Former WWE star Shad Gaspard spoke to Sports Illustrated about WWE. Here are the highlights.
On WWE: “I love the WWE,” said the 35-year-old Gaspard. “It’s my family, but the goal isn’t to have a great product. The goal is to have a controlled product.
“What’s going on right now isn’t what made us successful. We were willing to step out of the boundaries and be different. Edge, Christian, Rock, Stone Cold, and Triple H himself–everything those guys did stepped out of bounds. Now, guys are so scared of the heat that they’re not willing to step out of bounds, and we were.”
On NXT: “I love NXT. I see the enthusiasm put into NXT not put into Raw and Smackdown because they assume people will just watch. But fans are starting to leave. As much as I love kid fans, they’re not the ones who push the product. Fans between ten and twenty-seven push the product, and those are the guys who say, ‘Hell yeah!’ They are the ones who push the product more than anyone, and they are the ones who need their intelligence challenged.”
On possible WWE return: “The WWE is where we belong,” said Gaspard. “We’re nothing without our fans, and Jay is my brother for life. If we can come back to entertain wrestling fans, we’d do it in a minute.”
