Professional wrestling legend and WWE Hall of Famer Billy Gunn who is a former WWE Intercontinental Champion and also a former 11 times WWE Tag Team Champion recently talked about his sons joining the world of professional wrestling and explained his process to get them into wrestling.
Billy Gunn is a big Legend of professional wrestling who started his professional wrestling career back in 1989 and after working in several different promotions he was signed by WWE back in 1993. He formed a tag team along with another big pro wrestling star Bart Gunn and together they were started to be known as the Smoking Gunns.
Billy Gunn Reflects On His Sons Joining Wrestling
The Smoking Gunns was one of the most famous tag teams of the pre Attitude Era of WWE. They were in existence for three long years and in 3 years they won the WWE Tag Team Championship for a total number of three times. After the Smoking Gunns disbanded in 1996, Billy Gunn had a short singles run for a while.
In 1997 he teamed up with Road Dogg Jesse James and together they were started to be known as the New Age Outlaws. It is one of the most famous tag teams in the history of professional wrestling. Later they teamed up with D Generation X and their fame increased even more. Together they won the WWE Tag Team championship for a total number of 6 times.
Apart from these tag teams, his team with Chuck Palumbo became quite famous during the post Attitude Era as well. Together they were known as Billy and Chuck they won the WWE Tag Team championships for two times. After this team disbanded, WWE tried to push Billy as a singles star. He founded success outside of WWE as well after he was released by the promotion in 2004. In 2019 he was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame as a part of D Generation X.
Billy Gunn who is a former WWE Intercontinental Champion and also a former 11 times WWE Tag Team Champion recently spoke on Oh…You Didn’t Know podcast where he talked about his sons joining the world of professional wrestling and explained his process to get them into wrestling. Billy Gunn said;
“The thing with the boys was, ‘You have to graduate college and then you can do what you want. I’ll help you do whatever you want.’ Yes, that’s very contradictory of me because I didn’t finish college, but times are different. I need them to be able, if they do this job, to have something to fall back on and not rely on it. Nowadays, I just don’t feel people are going to have 30-year careers. They’re just doing too much crazy stuff.”
“Austin was the first one. He literally went from like the Head Dean handing him his diploma, went to the stands and handed it to me, and said, ‘I’m good.’ I’ve been hands on with both of the boys. Austin was the first. He did a stint in ROH just because he wanted to do something on his own. It didn’t work out. I happened to be one of the first ones to get hired by AEW as head coach and talent if they needed me.
“Austin said, ‘No. I don’t want your help. I’m going to ask Tony’, and Cody was still head of it, if he could have a tryout and have a look. He came in and did a tryout. They hired him and they liked him. If you could build a wrestling person on your computer, you would build Austin because he is athletic, has personality, charisma, and energy.”
“Then, Colten was living out in California. He went to Rikishi’s school because he didn’t want to look back and say, ‘I should have tried this.’ I don’t think it was just because me and Austin were doing this, but he didn’t want to look back and say, ‘I should have tried this.’ He went to Rikishi’s school without asking or anything.”
“Rikishi of course was open armed. He went in there, messed around a little bit, and said, ‘Hey, I want to try this.’ I said, ‘Well, if you do this, you have to come home. I’m not going to do anything different with you than I did with Austin.’ He moved back to Florida. He went to Tyler Breeze and Shawn Spears school. I would go and watch. Although he’s very much an analyst when it comes to wrestling and wants to know and figure everything out, he’s just different, but that’s what makes him so good.”
H/T to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription