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Kevin Thorn On Bar Fight That Led To WWE Departure, Nixed Vince McMahon Angle, Donald Trump, CM Punk
- Updated: September 13, 2016
I recently interviewed former WWE star Kevin Fertig, who wrestled as Kevin Thorn and Mordecai. In the first part of the interview below, Thorn discussed getting into the business, signing with WWE, why he left WWE the first time, working with CM Punk and more.
Make sure to check back next week for the second and final part of the interview, where Thorn discussed his second WWE departure, Vince yelling at him for looking like The Undertaker after being told to, if he had talks with WWE since leaving, TNA, WWE Wellness Policy violations, how often he was tested, Buff Bagwell’s lawsuit against WWE, how much his royalties went down after the WWE Network launched, why former stars aren’t returning to the company and more.
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I think a lot of people know that you were kind of discovered by Sid Vicious, but were you a wrestling fan growing up?
“Yeah, definitely. I mean, growing up in Memphis, it’s kind of hard not to be. The weird part for me, and I’ve mentioned this a couple of times, is my dad’s a southern Baptist deacon, kind of pastor figure and wrestling was never really allowed to be watched, so I always had to sneak over to people’s houses and stuff like that to watch Saturday morning wrestling. So I was kind of raised up on southern wrestling, USWA, Jerry Lawler, [Bill] Dundee, and all the list of names that came through there, Sid, Taker, pretty much everybody came through Memphis. So I mean, it was kind of a great place to grow up watching, that’s for sure.”
How’d you end up getting hooked up with Sid?
“Well, I was the morning manager of a Gold’s Gym and his workout partner kept missing and he just kept having me come spot him and I was there at five in the morning, open the doors at five in the morning and didn’t really have anything to do till eight. So, and Sid was an early guy. He’d get in there at five. And finally he was like, ‘why don’t you get your stuff and start working out?’ [Fertig replied] ‘okay, fine.’ And it was kind of like a surreal moment. I didn’t want to hugely mark out, but it was also like, ‘holy crap! This guy thinks I’m big enough, strong enough, and everything else, to work out with him. Hell yeah, I want to work out with him!’
“So we just started working out and one day, it ended up being, he was coming off of the broken neck and was going to start doing some independent stuff. And he was like, ‘well, I need to go knock some ring rust off’ and we went to Buddy Wayne’s backyard, a Memphis legend down there, and I remember going there and the ring was still set up in his backyard. The boards looked like they were going to deteriorate underneath us. When we rolled the carpet out that was a mat, there were probably three or four dead rats. Put this dirty ass canvas on it, got in the ring, and I’m looking at it and the ropes and stuff and I’m going, ‘okay, this is wrestling? I mean, these things are radiator hose and wires and half the wires are sticking through the radiator, so I know at some point I’m going to need a tetanus shot. Turnbuckles are duct taped. And then, out comes Buddy Wayne’s son, Aubrey Wayne, who’s a referee, a young kid at the time, but he could do anything and everything in the ring. It was just crazy watching him bouncing around.
“Basically, it went from there. Basically, lock up, grab a headlock, an arm, and then, two weeks from that, about two weeks after that, I was wrestling up near the Knoxville area for Mo from Men on a Mission against another kid by the name of Dirt Bike. It was like, I mean, I didn’t own a pair of boots, I didn’t own a pair of trunks, and Sid goes, ‘well, here [are] my boots – you’re a size 13. Here’s a pair of trunks. Go buy a leather vest.’ And I went, ‘okay.’ And I was basically Sid Vicious’ young protege of [his] and that was kind of how it went from there.
What was Sid like in the gym? He seems like he’d be a beast.
“Oh, he’s an animal. I mean, he’s an absolute animal. I mean, he’s just something else. He lifts mass amounts of weights. He [has] got that intimidating presence about him. I mean, it’s crazy.”
Is he someone that you still keep in touch with?
“Man, I haven’t talked to him in a while. We just keep missing paths. My parents still live in Memphis. I need to get down there and see him, but we haven’t reached out in a while. So definitely, I need to do that.”
Yeah, and you signed with WWE, it was only a couple of years after that, right?
“Yep.”
How did you get on their radar?
“I think, man, just right place, right time. I mean, just because I was doing some of the Power Pro [Wrestling] stuff. I was a young kid, had decent size. Man, I mean, I really lucked out because I was terrible. I was beyond terrible. But I had good size and I was a friend of Sid’s and stuff, so Randy Hales and Brandon Baxter of Power Pro Wrestling, they were kind of booking it at the time, they used me because they wanted to use me because they knew Sid would come out if I came and that kind of thing. And the developmental territory’s there. The way I got my start was Kurt Angle was down there. It was like Kurt Angle, Matt Bloom, I’m trying to think who else was down there, Crash, a couple of other guys that never really made it, but, basically, Kurt got called up to TV and they needed somebody to fill the spot that day, and they were like, ‘do you want to do it’ and I said, ‘sure’. I mean, I went out there. Of course, I …
