Recap of Pete Gas on In Your Head Wrestling Radio, 01/19/2016

by Vic Schiavone

Hosts Jack E. Jones and One Inch Biceps recently welcomed former WWE wrestler Pete Gas to IYH Wrestling Radio.  Pete is best known as being part of Shane McMahon’s “Mean Street Posse”.

Highlights included the following:

Was the entire Mean Street Posse angle Shane’s idea?

“You know, it’s funny.  I believe he did want to initially, and no one knew it was going to go to the extent that it went.  The thing was we were only supposed to be on it for a couple of weeks, and I think because of the crowd reaction and them loving to hate us and how it was something new and different…it was real guys just being thrown into the ring.  I think that just caught on and people just loved to hate us.  Vince (McMahon) would always give the public what they want, and that’s when he had us go on the road for a little while.  We were only supposed to be on the road for about a month, and then after we were on the road for about a month we lost a loser-leave-town match with (Gerald) Brisco and (Pat) Patterson, and we thought we were done.  The next thing you know they brought us back into The Corporation and gave us three one-year contracts, and it was the best three years of my life.”

His memories of wrestling the Acolytes Protection Agency (APA).

“Brutal; fistfights and basically we got our butts kicked.  The wrestling business is all about respect, and…you pay your dues like a normal wrestler - you know, you go, you sign up for a school, you learn how to wrestle, you learn the psychology of a match,
you start doing Independents, you get so good at Independents you catch a break, someone sees you, and gives you a tryout with WWE.  We didn’t go through that, so we had to pay our dues.  That’s why we didn’t have respect from the boys.  Maybe face to face they would be nice to us, but we paid our dues in different
ways…Bradshaw and Faarooq (JBL and Ron Simmons) were always pretty badass when they were in the ring.  They seemed to hit us a little extra harder, give it to us; there was a Monday Night RAW where he folded a chair around my head…After that match we went backstage, and when you go backstage after a match everyone shakes everyone’s hand and says thank you; basically thank you because you’re putting your life in his hands and vice versa, and no one got hurt.  So I went backstage, and he said he was waiting for me to either hit him or bitch and moan or whatever, and I stuck my hand out and said thank you very much.  He said after that I actually earned his respect because he laid into me pretty good.  Their characters were badass fighters, so when you’re fighting three preppy guys from Greenwich you’ve got to make it look really stiff, and they did; they laid it in.”  

A funny story involving Hulk Hogan.

“Vince had a rule.  We were allowed to drink at the house when we were in high school but we weren’t allowed to leave; we had to give up our keys.  We were… swimming and having a couple of beers and Vince went out to go buy us some more beer.  We heard a motorcycle coming up the driveway, and it turned out it was (Hulk)
Hogan, and Hogan was carrying our beer up to the pool.  So I met him years later and I introduced myself, and he said ‘No, I remember you.’  I said, ‘You may not remember, but when I first met you…Vince went to go get us beer and you carried the beer up to us.’  So he paused and he says, ‘Wait a minute; I carried your beer?’  And I thought about it and (said), ‘Yeah, I guess so.’  Then he goes, ‘You owe me one; go get me a beer.’  I actually went into the crowd and got him a beer.”

Do you ever foresee Shane ever being back in the WWE?

“I sure in the hell hope so.  I would love it.  I think the crowd would go crazy; I think the roof would come off of the place.  There is always a little piece of me hoping that he’d come back; whether or not he does, I don’t know.  I know he’s busy with his new company that he’s been working on; I know he’s working hard at it.  But, you always wonder if he came back, if it was a good storyline opportunity, if he came out to save WrestleMania or something, that place would just erupt.  Because everyone loved him because he’s always been crazy ever since we were kids and it’s never changed.  He always knew how to steal the spotlight.  We may have been in the middle of the card at some of those pay-per-views, but it’s his matches that people seem to remember the most…because he’s fearless.”

Other topics discussed included:

Was he really friends with Shane when they were younger?

What was his biggest accomplishment in the WWE?

Whose idea was the type of clothes the Mean Street Posse wore?

Is it true that Shane McMahon was a legendary drinker?

How did he end up leaving the company?

This interview is available for listening at

http://www.iyhwrestling.com/viewnews.php?autoid=27794

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Caf3ZULbM4