Posted on 3/26/126 by Colin Vassallo
Former WCW and WWE star Marc Mero sat down with Chris Van
Vliet in Atlanta, Georgia to discuss how Dusty Rhodes
created his Johnny B Badd persona, his other gimmicks like
Marvelous Marc Mero and Wildman Marc Mero, jumping to WWE
and being asked by Vince McMahon if he could do a Tarzan
yell, negotiating the first ever guaranteed WWE contract,
having his wife Sable as his valet, Steve Austin refusing to
work with him, his work today as a motivational speaker, and
more!
So when you became Wild Man Marc Mero, Vince McMahon asked
you if you could do a Tarzan yell?
“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.”
What shifted?
“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.”
Is it jealousy?
“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.”
You wrote in your book that you think Sable should be
inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.
“Oh, absolutely. The woman’s division, they didn’t really
have a woman’s division so much back then at all. But she
brought eyes to the channels. The ratings and everything
were very high because of her.”
Do you think you’ve had a Hall of Fame career?
“You know what? If you want to look at my WWF stint, no. But
if you want to look at things I’ve done with WCW as Johnny B
Badd, they were very entertaining.”
I feel like you’d be the perfect recipient for the Warrior
Award:
“Something like that would be wonderful. If I ever did, DDP
would be the guy to induct me.”