Simon Gotch was the guest on this week’s episode of Why It Ended with Robbie E. The following items were revealed over the course of the conversation and appear in chronological order:
1. Simon began watching wrestling around the age of 3. This was in 1985-86. His favorites growing up were the British Bulldogs and the Hart Foundation.
2. It wasn’t until Nitro was launched in 1995 that Simon was introduced to the WCW product.
3. At the age of 17, Simon decided he wanted to become a wrestler after watching a live ECW audience react to Rob Van Dam.
4. Simon trained at several schools, working with both Daniel Bryan and Harley Race.
5. William Regal came across Simon at Harley Race’s school in 2011. He complimented him and moved on. Simon nagged him until Regal told him he looked like an old-timey strongman, to make a video and send it in.
6. Simon is a huge Chuck D fan. He’s also met Flavor Flav, but was not impressed.
7. Wearing an old-timey red and white striped swimsuit around all day at his first WWE tryout helped Simon stand out. It created a buzz and helped him get people’s attention.
8. If you were to look up the word “idiot” in the dictionary, according to Simon, you would find Enzo Amore. He felt Enzo stuck to the same tired formula with all of his promos.
9. Triple H first had the idea to pair Simon with Aiden English.
10. The Vaudevillains, Simon felt, should have been limited to being a couple carnies. He thought they were poorly produced and defined by WWE.
11. Robbie E needed to have Simon explain what vaudeville entertainment was.
12. Simon hated that the word “villain” was included in the tag team’s name.
13. The Vaudevillains only got over because they were ridiculous, Simon feels. He says they weren’t over in the truest sense.
14. The Vaudevillains were notified that they were being moved up to the main roster two days beforehand, at WrestleMania 32.
15. Simon was feeling burned out on the WWE system and was ready to quit at the same time they were called up.
16. Simon was one of the bone soldiers in Triple H’s WrestleMania 32 entrance. He got paid $250.
17. Simon feels he’s been unfairly blamed for injuring Enzo. He says physics caused the injury, that Enzo injured himself. Steve Austin has asserted that Gotch was responsible for the injury, to which Simon responds “Steve Austin doesn’t know f**k all about physics.”
18. The only reason the Vaudevillains were called up, Simon believes, is because there was no longer room for them in NXT and WWE didn’t want to fire them.
19. The idea of getting over on your own is something Simon calls BS on. He says your only option most of the time is to not listen to the producer and have a good match rather than simply sell for the opponent, not listen and go over the allotted time, or listen to the producer, do what you’re told and face the possibility of getting fired because you didn’t get over.
20. Simon made clear to everyone that he did not want to be in WWE prior to his release.
21. People that met people during his time in WWE thought he was a miserable person because he was so unhappy. He likens himself then to BoJack Horsesman.
22. He feels the only reason wrestlers on the current roster use older wrestlers moves is to kiss their ass and get ahead.
23. JBL hated Curt Hawkins and loved Baron Corbin. Simon calls Corbin a politicking MFer, but does so in a complimentary way.
24. Simon feels he was just having fun with Sin Cara, but that Sin Cara took it too personally, thus creating their infamous altercation.
25. Simon refers to Dave Meltzer as Morty, saying his reporting is accurate about 20% of the time.
26. Simon calls Jorge Arias (Sin Cara) a cheap shot artist who has built his reputation on getting in one good shot on someone and waiting for everyone to pull them apart. He cites another example of this where Arias punched Sheamus while he was on the trainer’s table getting taped up.
(I find this one funny since it’s the same theory Mike used in Dazed and Confused before getting a cheap shot in on Clint and the kegger, and Simon bears a resemblance to Clint.)
27. The altercation with Sin Cara is something everyone points to as far as Simon being a problem backstage, but according to him, it’s the only incident of the sort that ever happened.
28. Adam Pearce was the only backstage agent with whom Simon feels he had a good relationship.
29. Simon was in an elevator with Corey Graves after last years WrestleMania and told him “I f**king hate this place and want to quit.” Graves told him there was no reason to be miserable and that he should quit. Gotch says he was in an awkward position where he was making too much money to quit, but not enough to make him happy.
30. When he was let go, he was told Vince feels his character has run its course. There was no “creative has nothing for you” or “the door is always open” type sentiment.
31. Outside of Cesaro and Neville, Simon feels he never really got to work with anyone he wanted to.
32. Simon still follows Aiden English on TV but doesn’t stay in touch with him. He feels English is super athletic but doesn’t do too much because he’s afraid of getting injured.
33. Without straight up admitting it, Simon’s comments strongly imply that he enjoys pineapple on his pizza.
34. He feels he deserves an award for “Worst single year in WWE history,” besting the one Chris Jericho claims to have had. He honestly says he’d be interested in who else even serves as competition.
35. He would purchase an album released by Enzo if, during an interlude, Enzo replaced his “Certified G” line with a line about being a registered sex offender.
36. If WWE called Simon today and offered them a spot, he would not return if it was to fill the same spot he’d previously held.
To check out the entire interview, visit MLWRadio.com.
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