Justin Credible On Why His WWE Run Didn’t Work Out, Says Vince McMahon Doesn’t Watch Wrestling

– During his interview with Chris Van Vliet, Justin Credible recalled his WWE run and why it didn’t work out for him as well as it could have. Credible jumped to WWE in 2001 as ECW was in the process of going under, and formed X-Factor as a tag team with X-Pac with Albert coming in soon after to make it a three-man stable. The group wasn’t able to keep going too long before WWE bought WCW and then ECW, and the Invasion split them up. Credible stayed on after that and won the Hardcore Championship several times, but never rose above the lower card and was released in January of 2003.

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

On coming into WWE: “It was the weirdest time in professional wrestling, because if you remember correctly, WCW was going under as well, and ECW as well. So now you’ve got a monopoly and everyone’s jumping ship. And then it’s like, ‘If you don’t have a life raft, the Titanic is sinking and if you don’t have a raft.’ I was lucky enough to get one. I got a six-figure deal, and initially they teamed me with X-Pac who is an old-time friend of mine, running buddy of mine. And we were a hell of a tag team. But then, right in the middle of what we were doing, WCW got bought under and the Invasion kind of [split us]. I went with the invasion side, they went with — Pac went with [WWE]. And then it just got completely blurred, because you had all these amazing — think about it. Every star in professional wrestling to compete with. And I’m competing for a spot. So it really, being than we could have been a hell of a tag team, to ‘You’re lucky you have a job, kid.’ [laughs] It was just the wrong place, wrong time.'”

On losing what got him over in ECW during his WWE run: “What hurt me is, one thing, I learned in ECW was how to get over with the fans. But also, I wore jean shorts in ECW. Well, Stone Cold — it was still Stone Cold’s era — he wears jean shorts. Okay. My finish, I did both the Tombstone and the Superkick. Well the Undertaker does the Tombstone, Shawn Michaels [does the Superkick]. So I can’t do that either. So whatever made Justin Credible Justin Credible, all of it became ‘You can’t do that.’ Because ECW allowed you to almost, you could parody the other companies. We were the anti-establishment, so a lot of it was an offshot of what they were doing.

“And if they didn’t want to play ball with the way my character was represented, and I know Vince McMahon never saw an ECW Justin Credible match. They hired me on, ‘Well, we know PJ. We hear he’s doing good work.’ And that’s the merit you get hired on. Sometimes young men and women think, ‘Well, Vince sees our stuff.’ He doesn’t watch wrestling. He watches his product, but he’s not [watching other shows]. There’s people who tell him, you know, ‘This kid’s good, he’s coming up,’ blah blah blah. So it’s silly to assume they know my character. And in all that was going on, I never had a chance to fully communicate to them my needs as a performer, and it fell by the wayside.”

On Lance Storm working for WWE as a producer: “Which is amazing. And honestly, for Lance that’s probably where he belongs. Because I went through the Hart camp in Calgary, Alberta, Canada in 1992. He had gone through in 1991, and originally Keith Hart and Bruce Hart were supposed to be the trainers. Realistically, they were there once a week. Lance was there every day, so Lance Storm really was my trainer. And he’s so good at, and patient with young men and women in the business. And with his Storm Wrestling Academy, which is now actually closed since he’s going back to WWE, he’s produced so many talented men and women who are hugely successful. That’s his true calling.”

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