Show: The Interactive Interview courtesy of www.WrestlingEpicenter.com
Guest: “Adam Bomb” Bryan “Wrath” Clark
Date: 9/30/08
Your Hosts: Patrick Kelley, James Walsh, & Nick Noel
Transcript By: Patrick Kelley & James Walsh
Some remember him as “Adam Bomb”, some as the “Nightstalker”. Others may remember him as “Wrath” or as a member of “Kronik”. Regardless how you remember him, all wrestling fans remember the big man who had a hell of a lot of athletic ability named Bryan Clark. And, for the first time ever, Bryan Clark is ready to let loose and shoot as never before.
In this exclusive interview, Bryan doesn’t make the effort to make friends. If anything, he will likely piss off some of his former peers… But hey, he tells it the way it is! Or, at least the way he sees it!
To listen, visit us online at www.WrestlingEpicenter.com. To listen is 100% free, no registration or anything required. We do, however, ask that you give us your thoughts on our Forum which is also free to join!
NOTE: The views expressed by Bryan Clark may not represent those of The Interactive Interview or the Wrestling Epicenter.
BRYAN CLARK
– Bryan begins the interview by telling us20about what heâs been up to since leaving WWF in 2001. He went over to Japan & won the tag titles with Brian Adams, moved out to Arizona, and says he is enjoying life. Living in Arizona is nice for him as he likes the winters.
– James mentions that he saw Bryan Clark as âThe Night Stalkerâ on ESPNâs UWF shows, to which Bryan immediately states âOh that must have been horribleâ He doesnât remember working for the UWF specifically, but did have the gimmick in AWA as well At the time, he was still in college and wasnât properly trained, and was just put out there. The name Night Stalker came from the TV show from the 70s. He took the name with him into Smokey Mountain as well.
– They discuss briefly how Herb Abrams passed away, coked up beating up furniture no. This is the business we’ve chosen!
– He was finally trained by Jodi Hamilton in Atlanta, and he felt that he needed to prove himself as a wrestler and not just a random big guy in the business. He says he wanted to be able to do things that the bigger guys weren’t doing. He cites that him doing those moves could have caused him problems with Shawn Michaels and the Kliq in the WWF.
– With his other gimmicks, he was allowed to put his own spin on it, but Adam Bomb was Vinceâs idea. His original gimmick was supposed to be The Ringmaster (Austinâs 1st WWF gimmick) but he didnât like it, so they came up with Adam Bomb, and he was allowed to come up with the look and the merchandise.
– Bryan says a lot of the “Bomb Squad” merchandise was his idea. Bryan had done some college and learned about the marketing side of things and felt what the WWF was releasing merchandise wise was a little lame. So, he took his ideas and had them professionally brought to life and went to Vince with them. He says Vince popped for some of the ideas he came up with.
– James asks him about his career and the tendency for his pushes to start and stop, and Bryan completely agrees. In the WWF, he had to deal with the Kliq, and he felt he had been lied to. In WCW he ran into the same problems, but he says that overall he was happy with his career.
– His extremely quick match with Earthquake at Wrestlemania X is brought up. He says that they toured in Europe and had a good match worked out, but due to time restraints the match had to be shortened. He was told that the Ladder Match needed more time, but heâs happy that he got a paycheck.
– When asked about the Urban Legend where Savage chased Michaels around backstage after Mania, he says that he doesnât know if it ever happened, but wouldnât be surprised because Michaels pissed a lot of people off.
– Bryan says he feels he was hindered by the Kliq. He takes shots at the Kliq members but singles out Shawn Michaels. He feels Michaels was very underhanded in how he dealt with people and does not believe his “reborn Christian” claims. He feels his claims are to get heat off himself for the things he used to do.
– Bryan mentions that Shawn Michaels married Nitro Girl Whisper. He laughs saying she had the reputation of traveling the locker room and adds “and he goes and marries her!”
– James mentions that Scott Steiner once told him that the Nitro Girls were, and I quote, “just a bunch of coke whore strippers from Atlanta”. Bryan says he agrees but they were also from Orlando, Miami, etc. He says even their leader, Kimberly Page, was making the rounds in the WCW locker room.
– Later on, Bryan remarks that Diamond Dallas Page would push his own grandmother over in order to get a push. He said he loved every second of the backstage shoot fight between DDP and Steiner that has been heavily reported over the years and says he was there to high five Steiner after it.
– He feels that a lot of his best work was as Wrath. He loved doing it, but didnât like the âBlood Runs Coldâ gimmick. James then asks if Glacier was supposed to be the one that got Goldbergâs push, but Bryan says that was not the case. But, he feels Glacier was destined to do something else. When pressed, he said he should have been a school teacher which he is now. He praises Glacier for working hard.
– Speaking of Goldberg, Bryan Clark says Eric Bischoff originally really wanted to call Goldberg “Brick”. Patrick says “That would ha ve been hard to chant”. Bryan says he thinks the best name was chosen.
– He got along with Kanyon, but says that he was âmentally unstableâ and he would always fight with Vanderberg. He cites an example where Kanyon and Vandenberg were fighting “like married women” resulting in Kanyon pulling Vandenberg’s (“Father” James Mitchell/Sinister Minister) car over and beating out the rear lights. He says because of episodes like this, he opted to travel with other people despite being paired with Kanyon.
– Regarding Kanyon coming out of the closet, James says he can’t imagine why people saw it as a big deal. Bryan says he never cared and still doesn’t. He feels Kanyon was just “mentally unstable”. He feels his ring work was always great but his and Kanyon’s personalities never mixed.
– Once “Blood Runs Cold” ran dry, Bryan said he was given more control over his character. He opted to keep the Wrath name and was really unleashed to do more of what he wanted. ANd, as James said, it started to really work.
– “The Meltdown”, now known as a Pumphandle Slam, was a move that Bryan feels he really gave a new spin on. He feels nobody ever snapped it the way he did and that the crowd started taking to it. James mentioned that for a while there in 1998, it seemed like Wrath was being built the same way Goldberg was the year prior. Bryan says he felt that way too and the plan was for he and Goldberg to clash. But, another Kliq member stopped that.
=0 A
– James mentions that he remembers seeing Wrath get a big win at World War 3 1998 only to lose to Kevin Nash the next night which seemed out of place and unnecessary. Bryan says, “I totally agree. But, Nash was a big lasy sh** and wanted his belt. So, he had himself beat me and then Goldberg.”
– The next notable loss for Wrath which really seemed to be the beginning of the end of his push was at Souled Out 1999 to Bam Bam Bigelow. Bryan says, “Well, Bam Bam was a big fat piece of sh**. But, even he agreed”. He feels that Bam Bam was not in good shape, could not be carried to good matches at that stage of his career, and that Bam Bam Bigelow himself even felt that he should not have gone over Wrath at that point in time.
– He says it was a mess backstage in WCW with politics, but says it was the same thing in the WWF as well. But he does feel that WCW made a mistake by not putting over new guys like Steiner & Goldberg, and opting to stay with the old stars like Hogan & Flair. Patrick mentions that they could have mixed all the stars and Bryan agrees but it just never happened.
– James asks about the meeting that apparently caused Raven to walk out, but Bryan doesnât remember the meeting (but doesnât deny that it happened either). He never got along with Raven because his post show antics and he didnât like having him as a manager. He says the first time he met him when he was his manager, Raven was late due to being drunk and on whatever he was on at the time and he didn’t think being around that kind of thing was the best way to start out in a big company like the WWF.
– Brian Adams was his best friend in the business and their time as Kronik was the highlight of his career. They became a team once Clark was coming back from injury and Adams pitched it to him. Once that did it, they just clicked. And he says that they were so similar to each other that they got along great. Heâs only sorry that the tag team wasnât done years earlier.
– James said he had waited a long time to ask someone about this and was glad Bryan was there to ask.. During a Nitro, Konnan took it upon himself to really be brutal with shoot commentary with the announcers during a Kronik match. Upon the very mention of Konnan’s name, Bryan immediately replies, “Ah, that piece of sh**!” Bryan says he remembers that night well and was incredibly pissed off. But, not nearly as pissed off as Brian Adams was. What Konnan didn’t realize was at the time, Nitro was on a delay and after their match, they returned to the hotel. They heard his commentary and Brian Adams really wanted to go back to the arena to knock Konnan out. Bryan insisted he wasn’t worth it but thinks it is funny that from that point onward, Konnan always had his friends wrestle them and never actually stepped into the ring with them himself.
– Heâs working on a book and sa ys heâs about 75% done with it. Heâs not trying to get back in the WWE or be politically correct, but he feels heâs got some stories to tell. He feels his book will be different than most because he is not going to sugar coat anything because of his desire to have a job with Vince or anyone else anymore. He feels he’s done with wrestling and is successful without it.
– Bryan Clark wanted to go to Japan after WCW with Kronik because he felt what they were doing was tailor made for Japan and they could be very successful there. But, Brian Adams wanted to give the WWF a try. He feels Kronik in the WWF was booked for failure.
– Regarding the Unforgiven 2001 match with Kane and the Undertaker, Bryan Clark says “it sucked”. He feels it wasn’t a great performance at all because of several elements. The first elements were injuries. Bryan suffered a herniated disk and was unable to perform with one side of his body as well as he would have liked to have but felt he could be passable in the match. Kane was fresh off a staff infection and had ring rust and wasn’t 100% either. He feels he and Brian both had timing issues in the match as well and the result was what it was.
– He did not want to go to OVW, because he felt that his skills didnât need to be fixed or improved, but rather felt that they should have been on the house show scene prior to the Unforgiven match so they could kick off ring rust.
– J.R. really pissed him off in his WWF return and he credits Brian Adams for stopping him from beating up the “little crippled guy” and that he felt like “giving him a slobberknocker.”
– James and Patrick mention that most guests on the show tell their side of things but don’t always use direct language like Bryan is and that it is a somewhat refreshing change to hear… That is except for Allan Funk who gave them one of the better interviews recently. Bryan simply says, “I tell it like it is”.
– Word Associations: Listen to the interview on Bryanâs thoughts on guys like Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, DDP, Goldberg, Ernest Miller, Glacier, The Undertaker, Marty Jannetty, & Curt Hennig
– He was there when Steiner beat up DDP in Roanoke, Virginia, and went on about how awesome he thought it was.
– His favorite opponent was Meng. He says they beat the shit out of each other in their matches and he enjoyed it.
– He hasnât followed the wrestling business in a while and gets most of his news off of the net, but he did notice a downfall of tag team wrestling when he was in the WWF in 2001.
– Some critics accused Kronik of ripping off the APA with their âBreaking Necks & Cashing checksâ bit, but he says that actually came from Stevie Ray who suggested it to them. He says he would have liked to have a feud with the APA, but he says that Vince wanted to kill off a lot of the WCW names=2 0that he brought in: âWe kicked his ass for about a year & a halfâ¦you know heâs got to be hating usâ
– In the revisionist history, the WWE presents WCW in a weak light, and Bryan Clark isnât surprised Vince might still have a grudge.
– He has a Classics figure in the WWE line, and its been a pretty popular item. He thinks the thing looks cool and captures the Adam Bomb character.
– When asked about how the media covered the Chris Benoit tragedy, Bryan states that its rough being in the Real world now and having to be associated with a lot of the negative press that wrestling was given. He feels the news media went after it so much for the sake of ratings, and also said he was never asked to appear, and probably wouldnât have anyway. “If I did, I’d do it to defend Brian. He choked in his sleep”, Bryan exclaims. He says Brian Adams always had throat issues and problems with swallowing and things. He does not believe Brian Adams should be on the list of wrestlers deaths related to anything having to do with the Benoit situation.
– Bryan says the media will sink their teeth into a story for ratings. He says Nancy Grace, in particular, sinks her teeth into one single story and hangs onto it until it drops. James mentions that it has been the Casey Anthony story for the past several months.
– This fun interview concludes with Bryan Clark agreeing to come on again when his book comes out.
Nick was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, and lived there until the age of 18, when he decided to pack his flack jacket and move to New York City.
