WWE Senior Vice President of Live Events “Road Dogg” Brian James recently spoke on his podcast, “Oh You Didn’t Know,” about a variety of professional wrestling topics including not wanting to be split up from Billy Gunn after they lost the WWF Tag Team Championship to Ken Shamrock and The Big Bossman at the end of 1998:
“This is the time where I literally went in and asked Vince to please not split us up because I don’t think I can do it without Billy. That’s just me being honest. There might have been tears shed to be quite honest with you and when I say might have been, I mean, I cried. I want to be the first out of the curtain with the microphone, but hey, be right behind me. Be close. That’s how I felt. I felt like I needed him and when I was told I wasn’t going to have him, it’s as simple as that. I was like, no. I need him. It scared the crap out of me. That’s where I was at. It scared me to death that I was gonna have to do this on my own.”
How Vince McMahon responded to that:
“He tells me, ‘You’re gonna be great. This is gonna be good for you and it’s gonna be good for Billy.’ I knew it was gonna be good for Billy because I knew what they had in mind and I knew what he looked like. I knew Billy was gonna do great, I knew Billy was gonna go on to do great things, and I didn’t have the same confidence in myself.”
“I think it turned out okay. I just didn’t see that happening. I’m a big future tripper. That means that you forecast fear onto future events, stuff that ain’t happened yet. I didn’t know if I would succeed, if I would stand or fall as an individual talent, but I projected fear onto the future and said, ‘Oh my God, I can’t do it alone.'”
You can check out the podcast below:
(h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription)
