Pete Gas talks Mean Street Posse, Shane McMahon, Chyna, partying in WWE, more

Filed to GERWECK.NET:

All Wrestling. did an in-depth interview with for Mean Street Posse member Pete Gas. This was in conjunction with the release of his book: Looking at the Lights: My Path from Fan to a Wrestling Heel. Here are some highlights.

Q: The journey of the Mean Street Posse story is one of the most unique in wrestling history. What made you want to tell your story in the first place?

A: I always felt that a lot of the fans looked down on the Mean Street Posse and said we were riding the coattails of the McMahon family when that really wasn’t the case. We got our opportunity from them, obviously. But the fact of the matter is, it was only supposed to be for a couple of weeks. Then they saw the reaction from the crowd and Vince McMahon is all about giving the crowd a reaction. That’s why we’re in business, that’s why we wrestle, that’s why you entertain…to get a reaction. Whether they’re booing you or cheering you. And we were able to do that. So they knew they had something with us and asked us to go on further than those couple of weeks that we were doing it and it just evolved. The truth of the matter is and what the fans don’t realize is that if we sucked, we would have been gone after a couple of weeks. But we were getting that reaction from the crowd and then they decided that they should bring us on full time. That’s when we had to start learning how to wrestle. It was all backward. We were literally being thrown in there with the best in the business and they say, “Don’t kill yourselves.”

Q: You mention Chyna and how much of a sweetheart she was in Chapter 3. With Mania and the Hall of Fame right around the corner, do you think she should have been inducted into the Hall this year? Do you think they’ll ever induct her?

A: I think they will. I just think it’s too soon to induct her from the viewpoint of how she passed and it’s sad that she had her demons. She didn’t have an easy life, but her happiest times were when she was at the peak of her career in WWE. You could just see it. When she first got there I heard she was teased and mimicked and made fun of and that bullying stuff is not cool. Then everyone learned to accept her for who she was….a great talent. When she left, well that was her life. This business is very addicting. You can easily get attached to being loved or hated by the crowd and getting that reaction. It’s a drug, it really is. When it’s taken away from you it is kind of devastating. But she was a great person, always had a smile on her face backstage. I think she will make it one day. They have their reason for why they do things; they have an image to uphold. I know that little kids will google her once she gets inducted and unfortunately they’re going to see some things on there about her past that the WWE wouldn’t exactly want to be in sync with. You know what I mean?

Q: I heard a lot of guys now are more the video game, comic book type….Not exactly partiers. How was it back in the attitude era after the shows? I imagine the Wild West.

A: Actually there was a lot of video game playing. There was a lot of dominos playing, which is what I used to do with the Godfather. I was told before my time there; for example during the Ric Flair days, that they would go out to a local bar after a show, drink, pick up some ring rats, have their way with them and have a good time. I remember a lot of times playing dominos and looking over at another table and there would be guys investing money on their laptops and checking their stocks and stuff like that. It’s definitely changed for the better.

To read about why fans hated the Mean Street Posse, fans wanting to fight him, Shane McMahon and more head over to All Wrestling.