Shane Helms on Jon Moxley’s Issues With WWE Creative Process: ‘Not Everyone Can Be Unscripted’

– Speaking with Jeffrey Harris for the 411 Wrestling Interviews Podcast, former WWE Cruiserweight champion and current producer Shane Helms discussed talent like Jon Moxley having issues with WWE’s creative process. Moxley made headlines when he spoke about how WWE’s creative process “sucks” and is “killing the company,” detailing several instances where he had issues with Vince McMahon over his character. Helms was asked about Moxley’s issues with WWE overly scripting talent and whether he had ever had any similar issues when he was an on-screen performer.

On if he ever had any problems with being overproduced or scripted: “I personally never did, but keep in mind I came up in a different era. There was a lot more of, ‘Let’s see what the guy can do before we script his promos.’ But trust me, recently on a couple live events, I’ve seen talents go out there, we go ‘Okay, go cut a promo,’ it’s not scripted and it turns out not being good. This whole unscripted promo [thing], it’s only good if the talent can actually do it. Not everybody can, and there are talents there that prefer the scripted promos. They prefer it. So it’s just, it varies on the person. I never needed a scripted promo. You can give me bullet points and I’ll get there, and Creative figured that out early on. Especially with my Hurricane character because I’m always talking about some crazy comic book scenario anyway, they were like, yeah they were literally just telling me to ‘Hurricane it up.’ And so I would. But not everybody can do that. Some people can’t, you know. And I think it just varies on the talent. If you can go out there and you can cut a quick promo without no help, as long as you hit those bullet points, awesome. But I’ve seen a bunch of guys that can’t do that as well.”

On what he would get in terms of promo guidelines: “I would get like, bullet points. And I’m sure there was times where it was scripted and I was like, ‘Oh, I can change this up and make it better,’ but it would still get over the important points that they wanted to get over. And it’s a script, you know. A lot of guys get really wrapped up into their little bubble, and you have to understand. Their world literally does revolve around this. Everybody’s does. But I never really got too wrapped up in ‘My character wouldn’t say this.’ I would just find a way for my character to say it. Because it’s your character, it’s not really you. Like I say, it’s always gonna go back to, it varies on the performer. You can give me any script, and I can make it work.”

On seeing talent struggle with unscripted promos: “Yeah, I’ve seen it. I’ve seen them go out there and go, ‘Hey, go out there and cut a promo,’ and it’d be amazing. And I’ve also seen the ‘Hey, go out there and cut a promo’ and it wasn’t. Would a script have helped? Who knows. And I’ve seen that too, in my whole career.”

On talent who have issues with WWE’s creative process: “I’ve been in WCW, TNA, Ring of Honor, WWE. I’ve been in all the major companies. There’s always people complaining about creative, 100% of the time. There’s always somebody. And I mean, even when things are going great. There’s always gonna be people complaining about it. There’s gonna be some people that think it’s awesome. Generally, they think it’s awesome then things are going their way. There’s a weird pattern, you know. When things are going your way, creative is great. When things aren’t going the way you think they should, creative sucks. It’s weird how that happens.”

In the full interview, Helms also his experiences working with The Rock and Kane as The Hurricane, resolving his past differences with Shawn Michaels, getting heat over trying to get AJ Styles hired in 2002, his surprise Royal Rumble 2018 appearance, his work behind the scenes for WWE, being at Starrcast and more.

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Introduction (0:00)
On his experience at Starrcast (0:44)
On coming on board WWE as a producer, what his job as a producer entails (1:20)
On getting heat for trying to get AJ Styles signed by WWE in 2002 and Style’s rise to the top of WWE (5:19)
On AEW Double or Nothing and AEW being competition to WWE (7:21)
On the origin and development of the Hurricane character and making the gimmick work (9:34)
On working with Kane and becoming tag team champions with him (12:44)
On his win over the Rock on Raw and whether it’s a career highlight (13:40)
On turning heel on Smackdown, whether he preferred Hurricane or heel Shane Helms (15:30)
On his heat with Shawn Michaels and when they resolved their issues (16:48)
On how fatherhood has changed him (19:58)
On the WWE Performance Center providing a new avenue to be brought up in wrestling and WWE (20:42)
On Ricochet’s potential (22:14)
On Jon Moxley’s criticism about WWE’s creative process and scripted promos vs. unscripted promos (22:51)
On if there’s anything he wanted to do with the Hurricane character that he didn’t get a chance to do (26:56)
On the possibility of another run as the Hurricane (28:11)
On his surprise 2018 Royal Rumble appearance (29:25)
Where to find him on social media (30:50)

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