Interview: Ken Shamrock Talks Favourite WWE Matches, Wrestlemania 13, & His Dream Match with Kurt Angle

By: Curtis Sindrey –
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Ken Shamrock.

Ken Shamrock is known as the “World’s Most Dangerous Man” and a godfather of mixed martial arts (MMA). Along with fighting in the UFC, Shamrock also wrestled in the WWE during the infamous “Attitude Era” in the late ’90s, and had memorable feuds with the industry’s most revered superstars like Bret Hart, The Rock, and Vader.

In our new interview, Shamrock discusses the Wrestlemania 13 submission match that he refereed between Bret Hart and Stone Cold Steve Austin, his favourite WWE feuds and matches, along with his perfect opponent for a WWE comeback.

How did the plan come about for you to guest referee the Bret Hart/Austin match at WM 13?

Vince [McMahon] came up with the idea to try to rub me up against a guy like Bret Hart who started to have a bad attitude, and a guy like Stone Cold Steve Austin who they were trying to turn into an imitation of a no-holds-barred type, I don’t give a crap type of person, personality, and wrestler. So we did the match and everyone got over and it really did change the face of wrestling and it saved WWE because all of the superstars were over in WCW, so by doing that and creating those characters it changed that company.

You’ve had some really great feuds with the likes of Vader, Bret Hart, and The Rock. Who were your favorite and least favorite feuds with and why?

My favourite feud because it was my longest program was with The Rock. My least favourite because we didn’t go very long would be my feud with Chris Jericho. Maybe if we had more time to nurture it and travel a little bit more with it, I think maybe we could have done something more with it. Because we didn’t have a lot of it time, I feel like we didn’t really have a chance to do anything with it.

Were you ever approached to do the Brawl For All?

Yes I was, and you know how hard it was for me to go in there and gain the trust of all these wrestlers based on where I was coming from in the UFC. I was the best in the world and they wanted me to go in there and fight these guys in a brawl for all. I’m a professional fighter, and they wanted me to go in there and fight these guys for $50,000, come on. I get paid millions of dollars to do fights, and they want me to fight seven or eight times to win the whole thing? Yeah, not happening.

What did you think of the tournament’s rule-set?

I loved it and it was great for guys who otherwise might not be able to shine in a wrestling ring. It gave them an opportunity to have a centre stage for a period of time, make some money, and really build their character.

If you had to choose, which of your WWE matches would you pick as your best and worst of all-time?

I don’t have a least favourite, but my favourite, I have a lot of them, I have Shawn Michaels, Stone Cold, Bret Hart, and The Rock. I really enjoyed the Lion’s Den match, I enjoyed the dungeon match, and I even enjoyed the straitjacket match, where I was in a straitjacket. I was only in WWE for two and a half years, and the amount of experience that I’ve got from doing different types of matches and angles, it’s just mind-blowing. I had these matches that had never been done before like the Lion’s Den match, so there were a lot of things they called upon me to do at a very young time in my career and I was able to pull it off.

Speaking of the Lion’s Den matches with Owen Hart and Steve Blackman, what was it like to have a match in an MMA-style cage on a major WWE pay-per-view?

It was groundbreaking. To be able to have an opportunity to do something that nobody else has done and be able to pull it off I thought was tremendous. [Steve] Blackman did a great job. Another event we did was called the iron circle where they parked a bunch of cars in a circle in a garage and me and Blackman had this fight out in a garage with all these cars circling around. It was an imitation of a bareknuckle fight I did in my early days where I went to this club and it was $700 to fight this big guy who was undefeated in this biker bar, so I went down there and fought him and knocked him out, and that’s what they did where they parked a bunch of cars in a circle and turned the headlights on and I knocked that dude out.

Ken Shamrock served as guest referee in Bret Hart and “Stone Cold” Steve Austin’s Submission Match at WrestleMania 13. (Photo: Courtesy of WWE)

Your matches with Steve Blackman were really intense. How would you describe him? 

Steve is a professional all the way through. I felt that if they developed his character a little differently I thought he would have done better because he’s not the flamboyant or flashy type of guy. He was more of a raw, rough-edged and serious wrestler.

In WWE, everyone has their group of people that they’re close to and travel with. Who were those guys for you?

Road Dogg, Billy Gunn, the woman who played Ryan, my sister [Alicia Webb], Steve Blackman.

What led to your abrupt departure from WWE in 1999? 

There was a lot of stuff going on, especially with my family and things that I was going through, and I needed a break. There were some things that were going on within the company itself, things going on at home, so there was just a lot of chaos going on, so I needed to step away in order to get everything together and get my life back to where I needed it to be.

I can imagine also with the extensive travelling that is involved as well

Yeah, it was tough.

What kind of relationship do you have with the company now?

I don’t know. No one has talked to me, no one invites me to anything, so I don’t know, but assuming that it’s probably not good. But I don’t know until someone tells me.

If you had the opportunity you think you would come back?

In a heartbeat. I’ve captured every title there is in four different organizations, and I was a champion in everything I ever did, but the only one I never got to was the heavyweight belt in WWE.

If you came back to WWE, who would be your ideal opponent? 

I’d have to say Kurt Angle with an ankle lock match since he decided to use the move that I created. I’d like to see how good he is at it.

Of course, fans hope this is far off, but if you had to choose an opponent for your retirement match from wrestling, who would it be?

If it was a retirement match, it would probably be The Rock because we did an angle, we had a program going, and things happened, but I was supposed to follow him up. Bret Hart, myself, and The Rock, Shawn Michaels, all of us I think were all going to be in the mix where eventually The Rock would get the belt and of course because me and The Rock had our program with the Intercontinental Title, I would eventually challenge him for the belt and have a program there. That never happened, I had a good rapport with him, and I think that is something I would definitely enjoy to do, considering what he has done in his career and what I’ve been doing in my career.

Are you still actively taking pro wrestling bookings?

No, uh-uh, not at all. Just because there has been nothing of interest that as been pitched to me.

How much longer do you think you have as a fighter?

I don’t think I’ll fight again. I think if I do it would only be for Royce Gracie, but other than that I wouldn’t.

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