Scotty 2 Hotty Interview; Injury Update, Returning Around WrestleMania, M

[Max]

Scotty 2 Hotty Interview; Injury Update, Returning Around WrestleMania, M
Ben Johnson - 07/10/2002


The following interview is from WWE.com:

NEW YORK -- For a guy who had three of the vertebrae in his spinal cord fused, Scotty 2 Hotty is in remarkably good spirits. A week ago, he made a surprise appearance at a World Wrestling Entertainment live event in his hometown of Portland, Maine, dancing at the end of the show. On Monday, he hosted RAW in front of a smaller but just-as-passionate crowd at The World, WWE's entertainment complex and restaurant in Times Square. So Scotty's ecstatic to be able to appear in front of fans again -- even if it's just for a question-and-answer session at The World. And even if he has to wait several more months before he'll be able to even attempt the Worm with his surgically repaired neck -- operated on by San Antonio's Dr. Lloyd Youngblood, WWE's unofficial "neck doctor." When fans at the restaurant chanted "Worm! Worm! Worm!", Scotty slyly picked a gentleman out of the audience to do it for him. The guy failed miserably, and everyone had a good laugh.

After the Q&A session, after one fan had won tickets to the Vengeance Pay-Per-View, and after another fan proposed to his girlfriend (she said yes), Scotty returned to The World's green room. As his wife and sister munched on salad, and as his baby daughter, Taylor, bounced on his lap, Scotty answered WWE.com's questions about his condition and much more.

WWE.com: I heard that you're not going home after this -- that you were actually making this into a little getaway.

Scotty: Yeah, this is the first part of the "Amusement Park Tour 2002." We started last night here (in New York). My sister had never been to the city. So she saw the Naked Cowboy (a street performer who is seen frequently in Times Square) today. He's on the Naked Cowboy Tour 2002 (laughs). We did all the sights around here today. And tomorrow we're going to finish up, and then drive over to Hersheypark, do Hersheypark on Wednesday, then do Dutch Wonderland on Thursday, and then drive down to Washington, D.C. for the weekend. I haven't really been to D.C. since I was a little kid. I mean, I've been there, but on work, so I haven't really seen anything. And then on the way home we're going to hit Lake Compounce. I've never been there.

WWE.com: But I heard you're not allowed to go on roller coasters.

Scotty: Yeah, that's the tough part. I've done Hersheypark a million times, working there (with WWE). So (my family is) going to do that, and I'll baby-sit.

WWE.com: Can you go on any rides at all?

Scotty: No. I can't do anything. I can't even lift anything more than (Taylor) right now.

WWE.com: What have you been up to since you've been away?

Scotty: Hanging out with my wife and the baby. My family all lives real close. Just hanging out, going to the lake and the ocean. It's cool to be with the baby because she's changing so much right now.

WWE.com: So it's like, if your injury had to happen ...

Scotty: Oh, it's the perfect time, if you have to pick a time. But then on the other hand, I'm missed the Hawaii show, I missed Portland last week, and I'm missing the Australian tour. I didn't get to wrestle in Portland, but I did get to dance at the end of the show, so that was cool. I've started doing personal appearances. I did a couple of appearances last week, and I did (a radio show hosted by) Dee Snyder, and I did an autograph thing in Connecticut, and I've got a couple of other things coming up.

WWE.com: How are you feeling?

Scotty: Well, I got out of the soft collar on Tuesday. And now it's just healing. It's feeling pretty good. It's still sore towards the end of the day. But the hardest part is out of the way; the surgery is the hardest part, and then the hard collar for five weeks was just horrible. The soft collar wasn't too bad, because I actually wore the hard collar a week more than I had to, and I didn't know that. I showed up at the doctor's office, and they're like, "What are you still doing with that on?" So they said just kind of wear the soft collar, and that I could start taking it off during the day. I slept in it at night. Now I have nothing. It's just healing.

WWE.com: Did they take a bone out of your hip when they fused your neck?

Scotty: Yep. I had the same exact surgery as Benoit -- 5, 6, 7 (vertebrae) fused together, three screws and a steel plate. I can send you the X-rays if you want to put that with the article.

WWE.com: I've heard from others who had the surgery that that the hip is actually sorer than the neck after the surgery.

Scotty: Yeah. Now it's fine. But sneezing is the worse part because of that muscle, and I sneeze really hard. You tense up trying to make it not hurt, and I think it makes it hurt even worse.

WWE.com: When's the last time you saw the doctor?

Scotty: It was the 11th of June, and I go back on the 25th of September. I'm looking at returning right around WrestleMania next year. (Chris) Benoit just came back last Monday for his first match, and his last match was King of the Ring last year, so I'm looking at at least a year.

WWE.com: When you return, do you anticipate being 100 percent or close to it, like Steve Austin and Benoit were?

Scotty: I think I'll be just as good if not better than I was when I went out. When I came back after taking four months off last year, until the time I went out this year, I wasn't even close to 100 percent. I thought I was when I went back, and then a few shows in I realized it would flame up. And then there were certain nights when the disc would just get so inflamed that I couldn't even drive. I couldn't turn my head either way, there was so much pain. And then the last two nights, we were in Hattiesburg, Miss., (on April 14) and then we were in Denton, Texas. I was tagging up with Randy Orton (in Hattiesburg) and he just took all the bumps. I came in and did the Worm, and that was it. And then I got to TV on Tuesday and they said, "We're pulling you off all the shows until we find out what's going on." Which was cool. I think it's a sense of pride in what we do -- nobody wants to go to them and say, "I can't do this." You want to say something, but on the other hand you don't. And then they just did it for me.

WWE.com: If I'm not mistaken, the first time you experienced severe pain in your neck was one night while you were sleeping. Did you ever figure out what actually caused the injury?

Scotty: No, I really don't know why it just went out in the middle of the night like that. At like 4 o'clock in the morning, I just woke up. It felt like somebody had stuck a knife in me.

WWE.com: And before that you were pretty much pain free?

Scotty: Well, I've always had neck problems, it seems like since I've been doing this. It's just over almost 13 years now, just bumping.

WWE.com: What does the doctor say you can and can't do? How much weight are you allowed to pick up?

Scotty: Twenty pounds supposedly. I can do a little bit of cardio. We ended up buying a cardio machine for the house. The doctor said just to walk right now. No weights. Chris told me it was like six months before he could start working out.

WWE.com: Actually, when you first get the surgery, you're not supposed to pick up anything heavier than five pounds, right?

Scotty: He said 10 to 15.

WWE.com: Oh, so you could pick up your little girl.

Scotty: Yeah, (the doctor) said, "Hold her as much as you want." She was with me when I had the surgery.

WWE.com: Can you watch WWE shows?

Scotty: Yeah, I catch most of them. It's hard. I'm sure everybody (that's had surgery has) told you that. At the same time, you see these guys taking all these bumps, and God, everything hurts! My favorite part of RAW is Goldust, and my favorite part of SmackDown! has got to be Jamie Noble. It's just new. And it's entertaining. I think that's the kind of stuff that made WWE what it is -- when it's really hot, that's the kind of stuff that was happening. Just entertaining stuff -- all the DX stuff, and Austin at the time. It was all new and entertaining.

WWE.com: What was your reaction when you found out about Steve Austin leaving the company?

Scotty: Sad. I think it's sad for him and I think it's sad for the company. He's such a major part, not just of this company but of the entire industry. He was always cool with me. He went with me to my first appointment. He set me up with Youngblood and then he went with me. That wasn't something he had to do; he offered to do it, and it was in his hometown. We flew into San Antonio on Wednesday after SmackDown! We were on separate flights, and he met me there an hour later. He looked at my X-rays, and told me my neck looked like a piece of s*** (laughs). So I think it sucks for everybody, all the way around.

WWE.com: It took the crowd here about 45 seconds before they chanted for the Worm tonight.

Scotty: Yeah. It's hard because that's what I'm known for and that's what they want to see me do. They don't care if I do anything else out there. I can light myself on fire, and they still want to see the Worm (laughs). I can't. I won't be able to do it for probably close to a year. We joke about it. It's not like this hardcore move. But when you do it 200 days a year for almost two years straight -- Chris Brennan, the (WWE) trainer, says that might be part of what happened to my neck. When you do it once in a while, it's fine. But when you do it at least once a night, maybe (it's part of the reason it got hurt). I was afraid the same thing was going to happen last week in Portland when I ended up dancing. "What are we going to do if they start chanting for the Worm? How do you get out of that without them booing you out of the building?" Thank God they didn't.

WWE.com: Are you tired of answering questions about the Worm?

Scotty: Not really. I actually look forward to it now. I'm glad somebody asks about it.

WWE.com: And reuniting Too Cool, that's the other thing that people always ask you about, and tonight was no exception.

Scotty: I think it'd be cool to do. I don't know if you could redo it. I would love to do it at some point. Like I said out there, it was a magical thing. The whole thing was hot. I never expected to be that huge, which we were when that thing was as hot as it was. I think you could do it again, but if you did it again, it'd have to be short-term.

WWE.com: Are you sick of talking about it yet? I imagine that's not the first time the fans have asked you about it.

Scotty: I don't get mad at the fans. I get mad at the radio DJs when I get called by the office to do promotional things. This happened to me last week. You could tell the guy wasn't a wrestling fan, and the first thing he asked me is, "Hey, what happened to Grand Master Sexay?" So you know somebody told him to ask that, and he's just being a smart-ass. And you're on live radio. That's what makes me angry, when they're just trying to be smart asses. But that was me when I was a kid too, so ... I almost got beat up by (former wrestler) Sam Houston.

WWE.com: Wait a minute. Now you have to tell that story.

Scotty: Me and the guy I used to go with (to WWE shows in Portland) -- we had front-row seats. I was probably 13 or 14 at the time. And it wasn't me actually, but I was close enough where he was going to kick my ass. Sam Houston comes out and he's slapping everybody's hand as he's going around. And he gets to us, which is three-quarters of the way around, and my friend jumps up and flips off his hat. So (Houston) jumps over the railing, at my friend. But I was right there. It's enough to scare the hell out of you when you're 13 years old and you've got this 230-pound guy jumping at you.

WWE.com: Anybody ever try to flip off your hat while you were walking to the ring?

Scotty: I've never had my hat flipped off. I've been punched -- which I don't understand. I guess if you were drunk or something, that would be the reason that you would do that. But why did my friend flip off Sam Houston's hat?

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