Stevie Ray says he was quite surprised when Mark Carano called him and told him that he was going to be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. He was speechless because although Harlem Heat had great success, most of their work was done in WCW.
He notes that fans have been talking about getting Harlem Heat into the Hall of Fame for a while, but it never really bothered him that they weren’t inducted. The most important thing for him was that fans respected his work. Nonetheless, it was lovely to get inducted, especially alongside his brother, Booker T.
Stevie Ray informs that he continued to wrestle after WWE bought WCW. He went for several tours overseas but he was getting sick of the business at the time and had a young daughter at home as well. He told his family and friends that he wouldn’t join WWE after WCW’s demise because he felt like a solider in that war and he was going to go down with the ship.
He also didn’t want Harlem Heat to become something different in WWE. He and Booker T were two guys from the street who could kick ass and he didn’t want them to become a joke in WWE. He bears no ill will towards WWE but he and his brother built Harlem Heat and it was very personal to him so he didn’t want to put that in the hands of someone else creatively.
A couple of years after WWE bought WCW they reached out to him through Booker T. He had no interest in joining the company because he loved life at home. Booker T suggested that he join the company in a part-time role but Stevie Ray knew a part-time role would quickly turn into a full-time role.
Stevie Ray notes that Vince McMahon is very meticulous in everything he does. He had one writer assigned to him for his Hall of Fame speech and it became annoying. Stevie Ray doesn’t enjoy being over-scripted and even though he knows that’s how WWE does things, it was the complete opposite in WCW.
Stevie Ray says he’s quite proud of Harlem Heat’s involvement in tag team wrestling’s resurgence in WCW. He notes that the company was trending upwards even before NWO’s debut, but that took the company to another level. Unfortunately, he doesn’t think WCW knew how to harness that situation and it quickly got out of hand.
Stevie Ray informs that he didn’t really have any run-ins with the law growing up. Booker T was hanging around with the wrong crowds and found himself in some trouble. He eventually suggested to his brother that they join a wrestling school but Booker T was hesitant because it cost $3500.
Luckily they decided to try it anyways and things worked out just fine. He notes that some of their best matches were with The Nasty Boys and The Steiners. He says that once you found out how to work The Nasty Boys’ style things flowed beautifully. He can recall having one big argument with them but Arn Anderson broke it up and after that they had a great relationship.
He informs that Harlem Heat only worked with Hall and Nash leading up to their Halloween Havoc match. WCW wanted a one-off match but Stevie Ray asked to work with them more on house shows leading up to the event. He still thinks they should have worked together more because it made so much sense, but common sense booking like that was a rarity in WCW during that time.
He notes that he and Booker T were big fans of Chavo Guerrero Sr., and because of that they always got along great with Chavo Jr. and Eddie Guerrero. They worked together a lot and always had great matches, and when Booker T got hurt Stevie worked multiple singles matches with both men.
Stevie Ray says he always enjoyed doing colour commentary. He wanted to be involved with radio and media when he was in high school and always had an interest in that kind of stuff. He and Booker T would commentate over the monitors backstage for the boys since they didn’t have audio, and when the time came for WCW to find a new commentator Disco Inferno passed along Stevie Ray’s name to the office.
He notes that Ed Ferrara would be in his ear producing him every night and it became so annoying to him that he had to tell Ferrara to stop because he couldn’t work like that. After they had that conversation things went just fine.
Jericho asks Stevie Ray where his classic line “fruity booty” came from. He says that one of his friends said it to him one day and he thought it was hilarious so he started using it on television. Fans got a great kick out of it as well so he kept using it. Unfortunately, WWE wouldn’t let him say it during his induction speech.
That sums up today’s episode of Talk is Jericho. You can listen to the show yourself anytime here, and I’ll catch ya next week for another recap!
