were like “ok…”, but WCW was a time that I will always cherish. I know it was crazy at times, we had a new boss every two weeks. As confused as we were, you could only imagine what the fans thought and how confused they were. We made the best of what was given to us.”
On Eric Bischoff’s influence: “Different agents come up to you and say, “oh hey, that was great, but you should have done this or done that” and you’re just looking around and don’t know who to believe. Finally, Eric Bischoff walks in and says “great match guys, the company could use some talent like you moving forward” and no sooner did he say that, that everybody just followed suit like “great match”.
IN THE ROOM with Brady Hicks streams live Tuesday nights at 9pm Eastern on the VOC Nation IN THE ROOM Radio Network at VOCNation.com and simulcast on TheBradyHicks.com.
