Before 1PW’s “A cruel twist of fate” British Pro wrestler Saz and well-informed fan Mitchell Jones had the opportunity to speak to the Blue Meanie.
The interview went on longer than anyone realised and is broken up into two parts.
In the first part, Blue meanie talks about himself and his career.
Blue Meanie: It’s 9:48 where I live … and I’m in Eeengland! That’s cool! I’m just rambling I’m sorry!
Saz: No that’s fine, ramble away, we just have the evidence! What would you like us to call you?
BM: I dunno, whatever.
Saz: Whatever?
BM: Yeah Cool, *suggestively* What did you have in mind?
Saz: Well “Whatever” will be fine.
BM: *Laughs*
Saz: Ok the first question we have…
BM: Yes Sir.
Saz: Probably easier to call you Meanie.
BM: Yeah, that’s fine, my Grandmother used to call me Meanie.
Saz: Did she?
BM: Yeah.
Saz: Why’s that?
BM: Well, I started out on TV and my Grandma’s like “Ahh that’s my Grandson Meanie yeahhh!” and around the house she called me Meanie and I’m like “You can call me Brian Grandma!”. She was sweet!
Saz: So she was supportive of you and your career?
BM: Oh yeah! I wouldn’t have been able to do any of this without the love and support of my Grandparents and my mom, you know? When there were opportunities where I probably should have got a side job they were like “No! Go out there, hustle!” So I went out there and tried to get all the matches that I could, and eventually got into ECW that way, just from them saying get out there and do what you gotta do, so, they’re the main reason why I’m here, sitting here talking to you.
Saz: Would you say your wrestling career was a hard fought one?
BM: Oh yeah, I shouldn’t even be here right now because of my childhood and growing up with the Asthma. Growing up I couldn’t participate in any physical activities at all, whether it was football or baseball, because I couldn’t breath. I was always rushed to the hospital, every Fall and Spring I’d spend my life in the hospital in one of those big oxygen tents, giving me an I.V. full of [drugs] to jump-start my lungs. So I guess that just to be here makes me very fortunate.
Saz: And your wrestling training, just for the people who don’t know, was with?
BM: Al Snow, who is also on the [1PW] card tonight!
Saz: So you look forward to seeing him again?
BM: Yeah, yeah! And the funny thing about Al Snow is no matter how much time we spend apart, we get into a room and we just pick up where we left off *laughs*. I saw him at the airport and we just ran into one of our old routines, it’s like we never skipped a beat and heckling.
Saz: Heckling?
BM: Oh Yeah! We just break each other’s chops and rib each other and it’s just fun, it’s good-natured.
Saz: Any chopping contests?
BM: Chopping contests? Nah! No, but we try to out-silly each other Whenever we can *Laughs* but I’m sure half of it is not fit for the website.
Saz: What’s your best rib on Al?
BM: Ah, the best rib is flying from Iowa or Connecticut or something and we just did TV and we were flying out the next morning, he was going to go to Ohio and I was going to go to Philadelphia but I forgot my knee pads in the car and I said “Hey Al, I forgot my knee pads, can I have the keys to open the car and get my knee pads?” so *laughs* he gives me the keys and I go down and open the car, grab my knee pads and looked at the car stereo. I got the volume knob and I turned it all the way up! *laughs* and my flight was later than his, he had like a 6am flight, so I wake up the next morning and I check my messages *laughs* and there’s a message with music blaring in the background and “Meanie you son of a bitch!”. He turned on the car and the radio went BLAAAAAAAAAAAH! He almost jumped through the roof! That’s probably one of my most favorite, harmless ribs.
[Everyone in the room is laughing]
BM: And Al’s like “I’m gonna get you” and he normally does. Say there’s like a sprinkler system going off, he would roll down my window, lock it and drive up and get me soaking wet, this sprinkler would be shooting into the car and I’m like “You idiot!” *laughs* Just harmless little stuff like that!
Saz: What would you say was the highlight of your career?
BM: Ah there’s several. The first one would probably be being a part of Mick Foley’s farewell to ECW. Stevie had already been in the company and I had just joined the company and we were doing our stick for about maybe three months and Mick comes up to me and says “Man I got you guys playing tonight for my farewell thing” and I was like *Looks around” “You talking to me?”, I couldn’t believe he was talking to me and he said “Yeah, yeah!” and he explained the whole thing and he brought us out in his farewell speech and we did the can-can, that would be the first one, but the ultimate one would be being part of Wrestlemania fifteen, which was held in my home town of Philadelphia. A lot of my career highlights just happen to be in Philly, whether it would be debuting for ECW, debuting for the WWE, my first and only Wrestlemania was in Philly, I was born in Philly, raised in Philly, so Philly is a big part of my life and career. So my main highlight would probably be Wrestlemania fifteen.
Saz: What would you say your best match was?
BM: My best match in the WWE would have been me and Goldust versus the Hardy Boyz, unfortunately, it was the night when Owen passed away but we had a match on the Sunday night Heat, prior to the pay per view and I felt like I had accomplished something, I walked out of the match with a good feeling and the road agents actually came up and were like “Good job”, it was cool because normally an agent would come up and go “It was good BUT you could do this, or that”, which is cool, I’m always open to constructive criticism. It’s just that night that match felt just right and unfortunately that night we lost Owen.
Saz: Would you say it was a big loss to the business when Owen died?
BM: Yeah, that whole weekend was weird because I always respected Owen and was a big fan of Owen’s before I got into the business. This whole weekend we did a show the night before in Chicago and Owen’s last time in the ring on a show was in a match with Goldust and the Godfather and I was there at his last time ever to appear on a WWE show, I was involved as a part of it. The trip to Kansas City, where the accident took place, I was with him, he was, say I’m here, he was sitting right there *BM points with both arms to the side of him*, right next to me on the flight over sleeping, it was his last chance to take a nap, then in the locker room his bag was sitting right there, as he got changed right across from me, so the whole trip was about Owen. It was this weird connection and another connection was after the accident, when we had found out we had lost him, all the major news stations in Philly picked up “Pro Wrestler dies in the ring… the blue…” and everybody thought that they were going to say the Blue Meanie and my family and friends were like “Oooooooh!!!” and then they said “Blazer” and they went “Oh”, it sucked that he died, but at the time a lot of my friends and family had thought that I had passed away in the ring. So there was that whole weird connection for that whole weekend.
Saz: Would you say that was your lowest point?
BM: That was probably the biggest downer of my career, that or the night Droz got paralysed, I was there for that too.
Saz: Have you come over to Britain for the one show, or have you organised a set of bookings across the country?
BM: I’d love to come back, I know I’m set for this date and a date in January.
Saz: Would you work for smaller federations?
BM: I’d love to, I haven’t, but I would love to. It’s just a matter of seeing what promotions are out there and who’s interested in using me in their show.
Saz: We’ll get you a list.
BM: Yes, Please!
Mitch: I’d like to bring up your time with ECW if I may.
BM: Oh yeah, sure!
Mitch: You were part of the ECW Hardcore Homecoming and ECW One Night Stand with the WWE, how would you compare both nights?
BM: Both shows were just totally off the charts, crowd reaction wise, that whole weekend felt like a highschool reunion of sorts. It was awesome, the first night of Hardcore Homecoming, to see the people you haven’t seen for years you just went in the locker room and you felt like the four years you just “Chop chop” and splice them together and there we are, that was awesome. The first night was a little bit different because we couldn’t use certain guys as they had contracts with the WWE, so a certain aspect of the Philly show felt like old school 1996 to 97 ECW arena feel, the place was packed, we had hat guy in the front row, we had Joey Styles and everything and it just felt great. One Night Stand was different where we were able to bring in some of the guys from Hardcore Homecoming over plus mixing in the WWE guys and to me it represented the later years, even though we had some of the guys who were in the earlier years. Both shows were awesome shows and to say one was better than the other really wouldn’t be fair because everybody had worked their tails off on each show, both shows were just magical.
Mitch: What did you think of the WWE involvement as far as the ECW legacy was concerned?
BM: I know it bugged a lot of hardcore fans, but it really didn’t bother me that much because if you look back in the early history of ECW we always would have a Jerry Lawler coming in, a Jim Cornett coming in or a WWE character coming in and they were bringing ECW to a larger audience, so somebody who might not buy the ECW pay per view for ECW’s sake might buy it to see Kurt Angle or JBL, hell, just as people who’ll buy anything that Kurt Angle’s on or anything that JBL’s on or whoever else was involved with that so I think it was good as far as bringing the casual fan over to see what ECW was about because they may not have purchased the Pay per view otherwise. I thought it was a good idea and I figured it was pretty classy of the WWE to let ECW stand tall at the end. Now normally, back, probably years ago, Vince would have probably had the WWE guys beat up the ECW guys and run us off on our own pay per view, but the ECW guys stood tall, we saw it right to the end and drank the beers, it was a big party at the end, except for the JBL thing. *Laughs*
Mitchell Jones & Saracen