Former WWE and ECW personality Don Callis, who went by Cyrus in ECW, recently spoke with WWE.com. Here are the highlights.
On what he did to get released by WWE in 1998:
Apparently everything [laughs]. But I called Bret Hart, who was in WCW, and he told me because I hadn’t been on TV in a while that I might want to go to ECW first before trying to get signed by WCW. Lance Storm made it part of his contract negotiations to havePaul Heyman hire me. I started in Queens, N.Y., the day after my contract expired with WWE. I traveled with Lance for a year-and-half and lived like a monk because he’s no fun. He doesn’t drink or party. All his does is diet, work out and go to sleep early. It was the worst time of my career [laughs]. It was made even worse because Lance, Justin Credible and their manager Jason did their interviews after the show at three in the morning and it took them 30 takes. I would just go straight to the airport at 4 a.m.
On what he wants fans to remember him for:
My time in ECW. Paul Heyman was fantastic to me. He let me go out there and flourish on my own. I’ll always remember that Paul was a coach as much as a boss. Working with Paul to start a near riot at the Manhattan Center here in New York was old school, white-hot heat. For me, that was the highlight. My best creative work was done in WWE when I was given a gimmick that was doomed to failure and changed it within the WWE system to make it work. As a new guy, how great is it to work with Legends like Pat Patterson and all the producers that work backstage here? By the way, how much do I get paid for this interview?
You can read the entire interview here.
