Dan Spivey Talks Helping Bray Wyatt With His Gimmick, If He Would Join Wyatts, Wrestlers Suing WWE
Today The Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling recently interviewed Dan Spivey, who is largely recognized for his portrayal of the mysterious Waylon Mercy character in the 90s. You can check out the full interview by clicking here, they sent us these highlights:
Could today's pro wrestler handle the old school travel schedule:
"I think so, but the main reason we did those schedules was for the money. I went ninety days one time without ever coming home. When you are living on the road for ninety days, it was hard but we had a good time doing it. It was hard work and the thing was we were all chasing money. When you work ninety straight days you get a pretty good paycheck. Everyone wanted to work for WWE, (in the day WWF) because it was the number one company. It's the company that if you work for them, you got famous. It was seen all over the world. Vince took it International and if you take guys today and bring them in there they would work for Vince for free to get the notoriety. It was a privilege to work for that company and because when you got to the WWE you made it in the business."
Older wrestlers complaining that Vince McMahon pushed them to work:
"How would those guys feel that are complaining about Vince if they never had the opportunity to work there? I think they would be very disappointed and their careers would have never been fulfilled."
First impressions of Vince McMahon:
"I thought that he was and still is a great promoter. I thought he was a fair guy. He asks you to go out there and work hard and give it your very best which is what any employer would ask. I hadn't been in the business more then two years and I had a ruptured disc in my neck and it wasn't real clear if I was going to be able to come back from it or not. Vince (and I hadn't been in the business more then two years) gave me five hundred dollars a week while I was recovering. I don't know any other promoter that would have done that. He took care of me, I know that."
Did Bray Wyatt seek out his help in developing his character?
"I'm just assuming that everybody knows but me and Mike (Rotunda) were partners when I first came to the WWE. I teamed up with him as the US Express. Mike's two kids Widham and Bo were both down in the training facility for the WWE and Bray (Windham) came to me and asked me about Waylon Mercy. So we talked and I gave him some ideas and the kid ran with it and he's done a great job with it and I am really happy for him."
A rumored return to the WWE as part of the Wyatt Family:
"I would love to do it. I think there is a lot to be done with it. I kind of think though that they want Bray to be on his own and they don't want any association with me, which I think is crazy because what an angle that could've been when Bray wrestled Taker. The connection with me and Undertaker as The Sky-Skyscrapers and Bray as Rotundo's kid doing my old gimmick. If you are asking the question would I be interested in doing it? Yeah I would. I think that would be great."
Being pitched Waylon Mercy and the look of the character:
"Vince brought it up to me and asked me what I thought about it and I loved it and thought it was a great idea. The promos where they just stuck me out there. The first one where I killed the bug on my arm, I just went out there and winged it. I'm from the South, I knew a lot of Southern people and I just went off of kind of just winging it and I remember watching the movie (Cape Fear) several times with Robert DeNiro and what a great movie that was. Everything was off the top of my head, there was no writing for me like they have nowadays. The red light came on and I just went with it. Vince didn't really say anything to me after we had the first meeting. I put the costume together, although he did say he wanted me to dye my hair black which was no problem. We had these tattoos which would stay on for like two or three days and if the character would have done something and carried on the way that it should have been I would have got the tattoos for real. They were a real pain in the ass to put on and take off. He didn't have anything to say, that was all me."
Why Waylon Mercy's run was cut short:
"I was only there for a short time, I was there only about nine months. I was beat up and always hurt and always taking the pain-killers. I had a bad hip, a bad knee and it was just a bad time. I wasn't happy with the way things were going so I quit. Vince and Gerry Brisco tried to talk me into coming back and I had just had enough and was done. I wasn't happy because I wasn't able to perform like I wanted to and I didn't feel like it was going anywhere. I wasn't mad I was just ready to retire because I couldn't perform the way I wanted to."
Backstage atmosphere in 1995 and did he see Undertaker becoming the star he is:
"No, I had no idea. Mark when we teamed up was really green. I thought he was a good guy and I liked Mark from the very beginning. I had no idea that he would ever be the star that he is today. Nobody bothered me that's for sure. I was pretty much a loaner anyway so I didn't care about The Kliq. A lot of guys that were up there were real primadonnas."
Dan Spivey also discusses his lengthy run in Japan, teaming with Stan Hansen in AJPW, forming The Sky Scrapers in WCW and teaming with both Sid and Mean Mark, his entry into the WWF filling in for Barry Windham, breaking into the business with Scott Hall, Dusty Rhodes and more. You can listen to the full interview by clicking here.