Nick Dinsmore talks the Eugene character, Steve Austin’s influence, more

Nick Dinsmore credits Steve Austin for a vote of confidence to Vince McMahon regarding the Eugene character.

In an interview on the It’s My Wrestling Podcast, Dinsmore discussed the creation of Eugene and Austin’s small role in getting it up and running.

“It was my idea but I do think Vince McMahon did enjoy it, he found it funny,” Dinsmore said.” “Rip Rogers was one of my trainers. Rip’s son has autism so he came to me one day and says what about a character that maybe can’t tie his shoes or can’t put a square peg in a square hole, isn’t very social, but when he gets in the ring he can do wrestling flawlessly. At that time I’ve been wrestling for eight years, I could do an hour draw with no sweat. I was pretty proficient and I was confident in my skills. He gave me this idea and I kind of mulled over it, couple months go by, the agents come down, Arn Anderson, Fit Finlay, Dean Malenko, I pitched this character to them, they said no, they think wrestling is kind of going beyond that, those types of characters. Okay, couple more months go by the writers come down. Oh no, Vince wouldn’t like that he wouldn’t do anything like that. Okay, couple more months go by, now I’d seen guys that would start complaining and all sudden they get on TV. So I told them, I said I think I’m going to quit and try to go to Japan, but that was just a bluff, I didn’t know anybody in Japan, I didn’t know how to get there I was living at home, I was top of the OVW I mean I was in Main Event matches, heavyweight champion getting paid, working four days a week. It was pretty good job so I wasn’t gonna quit but I just want to kind of rattle the cage and see what happened. Dean Malenko tells Johnny ace, Johnny tells Vince, next day I’m sitting in a meeting with Vince McMahon and Stephanie was there. Vince goes, I want to get back to character based wrestling, and I just pitched out that idea for a character that I hadn’t thought about in months. Well, suddenly, Steve Austin walks in, it was February 2004 Austin came back for a spot for something on TV. Austin walks in, Vince asks Steve do you know this guy, Austin looked at me goes no, I don’t think so. Danny Davis trained me, Danny Davis and Steve Austin became friends when they both wrestled in Dallas. Steve says well it looks to me like he’s probably one of the best, and it was like that vote of confidence that Vince goes – okay, let’s do it.”

Eugene debuted in the WWE in 2004. He would go on to have prominent matches with Triple H Summerslam of that year and became a tag team champion on one occasion with William Regal. Dinsmore left the company in 2007, though he would have sporadic appearances from then until 2014 when he permanently left the company after being a trainer in NXT.

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