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Blue Meanie Weighs in on Paul Heyman & Eric Bischoff’s New WWE Roles, Talks Training Matt Riddle

July 17, 2019 | Posted by Jeremy Thomas

– The Blue Meanie spoke in a new interview with Wrestling Inc about WWE bringing Paul Heyman and Eric Bischoff in to head up their creative teams, training Matt Riddle and more.

On Paul Heyman being named Executive Director of Raw: “I can see nothing but positive things happen if WWE truly let Heyman have a voice. He’s always been a creative guy and now he’ll have a little bit of a governor on him [with Vince McMahon]. You can’t totally go overboard and stuff like that. I don’t think Paul would make things more violent. Everyone thinks Paul and they think ECW and they think violence. In my opinion, if ECW stayed around then it would have become something like ROH with the pure, technical, athletic wrestling. Paul was always good at thinking of storylines and making them make sense.”

On what Heyman brings to the table: “Paul Heyman is a creative genius when it comes to in-ring and behind the camera. I think Vince has made a great choice to have a fresh set of eyes. …I think Vince is taking a step back and asking, ‘How can we breathe life into this? How can we make this more vital? How can we bring the numbers back up?’ It’s a business and WWE needs a little bit of help. They’ve had this secret all along, they’ve just invited him to take over the reins.”

On Eric Bischoff becoming ED of Smackdown: “I think Bischoff will do good … The only thing that hurt Bischoff was Time Warner not wanting to be involved with wrestling anymore. They kind of sabotaged it. I think Bischoff is a great mind for the business and a great marketer. So if he has the chance to do with a full roster of Superstars…the world is his oyster. Just like with Heyman, they have a chance to do things with an owner that knows the business. Vince knows the business; Ted Turner didn’t know wrestling and the people at CNN didn’t know the wrestling business.”

On fans needing to have some patience to let the shows change: “When you watch a year from today, you’ll notice a difference. We live in a microwave mentality where we want everything now, now, now, now, now. People need to be patient and see where it goes. Put down your phones, stop being critics and just watch from a fan’s perspective and enjoy.”

On training Matt Riddle at The Monster Factory: “When WWE did the Riddle documentary and they interviewed me, I said I had done a Dory Funk dojo with Kurt Angle back in the day and you could see how Angle was at that stage right then and there. And Riddle reminds me of a young Angle. He’s a fan of the business and is athletic. He already has the gifts with amateur wrestling and MMA. All we did at The Monster Factory was reprogram his motherboard towards pro wrestling and make his skills fit into the world of pro wrestling.”

On preparing Riddle for the rigors of the wrestling schedule: “Every day in the wrestling business is like Groundhog’s Day where you’re living the same day in and out. Watch. Rinse. Repeat. …Are you ready to do that day in and day out on top of what you put your body through in the ring? When it came to training Matt Riddle, I got him prepared for all of that stuff. He’s just a natural and a stud. I think he’s gonna be the biggest thing in WWE for a while to come. I think they should let him marinate a little bit in NXT to the point where WWE is begging him to come over to [the main roster].”

On recently commissioning a bWo title belt: “I’m a huge belt mark. [laughs] Some people love looking at oil paintings or museum paintings on the wall; I just love looking at championship belts. I’ve always been a fan of hard work and craftsmanship and I wanted something to be personal, kinda like a tattoo. All of my tattoos have personal meanings and I saw Helms has the Hurricane Belt, Zack Ryder has his belt and Al Snow has the Job Squad Belt. I saw that and thought the perfect belt would be the bWo belt. I’m friends with Andrew over at Wild Kat Belts…and he’s making belts for WWE and the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest. So, I was like, ‘Hey man. Let’s do something together.’ I approached them and had all these wild ideas but he wanted to keep it simple. I said alright and he came up with this beautiful piece of art.”