Joe Hendry Recalls His Emotions Backstage Before WrestleMania 41 Match

Joe Hendry made his WrestleMania debut at WrestleMania 41 against Randy Orton, and he recently looked back at his thoughts before he made his appearance. Hendry was still part of the TNA roster and the company’s World Champion when he answered Randy Orton’s open challenge.

Hendry reflected on the experience in his appearance on Insight With Chris Van Vliet, calling it a surreal experience. You can see the highlights below:

On What He Was Thinking Before He Came Out From the Back:

“I mean, that is hard to put into words. I was standing there for what felt like a long time. When all this is going on, it feels pretty surreal. There were definitely a few moments where I was like, This is real life, isn’t it? This isn’t like some elaborate dream that I’m having. But I remember being in Gorilla, I was watching the video package for Randy’s 20th WrestleMania and I was like, this is a really good video package. I was like, This is great. Then I was like, oh, it’s me, all right. I’m about to go out. Just a moment where I kind of got lost in it. And then they were like, right, go. And then so I’m standing in front of the video wall, I’m doing my pose, and I’m just like, ‘This is nuts.’

“I was there the whole time he was doing the promo, it’s almost impossible to put it into words. The door opens, I do the spin, and it was just like this wall of energy and noise. I was just like, wow. I still remember exactly what I saw. That’s one of the things about wrestling, is I don’t know if, like, fans realize this, this is kind of a wrestler thing, but sometimes, if you have a moment in wrestling, if you watch it back on YouTube or whatever, you kind of don’t remember it from the first person point of view, through your own eyes, you’d remember it as you’re watching two people wrestle or whatever. But that’s why I make sure, with these big moments, to just really try and take a mental picture of what’s going on. I’ll never forget making the walk at WrestleMania. It was surreal. It was incredible.”

On How Many Blue Shirts & Pairs of White Pants He Owns:

“So this is a point of major contention. It’s less than you think, and the reason I say that is because people are like what? But if you think about it, the shirt is actually only worn for probably 15 minutes a month really. Because it’s like, I’ll wear it maybe one segment a month. It’s not one, that’s what I’ll say. It’s not one, but it’s not much more than one.”