Steve Blackman Interview: WWE Release, Injuries, Possible Return, more

- Daniel Edler sent this in:

Show: The Interactive Interview (Courtesy of ProWrestling.com)
Guest: Steve Blackman
Date: 30th January 2004
Your Hosts: Daniel Edler & James Walsh
Recap by: Daniel Edler

[NOTE: You need the Real One Player to hear the show, which you can
download by Clicking Here]

'The Lethal Weapon', Steve Blackman, is this edition of TII's guest, and we want
to thank him for his time. In this interview he openly discusses his want to return
to the WWE, how his neck injury is after surgery, and his thoughts on the WWE Royal
Rumble event itself.

Coming soon TII has its One Year Anniversary show, so keep checking our official
website for more information on that huge huge show.

Steve Blackman

-- Since he left WWE, Steve's bought into a gym, had his neck worked on and moved
back to Pennsylvania from Florida.

-- Steve watched wrestling on and off. When he did watch he enjoyed watching Snuka,
Valentine and many others.

-- After becoming obsessed with lifting weights etc, going into wrestling seemed
like the natural next step. He used to go in for a lot of lifting and curling
competition, and benched 585 at the age of 19. He broke loads of eastern American
records, and as far as he is aware, these records still stand to this day.

-- In 1989, Steve contracted Malaria, an illness which kept him out of action right
through until 1996. He was in Africa, and when he came back a stomach illness kept
him "on his death bed" for pretty much two years.

-- After being out of the ring for around 6 years or so, he called Brian Pillman,
spoke to Bret Hart, etc and asked them to put in a good word up in WWE. When he was
contacted, he had to go through a week of training and a couple more weeks of
tryouts before being signed.

-- His debut was made as one of a 'fan in the crowd'. He really enjoyed it, "it was
a little different, and I thought it came off half decent". It was about 10 miles
from where he lived, so it was pretty much a hometown crowd.

-- On the topic of Ken Shamrock, he thought his Hardcore matches were decent,
enjoyed the parking lot match, but his favorite was the Lions Den match - his only
regret about that is that the cage wasn't a little bigger. Steve says that in
regards to Ken Shamrock, they've had a lot of good matches and he wouldn't mind
giving any kind of match a go with him.

-- Talk then turns to Ground 'n' Pound gear, something that Ken and Steve are doing
(http://www.gnpgear.com). It was started by 3 lifelong friends, and they asked
Steve and Ken to come in and help promote it. A lot of guys on UFC PPV's etc are
wearing the GnP stuff, which can be seen and found out about at the aforementioned
website, gnpgear.com.

-- Steve was hoping to make a decision about his future this month, but he hasn't
been able to thus far. If he cant get in the ring again he's thinking of opening up
a Night Club with some friends, and if he can he wants to get back in the ring for
3-4 weeks and try some small workouts. If they go okay, he'll "give Titan [WWE] a
call and see if they wanna do something".

-- Steve was in the "Brawl For All" competition, and beat Marc Mero in the first
round. After that, Steve had to withdraw through injury as during a routine shoot
training session, his sparring partner sat on the side of his leg, causing it to hit
the floor and rip a cartilage in his knee.

-- Thoughts of the whole 'Hardcore Title' era are then given. Blackman says he's
not sure that it's necessarily a bad move to have removed it, and while they throw
that gimmick out there every now and again, it's not anywhere near as regular. In
addition, Steve said that every time he went out there he tried to be creative as he
could, using weapons in new ways to give the fans something they hadn't seen before.

-- Daniel then asks what was going through Steve's mind, as he took the huge elbow
drop dive off of the Scaffolding onto a prone Shane McMahon to retain the Hardcore
Title at SummerSlam 2000. Steve's reply - "don't slip". He remembers thinking after
wrestling for so long, his hands were real sweaty, and he didn't want to slip and
"take a downward spill".

-- The team with Al Snow pretty much just came off because of their two different
personalities. He isn't sure WHO came up with it or anything, but that's WHY it
occurred. During the word associations, Daniel brings up Chester McCheeserton, the
midget in the cheese costume that Snow and Blackman attacked.

-- His release was a Mutual Decision. They didn't want to put him in the ring if he
wasn't 100%, and every time he was going in there he would experience severe
headaches etc.

-- Blackman says he watches WWE off and on. "Some of it's still good, some of it
needs some work, but you can pretty much say that about anything". Steve then asks
host Daniel HIS opinion on it, and they talk for a few more minutes about WWE in
general.

-- This interview was recorded before the Royal Rumble itself, and Steve threw out
some of his predictions; Goldberg and Billy Gunn. Other choices are then discussed
such as John Cena and Chris Benoit as possibilities, and gives his thoughts on those
two guys in general.

-- If he can get back in the ring, Steve would find it really interesting to do some
hardcore matches with Rob Van Dam. There's a lot of other guys, but the one he
thinks of first would be Van Dam.

-- Steve has options such as Japan, England, and he's thought about TNA but hasn't
been in touch with them. His first choice would be with Titan before he tried
anybody else.

-- He doesn't have an official website, and doesn't have any affiliation with any of
the fansites, but if anybody wants to book Steve they can either contact the guys at
Ground 'n' Pound (gnpgear.com), or The Interactive Interview show hosts Daniel &
James.

-- The hosts then ask for Blackman's thoughts on some of the wrestlers who have
passed away recently such as Crash Holly, Brian Pillman and British Bulldog. His
thoughts, even though Pillman and Bulldog were some of his best friends, they get no
sympathy from him in regards to taking pills. "If you're an alcoholic, I don't
wanna hear that it's hereditary, stop drinking. If you know the problem, stop it,
I'm cut and dry like that".

-- We then roll into word associations with names such as Shane McMahon, Sean
Waltman, Al Snow, Owen Hart, Bret Hart, Ken Shamrock, Vince McMahon & many more.

-- The final question posed to Steve was in regards to how he likes the old school
style vs. the new school style of wrestling. To hear that, along with the Word
Associations, click one of the links below to hear the show.

-- Steve finishes with some words for his fans, as we move into the after-show recap
in which we discuss the Royal Rumble after it happened, and this week's TNA event
featuring the Callis/Watts match. This can only be heard by clicking the two
download links below.