Former Champion Shoots On WWE Creative

Speaking with WrestlingInc, former WWE Tag Team Champion Charlie Haas has taken some shots at his former employers and their booking methods.

When asked about the differences between working for WWE and working for SWE, the former WWE Superstar had the following to say, explaining that SWE let him perform the way he wants to:

“I’m very thankful for having the opportunity to wrestle for WWE,” Haas expressed. “It was a dream for my brother and I when we were little to wrestle for them. Unfortunately, it was cut short when Russ died when we were in the developmental territory, but I was able to still reach the goals that our brother and I had. Plus, with me and Shelton [Benjamin] and Kurt [Angle], I’m very thankful for that. But there’s a lot less pressure (in SWE).

“They actually let me wrestle the way I want to wrestle. They let me cut my own promos. They don’t give me a piece of paper to write what to say, ‘We just want you to get this.’ Okay, I want to say it the way I want to. ‘That’s fine. Just do it. Just get it over.’ I go out, and I’m not feeling like, ‘You didn’t work the arm good enough, or the leg or your kick looked terrible.’ They never build you up when you’re up there. They just kept picking on you, picking on you, picking on you. You’re just like, ‘Man, did I really suck? Maybe I do.’”

Granted, it’s to be expected that Charlie Haas, and any other wrestler for that matter, would be more regulated while working for WWE as opposed to a smaller independent promotion.

During the interview, Charlie Haas spoke about how he would arrive early to shows to work and train, but shared his frustrations at the fact that the extra work never paid off:

“Shelton and I would get to the ring first before the shows. We’d be in there all day working out with Arn [Anderson], and we would stay late,” Haas recalled. “You would put in the hard work. Man, that doesn’t pay off. The tag team did. When they split us after that, it really didn’t.

“When you have a work ethic that you developed in amateur wrestling and were successful there and you apply it to that, these agents see it like Arn, Dean [Malenko] and Jerry [Lynn]. Vince and Triple H, how come they don’t see it? I’ve been in the ring with Triple H. I just think my style at the time just wasn’t what they wanted. There’s no hard feelings.”

When he isn’t working for SWE, Charlie Haas is training up and coming wrestlers, and the former WWE Superstar shared how he uses his experiences working for Vince McMahon to help his students:

“I love what I’m doing now. I get to work with new guys that are up and coming,” Haas said. “If they have that drive, they pull me aside. ‘Hey, what can I do to get better?’ I’m going to give them the same advice that was given to me. I didn’t have a great, successful singles career in WWE, and that’s one of my biggest regrets, just to go where I wanted, but I had some great coaches, Arn Anderson, Dean Malenko, [Ricky] Steamboat, [Steve] Keirn, Fit Finlay [and] David Taylor. And I was able to work with Shawn Michaels, Hunter, [Hulk] Hogan, Big Show, Taker, Brock [Lesnar], Eddie Guerrero, [and Chris] Benoit.

“I can take what I know and give it to them. Whether they’ll absorb it and apply it, I don’t know, but I know what WWE wants. They want people to slow down. They want them to tell a story. They want to make it look more real. They don’t want it to look like a car wreck, and they want you to be able to interact with the fans to connect with them. I finally figured out how to do that with SWE. I just missed my boat doing that up there at WWE, but they didn’t give me the platform to do what I wanted to do. But thank God that SWE has, so I get a chance to work with them.

“I say, ‘Look, here’s your goals. You guys want to go to WWE or AEW?’ They’re like, ‘Yeah.’ I’m like, ‘Well, here’s what I think you should do. You can take it or leave it..’ When you think of the people that I had, like Arn Anderson, he really trained Shelton and I on how to really dominate, to really make the babyface fight from under and make them earn it. Just don’t give it to them, make them earn it. It’s very simple. It’s very simple psychology.”

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• SWE
• charlie haas
• Shelton Benjamin
• wwe

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