INTERVIEW RECAP WITH BIG VITO
- 08/20/2008 (3:22:44 am)
- James Walsh
….
Show: The Interactive Interview courtesy of www. WrestlingEpicenter. com
Guest: Former WWE/WCW/ECW Superstar Big Vito
Date: 8/19/08
Your Hosts: Patrick Kelley, James Walsh, & Nick Noel
Transcript By: Patrick Kelley
After 6 years of doing this interviewing every major Diva including Sunny, Missy, Francine, and Lita (brand new interview just posted yesterday), we never once started an interview the way we started the Big Vito interview... "What are you wearing?"
Laugh if you want, you're supposed to enjoy the character. But, Big Vito is one of the most accomplished pro wrestlers in wrestling history. Who else can say they wrestled for the WWF (at the time) title against Bret Hart, got destroyed by Sid Vicious in ECW earning a job for life, and had a more talked about segment than the Hulk Hogan/Ric Flair match in WCW? Heck, what wrestler would offer to go to the developmental territory to keep active when creative was looking for something for him?
Vito is a wrestling legend at a young age. A true student of the game that made it. And, for the first time ever, Vito opens up about personal things throughout the years including his ex-wife. This is a powerful, informative, and educational interview that we are thrilled to bring to you.
To listen, go to http://www. WrestlingEpicenter. com. While there, check out our store and forums! Tell us how we're doing! We want your feedback!
Big Vito:
- Big Vito was welcomed back to the Interactive Interview, and he is asked what he’s wearing currently, which is a reference to his Dress Wearing gimmick, which he still does with success on the Indy scene. He says the gimmick was a great opportunity to get over, and people just love the gimmick. WWE came up with the idea, and he always wanted to work for them, so he was willing to do anything they asked, and he turned it into an entertaining gimmick.
- He is very old school and started wrestling in 1990, but he wasn’t offended when he had to go to developmental. He says that he requested to do it so he could keep in shape and keep his ring ability in tact, and he’s still in shape today.
- The Mamalukes never reunited in the WWE. He would have liked to do it, and recognizes it as one of the best times in his career. Vito then talks about some of his favorite memories from the tag team.
- He says he worked with the WWF in the early 90s and worked as enhancement talent for the big stars. He specifically references working with Bret Hart for the title, and then working with The Undertaker, Legion of Doom, and The British Bulldog, with his last show being against The Rockers.
- He then went all over the world to perfect his craft and improve from Puerto Rico to Japan, and then eventually to ECW. He was well liked there and then went over to WCW where he captured the tag titles in the Mamalukes. He is very proud of his accomplishments and has enjoyed his career.
- When talking about the Dress gimmick yet, he says its amazing how well people have reacted to it, and says that he is very well liked over in the NWE promotion. He says he likes working there and they have a chance to be very successful. When talking about the heavily hyped Ultimate Warrior returns, Vito says that he has a great amount of respect for The Warrior. He says no matter what happened in the match, The Warrior is still one of the greats. As for the match itself, he says it probably wasn’t the best, but gives Warrior an A for Effort and says he still has a legacy.
- He talks about working with Ralphus and says he wasn’t a wrestler, but you always try to protect everyone as best as possible, and he says that Ralphus still thanks him for helping him, specifically in the match at Bash at the Beach.
- The new ECW was brought back in a different time and place, and says comparing the two is hard to do because they are both very different presentations. In the old ECW, everybody worked hard and came in giving 100% every night.
- He says that TNA & ECW are two completely different animals. ECW was more of a family, while TNA was more mainstream. He also throws in WWE saying that is a very different atmosphere as well. Every place is different.
- Vito recalls a moment in ECW where he was called to wrestle Sid when three other guys rejected it because they were probably afraid of getting hurt. He got destroyed by Sid, but earned the respect of the locker room because he made Sid look like a million bucks. Sid also thanked him after the match.
- He then says the beatings you deal with in wrestling. He talks about working with guys like Vader & Goldberg and how you know you are going to get hit in those situations. Vito says he only has a problem if he hits back and the guy complains, especially if he’s wearing a dress!
- Vito then talked about his experience in New Japan working with a legit shoot fighter, Dan Bulbish. He didn’t really know how to work a pro wrestling match, so one night Vito told him to be hard on him and took another great beating. He ended having to wrestle him 4 more times on the tour. Vito takes pride in making him look good.
- He never really got to be a big main event talent, but he says only a select few ever make it to that level, and he’s happy with his career. He also gets to wrestle a lot of the biggest stars around and has had his great moments.
- In NWE he wrestled Juventud in his first Crusierweight match and he says that it went very well.
- James brings up what Al Snow says about the internet fans. Vito feels people can write, but they can only give a fan’s perspective or a “outside looking in” look at things. They have no idea what goes on backstage, and says wrestlers writing columns would offer a more in depth look into the business. He says its not worth worrying about what people have to say about him on the net.
- Vito then talks about the medias handling of the Chris Benoit situation, saying that everybody can say what they want and have their opinions, but nobody knows with 100% what happened except for Benoit & his family.
- He then talks about Freddy Prince Jr. being hired and says that its unlikely that he can do it given is lack of experience in wrestling. Vito then says that some of the old ECW fans have been on the WWE Creative team. He says Vince Russo is a very creative write, but sometimes that clashes with standards in wrestling.
- Vito then talked about how all the promotions are different: WWE is entertainment, ROH is about highspots, TNA is mostly gimmick matches, Japan is straight up in ring action and so on and so on. He says its best to learn how to adapt.
- He isn’t a trainer officially, but he says its something he’d be interested in doing. Vito would like to take the old school approach and teach the young kids the basics first. And let people know if they are good or not.
- Going back to the dress gimmick, he says very few wrestlers could pull it off and it takes a lot of knowledge to do that. He then talks about being asked to do Playgirl in the dress and enjoyed that. He says that along with The Mamalukes, the Dress will be the thing he’ll always be remembered for.
- A Mamalukes reunion is something he’d like to do. For entertainment, it’d be great to do it for WWE, but they don’t invest much in tag teams, so TNA or Japan would get the best out of them in the ring. And of course two tough Italians would get over well in Europe.
- He is then asked about The Luck of the Irish Match. He says the gimmick wasn’t that great because it was hard to follow, but they managed to make it the best match possible. He enjoyed working with Pat Kenney, and says they had a lot of really good matches in ECW.
- He’s learned a lot through wrestling and he is now a polished & finished product for wrestling, and he’s proud of that.
- Vito was annoyed with the media’s coverage of the Chris Benoit tragedy and that the coverage was biased towards trying to make it sound as bad as possible. He was good friends with Benoit and he tries to remember the good times, and also says that everybody hays their demons. He then talks about his late wife he was supportive of him and he appreciates her support during his days of breaking into the business.
- Word Associations: Hear Vito’s thoughts on Vince Russo, Johnny Stamboli, Trinity, Glen Gilberti, Jeff Jarrett, Alan Funk, & Vince McMahon.
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