He was a Global Wrestling Federation North American Champion. He held countless tag titles in WCW and was part of the most dominant tag team of the 1990's. He'll call a woman a yack and knock you out with his trusty flap jack. He's "Straight Shootin'" Stevie Ray and he's the latest guest on The Interactive Interview!

Stevie sat down with the TII guys recently and delivered, without question, the most open and honest interview he's ever given. We discuss racism, the personal impact of WCW closing, the new training school, and so much more. Yes, Stevie spoils us all with how great this one us!

This interview is played in the midst of our chat about One Night Stand, RAW, and our ran! dom on air sing along that, quite frankly, may frighten some small animals. Speaking of animals, you do NOT want to miss next week's show on "The Blaze" as we have a guest we cannot announce just yet but it will happen! Stay tuned to www.WrestlingEpicenter.com for breaking news on an Interview that will cement our spot on the map once and for all!

:: Click Here to Listen!
:: Click Here to Check Out our June 2005 Interview with Stevie Ray!
:: Click Here to Check Out our February 2020 VIDEO Interview with Stevie Ray!



STEVIE RAY

-- This edition of TII Live opens up with something a bit extreme, if you will. The ECW theme plays loud and proud as Chuck and James discuss the pay per view and discuss just how refreshing it was to see something different from the usual WWE show back out there once again. A complete run down is done with some funny commentary from two guys who enjoyed this pay per view immensely!

-- James then rants about the only thing he did not like about the PPV, the treatment of Bischoff due to the insults being hurled at WCW. This segway's into WCW's most dominant tag team ever, Harlem Heat, as they welcome none other than "Straight Shootin'" Stevie Ray.

-- Stevie is welcomed to the show with a little Harlem Heat music to set the mood.

-- They aren't calling the training facility a school but an academy because you can also learn legit MMA as well as pro wrestling. They have trainers that are for each aspect of the school. If you are interested in f! inding out more about the opportunity to be trained by Booker T or Stevie Ray, check out http://www.btsrwrestlingacademy.com/

-- James and Erik go way back to the beginning of Stevie's career and ask about the ESPN run Global Wrestling Federation. Stevie says the GWF was a lot of fun and the first time he and his brother got any real TV exposure. He says he learned a lot from the veterans that were there and it just was an all around good time in their career.

-- James mentions that Stevie was the North American Heavyweight Champion (basically the World Champion for the GWF) and Stevie has a response. "Oh, it was great, man. People don't realize how tough it was in the GWF. For me to win the belt, man, was the highlight of my career up until WCW."

-- "We always wanted to go to the next level," said Stevie about jumping from GWF to WCW. "We used to watch those guys and say "we can do this." So, we set our sight! s on it."

-- Erik mentions that many feel the names given to Booker T and Stevie Ray in WCW were somewhat racist. Stevie says, "What can you say about WCW? WCW was ran by some of the most racist bigotous people on the face of this Earth. I'm surprised the company lasted as long as it did. I have no regrets for going to WCW, though." Stevie goes on to explain that he's had to face a lot of racism just in life much less in wrestling. "The marquee might say pro wrestling but in essence, it's just every day life."

-- Stevie thinks there was copyright issues with the GWF over the names Booker T and Stevie Ray and that's why they were Cain and Cole.

-- The psychology of tag team wrestling will be taught well at the training academy. "There's only one way to teach professional wrestling and that's the right way," says Stevie. He goes on to say that you've seen a disconnect from psychology in wrestling over the past few years and they are trying to get back to it n! ow, little by little. He says sometimes it looks like guys are running around like a "Chinese fire drill."

-- "If you get a person's emotions involved, that's when you've got them," says Stevie continuing about training his workers.

-- "Tag teams just don't have the exclusiveness that they had in yester year," says Stevie. James says a good example of that is a team like Booker T and Rob Van Dam. They seemed to be put together just because there was nothing "creative" for them to do so they paired them up. They don't look right together but Booker T and Stevie Ray, legit brothers, look like they fit as a tag team. Stevie agrees and says there has to be more guys wanting to do tag wrestling for the division to catch fire again.

-- Erik asks about working with Chris Jericho as he is a huge fan of the mini-feud Stevie had with him in 1998. Stevie laughs and says he and Chris talk about that feud to this day. He says Chris is a guy that really understands psyc! hology and how, most of all, how to work with a big man. He says a lot of guys want a big man to work as a little man and that's just not what they should be doing.

-- Stevie is asked about being a single's competitor. "I would've liked it had they done something with it," says Stevie. "Thinking about WCW... Some of the worst thinkers, some of the worst bookers, some of the worst planners on God's green Earth! You get what you get up there. You weren't in the program if you weren't kissing someone's butt or cool with somebody. It was just a lot of crap, you know? You do what you can do."

-- Stevie talks about all the injuries he's had in wrestling, one of which was alcohol poisoning in his liver that sidelined him for quite a long time because they originally diagnosed it as something potentially more severe.

-- He doesn't really know why we didn't get the Booker T VS Stevie Ray feud when he joined the NWO.

-- "A lot of people say I'm a bitter person. ! I'm not bitter! I'm very grateful to have worked for WCW. But, they don't call me "Straight Shootin'" Stevie Ray for nothing! I tell it like it is. And, what I'm telling you is WCW was a bunch of guys who didn't know what the hell they were doing.... The good old boy regime... The prisoners telling the guards how it should be... People don't really realize what was going on behind the scenes. It was really dreadful at times. You can't really make sense of it but you also can't really make light of it because WCW could've been great at times because it was something to see."

-- "Big T" also known as Ahmed Johnson just never got on track in WCW. Stevie thinks he could've been a big star and thought his heart was in it but it just never panned out.

-- "I knew it was going down 2 years before it happened and that's why I started preparing myself to do something else. I'm a business man at heart and I look at wrestling as business... It was just business to me."

--

-- Stevie feels his run in the NWO didn't amount to much because the black and white wasn't being taken seriously because it wasn't Hogan, Nash, Hall, or any of the top guys but was just a bunch of guys they had wearing NWO shirts so they can say it's still around. "They were stuck in the mud and they didn't want to move forward. It's almost like someone that's afraid to go to college. They were in high school and they just wanted to stay there."

-- Sting and DDP told us it stopped being fun for them in late 1998 and 1999. Stevie says, "It stopped being fun for me then also. People just don't realize how much I used to look forward to going to work. Getting on planes, driving in the car, that was fun for me. Now, I can't stand leaving my home. I don't even like driving to my place of business. To be honest, when people ask me about professional wrestling, I don't like talking about it especially with people who don't know the business. And, I used to. It's sa! d. It left such a poor taste in my mouth for so many different reasons and it didn't have to be like that. But hey, that's how the mop flops."

-- Stevie feels sorry for everybody who lost their job in WCW but he feels sorry most for the people who were doing office jobs thinking they were doing something special and important and nobody ever told them that the end was near.

-- Stevie gives TII it's third exclusive in a row! First it was Matt Hardy telling us about the tire slashing incident. Then it was Ivory telling us about Terri Runnels surgically removing part of a cookie sheet from Tori's mouth. And now, Stevie Ray explains just how and why he became an announcer for WCW! To hear the other exclusives, check out www.wrestlingepicenter.com.

-- Stevie and Booker T used to do color commentary while watching the monitor backstage and make remarks that the boys found funny. After Heenan left, Vince Ru! sso was looking to find a wrestler to do announcing duties. The boys told Russo that Stevie was funny doing it. And, as such, he got the job.

-- Chris Kanyon got pissed at Stevie once for something he said while announcing. He didn't say it to be mean, he was just joking around and being "Straight Shootin'" Stevie Ray. Everyone else liked what he had to say.

-- James asks if the job was, as many say, to fight off the racial lawsuit filed by Hard Body Harrison and Sonny Onno. Stevie says he couldn't tell you yes or no but he has heard that about his brother winning the heavyweight title.

-- James asks why Stevie never went to the WWE with Booker or went to TNA. "I'm just done, man."

-- We then talk about Stevie's training for the ring originally and what he'll do differently. Stevie says he won't do much different because he was trained well. He thinks he might be tough on guys but he's got to be to get them ready. Wrestler's have to be tough? You wouldn! 't know that by reading the reaction to the Matt Capotelli incident... Sorry, minor rant!

-- Stevie wants to hammer home that workers at his school have to develop something different from everybody else. He feels guys that have something different to offer have a far better chance of making it far.

-- For some reason, James gets in a goofy mood and decides to use the phrase Sid stole from Stevie in 2001. "Mama Says it Bese That Way Sometimes!" Stevie laughs and says Sid's one of a kind.

-- They then roll into word associations with names like Sid, Elizabeth, Luger, Sting, Russo, Bischoff, Hogan, and others! Want to know what he has to say about it? You'll just have to listen! It's free! Visit www.WrestlingEpicenter.com!

-- They then go into a RAW discussion and close out with a lot of punch drunk mania singing Sinatra songs and having a good old time. Chuck explains that he is in a great mood ! because the ECW pay per view was so sensational and because we will be attending RAW on Monday evening. This is a great time to be a wrestling fan!

-- They then play a little Cinderella to close out the show. A song that just fits all the time in life, "The More Things Change, The More the Stay the Same."

***** Join The Interactive Interview LIVE on Tuesday, June 21 at 10 p.m. EST as we will have a surprise guest that will simply shake the wrestling world! Oh, it's big! It's REALLY big! And, you are going to hate yourself if you don't tune in! Check out www.WrestlingEpicenter.com for ALL details involving this sensational mega event!