Shad Gaspard Reveals He Was Tapped To Feud With John Cena, Says Kofi Kingston Should Be Champion
Shad Gaspard recently appeared on BDSIR's PerfectPlex Radio's Mike Knoxxx, Spotface, KME and Rivera to talk about a number of issues including his new reality show, his acting career, how the Rock beat him out of playing Roadblock, why Cryme Tyme broke up, why CTC didn't last, and why he thinks Kofi Kingston should be a world champ. Here are the higlights:
On his new reality show: "Well a friend of mine came to me and said he wants to do a reality documentary on me. I was kind of standoffish at first because he asked me earlier last year and I said no because I am pretty private about my life, you know it's not a lot of pictures of my son or anybody in my family online. He kind of convinced me because he told me it would be like Alistar Overeem's Show where it's not a jerk off to himself he's not sitting there talking bout 'look at me! Oh, I'm great'. It's a real reality show. It's a real documentary. It's not even a reality show. It's a documentary. It's what's happening in my life on a day to day basis and you guys get to see it now."
On whether or not the door is closed on a return to wrestling: "I'm not big on closing doors. I always leave them cracked open."
If he would quit acting to become a wrestler if WWE had something good for him: "No. I would never stop acting. I mean to be totally honest with you, it's one of those things where I've been working hard to do this acting thing for five years now and this last three years has been a real struggle upward that I really don't want to quit right now. I am so close I can taste it and everybody else can see it and I am literally fighting my ass off to get there everyday. I wouldn't give it up."
On almost playing Roadblock and if the talks of him playing the character were serious: "There were and it was before Rock joined (signed on) and what happened with that was a friend of mine new the casting and he knew what they were looking for and he gives me a number to call and I am thinking it is just a friend of his and I called the number and I was like "Oh I'm so sorry" because, you know, because actors should never call casting ever. So I called casting and was like "oh my God, I'm so sorry, it was an accident. They said 'oh, it's okay, please send me your stuff.' I told them I'd have my agent sent it and they said 'Oh, you can send it yourself.' It's not a big deal. So I send my resume and stuff and a week later my agent said 'they want you to come in and audition'. So I flew to L.A., I auditioned and I literally killed it in the room. And in the original script, Roadblock wasn't the leader. Flint was and Roadblock was his back up. And so after my audition I left and a half hour later my agent calls and said 'They love you! Their f-king ecstatic!' because they were looking for somebody to play that Roadblock role and they were looking for someone to play that Flint role that could take over from Channing Tatum for a while and everyone they casted just wasn't a big enough star name. And what happened was, from what I'm told, is they started recruiting Rock because they wanted Rock to play Sgt. Slaughter. Yeah, so rather than the Joes going to find Duke, they go to find Sgt. Slaughter that turns out to be Rock and he comes on and he's just the baddest mother f-ker on the planet. And so what happens is they gave Rock a sheet of names and at the top of the list was Sgt. Slaughter but he skipped that name and went straight to Roadblock. And I was like, 'aw, I wont be Roadblock! (laughs)"
On Cryme Tyme's break-up: "What happened was it was just time. It was one of those things where we weren't getting titles for whatever reason and you know, if we break-up, we can break up and always come back together because you know, no matter what we're still brothers. So plans for me that, I was told a year after I got released, I was told my plans by some of the old writers. A lot of the old writers live in L.A. And we always talk. We always have lunches and a lot of them are working at Paramount, where I'm at and they will see me and be like 'Oh yeah, this guy used to be a wrestler.' But I know the plans for me was I was supposed to go to Raw and face Cena and I actually remember the day of the draft and I didn't get drafted to Raw like I was supposed to that night so I was like something's up. So we came to Smackdown the next day, I remember walking down the hallway and seeing Michael Hayes and I was like 'what am I doing today?' and he said 'I don't f-ing know because you're not supposed to be here.' So it was supposed to be me vs. Cena and they were supposed to build me up as a major heel on Raw. But because of certain agents and certain people didn't think I deserved it all of a sudden I became the guy that can't wrestle."
On if he knew the people that were against them: "I do. I know who some of them were, but you know me I'm a business man and I don't need to air all that on the radio."
On what happened with CTC (Cryme Tyme Cenation): "It's a weird thing with Cena sometimes. I think guy's like Hunter, Taker, Rock, you know those guys are onions. They have layers to them Stone Cold, you know. They've changed their gimmicks up in so many different ways all the time and it always benefited them. They see the best in changing what they are doing up. And sometimes with Cena he doesn't really want to change it up. I remember we were doing the CTC thing and where at a house show and it was John Cena vs. Ted Dibiase and Cody Rhodes (in a handicap match). And I remember Randy Orton coming to me and he was like 'What the F-ck? Why is he facing two guys? You guys aren't facing anybody. You're doing a run in and I'm facing a random person.' You know, it didn't make any sense. He (Orton) was like, 'why not just make it a 6-man tag?' We were doing CTC but at the house shows it was CTB. It was Cryme Tyme/Batista. We literally did more 6-mans where it was me, J and Batista vs. Jericho, Rhodes and Dibiase or Orton, Rhodes and Dibiase. You know, it was a weird situation. Everybody thought it was beneficial. I can't really tell you how Cena felt but I just know that it just didn't go any further than what it did."
On whether there is a glass ceiling in WWE: "Well you know what? That glass ceiling is gonna come into really good context in the next say... I say three years. Cause Kofi Kingston's contract is gonna be up soon. And if there is anybody on the WWE roster, right now who deserves a world heavyweight championship more than Kofi Kingston, please let me know who he is? Because honest to God, Kofi Kingston is amazing. He makes every match he is in. There hasn't been a match that Kofi Kingston has been in where you haven't been amazed by what he did. So if the glass ceiling does exist, Kofi Kingston shouldn't get a title. But if the glass ceiling doesn't exist, within the next 2 years Kofi Kingston should be world heavyweight champion at least once."
Which World Title should Kofi get?: "Either one and this comes straight from my heart. He should be WWE champion at least once. Because honestly who deserves to be champion more; Ryback or Kofi Kingston?"
Shad also discusses politics, types of movies he likes, and the shooting massacre in Connecticut. The whole interview can be heard here, and Shad Gaspard's reality show can be seen here.