Swoggle On If He Experienced Creative Issues In WWE Like Jon Moxley, AEW, WrestleRex Tonight
Since leaving WWE in 2006, Hornswoggle aka Swoggle has returned to WWE for a couple of one-off appearances, most recently at this year's Royal Rumble. He spent 10 years with the promotion so he is very familiar with how things are run in WWE.
Swoggle spoke about his WWE past and why he thinks NXT talent struggle with transitioning to the main roster when he spoke to Wrestling Inc. on our WINCLY podcast.
"In my opinion, NXT has a niche audience. It's not on TV, it's on the Network. While it has viewers, they're not the same. Then you bring these guys up and you try to give them huge segments and spots, but as wrestling fans if we don't like something we're gonna let you know about it," said Swoggle.
"These guys just coming to the main roster; why do I want to care? What's the reason to care about it? And that's the tough part."
Ever since Jon Moxley's interview in which he hashed out all of his creative issues with WWE, many other former WWE Superstars are being asked about their problems with the creative team. Swoggle was asked if he encountered any of the creative issues that Moxley brought up.
"Nah, I flew under the radar as much as I could. I was happy to be there for two weeks under 10 years so I didn't grind that many gears," Swoggle said before adding that WWE made him do embarrassing things like dressing as a cow and Mae Young giving birth to him.
"When I get home, I'm not dressed in a cow costume playing catch with my son. You can't take yourself too seriously when you're going in front of 80,000 people in your underwear.
"You've gotta realize this ? you could be working at Burger King or working for the biggest wrestling company in the world. ?I get to travel the world in front of thousands of people and get paid for it. It's pretty awesome."
Moxley ended up in AEW and Swoggle was asked if he's had any talks with the promotion.
"I was at Starrcast and took it all in. I'm grateful for everything I get whether it be AEW, the Greatest Royal Rumble, the Royal Rumble last year with the girls. Everything I get I'm very grateful for because I can still do this at 33 years old when I was told at 6 that I would never be able to do it," revealed Swoggle.
Swoggle also says that WWE hasn't put any restrictions on him in terms of possibly working with AEW.
"No, no. It just hasn't been communicated yet," stated Swoggle. "That's the cool thing about how my career has been ? you never know where I'm showing up next."
Swoggle is now heavily involved on the indie scene and will be at WrestleRex tonight in Pittsburgh. He talked about his expectations for what should be a unique show.
"Insanity ? standing room only and I love these kinds of shows. It's a party atmosphere. I'm a punk rock fan so shows like these remind me of that punk rock concert vibe and I'm really pumped," Swoggle said before talking about the high production value of the show which is put together by former WWE cameraman Zach White.
"It's a Warped Tour punk rock wrestling show with the production. The production alone has me excited," Swoggle said before listing off many of the big name talents appearing. "It's gonna be an absolutely stacked card and the atmosphere in that building is gonna be awesome."
Swoggle will be wrestling as part of WrestleRex tonight at 8:30 pm EST. The event takes place from The Rex Theater in Pittsburgh and will be streamed live, for free, via the Lucha Central Facebook page.
Swoggle's full interview with Wrestling Inc was included in today's episode of our WINCLY podcast. It can be listened to via the embedded audio player at the bottom of this post. During the interview Swoggle discusses the punk rock vibe of WrestleRex, going viral for looking like AJ Styles, his experience with WWE creative, if he's talked with AEW, Goldberg vs Undertaker, WWE's 24/7 Championship, his 2008 RAW Steel Cage match against Vince McMahon and more.
You can check out past episodes of the WINCLY here.
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