TREVOR MURDOCH REFLECTS ON LANCE CADE, WINNING TAG TITLES, MORE
- 02/05/2016 (8:35:00 pm)
- Bob Mulrenin
…
John and Chad welcome former WWE World Tag Team Champion Trevor Murdoch to
today's Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling. Trevor Murdoch, an ultimate throwback
to the style and workers of yester-year sits down with the boys to discuss how
he intends to train the next generation of stars similar to the way he learned
from the "greatest wrestler on God's green earth, Harley Race and how Harley has
played such a vital role in the wrestler Murdoch became as he grew to instant
super-stardom as part of the tag team of Cade and Murdoch in the WWE. In a
nearly 90 minute interview Trevor opens up about the passing of his partner,
Lance Cade and how the two dominated the tag team scene in an era where there
was less emphasis on tag team wrestling and how they helped re-ignite interest
in the waining division.
Trevor Murdoch On His Bond w/ Lance Cade & Filming Their Debut
Vignettes:
Lack of emphasis on tag team wrestling by WWE up until
recently:
The tag team division has been struggling for years. They tend to give
it a boost and they just tend to forget about it and then want to know why they
have such a weak tag division. Right now the tag division is in a big push and
is being elevated and put on TV. WWE doesn't like tag teams for the single fact
that they don't really know what to do with them anymore. When you have people
that aren't in wrestling, that haven't been in wrestling and are writing a
wrestling program you can't fully expect those guys to understand what to do
with the characters that are on the program. Thats what the big issue is, is
lack of knowledge of the business when it comes to tag teams and not knowing
what to do with them.
Cade & Murdoch's matches with DX and learning from HHH and
HBK:
Between working them and the Hardyz are probably the most fun times I've
had in the business. When those guys walk out they get such a reaction and are
already so over that anytime we are in control and are beating them up we get
heat and that makes our job ten times easier. What was also fun too was those
guys let us take control of the match. I remember one time we were in the ring
with all four of us getting ready to start a match at a house show and Shawn was
yelling at us telling us what he was going to do and Lance looks straight over
at him and says "we are the f*cking heels, we will tell you what to do, shut up
and listen" and they both started laughing and said okay. They were confident in
their abilities and they were confident in us that we could go out there and not
run them over and we could make them look good and they did and they let us
work. When we got in the back they would come up to us and they would tell us
what was good and what we needed to work on and what we needed to expand on and
that kind of knowledge was priceless. We are talking two of the top guys in the
business and for them to be coming back to us and telling us what we need to do
to get better and giving us advice, it doesn't get any better than
that.
Being excited to be winning the WWE World Tag Team
Championship:
I was. Lance had been around the WWE longer and knew that it was just
another stepping stone. For me it was huge vindication. For being the first guy
to come out of Harley's school and get a WWE contract and go up and be a
champion on TV is extremely vindicating for me to come home and lay the tag
title on Harley's desk and say this is all that hard work you've been investing
in me. It was very exciting and super cool to be not only a champion but I am a
champion of the number one wrestling company in the world. Those are things that
nobody could take away from you, well except Vince could because he did it to
Hogan and Benoit for awhile.
Dropping the tag belts so quickly to Big Show and Kane and being in the
ring with two legit monsters:
It was in the beginning of my time at WWE so to be honest with you I
didn't know those guys very well and again to be honest with you, I was scared.
I was scared out of my mind because what am I going to do with two guys that are
just so big and strong that you can't do anything unless they say okay. In that
match I went in kind of hesitant. It's not only a regular match but it's a
Hardcore match and I have to hit these guys with heavy objects and expect them
not to rip my head off intentionally. So it was a little bit nerve wracking and
on top of the fact we knew we were losing the titles and we had only had them
for four weeks and they were going to take them off of us and it didn't seem to
make sense to us and we thought that we were in the dog-house. But in the same
sense it was exciting to get in the ring with Big Show and Kane, those are
matches I can put under my belt and look at 90% of the guys that I've got and
say you've never been in the ring with those two ever, not even one of them. So
it's nice to have that under my belt too.
The untimely passing of his tag team partner, Lance Cade:
The way I found out was, when I woke up my wife was sitting next to me
on the bed and my kitchen manager of my bar and grill was sitting at the end of
my bed, so when I wake up and see them, my kitchen manager who is also a
wrestler I've trained I asked him what happened to Harley? Harley is up there in
age so that was my first assumption. My wife said it wasn't Harley and said it
was Lance and I'm still half asleep so I think it's a f*cked up joke. I grabbed
my phone to see what time it was and HBK had sent me a text and said CALL ME
ASAP. I'll never forget the words he said, "Kid I'm sorry, he's gone". I'm not
afraid to admit it, I dropped to my knees and cried like a big old baby. We are
talking about the most solid of dudes, a good person and not too mention the man
has got two little girls that he has left on this earth and I was wrecked. I
talked to Lance's Dad and that in itself was a tough deal, he was the one that
found Lance and I couldn't imagine ever finding my son blue, dead on the floor.
I was a Pallbearer at his funeral which I still crack jokes that that big SOB
there's eight guys carrying that casket and we are still struggling and you son
of a bitch you are still sandbagging us even in death. Just a little joke to try
and lighten the mood but after that there is a certain amount of
emptiness.
Trevor Murdoch also discusses what a dream match of him and Harley Race
vs. Cade and HBK might be like, his run in TNA as a Dupp and Jethro Holliday,
his best memories of WWE, getting a singles push and training students at his
new wrestling academy.
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