D’Lo Brown recently spoke with Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated for an in-depth interview covering all things pro wrestling.
During the discussion, the IMPACT Wrestling Head of Talent Relations spoke about the origins of his trademark head shake throughout his run in WWE, as well as Vince McMahon’s reaction to it the first time he saw it.
Featured below are some of the highlights from the interview where he touches on this topic, and shares a story about dropping an F-bomb on live WWE television.
On the longevity of his WWE persona and origins of his trademark head shake: “Back in 1997, portable DVD players were just starting to come out. You’d have sleeves of DVDs kind of like you’d have sleeves of CDs. The movie ‘Friday’ was part of the regular rotation on our road trips. The Rock and I finished a match on a Sunday and we were back at the hotel watching ‘Friday,’ and there’s a scene where Deebo knocks out a guy and Chris Tucker yells, ‘You just got knocked the f*ck out!’ The next night at Raw, we’re getting ready to go to commercial break, and the spot is that Rocky is going to clothesline Ken Shamrock out of the ring and onto the floor, and then we’d go to the commercial. But I knew if I had that 30 seconds, I was stealing it. So when Ken was knocked out of the ring, I ran up to the ropes and screamed, ‘You just got knocked the f*ck out!’ and I’m shaking my head. That’s when it dawned on me that I swore on TV. I figured Vince [McMahon] was going to be furious.”
On Vince McMahon’s reaction backstage after he dropped the F-bomb on TV: “Vince had two looks. One was when he looked at you and gave a thumbs up. That was good. The other was when he looked up, pulled his glasses down, and waved a finger over to him. That’s what I got that night. And he looked at me and said, ‘That thing you’re doing with your head? Keep doing it.’ So I didn’t get fined for swearing and I did something that piqued Vince’s curiosity. Then I turned the volume up on the head shake, and people still tell me stories to this day about doing it in hallway or to their mom. It’s incredible.”
Check out the complete interview at SI.com.
