Jim Ross On Chris Candido Being Unhappy During His WWE Run, The Kliq Being ‘Brutal’ To Him

– On the latest Grilling JR, Jim Ross recalled the end of Chris Candido’s run in WWE and how he was a target of the infamous Kliq at the time. Candido had a minor run in the company with Tom Prichard as The Bodydonnas, and his time in the company is most memorable because of his relationship with Tammy “Sunny” Sytch. Sunny became one of the company’s most popular stars, while Candido’s run was disappointingly short and after being injured, he left the company in 1996.

Candido would go on to find new heights to his career in ECW, where he would become part of the Triple Threat with Shane Douglas and Bam Bam Bigelow and later won the a Tag Team Championships with Lance Storm. JR recalled that a lot of the reason Candido left was because of his unhappiness with his situation and the way he was being treated.

Highlights from the discussion, and the full podcast, are below:

On why Candido being unhappy at the end of his WWE run: “I think that the Kliq were very brutal on him. Ironically, they weren’t brutal on Tom Pritchard, because they knew Tom Prichard’d whip their ass, to be honest with you. Or try. Chris was just not a fighter, I don’t believe. I hired the guy, so I’m not mad at him. He was fine. But I think, quite honestly, the word that I got back was that some people in the Kliq were confiding in Vince what was going on on the road involving Sunny. I guess they thought that might be a topic he would have some interest in, don’t know. And so Vince lost a lot of respect for Chris. All of a sudden, Chris got shorter and he got heavier in Vince’s eyes, and he became very expendable. So that was kind of the deal. They fell out of favor.”

On Candido and Prichard not getting a chance: “The other thing, they just weren’t given the creative and the opportunity to quote-unquote ‘get over.’ And they didn’t have the clout to try to make something happen so they could get themselves over. They were damned if they did and damned if they didn’t. Thank God that we saved Tom, because Tom still became one of our best coaches we’ve ever head. Still one of the best coaches in the business. So that’s how that kinda went. Sunny was a real — what’s that word I’m looking for? She was a lightning rod. She had great charisma, amazing sex appeal, big time talent, and buddy she knew it. And she used it.”

On Candido’s size factoring against him: “If Chris had been 6’2″ or 6’3″, it’d have been a non-issue. The perception that he was too small to be here anyway, even though he looked great and he and Tom were a very very good team. Underrated as hell. Because they never got a chance to shine. And we had Sunny with ’em, and they were hot, they looked good, they were young, fresh I should say. But Chris’ stature of being what, 5’8′, 5’9″? I’m guessing somewhere in that neighborhood, just did him zero favors in the land of the McMahon giant theory of guys that bigger is better.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Grilling JR with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.