Harvey Wippleman Says The Business Was Easier When Fans Thought It Was Real

In an interview with Talk is Jericho, Harvey Wippleman spoke about how fans have changed over the years, why Vader is a liar and more. Here are highlights:

On Vader: “Years ago, you remember 900 numbers? Before Twitter, and Facebook, and Internet. Jim Ross was running the 900 number for WWE. He says, ‘Bruno, go tell Vader to come do an interview with Howard Finkle for the 1-900 number.’ So it was right after his match with somebody, I don’t remember who it was, at the old arena in Fresno. And I said, ‘Leon, they need you to come here.’ He said, ‘Get away from me! I ain’t doing it! I don’t want to do it!’ So Jim Ross comes to me and said, ‘Did you get Vader to do his interview?’ I said, ‘No, he said he wouldn’t do it. He told me to get away from him. He was rude about it.’ So, Jim Ross and Gerry Brisco called Vader aside with me standing there. [They said], ‘Leon. How come you were rude to Bruno?’ [He said], ‘He never approached me.’ I said, ‘Leon! I walked up to you. You told me to get away from you, and you wasn’t gonna do it!’ He goes, ‘Jim, I swear on my son’s life he never approached me!’ So, he’s a lying piece of [crap].”

On giving The Big Show food: “I like Big Show. But he gets mad at me for giving him cigarettes and hot dogs in front of anybody. I remember one day, I gave him Popeye’s chicken in front of like Triple H or something. I thought he was going to beat me up!”

On how fans have changed: “Back then, people thought [wrestling] was real. In these little towns… sometimes we had to stay in the building until 1 a.m., the show ended at 10. They were waiting around to get us. My car [had] tobacco spit all over the windshield, tires flattened. It was bad. The heat was real back then. The people believed it. We believed it. We worked ourselves into a shoot back then. The business was so easy back then. They made it so complicated.”