Rodney Mack On How A John Cena – Jazz Drill Led To His WWE Signing
WWE veteran and SWE Fury Television Champion Rodney Mack was on a recent episode of The Wrestling Inc. Daily. Wrestling Inc. Managing Editor Nick Hausman asked Mack how he went from ECW to WWE.
"Right after ECW got bought out, Jazz and I came back to Texas and got back on the indie scene," Mack recalled. "Paul [Heyman] reached out to Jazz and made a call, and I think Jazz went down to OVW. She was there for a few weeks, and she called me up and said, 'I think you need to come down here.' I had no intention on going.
"I was happy here. By the time I was working for PCW, I was having a blast and running the school there, and Jazz went in and she was like, 'You need to come here now because I think you have a great opportunity to fit right in with these guys.' One thing led to another, and I went down there and had a little tryout.
"Honestly, what got me to go was she was in the drills with the guys. Randy Orton, John Cena, Shelton [Benjamin] and them at the time, and I think they were doing the heat drill. And she got a little bit of steam on Cena, and he got a little hot. So she made a call, and I was like, 'Okay, I'll be down there.' That's how I got down there."
Mack clarified that it was Jazz who was the one giving "the heat" to Cena. He explained more of the situation, and he named the stars that he trained with in OVW.
"They were doing a heat drill. She impressed everybody, and I think John Cena was one of the guys that she did the drill on," Mack explained. "And I think it surprised him, and he maybe put a little heat on her. I got the call, and I was like, 'Okay, well, let me come down there and see.' So that's how I really got down there. John Cena's a great guy. We had a blast together. Him, Shelton, Batista and Brock [Lesnar] were there. Charlie [Hass], that whole flock, we were all down there together."
Randy Orton was another name that was part of a talented crop of OVW talents in the mid-2000s. Hausman asked Mack if he knew that he was part of a special group at the time.
"You knew it was something special. You just didn't know how special," Mack noted. "I had no idea, but when you walked in there, there was nothing but studs. You just looked around. Having played college football, I've been around a different level of guys, SEC and all that. So you're used to seeing studs, and when I walked in there, it was like, 'oh my god.' You had to raise your level just to step that other foot in the door."
Mack become OVW Southern Tag Team Champion with Shelton Benjamin. He revealed who paired him up with John Cena as well once he moved to the main roster.
"We were working each other at OVW for Rip Rogers, and I guess things things went well," Mack stated. "So we just kept working against each other. I don't know how that opportunity came for us to work with and tag with one another. I think that was Paul's idea."
Rodney Mack is the current SWE Television Champion. For more information about SWE please visit SWEFury.com. You can find Mack's interview via the embedded players below:
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