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Many of us were surprised when WWE decided to part ways with Kassius Ohno. The man who once and again is known as Chris Hero had been the subject of rumors throughout the end of his tenure in developmental, as he disappeared from NXT bookings amid rumblings that he had pissed off Chief Operating Officer HHH with his lax workout habits.
That Young Knockout Kid has already found himself booked on plenty of independent shows, defeating Shane Helms in a Pro Wrestling Syndicate match and doing the main event job for champion Johnny Gargano in Dragon Gate USA since news of his departure broke earlier this month. He found time to speak with Busted Open Radio on Sirius XM, covering a variety of topics, including some where we can read in between the lines to learn more about his release - if you're so inclined.
Of course, we are.
In general, his continues to be propitiating and honestly have a good perspective on the whole experience:
Do I want to wrestle at WrestleMania? Do I want to be in the main event at WrestleMania? Do I want to be in pay-per-views every month? Do I want to be in RAW every week? Of course, they are all amazing things and especially with all of the talented guys and all of my peers that I see and when I see Seth Rollins, (Antonio) Cesaro, Bryan (Danielson), (C.M.) Punk, the Wyatt Family, the Shield, when I see those guys rather than be jealous, of course there is some professional jealousy where its good hearted: "It's like God damn it, I want that spot" but it's in the best way possible. I am genuinely inspired by all of these guys. So do I want to be in there and carve out my own niche? Of course, I do. But at this time, I have no choice in the matter. I can say: "Oh, what went wrong" but that won't get me any answers. I was ok before WWE and I will be ok after WWE and I talked to a lot of fans over the last couple days and the support has been mind-blowing. To look at some of these people's eyes and they are genuinely telling me that they appreciate me and they are glad to see, it means so much to me. What I keep saying is, it's not like I broke my neck and I can't ever wrestle again. I can still go out and do what I love and do what I loved since I was ten years old and to look at it that way and there are so many people that do not have the opportunity, so why am I going to be upset or why am I going to dwell on the fact that I don't get to do this on the highest level possible. It's easy to be positive because I still get to out and kick ass, I get to travel, and I get to see my friends and the world. I didn't have to conjure up that much to get through this.
Getting to the heart of the matter, though, he says the following in response to a question about never getting the call to hit the big stages of WWE:
I would say that the issue was less conditioning and more of an overall look. Anybody that has ever known me or been in the ring with me knows that I can wrestle all day and all night long. I don't get tired, that's not the issue. It's more of a cosmetic issue and my body type is different. I have different ways of working out and my eating habits are at the time. Anybody that has followed my career has seen a lot of fluctuation. I have gone from no muscle tone whatsoever to plumping up to three hundred pounds to cutting that off and becoming more toned and then cutting as much body fat as possible, so I have had my fluctuations and I've switched things around so I think that was more of a cosmetic look and my coaches or the powers-that-be were all very supportive.
Just parsing this quote, I think you can get to the crux of any disagreements he may have had with the WWE way of conditioning. I interpret this as his saying, essentially, two things: (1) judge me based on what I can do, not how I prepare, and (2) if I need to, I can quickly cut weight or add muscle, but I'm still going to look like this.
Did he believe these things to such an extent that he refused to participate in workout sessions mandated/strongly encouraged by Paul Levesque or people the COO had put in place? Don't know, but if he did, that's a heck of a horse to die on.
Why does he think he was let go?
It's really hard to pin point any one thing. I think it's just a matter of they knew who I was, they knew what I presented, what I had to offer, I just don't think they saw anything for me in the immediate future, they thought it would be best to let me go and let me do my own thing for a little a while. Like I said, I left on good terms, I've got so many good friends there, a lot of people that are in my corner, and a lot of people that have supported me through the years. Will I be back? Who knows? Maybe or maybe not. But it's not something that I got fired and was told never to come back; it was nothing like that at all.
That sounds good. Then he continued, with some statements that again seem to hint at their being some disagreements with at least a few folks in power at WWE that weren't going to go away any time soon:
To me, pro wrestling is art and art is an opinion and its perspective. It's what this person thinks against what this person thinks. There are so many guys that think that Shawn Michaels was the greatest wrestler of all time and there are some that think he is the most over rated wrestler of all time. I have some fans that adore me and would go to the ends of the earth to watch me wrestle live, follow me, buy my t-shirts and there are some that don't see it and I understand that. There are musical acts and bands that people love and I've tried to give them a chance and I'm just not feeling it. That doesn't mean that they are not good because art is subjective. When you have a business that's based on art and perspective and opinion, there are always going to be head scratchers. Do I think I am one of the most talented pro wrestlers alive? Your damn right I do and I know the work that I have put in and I know what I am capable of but at the same time, I can't measure myself up against other people because how do you justify that? How do you say: "This guy is good on the microphone, this guy is good in the ring, this guy is better technically, and this guy is more charismatic" so it's like: "How do you measure that?" It's really difficult, it's really subjective and a lot of this conversation happens because we all love wrestling and we all have different tastes and different opinions. I think a lot of that can be broken down to perspective.
Again, very diplomatic. There's nothing there that a reasonable person would perceive as disrespectful. But, those in pro wrestling in general and WWE specifically have, at times, been accused of being unreasonable.
Finally, the host ask him point blank if he would consider TNA. Hero uses this as a way to lay out his near-term future plan and is again careful to not rule anything out.
At this point, I am looking at all of my options. I would never say no to something based on reputation. I am booked up for the rest of the year pretty much and I am keeping next year open as far as international dates and I want to maximize my opportunities and be able to hit up Europe for a couple weeks and I definitely want to go back to Japan. I'm trying to get that figured out. If there was an interest with TNA, it is an offer that I would definitely entertain but I just want to set enough while the iron is hot and set the best landscape for my career and where I go because I know everyone is happy to see me and its cool: "Hey, Chris Hero is back" but I do realize that it's not going to last forever so I am going to have to continue to evolve and bring something different to the table. It will be interesting to see on how this plays out with all of the different companies that I am working for in the next couple months.
What do you think, Cagesiders? Let us know what you make of his responses, and if you agree or disagree with the read on them from me, in the comments below.