Colt Cabana was Eric Bischoff’s guest on the latest Bischoff on Wrestling podcast. You can listen to the episode below. In the interview, Cabana notes that WWE was slow to recognize the value of stars who came from the independent scene and is just now getting around to learning that lesson.
“When I was there I was kind of laughed at for independent wrestling being the way that I came up,” he said. “Like I had any other choice. It was really frowned upon. I was also kind of laughed at when I had a podcast back in 2010 when I started. It’s always just kind of taken them a couple years to get a little in front of the times if you will. It’s just taken them a long time to realize, ‘All our stars were independent wrestling stars and we tried to hide it and make these other guys our stars.’ The people that have come through the system that weren’t supposed to were guys that cut their teeth.”
He added, “I think it’s just coming to them now that it’s a valuable place and people actually do learn and do become good wrestlers on that scene. I think it’s just taken them a long time and I think because of that they are just going to pay more attention. That may mean that they will grab a couple guys before they’re ready and put them in their system. That’s always kind of happened. I remember in like 2003 Paul London was a big guy on the independent scene and they grabbed him. It’s just like every time a Paul London gets plucked from the scene someone else will come up. It’s not like they can have a thousand guys on the roster. I weirdly kind of believe that when someone leaves someone else will make their name for themselves.”