Ken Shamrock Discusses What AEW and WWE Need to Learn From Each Other
Ken Shamrock appeared on Ryback’s Conversations With the Big Guy show and discussed what he thinks AEW and WWE can learn from each other, whether he wants a WWE Hall of Fame induction and more. Shamrock discussed how his outspoken attitudes have landed him in trouble and explained why he thinks he deserves to be in the WWE Hall.
Highlights from the discussion are below, along with the full podcast:
On his habit of speaking openly about his opinions regarding WWE: “I’ve always done that and even in a sense of, it could be detrimental to me and my career. But I’ve always, given the way I grew up as a kid and the struggles I went through, the one thing that I think was instilled in me by my dad was that if you can’t speak the truth. And even if it’s not the truth, maybe it’s just your thoughts or what you think. If you can’t speak that, and somebody is going to be offended because you are speaking that, then there’s something wrong with them and not you. Because you should be able to say something without accusing or trying to hurt somebody. Somebody goes, ‘Hey, what do you think about the product?’ ‘Okay, hey! I think that I’d really like to see more toughness in there. I would really like to see them focus more on trying to be more aggressive and more wrestling rather than this soap opera stuff. Yeah, real wrestlers, get real wrestlers in there, and don’t be pushing people that aren’t wrestlers. More aggressive, more of the attitude type thing.’ But it’s just my opinion. And someone comes back and [says] ‘How dare you speak bad of WWE?’ It’s like, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa! Hold up.’ That’s not what I did. I gave my opinion on what I thought should happen. It’s not that — it doesn’t need to happen. Someone comes up and says, ‘Hey, why did you leave WWF?’ And I give the reason why I left. ‘Oh, how dare you talk about that. You have no right to say anything like that!’ I’m like, ‘Uhh, I was asked, and I told.’ And so to me, if you can’t do that, then you might as well put a gun to your head and shoot yourself. Because if you cannot speak freely and be honest with what you feel and what you think, and what has happened to you as a person, and other people get mad about that? That’s their problem. If you’ve gotta start living someone else’s life and someone else’s vision? Put a gun to your head and shoot yourself because you now don’t have a life.”
On AEW and WWE needing to learn from each other: “I spoke on it the other day when we were talking about [AEW], and we were talking about WWF. I said, ‘If you could mix the two, you’ve got yourself a show. [AEW], you’ve got guys that are just tremendous athletes, great wrestlers. But on the opening of the card to the closing of the card, you’ve spot, spot, spot, spot, spot, spot. And it’s hardly anybody slows down to tell a story. To get heat, get real heat. To get a good babyface pop or comeback. It just seems like everybody’s running all these things in together. And I thought Dustin Rhodes [vs. Cody] — that told a story. A story that people can connect with. But where is the rest of the stories? And then you’ve got WWF which all they do is tell a story with no physical wrestling. Like, no attitude, no aggressiveness, no viciousness. So they’re missing heels, they’re missing heat. The way guys get heat now is getting on the mic and being able to tell how bad everybody else is. That’s not real heat! Real heat is going in and kicking a guy in the nuts and bashing a chair over his head, and beating on him and breaking his legs — not really, but. And then getting into the audience and being able to mouth off, and then get back on and create more heat through action. And then you get, that’s real heat.”
On if he wants to be in the WWE Hall of Fame: “Oh, there’s no question. I mean, I think any athlete who competes in an organization wants to be recognized. And I think the best way to do that is to be able to be in the Hall of Fame. And you know, I — and it’s not like I’m asking to do it just because I was in the WWF, and I was a champion in the UFC. But I think that I belong in there, because when you look at the actual credentials of a Hall of Fame, it’s did you change the way people look at the sport? Did you break records? Did you change the way people have to do [things]. For instance, you look at Deion Sanders, they had to keep changing the way people ran routes on his side, you know? That’s what a Hall of Famer is, is somebody that changed the landscape when you’re in that ring or when you’re on that field. And I really truly believe that when I went into that ring, I changed the landscape of pro wrestling. Because prior to Ken Shamrock, there was probably maybe a handful of submission holds. And those submission holds didn’t come by tap-out. They came by a verbal I Quit. The only time people tapped out was after Ken Shamrock. Then there was tap-outs. Prior to that? It was ‘I quit, I give up.’”
On if he’s spoken to anyone in WWE about an induction: “No, you know what? I’ve run across different people at signings and different things like that, but you know, nothing like that. And you know, listen, Macho Man, I don’t know. It took him about 30 years to get in or something like that. Obviously, I want to go in. I think I deserve to get in. But again, like I said, I’m also also okay with waiting too, because I know that there is a lot of other guys that put a lot more time than me that didn’t get in for a very long time. So, I understand it. I guess just have to wait my time. I know that I will get in but I just don’t know when.”
