Sent In By WorldWrestlingInsanity.com
The 94th edition of JG’s Radio Free Insanity is on the air and available right now at WorldWrestlingInsanity.com (Flash and MP3 download) This week’s guest is “The Masterpiece” Chris Masters.
James Guttman starts the show off by talking about this week’s guest. Chris Masters was gone from WWE for less than two weeks when he joined ClubWWI.com for his 50 minute uncut shoot interview. Masters, at the age of 24, still has a tremendous career ahead of him. Not only that, but his interview is the reason why James began the Club. Many people feel they know Chris and what he’s about. The misconception is that he’s a bodybuilder who got into wrestling when in reality, he’s a wrestling fan who started bodybuilding to prepare for the ring. Guttman explains that anyone who hasn’t heard from Chris in a shoot before will walk away from his uncut interview with a new respect for the Masterpiece.
The full 50 minute uncut ClubWWI.com shoot interview with Chris Masters included talk of so much more than what you’ll hear on today’s Radio Free Insanity. He told the full story of his WWE release and spoke about steroids, the Wellness Program, the Benoit tragedy, Lex Luger comparisons, why Vince McMahon said his real name on Raw, working the Elimination Chamber, false reports about his recent injury, smart marks proving to be dumb ones, misconceptions about his bodybuilding, Shawn Michaels, OVW, TNA, The Ultimate Warrior, Kurt Angle, and much more.
The Masterpiece is just one of over 90 stars on the Club. Among the other interviews available on ClubWWI.com are Eric Bischoff, Jerry Lawler, Vince Russo, John Heidenreich, Sid Vicious, Tammy “Sunny” Sytch, Nick “U-Gene” Dinsmore, Christian Cage, Samoa Joe, Kevin Nash, Diamond Dallas Page, Shawn Daivari, La Resistance, The Steiner Brothers, AJ Styles, Demolition, Paul Bearer, Bobby Heenan, Ted DiBiase, Road Warrior Animal, The Iron Sheik, Rhino, Dustin Rhodes, Earl Hebner, Charlie Haas, Christy Hemme, Christopher Daniels, and many more. Plus audio shows from D-Lo Brown, Bull Buchanan, Kevin Kelly, Orlando Jordan, Ivory, and Dr. Tom Prichard.
From there, James talks about Chris Jericho’s return to Raw. What worked, what didn’t, and how Chris can bounce back from any hiccups that may have occurred during it. From there, he cues up clips from the uncut 50 minute shoot with Chris Masters..
In progress, James Guttman brings up the Masterlock Challenge. It’s something that many people will remember Chris Masters for. He asks Masters about it and how it was originally explained to him by the office.
“At first, I’m a little sketchy because it’s a full nelson and people are so used to…Coming out of the attitude era, wrestling or sports entertainment, WWE, was trying to tune it back. Kind of go back a little old school with things. They wanted to, they needed to scale things back because it was getting too crazy with tables, chairs, the injuries. So they just had this new motto. And every week, they’d be telling us to ‘step it back.’ We gotta bring the business back down to where it was because it’s gone too out of control. It’s too crazy. “
Chris says that his finisher was designed for that. Whether the Masterlock or something else, it was supposed to similar to the old body slam challenge. He would give them a finish and see if they can beat a ten count. In the end, they settled on the Full Nelson and the Masterlock Challenge was born.
– ClubWWI.com Break –
In a question that James said he had wanted to ask Chris since it happened, Guttman brings up his sudden weight loss a few months back. He asks Masters about dropping 30 pounds and Chris says that’s exaggerated. He only lost about 15 pounds, but since he has so much muscle mass, it looked like more. He says that there was plenty of pressure to get big again considering his gimmick. JG then mentions the joke Triple H made about it during a backstage DX skit on Raw. Masters answered:
“You know what? Just coming off of what I had come off, with the Wellness Policy in place, I thought a couple of things. I mean, I felt a little bit of a betrayal from the company standpoint just because of what I had gone through and the fact that we were implementing the Wellness Policy in that they were trying to push for everybody to be healthier. Healthy human beings. But also, at the same time, I was pretty numb to the business at that point. I wasn’t really happy with what I was doing and that was one of the points where it wasn’t, it was just, you know. I wasn’t feeling it. I was just more excited to get back home. Obviously, I got through that and I felt good about it again, but I was pretty numb to it at that point.”
– ClubWWI.com Break –
Guttman brings up Chris’s submission victory over Ric Flair and Masters says it was an amazing time. JG asks what went through his mind when he found out that he would be doing that. Chris replies that for anyone who grew up watching the businesses, it meant a lot.
“I don’t know if anyone necessarily knew besides Shawn (Michaels), because I did talk to Shawn, how much I did appreciate the things – even though I have my little faults here and there – I did appreciate the things that were handed to me. Because they really did put the machine behind me, they pushed me, and they put me in there with some really talented guys to help me elevate my game and help set me up like the Nature Boy and Shawn and Triple H. And to get a win and just to know that your name was just going over the Nature Boy and that would go down in the record books, you know. That’s amazing”
On the subject of generations in wrestling, JG brings up the first WWE Title match that The Masterpiece had. He took on both Kurt Angle and John Cena, who come from different generations themselves. Chris says that Kurt was a “trip to be in the ring with.” Since Angle had the ankle lock and Masters had the Masterlock, they had a number of spots they could work. He talks about one spot in particular during their triple threat match. After explaining all the movements involved, Masters finally says, “Kurt’s just a freak.”
James laughs and mentions how Angle is now in TNA. He asks Chris if that’s an option he would be interested in as well.
“Of course. Of course it’s on radar. It’s something. I’ve got to reevaluate everything. I’m trying, at this point now, considering what happened is I don’t want to just, wrestling was my main focus and that was it. I just want to open my mind up to some other things to which, I have a couple of outside projects that I don’t really want to talk about yet because I don’t want to jinx them. In the meantime, I’m still going to be wrestling because my career is a sports entertainer. It’s a professional wrester.. That’s why I’m still going to be doing Indy bookings. TNA – there’s a lot of good guys up there. I mean that company is really growing and I think it would definitely be an honor to go up there and help contribute and try to bring some competition and bring wrestling back to what it was when I was growing up. Like when we had another competitive product out there. I think every wrestling fan out there listening wants that because you look back to the attitude era…and you miss that. You can’t duplicate that but it would be great to have another place that was really competing. TNA is obviously on the rise. So we’ll see what happens.”
Guttman then gives The Masterpiece a chance to plug his booking information. Masters says, “Let’s go through the plugs, brothers.”
He has an official Myspace page. You can get there by going to http://www.myspace.com/ChrisMordetzkyoffical
(JG Note: Although the page looks to be down at the moment. It was working earlier in the week though)
Also, promoters looking to book Masters for shows or other appearances can reach him by email at:
[email protected] or via phone at his booking line 310-663-6811
“And no. You will not reach me directly for all you prank callers out there so don’t waste your time.”
Guttman laughs and gives Chris a chance to speak to all his little Masterpieces listening. Masters says that he’s not crawling into a ball and is very optimistic about his future. When one door closes, “about three or four” opens. He’s also 24 years old, so even if he’s gone for five years, he’ll still be 29. He quotes Rocky and says, “It’s not over till it’s over.”
The full 50 minute uncut ClubWWI.com shoot interview with Chris Masters included talk of so much more than what you’ll hear on today’s Radio Free Insanity. He told the full story of his WWE release and spoke about steroids, the Wellness Program, the Benoit tragedy, Lex Luger comparisons, why Vince McMahon said his real name on Raw, working the Elimination Chamber, false reports about his recent injury, smart marks proving to be dumb ones, misconceptions about his bodybuilding, Shawn Michaels, OVW, TNA, The Ultimate Warrior, Kurt Angle, and much more.
Click here to see the video of Triple H mocking Masters’ size loss (>>)