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The Headbangers Discuss Signing With WWE, How Vince McMahon Viewed Their Gimmick

January 21, 2021 | Posted by Jeffrey Harris
The Headbangers WWE Image Credit: WWE

The Wrestling Inc. Daily recently interviewed former WWE Superstars and tag team champions The Headbangers (Mosh & Thrasher). They discussed how they first started teaming together, signing with WWE, how Vince McMahon viewed their gimmick, and more. Below are some highlights from WrestlingInc.com.

Mosh on how they started teaming together: “June of ’93 is the day I walked into the Monster Factory. When we started tagging, Glenn (Thrasher) was wrestling singles for a couple years on his own. He was wrestling as ‘The Spider’. Then when I came on board and we started tagging together, we were ‘The Spiders’, and then from there, we took off. We went to Memphis for a while, and then finally, we went to Smoky Mountain. That’s when [Jim] Cornette said, ‘Hey, I want to have you guys in, but I hate masks. I want you guys to come up with something else.’ So he’s the one who created the idea of The Headbangers, and then over the years, we just evolved it into what it is now.”

Thrasher on how Jim Cornette helped them get a foot in the door with WWE after SMW closed down: “We were always on, I guess, the radar because we used to go up and do enhancement work for TV and stuff like that. So when Cornette realized Smoky Mountain was closing down, he got everybody’s foot in the door. That’s where Freddie Joe Floyd came from, The Headbangers. A lot of people came in, and we got hired as part-time. So we were just doing TVs under the part-time contract, and I have to say, we were the only ones to sign full-time contracts, not everybody.”

Mosh on how Vince McMahon viewed their gimmick: “I don’t know if he fully understood it at first because, at first, he tried changing us a couple of times, but it didn’t work. I think we got over a lot more than anyone expected because like Glenn just said, we’re the only ones who got signed to a full-time deal. I don’t think anyone expected us to take off like we did except for maybe Cornette because the bigger we got, the more they still tried to bury us, the more we were still getting over.”

Thrasher on the Attitude Era: “It was weird. It was great for us because we were just two kids from Jersey that didn’t know any better. We both lived in the same towns that we grew up in so nothing really changed that much for us. I guess you could say we didn’t realize how big we actually were then, until we talk to people like you. We hear from other people going, ‘Oh my God, you guys were one of the highlights of the Attitude Era,’ and this that and the other thing. I didn’t see it the same way as everybody else was seeing it.”

Thrasher on the team being underrated and the Stage Dive finish: “Don’t get me started. We don’t get any goddamn love. We are the most underrated tag team of all time. Everybody goes on about finishes and stuff like that. Oh, The Doomsday Device is the best finisher! The 3D’s the best finisher! You know what’s the best goddamn finisher? The Stage Dive. It takes more timing. It takes more accuracy than any other finish in the business. If Chaz is off just a hair, I’m going to sit on some guy’s face. If I’m off just a hair, the guy’s going to land on my lap.”

“So there’s nobody that can dispute or prove me wrong. Show me another finish in the wrestling business that’s better than The Stage Dive. There’s none but when everybody always talks about great tag teams and everything else, you never ever hear anybody say anything about The Headbangers. It’s bulls**t. It’s total bulls**t. I disagree with it. I think maybe if we did a couple of stints in rehab, and we said no a couple times or something like that, our careers might have went farther. Who knows? I don’t know. No, I’m just joking about the rehab thing. That’s how I feel about the whole thing. ‘Oh yeah, The Headbangers. They remind me of The Bushwackers.’ I get a little offended about that. I don’t see The Headbangers as haha, Looney Tooney sideshow. I think we can get in there, and I think we can still go with the best tag teams out there.”