WWE Hall of Famer “The Enforcer” Arn Anderson recently appeared on Foundation Radio, where he talked about a number of topics including his surprise return to the WWE during the main event of SummerSlam with Undisputed WWE Champion “The American Nightmare” Cody Rhodes.
Anderson said, “Cody and I had, when he brought me to AEW, we had an incredible run there for a little bit, and we did some stuff that was out of bounds. Me burning his clothes in a trash can is not normal stuff. Threatening to shoot him in the head probably was not the best idea. But with the history I had with Dusty, and then Dustin, and then Cody, and the position he was in … I think enough people enjoyed that few months that we had together, and they remembered it. And the one thing that we talk about when young guys ask me for advice and all that, I said, ‘be a storyteller, tell a story.’ They immediately clicked back in when I walked up on Cody to the story from AEW, I feel like, and that’s been the feedback. One of the comments were, ‘Now that’s long-term storytelling.’ Then It’s somehow, some way, somebody was brilliant enough to fast forward this all the way from where it started with AEW five years ago to now. I should say that’s long term. That’s what fans like me and you and other pure wrestling fans want, they like stories. I think the idea was, ‘they’re going to fire this thing back up’, and people enjoy that.”
On possibly returning to the WWE in a full-time capacity:
“You never say never. They really treated Brock (Anderson, his son) and I so well. They flew us in. They put us up at the Westin, and they had somebody picking us up for all the places we needed to go, and the treatment was first class. I was so happy with when I left there. It’s stressful doing RAW and SmackDown every week. It’s a lot of stress with that company. Live TV is tough, and there was a lot of pressure. And when I left, it’s probably a good thing. I was probably on the verge of having a freaking stroke or a meltdown or something. It’s just so much pressure. But when I got out of the car that they had car service for me, I started seeing people who didn’t know I was there backstage. We came in a ramp in the back of the building, and they looked at me like, ‘What are you doing here?’ It was a smile on everyone’s face, and everyone was hugging my neck, and I was hugging their neck back. I saw Cody first, then I saw the Undertaker, then I saw Randy Orton. These are all people that I was there for their growth and everything, and it was a different atmosphere. Everybody was smiling, everybody was happy, and it was a different company. So kudos to whatever changes Hunter and company that have made this the atmosphere that it is. Will I do anything back with them? I don’t know.”
On never winning a heavyweight championship:
“People ask me, ‘Were you disappointed that you were never world champion?’ There are some guys that you need in a crew that can have a great match with anybody, or at least a passable to good match with guys that need the help, and then you can have a phenomenal match with other guys. I wasn’t a guy that you looked at, that walked in the room where everybody went, ‘who the hell is that?’ Even if I don’t know who I don’t know who that guy is, I know he’s somebody. I didn’t have that look, that marketable 6’6, great body, tanned, great head of hair. My worth, I feel like, started once the bell rang, and I made a guy work his ass off for everything that he got in the ring. I earned my respect by being that guy, and I didn’t even have to win the match. That’s what I hear a lot from different fans that were there in the area. They said, ‘Man, two things. When you picked up a mic, we listened, and we believed what you said.’”
On his son, Brock Anderson, and his time in AEW:
“Thanks to Tony Khan for giving him his start and I appreciate it. At the time, I thought it’s too soon. He hasn’t had enough experience off television and the smaller venues. Just wrestling school where he was trained. I felt like he needed more of that. But Tony was the boss. He said, ‘Well, let’s debut him tonight.’ That happened just like that one afternoon. We had no knowledge of it. Cody (Rhodes) comes to me, he says, ‘Tony wants to talk to you. You got a minute?’ (Tony) goes, ‘Want to debut Brock tonight?’ Well, what do you say? No? I mean, are you kidding me? We already owe him for providing an alternative in the wrestling industry. What I’m going to say, no to the guy? I never told Brock; ‘I don’t want you in the business.’ I never told Brock, ‘I want you in the business.’ He came up to me when he was in high school and he said, ‘Dad, what would you think about me wrestling?’ I said, ‘Why are you bringing that up now? You’re in high school.’ He said, ‘I don’t know. I’ve just been watching.’ So he had been in his room watching some stuff on his own, making his own decisions about what he liked and what he didn’t like and what he thought was good.”
You can check out Anderson’s comments in the video below.
