Arn Anderson Evaluates His Son’s In-Ring Debut, Recalls His Own

– DAZN recently interviewed AEW’s Arn Anderson, who discussed his son, Brock Anderson, making his in-ring debut on AEW Dynamite. Below are some highlights.

Arn Anderson on his son’s debut: “It would be easy for me to try to play a hard ass on this and go, ‘Oh well, business as usual.’ When it’s your son out there, he probably had not enough training yet to be under those circumstances, and I was nervous for him. I was more nervous than he was. He actually was pretty solid all day long. But to see him have his first day in a business that I have loved since I was eight years old — and I tell people, it’s the greatest way to make a living on the earth, it really is. To see him enjoy himself and hold his own and do well. I am a proud papa.”

On his own in-ring debut against Ron Bass in 1982 compared to his son: “Oh God. Well, it was a whole different format. It wasn’t about me, my first day on TV. I walked out on Atlanta TV and just got slaughtered, and that’s the way things were done, and I was glad to do it. I knew going in what it was going to be. His was much, much different. His debut was with the idea that he was, at some point, going to be a player. Me, I was just one of the cattle called that came to television and different territories around the world and was there for one reason: To enhance the other guy. It’s probably as far one end of the spectrum as you can be from his debut.”

On reformatting his podcast: “Let me just tell you the honest God’s truth. When I got fired from WWE, and was unable to talk about it, but was not sad about it. I was so burnt out at doing that job. The travel was unbearable. The pressure was unbearable. The rules changed day to day. I told myself when I got canned, I was sitting at home, and I went, ‘You can have a new beginning here.’ I’d gotten to the point, to be honest with you, where I did not like the business. I never thought I’d say that. I was just burnt completely out. But I swore I was not going to be that bitter wrestler that had a hell of a career, and if I never, ever am around another wrestling match and it cuts off today, I got no complaints. I’m very fortunate to have spent all this time. It’s 40 years in the business. I don’t want to be that bitter guy that turns around now and starts to kick everybody in the ass and blame everybody, and I don’t want to be that guy.”

Arn Anderson on his belief that he’s more over after retiring: “I think a lot of this is just being discovered. It’s funny. I felt like I’m more over now after being out of the business all this time because people go back and appreciate your body of work. At the time, it was just, ‘Well, this guy isn’t a superstar. He gets his ass kicked every single week.’ It’s true, and I did. I didn’t have a star look. I wasn’t a body guy or one of those guys that was special. It was middle of the road. But when you go back and look at it, and you start seeing some of the magic I pulled off with less-than-stellar performers. I think today’s audience, which is smarter. They look at things a little more under the microscope. They go, you know, I never appreciated that guy being able to pull a match out of this other guy who is obviously rotten.”