David Finlay (the son of WWE’s Fit Finlay) was interviewed by WrestlingINC. Finlay discussed the idea of teaming with his father in his dad’s retirement match and having to lie to his friend’s on being Hornswoggle’s (kayfabe) “brother”.
On being a fourth-generation wrestler:
“There was never any hesitation. Both my parents, actually, always wanted me to do whatever made me happy. For me it just so happen to be wrestling is what I want to pursue, so I think he was a little extra happy that I wanted to follow in his footsteps because like he grew up in wrestling. Like my grandfather was a promoter [and] a wrestler. [He] built his own ring. My great-grandfather same thing. So like it’s just been ingrained in our family. Like we’re a family of wrestlers. Like even my brother and sister, who are younger than me, they were amateur wrestlers in their youth as well, so like we’re just a family full of wrestlers. So the fact that I wanted to continue wrestling, I think he was really really happy about it.”
The idea of teaming with his father in his retirement match:
“So I was kind of, maybe not a pushover, but just like I was more conscientious of his time at home. So I wouldn’t press like, ‘hey dad, let’s go in the ring,’ and then finally he was like, ‘I’m gonna retire.’ This is like in 2012. ‘I’m gonna retire. You want to do a tag match with me for my last match?’ I hadn’t wrestled yet. So I was just like, yeah, OK, thinking like this is one of those things like a whimsical idea that will never happen. About two days later, he’s like, ‘OK, we’re going to Germany in two weeks.’ But dad, I don’t know how to wrestle. I don’t have gear. What are we gonna do. He’s like, ‘ah, whatever.’ He brings me to the ring for a crash course for like five days, and then it was off to the races from then.”
His father being portrayed as Hornswoggle’s father:
“So funny story about this. I think they revealed that Hornswoggle is my father’s son on RAW. My mom’s never been in the wrestling of the business. She’s been around my dad. They’ve been together for a very long time. I was in middle school about 7th or 8th grade. She sat me down, and she was like, ‘David, this is what they’re gonna do on TV tonight, which means tomorrow when you go to school, all of your friends are going to be asking if this is your brother? You have to tell them yes.’ I’m like, ‘what?’ She goes, ‘you have to tell them yes.’ Alright. So I go to school and sure enough. ‘Is that your brother? Is that your brother? Is that your brother?’ And I have to go, ‘yeah, yeah, yeah.’ But then of course, that’s not good enough for my friends, so they’re asking all these follow-up questions like, ‘how come he doesn’t live with you?’ So I’m having to like BS on my friend on the spot because my mom told me I have to tell them that that’s my brother. Wrestling family man.”