Mike Sanders Discusses Getting Into Wrestling, Almost Being Fired in WCW, More

– Former WCW wrestler Mike Sanders recently appeared on Vince Russo’s podcast, here are the highlights…

How DDP got him started in the business: “In 1998, I was training in Main Event Fitness, and at the time, DDP was there, and Ray Lloyd (Glacier), Billy Kidman, High Voltage – basically if you were a WCW wrestler back then, you trained at that gym. And I remember having conversations, I was a 235lb guy, and I remember training alongside guys like Horshu and DDP and just having conversations. And I was like, “I wanna be a stand-up comic!” and DDP was like “No no…bro…you wanna be a pro wrestler!”

How Paul Orndorff tried to fire him, and Russo saved his job: “Paul’s famous line was ‘Put on 20lbs, come back, and we’ll look at you.’, and I left that day. Later on that evening, Terry Taylor called me and said “Man, I know you got released, but I’d really hate to lose you.” So, Terry called me later that week and said, “Would you be interested in doing some Russo-Bischoff security?” We were at the Georgia Dome, and I remember Orndorff wanted Vince to look at everybody including Sean O’Hare, and there was a brief moment when Vince said “Give him his job back.” I was standing right there, Terry Taylor was there, and Orndorff was there. But Orndorff wasn’t happy about it.”