The Biggest Mistakes I Made In WWE feat. Shawn Stasiak - Part 2
Join us as former WWE superstar Shawn Stasiak breaks his silence on the infamous tape recording controversy that led to his unexpected exit from the wrestling powerhouse. In this exclusive video, Stasiak reveals the untold story behind the controversy, shedding light on the circumstances that surrounded his departure from WWE.
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You can also visit our site: https://www.sportskeeda.com/wwe
#vincemcmahon #shawnstasiak #wwe #wrestling #sportskeedawrestling
Transcript
00:00 I get back to the locker room and there's the whole locker room basically with my bag and all the tapes.
00:05 Everything was spread out everywhere.
00:08 You know, they had gone from my bag.
00:09 [MUSIC]
00:18 Another mistake I made while being with WWE and probably the biggest mistake that I made of all the mistakes I did make.
00:25 And that is the tape recorder incident.
00:27 Some of you have heard this story.
00:29 Some of you heard different versions of the story.
00:32 I mean, there are so many different fabricated versions of it, modified versions of it, exaggerated versions of the story.
00:40 But the reality is what I'm about to tell you again.
00:43 I'm going to set the record straight.
00:45 This is the real story and what happened.
00:47 But basically, I had a tape recorder with me.
00:50 I traveled with it.
00:51 Just a little bit of a background story.
00:53 You know, my dad bought my first tape recorder for me and I was fascinated with it when I was a young kid.
00:57 I used to love recording, you know, myself doing imitations of wrestlers, actors, just horsing around with it.
01:06 In fact, in high school, I was always the one and in college too, always the one with a video camera or a recorder.
01:12 Just always capturing moments and documenting just experiences to look back on, you know, with your friends and just special memories and moments.
01:20 But just a lot of clowning around and horsing around and just having fun.
01:24 And, you know, honestly, before I even started training to become a pro wrestler, I'd often set a camera up to do wrestling stunts.
01:32 And you can imagine the amount of furniture I busted with my roommates just doing different skits and taking bumps on couches and going through tables.
01:43 And you can imagine, OK, so I just really was fascinated with just documenting situations, you know, that were special or just experiences with my friends.
01:53 So anybody who knew me, who knew the real Sean, would know that absolutely no wrongful intent whatsoever with that situation.
02:01 But looking back at it now and even back then when it happened, I realized real quick how stupid it was.
02:07 It was basically a joke or a rib go wrong and it backfired and it cost me my job, my dream job at the WWE.
02:15 But I think it really ultimately was WWE career suicide for me because I don't think I ever truly recovered from that.
02:23 But basically, in fact, while I was training with WWE, Dr. Tom Pritchard and Dory Funk Jr.,
02:30 they encouraged us to have a tape recorder with us and work on our craft, work on our promo skills, interviews, working on different ideas.
02:39 You're in the car, you know, on the road for hours.
02:42 You're traveling in a plane, but especially in a car when you're when you're dropping, you're traveling, you're driving from town to town.
02:48 You've got plenty of time. I mean, have discussions or listen to music or whatever.
02:52 But I mean, if you have time to be in a car for hours, you might as well make use of it and be productive.
02:58 Right. So that's exactly why I had it with me.
03:00 But where I went wrong and what had happened was I was traveling with at the time Davey Boy Smith and Steve Blackman.
03:09 And so it's been so long, so many years, 22 plus years or however long it's been.
03:15 I think even longer than that. We were up in Quebec.
03:18 I think we did we had a loop up in Canada. And so the last couple of towns were in Quebec.
03:23 The last night was in Montreal, I believe.
03:27 I travel with these guys and of course, they like to hit the gyms just like I did.
03:31 And we have to eat every two or three hours, you know, because we just were kind of live that fitness bodybuilding ish lifestyle.
03:39 Right. These guys, you know, when you're on the road, OK, and you're on the road for days and traveling and you're tired and you get irritated.
03:46 And so these guys were kind of bickering a little bit back and forth.
03:50 And just I just thought they were funny, like a couple of little high school girls at one point, you know, like, come on.
03:56 So I thought, you know, I want to play a little rib on them.
03:58 I'm going to record them bitching and complaining and arguing.
04:02 It was all in a fun way. They weren't like it wasn't a serious argument or was it they weren't at each other.
04:07 Seriously, it's just one of those things like your best friend or your big brother or whatever you just.
04:12 But I just thought it was funny to capture them because they had unique personalities.
04:15 And I thought, you know what, I'm going to I'm going to capture this and I'm going to play it back for them so that they can hear how ridiculous they sounded.
04:22 Right. Well, where I went wrong was, first off, you know, these guys didn't know me.
04:27 They didn't know the real Sean. They didn't know, you know, they had been working with me, you know, with WWE as far as I work with Steve a few times.
04:36 I don't think I ever worked with Davey Boy, but of course, they you know, I was with the company.
04:40 I was part of the team. And in this case, I felt kind of like part of a family.
04:44 I mean, whenever you travel with with people, you know, you can become close.
04:48 They're like your your family on the road. Anyway, I was at the Montreal airport.
04:54 We were all getting ready to leave and go back home. And so I remember bringing the tape recorder out and acting like I was a reporter.
05:01 I believe it was Steve. I held the recorder up to his face and hey, how do you feel about the Montreal airport?
05:07 You know, and like I was interviewing him, right. And he kind of looked at me funny and I could tell he was uncomfortable.
05:14 And at that moment in an instant, I realized this was you know, what he's a shut it off.
05:20 Boom. Turn it off. Right. And then he he asked me, he said, you weren't recording with that in the car or anything, were you?
05:27 And this is where I went wrong. I lied. I said, no, no, not at all.
05:33 I was just horsing around with it here. And in my mind, I knew at that point, I said, this rib, this this this grandiose plan joke that I was going to play on them is dead.
05:43 I mean, it's just forget it. And it was a dumb move.
05:47 I instantly realized these guys don't know me and he felt uncomfortable and I shut it off and that was it.
05:52 I threw it in my bag and went home. Right. We all flew home.
05:56 And then we when we all gathered back for a few days later after for our next loop, I brought the bag with me.
06:03 I learned my carry ons, I believe is what it was like a gym bag.
06:06 I used to have Walkman like the old Walkman cassette players and a bunch of cassette tapes.
06:12 I had the tape recorder and a little mini tapes is what what they what you use with that particular recorder.
06:19 And I just kept it in my bag. I mean, I didn't think twice about it.
06:22 I said that, you know, after that moment at the Montreal airport, the way that Steve reacted, I could see that he was uncomfortable.
06:29 This rib is dead. I'll never you. I'll just record over the footage or the content that was on it, which might have been,
06:35 I would say a total of maybe five minutes, if that, you know.
06:40 But point being is that I just didn't think twice about it. Knew the rib was dead.
06:43 Right. Threw it back in my bag, went back home, got back on the road a few days later for the next loop.
06:49 And then I was in Buffalo, I believe it was. And I was out going over my match with, I believe it was Arne Anderson.
06:58 Maybe it was. I can't remember now. No, it wasn't Arne. It was somebody else.
07:00 Anyway, point being is I was going over my my match and then somebody had come out.
07:05 I forget an agent or somebody said, Sean, you need to you need to come backstage, man.
07:10 This is pretty serious. And I thought they were joking, like, you know, clowning around.
07:15 So, no, this is really serious. You need to come. You need to come back and and have a, you know,
07:19 I forget who came out, but they said I need to go back and something needs to be addressed.
07:23 Right. I get back to the locker room and there's the whole locker room,
07:27 basically with my bag and all the tapes, everything was spread out everywhere.
07:32 You know, they had gone from my bag. I guess the word had gotten around that I had the tape recorder the week before,
07:38 you know, that business can be a lot of paranoia in that business.
07:40 Right. But the same time, it's like, you know, if you hear about somebody had a tape recorder and they had it had it out.
07:46 I mean, I could understand how that might have been perceived, you know,
07:50 so they went to my bag and sure enough, they they found the tape recorder and they must have played it.
07:55 And they heard Steve and Davey must have heard their voices on the tape.
08:01 And that was a really bad look for me because I had just said, you know,
08:05 I wasn't recording in the car and now they're probably thinking, well, hey, what else is on there?
08:10 Who how many other tape? How long has been recording like that?
08:13 That's when the the, you know, momentum of that thought process grew and it just was not a good look for me.
08:22 And it was it was a horrible feeling, man. It was awful.
08:24 It was probably one of the worst experiences of my life, you know, apart from losing my mom and my dad,
08:30 you know, I've grieved. I've had, you know, some tough times in my life, challenges in life like we all do.
08:36 But this was one that was really a big one for me because I knew in my heart that there was absolutely no wrong intent whatsoever.
08:46 Attempting a rib that backfired basically or an attempted rib that I just was dead, you know, and just forgotten about in my mind.
08:54 That's what hurts because I know the honest to God truth.
08:58 Right. And but then you flip on the other side.
09:01 It's like, well, how how can people believe you, though? Like, that's a tough one.
09:05 And I, you know, I've heard some podcasts recently or the last couple of years with Eric Bischoff and Jim Ross and even Road Dogg,
09:12 Jesse James, you know, I've always loved the Armstrongs, you know,
09:16 but there was a reference and they made they honed in and made a comment about that
09:20 because that topic comes up about Sean Stasek and the tape recorder incident.
09:24 And it just, you know, they had made reference that, you know,
09:28 it's tough to really make it in that business if you don't have the trust of the locker room.
09:33 And I completely agree with that. Then again, I'm thinking to myself, you know, so I end up losing my job.
09:38 I end up getting fired because of that. And that was that was devastating for me because that's the only company I ever wanted to work for was WWE.
09:44 And but I had no choice. I had to go to WCW. Right.
09:48 And they, you know, Mr. Wonderful Paul Orndorff, God bless his soul.
09:52 And, you know, and it was Kevin Sullivan at the time.
09:55 I think he was in the office and it was the power plant. And that's where I met the natural born thrillers,
10:00 you know, Chuck Palumbo, Mark Jindrach, Sean O'Hare, Mike Sanders, Johnny the Bull, Alan Funk,
10:06 you know, and they basically took me in. They accepted me.
10:10 I felt like with open arms. Now, I felt that they, you know, the word traveled. Everyone heard about this.
10:14 They knew about this. And so I felt that I was like having to kind of prove myself,
10:19 rightfully so. And I wouldn't busted my ass for three or maybe it was a month gone up there.
10:24 That was in Atlanta. I lived in Tampa at the time, you know,
10:27 but I think over time I gained their trust and their respect because I busted my ass.
10:31 I worked hard. I was a little more experienced than them because they were real green.
10:34 I had already had my some training with WWE, of course,
10:37 and Memphis experience with Jerry Lawler and that farm team or farm club feeder system at the time.
10:45 And then having my experience with WWE making the main roster and being on national television.
10:50 I had a little more experience. So, you know, I think that they respected me for that.
10:54 But they but also that I was willing to just start from scratch and and bust my ass with them doing those workouts
11:01 and those drills and just being there with them.
11:04 And then I ended up working with them in WCW and WCW was they welcomed me with open arms.
11:09 How I felt Bischoff and JR had mentioned that,
11:12 you know, when you break the trust of the boys, you know, it's hard to, you know, make it that business.
11:17 It's career suicide. They are correct with that.
11:19 But I guess I'm scratching my head. I'm thinking well,
11:21 then if that's the case and why did they hire me and bring me into WCW, you know,
11:26 thank God and I'm always grateful to Vince Russo for for bringing me in because he was the writer at the time,
11:33 you know, I'm not saying I didn't have a decent relationship with Eric Bischoff.
11:37 It's just later down the road. I see these podcasts and these episodes that come out.
11:41 It comes up this tape recorder incident and then it's like well,
11:45 if they didn't trust me, then why did they hire me with WCW?
11:49 I think everybody knew in the locker room that it was a stupid mistake, dumb move.
11:54 God, do you think if I could go back in time and rewind and change, would I ever have done that?
11:58 You know, of course not, you know, even though there was absolutely no wrongful intent whatsoever,
12:02 but it's sad because it really when you know, WCW got bought out.
12:07 I was one of the first 10 contracts go back over to brought over to WBE.
12:12 I thought okay there they forgive me, right?
12:15 They've let bygones be bygones water over the bridge. Let's start from scratch to start over.
12:20 I don't know. It's like we could never seem to get it right. It seemed like creatively.
12:24 It just seemed like they didn't have anything more for me to do just goofy gimmicks and you know ideas that I had that I crossed with them
12:32 and pitch to them and it didn't it just seemed like we could never get on the same page.
12:36 I just couldn't seem to get any momentum or love and support from that company and I don't and I often wonder why would they take me back right?
12:44 If but I feel like maybe I was just the cost of doing business.
12:47 I was somebody that they could feed to other guys to build up like the rock Lesnar's of the world that were coming up.
12:53 And so, you know, I had my rub with the rock and you know, Stone Cold Steve Austin and Kurt angle with the Alliance during the invasion angle,
13:02 but I don't think I just feel like looking back. I just I was the cost of doing business.
13:08 I was just there to kind of feed other talent to build them up.
13:12 I don't think they had really any real big plans for me. It doesn't seem that way and maybe I'm wrong,
13:17 but I feel that the tape recorder incident ultimately even though they brought me back for my second tenure with the WWE.
13:24 I don't think it did me any justice or any favors.
13:27 And so that was probably ultimately the biggest mistake that I've ever made not just in my wrestling career,
13:33 but probably in my life, you know, because it was I think it was career suicide with that company.
13:38 So there was absolutely no wrongful intent whatsoever.
13:43 And here's the truth of the matter in the car while I was picking up the bickering and the conversation in the car.
13:50 If it had turned to anything that was serious a serious discussion something that was, you know private I would have shut it off.
13:57 This was not an intention to capture any personal information,
14:01 you know to use it for some, you know character smear defamation of character or or ruin someone's reputation.
14:08 I mean I had no wrongful intent. So I hear those stories those those versions that I was,
14:13 you know recording, you know, who was he recording?
14:16 What what was you know, who knows what they were talking about and I would not have recorded anything that was serious ever.
14:22 It was a complete joke bickering and just ridiculousness that I want to capture
14:27 and it was just maybe three four, maybe five minutes total.
14:30 If that I don't even it was just very brief put it that way another version that I've heard is that I was so paranoid about people talking about me behind my back
14:41 that I had the tape recorder in my bag running recording while I was,
14:44 you know out, you know out and about in the hallway or you know,
14:48 going over my match or work in the in the ring that night or whatever I was I was recording the boys to see who was talking about me.
14:55 That's another version that I've heard. Here's the other thing too again stupid mistake dumb.
15:01 Okay, I take full responsibility. I own it. It sucks.
15:05 I man I would do anything to rewind and go back in time,
15:09 you know, there are things in our lives that we we've made mistakes that we would go back and change some things.
15:15 I made mistakes that I wouldn't go back and change because you live and learn you learn from your mistakes, right?
15:19 But this is one of them. I would probably go back and change man.
15:22 I would never have gone down that road that was you know, just a dumb move.
15:27 Okay, I can't even call it a rookie mistake. It was just a dumb move to do period but in my heart in my mind.
15:34 I was just being Sean and thought hey good opportunity.
15:37 I can I can you know, rib these guys and pick them up,
15:39 you know arguing and bickering I'll play it back for them and say this is what you guys sounded like in my mind at the time.
15:44 I thought that was a good idea real smart.
15:47 But anyway, if I was oh, this is the other thing too.
15:51 I was working for hard coffee. Perhaps I was working for WCW because I was picking up information and send it to WCW
15:59 because they were in that Monday Night War thing, right?
16:02 That was another version of the story.
16:04 Look if if somebody were to have a wrongful intent or intent
16:10 or of some sort that was supposed to be confidential and private right?
16:15 Why on Earth would somebody throw a tape recorder back in their bag?
16:19 Nothing twice of it and then bring the same bag back to the arena around the same environment the same people risking that
16:26 perhaps maybe someone might go in there and find their voices on the damn tape recorder, right?
16:32 That's how much I thought about it when I do that when I at the Montreal Airport the way that Steve looked at me
16:37 and I could just his energy and just I knew at that point said,
16:41 "Ah bad move man, stop recording shut it off put it back in the bag."
16:45 Didn't think twice about it went home for a couple days got back on the road.
16:50 Why would I bring why would I have not if I was it had such an intention or an agenda?
16:55 I would have never brought that back on the road.
16:58 I would have been the first thing I would have done right discard the evidence, right?
17:03 But anyway point being is I think you have my point.
17:06 No wrongful intent whatsoever dumb move costed me my job.
17:11 Ultimately, I think it costed me my career with the WWE.
17:15 [MUSIC]
17:25 [BLANK_AUDIO]