Kevin Thorn Discusses Working With CM Punk, Wishing He Could Have Come Up Through NXT, More

– Kevin Thorn was recently interviewed by wrestlinginc.com, here are the highlights…

On Being Discovered by Sid Vicious: “Yeah, definitely. I mean, growing up in Memphis, it’s kind of hard not to be. The weird part for me, and I’ve mentioned this a couple of times, is my dad’s a southern Baptist deacon, kind of pastor figure and wrestling was never really allowed to be watched, so I always had to sneak over to people’s houses and stuff like that to watch Saturday morning wrestling. So I was kind of raised up on southern wrestling, USWA, Jerry Lawler, [Bill] Dundee, and all the list of names that came through there, Sid, Taker, pretty much everybody came through Memphis. So I mean, it was kind of a great place to grow up watching, that’s for sure.”

On Wishing he Could Have Come Up in NXT: “Oh man, dude. You’ve got it so good. Oh, they’ve got it so good. Having the trainers that they have there, personal training with the weights, the guys that can teach you the weights, the doctors there. I mean, it would have been a totally different ballgame now, I think. I mean, it’s just insane what they’ve got. I mean, we were lucky to get a roll of tape. I mean, at OVW sometimes. I mean, we had Rip Rogers, Danny Davis, [Jim] Cornette, Lance Storm, Al Snow, [Bill] DeMott. I mean, the list of names that came through there was great. We were pretty much on our own in the gym. And then, too, they never snuck any money in house shows and stuff, so I mean, most of our house shows were done with a, remember the old jam boxes, and a microphone. And they’d hold the microphone up to the jambox and add whatever music you put. I mean, it was just terrible and it was a dirty curtain taped over a door and that was supposed to be the next generation coming out looking like they’re the biggest tool bags in the world. Granted, when we got up to TV, it was a totally different story. But no money invested in it.”

Was he Ready When he Got Called Up by WWE?: “I was definitely ready. My problem was me and [Travis] Tomko were tagging so long that I built my ring wind around the tag guy and after ‘Mania at Madison Square Garden. we went and met with Vince and he basically told us, ‘you guys are frickin ridiculous as a tag team. I don’t need tag teams. I don’t want tag teams.’ And we’re like, ‘okay’. He goes, ‘Tomko, you’re going to go to RAW and Kevin, you’re going to go to SmackDown. We’ve got an idea to put you against Taker. Do this and this and off you go.’ And, I mean, the first couple of house show matches, the first couple of TV matches, my wind just wasn’t what it should have been. And then, I had the incident in the bar that kind of screwed me and it just, I killed myself at that point in time. I think they hired me back. They definitely knew I could do it. I just needed to disappear for awhile and get back to where I was before tagging.”

On getting to work a WrestleMania: “Oh man, dude. Just like they say. There’s nothing better. It’s insane getting ready for that thing. Just go off and the crowd is just insane and you don’t know where the noise is coming from because it vibrates all the way to the back and it comes back. You do something and then you’re like, that normal crowd reaction is, like, instantaneous, and it’s like a couple second delay. Then it comes back and it’s like, ‘oh, there it is’. I mean, there’s nothing like it.”

On Working With CM Punk: “Man, it was great! I mean, a lot of people don’t know, like, when ECW started on house shows and everything else, I was attached at the hip to Punk. I mean, we were up and down the roads. We worked so many shows, and then, again, I mean, Kurt Angle is my lucky charm sometimes. When he left ECW and WWE, RVD had no one to work. They were like, ‘alright, we need a heel to put him with’ and then all of a sudden, I got thrown into that spot, so then I started working RVD on all the house shows. It helped bring me to the next level. And then, Punk went off with Knox and whoever else, but probably for the first 20, 25 house shows, it was me and Punk every night. And the first time we were like one and two on the card and we really started getting our rhythm together and everything else. And we started going higher and higher and higher up on the card. It was awesome.”