Neal Jones sent this in.
Recap of Brad Maddox on In Your Head Wrestling Radio, 12/01/2015
by Vic Schiavone
Hosts Jack E. Jones and One Inch Biceps welcomed former WWE personality Brad Maddox to IYH Wrestling Radio for a very fun hour-long interview.
Highlights included the following:
Was the reason you were fired by the WWE because of something you said at a house show in Indianapolis?
“Yeah, that’s what I was told. It makes sense. I didn’t think much of it; I don’t know, I guess it’s never been a bad word for me but Vince (McMahon) didn’t like it…It was a dark match, it was an opening dark match, so my job is to go out there and get the crowd worked up. It’s not like a TV promo; you can talk to the audience, you insult their town and their football team, and you make fun of them. I was just getting into it a little bit, and I was going to call them losers at the end but I thought that was kind of lame, so I called them pricks,,,I went with pricks, and I didn’t think anything of it…I didn’t think it was a fireable offense, but I probably shouldn’t have taken that risk anyway…Then I got a call the next day.”
What were the circumstances that led the WWE to make you the referee for the CM Punk/Ryback match at Hell in a Cell 2012, and was that supposed to lead to anything else?
“That was a pitch. This is what I gathered in retrospect: basically CM Punk just needed another cheap way to win a match, and since I could pull off the clean-cut look, and I wasn’t too big, I was handpicked to fill that position.” “I assumed they’re going to have to do something with this ref thing. Could you imagine if it were the Super Bowl, and a Seahawk’s running down the sideline with a game-winning interception return for a touchdown and the ref trips him up at the five yard line and he stumbles and falls down and the refs are like Broncos win and that’s it? Could you imagine how much coverage that would get on ESPN for the next three months? So I thought, this is a crazy gimmick; they haven’t done anything like this, so this has got to go somewhere big. I just kind of expected it to. Instead, I should have been there immediately (asking) where are we going to go with this, or Vince, do you know I can wrestle. This has got to go somewhere. So it really didn’t, and I think probably the only thing they were going to do was give me an explanation promo and an ass-kicking and that was going to be it I think. I would assume, because nothing really came immediately after that. I felt like…that could have been taken advantage of. That’s one of those where I guess a promo was good enough where Vince decided to keep me up, but I definitely wish I had taken advantage of that situation a little
What do you think of The New Day, and do you think one of the reasons they’re getting over is because they come up with their own stuff?
“Oh yeah, that’s completely them. (Xavier) Woods is one of my best buddies, and I’m real happy for him because he came up, didn’t get a real great push, quickly slid into a really bad spot, and they put in the work. They went to work with that thing, they busted their butts and they’ve been pitching that for a long time, they were working with Vince for a long time on that, and in my opinion they are as good as it gets on that show right now. I don’t know if you guys know how hard it is to orchestrate a three- man promo, and to synchronize it the way that they do it’s awesome. They put a lot of work into it, into every promo that they do and all the work that they do, and their chemistry is through the roof. I really enjoy watching them…They’re having fun; that’s exactly it. I don’t know how much fun is being had in general because it’s a nerve- wracking place to be, but they let it all hang out, and that always comes through when you’re having fun. Always.”
What are your thoughts on CM Punk and were you surprised when he left and went to MMA?
“I’ve always liked the guy, and I think he’s one of those guys that breaks the mold a little bit and he’s not afraid to stand out. He wasn’t happy with his direction, so I think good for him for doing what he wants. I hope he’s ready for it. I ran into him in Chicago at one point a couple of months ago, and he’s training hard so we’ll see.”
Other topics discussed included:
Who came up with the Brad Maddox name?
Did he ever feel that anything they did with Vicki Guerrero was mean-spirited and did it bother her?
Does he have any thoughts on wrestling for Lucha Underground?
Who are some of the guys on the independent scene he would like to work with?
This interview is available for listening at