Rhino Recalls “Hating Life” Before Leaving WWE In 2019

On the latest episode of the Talk'n Shop Podcast, Rhino joined to talk about the issues he had during his time in WWE. The former SmackDown Tag Team Champion spoke specifically about his time with the company in 2019 and why he became miserable during his run.

"They (WWE) offered me the biggest contract they ever offered me," Rhino said. "This was in 2019. And the thing was, it wasn't like, 'oh eff you, I want to one-up you or I'm better than this, I'm better than that'. They had a lot of guys under contract. Heath and I, we were only on the road like, one house show loop a week or a month and I love being on the road, I just enjoy it. I just enjoy being around the boys, I like to work.

"I would just be sitting home more, but making money. I was becoming miserable and I was hating, not just the wrestling business, I was hating life. I was talking to Scott when I was able to and he was like, 'yeah we'd love you but, you know, we have a budget, it's pretty tight. But, you could go out and do indies'. And I always enjoyed the indie scene because I like finding that talent and helping the talent out, I like being on the road and I can drive. So if I can help find the next Rock, or the next Austin, or the next Good Brothers you know, right? So that's the goal."

In late 2019, Rhino spoke about leaving the company despite being offered "more than double" what he was making at the time. Rhino also spoke about his time in ECW before originally joining WWE during the early 2000s. The ECW original said he originally had a tryout with WWE before going to ECW but there were issues during his WWE camp that made his signing unsuccessful.

"I never wanted to go to ECW, believe it or not," Rhino mentioned. "I thought it was just all blood and guts. So then Ulf Herman came back in 90, he went over there in '98. I had a tryout with WWE, nothing came of it. The tryout match was great, but the camp, whatever could go wrong, went wrong. And then the one time I wrestled Christian, it was a great match, the camera was broken. So they couldn't record it and nobody was there from the office to watch it.

"So anyway, that's when Christian got hired and Teddy Hart got hired, they were the only two out of that bunch, that was when Dory Funk was running the camp. So I went back to Germany, I was already booked there, and then Ulf Herman was like, 'yeah I was in ECW last summer traveling with Sabu and that stuff, you should think about going there'. And I'm like, 'well how is it?' And he's telling me about how they had wrestling matches in a strong style, you know, the wrestling matches and not a lot of people would get color, and not every match had barbed wire, nothing like that. So I'm like, 'you know what? Maybe I'll give it a shot'."

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Talk'n Shop with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.