Dan Severn Recalls Signing With WWE, Vince McMahon Agreeing To Him As a Part-Time Wrestler

Dan Severn had a run in WWE in the late 1990s, and he recently looked back at that time in a new interview. Severn spoke with Wrestling Inc for a new interview promoting his match tonight at Cincinnati Ohio Wrestling’s Holiday Havoc, and you can check out the highlights below:

On first signing with WWE: “Well, at the very beginning, once I was signed on board, even at the time when, I don’t even think the ink was dried on the contract. I first had, I think it was WWF, okay, at the time reached out to me, WWF. Then I think WCW caught wind of this. Then Eric Bischoff calls me up, brings me on in. And again, I’m not telling either group how old I am…’Cause again, I had already heard that Vince wanted — if he’s going to invest [that] type of money into somebody, he wants to know they’re going to be around for a while. Well, again, I’m not that cat, ’cause I think I was either, I think 48 when I came on board. And then Vince wants someone in their early-to-mid 30s, maybe at the latest, knowing that they got a decade or more that they’re going to be working with them … We’re in the office. The ink is still probably drying on the paper. We got Jim Ross that’s in there, him and a couple others. And some more questions are being asked and a couple other dates come out of it, too, and it’s like, all of sudden Vince like going, ‘Well, exactly how old are you?’ And I said, ‘Well, 48.’ He looks right over to Jim Ross, he goes, ‘Well, how old is our oldest rookie ever?’ And Jim just simply points over to me. He goes, ‘Dan.’ But again, I didn’t look my age nor did I act my age.”

On his WWE contract: “I had a very unique contract in the fact that they agreed to my terms… My terms was, I did not want to be a full-time wrestler. I didn’t want to work 187 dates. I think that was the average contract at that time was working 187 dates.”

On if Vince agreed to it because out of respect for Severn: “Well, I don’t know. I did not know Vince that well at that point. I mean, again, very little. I mean I was dealing with, I think, Jim Ross and I think Jim Ross, he enjoyed my blunt candor. I mean because [the] professional wrestling world, again, the term is called a work. The industry’s a work, but you’d be surprised, there’s a lot of workers that are trying to work other workers, and they’re trying to work other people. And it’s like going, ‘No, I’m a straight shooter. You may or may not like me but even my enemies respect whatever comes out of my mouth.’ They go, ‘Oh s***, I don’t like that old son of a b***h. But take his word for it because it’s the truth.’

“I always tell people, ‘If I have to tell one lie, then I got to tell another half a dozen lies to cover up the first one.’ I got too much going on. I’m not that sharp. I’m either going to hurt your feelings or we either move ahead, or sayonara. ‘Cause realistically, do I need you in my life? No. Dan Severn has so many good things going on for him right now. I always tell people, ‘My goal right now is to live to be 125. I will probably start slowing down in my latter 90s. But again, just starting to slow down. ‘Cause even again, as I said, I’ve relinquished myself that I am no longer a cage fighter.”

On if he worked with Triple H at all: Well again, I never really interacted with him. I mean literally he was all part of that group right there with the… The Kliq with Shawn Michaels and Triple H. And they were just all the ‘too sweet’ and all this … they had a lot of fun. And then I thought they pulled off some pretty good skits when they were doing mockeries of different types of groups and stuff like that. There was the Nation of Domination and then they did, they all come out dressed up in these different costumes, kind of mocking the Nation of Domination. I thought during that timeframe, I think it was one of the best times to be involved that, because WCW was beating WWF in the ratings. And so WWF had to put forth effort.

“Again, they had this creative team … Jim Cornette came [in] one day as I’m sitting there and in the cafeteria, I’m doing my thing, and he comes out, me grabbed my shoulder, he goes, ‘What you doing there, Dan?’ I go, ‘Jim, I’m doing what I normally always do. I’m conducting business, using my time wisely.’ He goes, ‘I’m not sure what it is that you’re doing there, Dan.’ He goes, ‘A lot of the boys are nervous around you.’ I go, ‘Because I’m not joining into their drugs, I’m not joining into their drinking. ‘Cause I don’t do that. That’s not my cup of tea. I don’t need to do that. I don’t need to be part of their network. I’ll work with them.’ I go, ‘Jim, I’m an ass kicker, not an ass-kisser.’ And I kept like that.”