WWE Hall of Famer “Road Dogg” Brian James appeared on Insight With Chris Van Vliet, where he discussed a number of topics including the biggest difference between The Attitude Era and the modern era.
Road Dogg said, “I think the talent to be quite honest with you. The talent is a different animal, man. So I’ll tell you this quick story, and I’ve told it a million times, but when Edge and Christian came in I used to scoff at them because they were on time and healthy and limber. They were doing exactly what a person in their line of work should be doing. I was still a party animal, so I scoffed at them and thought [differently]. Well now that’s what the athlete is, because that’s what the athlete has to be. You have to be that dedicated to your body and to this field and all that to be that. I would have never made it today. I mean, look at me for the love of Pete, all these guys we just saw, Carmelo Hayes, and they’re all chiseled out of brick. They look like Greek Gods.”
On why he thought CM Punk hated him:
“I thought me and CM Punk hated each other’s guts for 10 years. [Why?] Because in my head I hated him and I thought he hated me too. Yeah, a lot of stuff [happened], went down back and forth, good times and bad times, but yeah I just thought [he hated me]. So then the first time I saw him when he came back here, he stood up and he hugged me and it broke my ice immediately. It also hit me right then, Hey Brian, he hadn’t thought a thing about you. It doesn’t matter what he thinks about me anyway, and I damn sure don’t matter. Doesn’t matter what I think about him. He realized that, and I was here at 55 and holding on to that, and I was holding on to nothing. There was nothing there. There was no bad feelings. I don’t know. It was weird, and he’s a different dude today. I told him not long ago at live events and stuff, ‘Hey, I really appreciate your attitude.’ He said, ‘Well, that’s the first time anybody’s ever said that to me.’ Well, I mean it from the bottom of my heart, because he’s a different dude. Me and him butted heads. He butted heads with a lot of people. He says what he means, he means what he says. He don’t mind if it ruffles your feathers. I kind of respect it.”
On the WCW invasion angle:
“There was very little direction to be quite honest with you. It was literally run and gun. We had done that when I was the Roadie with real Double J. We did that in Brentwood after the OJ Simpson trial, me and Jeff and Vince Russo went out there, you take a camera and you run and gun. It’s not legal and it’s not morally right, but we had fun with it. And again, there’s no direction, just you’ll hear Bruce Pritchard come by and go, ‘Come on, get in the van.’ We’d all run and get in the van. But it was great. It was guerrilla warfare. [The police grabbed me] a couple of times, and I had weed in my pocket. Just crazy stuff like that where you just go man, what were we doing and what were we thinking? But it was stuff that wins wars. That’s what it was and it worked. It was guerrilla warfare, and it worked.”
On his current role in WWE:
“So really, I’m still in charge of creative of live events. But now we have scaled live events back. Domestically, especially this coming year, we’re going to find out where our sweet spot is, but a lot of overseas live events coming up this year, there’s huge money there.”
On the business side of WWE:
“The business side of things right now is so far beyond what they have ever been before, even Attitude, all that stuff is just putting shame what the business is doing now with Hunter at the Helmsley [laughs]. I know, I’m sorry. I’m a granddad.”
You can check out the complete podcast in the video below.
