During a recent interview with Chris Jericho, Nick Dinsmore discussed why his Eugene character never turned heel, his relationship with Vince McMahon, and much more. You can read his comments from Talk Is Jericho below.
Nick Dinsmore on why Vince McMahon didn’t want to turn the Eugene character heel:
“Vince didn’t want to do that because he didn’t want to compromise any gimmicks or wrestlers going forward. ‘Is this just a gimmick?’ Thinking about it now, I would’ve proposed multiple personalities. Sometimes you could’ve come out as one personality – Eugene is a sweet guy, but this is what I am.
On his relationship with Vince:
”I probably didn’t put my face in front of him enough. I would have liked to maybe got a little bit better relationship, but I was there half nervous, showed up on time doing what I’m told. Remember when he tore both of his quads at the Royal Rumble? I had my knee injury, and I was in Birmingham doing therapy, and he was just getting out of surgery. So, I just walked to his room, and he’s there and he’s got his legs propped up, and he’s half not shaven. I can tell he’s nervous. I say, ‘I just want to say hi and make sure you’re okay. If you need anything, I’m in town, so I can I do it for you.’ I wish I would have sat a chair down and just talked his ear off. He had nowhere to go. I had all these questions in my head – ‘I was eight years old when I saw this. What’s the true story?’”
On the nixed plans for a WWE movie centered around Eugene:
“I think one of the reasons that Eugene did so well is because Brian Gewirtz could write for me, and he liked it. He took that time off, and he wrote this big script. He comes to me, and he goes, ‘We’re gonna make a movie. We’re gonna put you in a movie.’ I’m like, ‘Holy cow!’ He’s telling me about all these capers that are gonna go on about Eugene trying to get in the wrestling business. He said, ‘At one point, we’re gonna have you wrestle a bear.’ A bear? ‘We’ll just put somebody in a suit? I’m like, ‘No, we’ve gott get one of them Hollywood bears,’ and the only bear at the time was the one that was in ‘Semi-Pro’. He ended up killing his trainer. So, maybe it’s a good thing we didn’t. The movie didn’t work out, but they slipped Big Show in that role – Knucklehead. I believe so. Everything I’ve seen is the stuff that they told me was gonna be in the movie.”
h/t to Talk is Jericho and 411mania. com for the transcription
