Former WWE Champion "Wildman" and "Marvelous" Marc Mero sat down for an interview with Chris Van Vliet. In a fascinating interview, Mero discussed joining WWE as the "Wildman", his meeting with Vince McMahon, how his push vanished as well as the ascension of his ex-wife Sable, whose popularity quickly far exceeded his. Below are highlights:
On joining WWE as "Wildman" Marc Mero
“Yes. Okay, well what happened was, I think they were thinking they would get kind of a knockoff of Johnny B Badd, something similar, like they do with some of the characters. But because the lawsuits were really going back and forth. Now, remember, guys are jumping ship. You’ll see one guy on Raw one week, and next week he’s on Nitro or something. So it wasn’t going to happen. So they had to completely change my character. Of course, I’m trusting them. Whatever they’re going to come up with is going to be great. I mean, they made The Undertaker, they made all these great characters, right? I remember they flew me in to talk about what they’re going to have me do. We sit around a table, and Vince looks at me and goes, ‘Marc, what do you think of Wild Man Marc Mero?’ I go, ‘What’s a wild man?’ He goes, ‘Can you do a Tarzan yell?’ I thought they know what they’re doing. I go, ‘Vince, I don’t have a very strong voice, and I cannot do a Tarzan yell.’ He goes, ‘All right, we’re gonna go with Wild Man Marc Mero.’ And I go, okay, am I from the jungle? What am I? I’m doing this Tutti Frutti character in WCW, coming out now, where am I from? So it was very hard for me to relate to, which the audience doesn’t relate to. So it was very hard. And not only that, they hired my wife, Sable is my valet, and now you got this beautiful woman going to the ring with you and who they’re going to cheer for. So it was very difficult right off the bat, but they really wanted to push me and give me some momentum. So they have me enter this Intercontinental tournament where I had to beat Owen Hart, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Ron Simmons. I mean, these are some top guys that you’re they’re putting you over to win the Intercontinental title. So I was thinking now they’re really going to start giving me that push I always dreamed about, why I went to the WWF or WWE. The next thing you know, I’m wrestling the fake Diesel, the fake Razor, TL Hopper, The Goon. Wonderful guys and good workers, but they’re not the guys that is going to take you up the ladder in the WWF.”
On why things changed
“That’s the thing, maybe it’s a great question for Vince. I don’t know, maybe my confidence wasn’t there. I thought it was very hard for me to work with guys. First of all, this is really kind of hard to talk about in the sense that I wasn’t well-liked. My whole life, I had a lot of friends. I was always popular in sports, Captain on my teams, and then you go into this new organization where you’re not very well liked, and you didn’t really understand why. Well, come to find out, later, I got this guaranteed contract. I have my wife flying everywhere I’m flying, so I’m not hanging out with the guys, not going to the bars. I’m not staying up and doing things with those guys, or hanging out with guys. I’m with my wife all the time. And then I start realizing that no one really wants to work with me, you’re kind of an outcast, and it’s the worst feeling in the world.”
On whether jealousy had anything to do with it
“You know, part of it is. I guess, when you think about Stone Cold Steve Austin and Mick Foley just came in months before me for an opportunity. Next thing you know, I’m the first guy that gets this, not only a guaranteed contract, a big signing bonus, on top of it.”
How he was able to get a guaranteed contract and signing bonus with Vince McMahon
“Well, what happened was, three years before this, Vince flew me to New York after my second contract with WCW was up, and we had dinner together at his house and had a great conversation. He said to me, ‘What’s it going to take to bring you to the WWF?’ I said, ‘Vince, I got a three-year guarantee contract waiting for me at WCW, and a signing bonus, and I would need that if I’m going to come to WWF.’ And he says, ‘Marc we’d love to have you, but we don’t give guaranteed contracts. We give opportunities.’ I said, ‘Well, then I can’t come.’ We shook hands. There was no arguing. There’s no animosity. They took me to the airport and I left. Three years go by, and next thing you know, my contract is up again. And Vince says, ‘what’s ‘What’s it going to take to bring you to the WWF?’ I go, ‘Vince, you got to give me a guaranteed contract.’ He goes, ‘I’ve never done that before.’ I go, ‘Well, that’s what I got to have, because I got another three-year guaranteed contract with WCW.’ He goes, okay. I go, ‘Well, I also have a signing bonus there.’ He goes, ‘Okay, is that it?’ ‘Well, Vince, I’d like my wife to fly everywhere I fly. I just got married not too long ago. We just got married two years before this, and I’ve seen so many divorces in the wrestling industry.'”
On the bringing in his wife at the time, Rena (Sable), into WWE as his valet
“No, she was a stay-at-home mom for her daughter, Mariah. And he said, ‘Wait, you want your wife to fly everywhere you fly?’ Well, yeah, Vince, I see too many divorces, and I just want her to go where I go, but since she’s going with me, why don’t we make her my valet? He goes, ‘No, no, let’s just worry about you.’ So he agrees to all the demands I had, guaranteed contract, signing bonus, and my wife would fly where I flew. So we’re excited about this. And then he sends me the ticket to fly to New York to go over the new character, but he only sends one ticket. So I call him. I have a cell phone. I call him. I go, ‘Vince, I got the ticket, but there’s only one here.’ He goes, ‘How many do you need?’ I go, ‘Well, my wife’s supposed to fly everywhere I fly.’ He goes, ‘To sign a contract?’ I said, Yes. So he sends another ticket. We fly in, and that’s when he said, when we’re walking into his office, he goes, ‘I got to put her on TV!’ And that’s when we came up with that name. That day, we went through a bunch of names, we came up with the name Sable.”
On when he realized that she blew past him in popularity
“Very quickly. But it was fun, because when I became Marvelous Marc Mero, became the heel, it was all perfect. But the Wild Man character, even though I’m going to the ring and they’re basically cheering for her, it’s like, wow, how am I going to get over with this? So we changed it up. It worked out perfectly. And then had to teach her how to wrestle, because now Vince wants to put her into wrestling and bring the women’s title on her.”
