Impact Wrestling star Heath (Heath Slater in WWE) recently appeared on the “Stories with Brisco & Bradshaw” podcast as he talked about his anti-Legends gimmick and match-up with the late Vader in June 2012 (see match below).
You can check out the interview highlights below:
Heath on wrestling Vader on Monday Night Raw: “It was one of those childhood dreams come true. That’s a 100 percent fact that I tell everyone. Just because I remember being that kid on the guardrail watching these guys, every one of them. Everyone that I worked with, I watched live as a kid. I still remember showing up at RAW and looking at the card, ‘Heath Slater vs. Vader.’ At first, I was just confused, I was like, ‘are y’all just having someone dressed up to kick my ass, what’s going on?’ They were just like, ‘no, it’s really Vader, you’re working Vader.’ That’s when they explained to me that each week leading up to RAW 1000, they were going to have a legend come in. I was like, ‘well, am I going to get to face them all?’ They were like, ‘no, no. We’re going to have whoever else face this guy,’ and I am like, ‘no, no your not. This is my spot here. I want to be Mr. Anti-Legend.’”
On pitching the idea to Vince McMahon and Johnny Ace: “Ace was there, and Ace was like, ‘really? Let’s go to Vince, see what Vince would like.’ I go straight there and I tell him what I told them. And Vince was like, ‘you’re willing to do that?’ And I’m like, ‘hell yeah, I am willing to do that. Just give me a two-minute promo, put something over, have them come whoop my ass, I am good.’ So, he went with it. It was like, ‘holy crap, who am I going to face?’ But they never would tell me. So, each week was a surprise for me too.”
On what it was like to work with Vader: “I remember being there with Vader, he was so kind, very nice gentleman, very nice to me. I don’t know about ‘91 Vader, but I know that he was more of a gentle soul when I got to face him. He was very nice. But what really blew my mind, was we were talking about the match, and I’m like, ‘bro, whatever you want to do, I don’t care. Let’s just have fun.’ But then at the end, Rotunda was like, ‘so the finish, do you just want to do your Vader Bomb or do you want to do your powerbomb?’ Vader literally looked at Rotunda and was like, ‘I think I can do the moonsault.’ Brother, I did one of these shaking of the heads, like, no. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I know he nails it and he can do it, but this is 2014.”
On working with various legends in WWE: “It was a privilege for me working with all of them. It was literally Vader, Sid Vicious, I had his first match after he broke his leg, what the hell. Rikishi, Animal, Cyndi Lauper busted the record over my head, and then she felt bad. Because the sugar glass cut me, so she signed the record for me and gave it to me. Piper, sweetheart, we all know him like that. He literally gave me about five hugs and kisses that night. He just thanked me, and I was like, ‘brother, this is the biggest pleasure for me, you don’t understand. Thank you for letting me do this.’”
Vader will be entering the 2022 WWE Hall of Fame class this Friday night.
