Dan Severn Says WWE Should Have Feuded Him With Ken Shamrock, Talks Brock Lesnar’s UFC and WWE Success

– Dan Severn spoke with Wrestling Inc for a new interview at WrestleCon over the weekend, discussing his WWE run and differences between MMA and professional wrestling. Highlights are below:

On nver having a feud with Ken Shamrock: “Vince McMahon, his creative team, they missed out on a great opportunity. Were were before our time? If you look at MMA guys crossing over professional wrestling, we were just before our time or we were the pioneers of that.”

On Brock Lesnar having success in UFC and WWE: “The man has made a lot of money in both industries so I can’t say anything bad about that. Ultimately, he’s evolved in an industry that you don’t have a long career. The fight industry is not a long term career. You’re only as good as your next match. You have a game plan, your opponent has a game plan. Someone’s about to come up on the short of the stick. You better have game plan B, C, and D. Plan A is not always going to work for you. Have other things you can fall back onto and that’s something a lot of professional wrestlers just don’t realize. They think their careers are going to go on forever and it’s not.”

On the dangers of combat sports: “People don’t realize that this actually has the highest death rates of all professionals. Now, a lot of it is due to chemical cocktails but nevertheless, the number of matches that take place, the pain killers, the muscle relaxers, something to get them going in the morning, something to put them down at night. Then all the other stuff that’s going in in-between. ‘I need to have gargantuas muscles, I need steroids, I need growth hormones!’ It’s just a vicious cycle.”

On wrestling eventually adding some sort of health insurance: “When you think about both industries, there is no pension program. You are basically a contract of labor. When you see other sports, there is something for NBA and NFL teams. There are things that they can fall back upon. There are unions in the nature. Eventually, it is going to happen. Key word is eventually. Who holds all the power? The athletes actually hold all the power but they are lured by the almighty dollar.”

On his MMA career not being a full-time job: “It was always a part time job to me. Not even a job, because there was no real money in the UFC. No money in the independent scene. Ironically, I made my best paydays working for the WWE.”