Mike was welcomed to The Monday Night Mayhem airwaves by The Big Mosh, Blade, & "The Chairman Of The Board" Todd Vincent, as part of the kickoff of the all-new fall season of "Your Home Of Wrestling Radio" for his first post-WWE interview. Blade started things off by asking one of the most-frequently asked questions from the members of The Mayhem Nation, which goes back to Mike's first night with World Wrestling Entertainment, at The 2008 WWE Royal Rumble at Madison Square Garden. Just who is "Jeff Harvey?" Adamle wished to inform The Mayhem's listening audience & wrestling fans across the globe the simple truth that he does indeed know that it is "Jeff Hardy" & not "Jeff Harvey." Mike was very candid about his debut with the company at "The World's Most-Famous Arena," and looks back on the night with as a learning experience. "You're exactly right about that. I have no excuse except to say that was my first night I was on the air, and I have a good friend Mike Harvey, and I was talking to him prior to that...and thus, the maloprompt. But then there were a lot of maloprompts after that..."
As many fans of the WWE product are already aware of, Adamle left World Wrestling Entertainment after just one year, one that unfortunately saw more disappointment than critical success. Many hardcore fans of professional wrestling & sports-entertainment did not take him seriously, and even some talent took him to task...sometimes on the air. Was Adamle's departure mutual, or was it more one-sided, whether it be him or the WWE? "I think it was a matter of them seeing my career as far as it could go with WWE. I wasn't quite sure what they brought me in for. I know that JR (Jim Ross) was an icon for the WWE & an icon in broadcasting professional wrestling over the years, and I heard through the grapevine that he was getting older and they wanted a young guy, but I wasn't quite sure that exactly was it. They then put on ECW. Covering play-by-play for professional wrestling is a completely different animal than getting ready for a college sports broadcast. I had asked them once they had decided that's what they wanted me to do is for my sake send me down to Tampa (Florida Championship Wrestling), and let me call matches till I'm blue in the face, until it rolled off my tongue. It didn't, and I suffered a little bit, I'll be honest, on the air, and I got a lot of criticism from ECW fans, but you take it in stride. And eventually by just being man enough to get all the boos, they start liking you, and I think Vince took advantage of this guy who's a 'bumblehead' so they made me the 'bumblehead of ECW,' and a guy who was prone to make mistakes, and I went along with the gag."
"The Chairman Of The Board" Todd Vincent asked Mike if Vince McMahon or those in the back fed him wrong lines in his headset (as has been reported over the years with Tazz & Mick Foley) to increase the "bumblehead character" that they portrayed as Adamle. "They tried to feed you lines, and I kinda went along with it. I actually liked it (playing the lovable dunderhead) and I grew to enjoy the ECW people." He continued, "A couple of times they had me walk off, which was not my idea. The first time I walked off, left Taz in a lurch, and the following week, I came out made an apology & said that I couldn't stand off the heckling that was going on behind me. And I actually got accepted, the responses for me kinda changed, and I went from kinda a heel to a babyface announcer. Just the whole experience, I wish I had to do it again because now I know some things about how it all works and I'm not sure I'll ever get another chance but I got nothing but great things and memories from the WWE." The big question: Would he want another chance to go back? "I'd go in a heartbeat. If you're any kind of athlete, you've been knocked down not once, not twice but hundreds of times and you get out of the game when you don't want to get off the canvas anymore. So I got knocked down to the canvas a couple of times, but I wanna get up, and I'll too throw a few punches again. My greatest regret is that I was never able to get in the ring. I wanted to be chokeslammed a couple of times."
Adamle took over for the beloved Joey Styles on ECW, and he had mixed feelings about taking the role that first defined him in the WWE. "One of the guys that befriended me right away was Joey Styles, and I knew who he was, and I knew he liked doing play-by-play. I don't think he particularly cared to go into the dot.com business for WWE, but being the consummate professional did exactly that." Mike said he was fortunate enough to be placed in the roles that he was (from an announcing perspective) that he felt comfortable with & based on the relationships that he had formed with both JR & Joey.
The man behind the majority of ECW's success, Paul Heyman, wrote an article last April about Adamle in The UK Sun, with Mike having the chance to read the finished product. In discussing the contents of the article, Mosh called the piece "interesting," but Adamle had his own words. "Interesting is not quite the word. Inflammatory was, it was a degradation kind of article. And he was right, he is entitled to his opinion. I always wanted to talk to him in person just to tell him a lot of the things that he said, are right on. So I have no problem with him...I have no problem with the criticism that I received. I think much of it was warranted. But what Paul had to say was right on. I know that he & Vince parted in a very acrimonious way. A lot of it was because he (Paul) was not in the mainstream anymore. But with that being said, I respect him greatly, and people are entitled to their opinions."
Throughout the past several months, Monday Night RAW has been seeing much critical success from bringing aboard the idea & concept of a "Guest Hosts for their program on a weekly basis. Speculation was rampant leading into last Monday night's RAW (at The Allstate Arena outside of Chicago) that Mike's name was debated as a candidate for the spot, which ended up being given to the long-time host of "The Price Is Right," Bob Barker. Adamle was asked about the rumors, if they were true, and if he has been approached to host a future edition of RAW. "I'm always ready for anything that may happen. I wasn't contacted for the last week's show. Do I expect to contacted? I have no idea but if it happened, I would love it."
Former WWE/ECW Superstar, Colin Delaney, called into The Mayhem Line to give his best wishes to Mike, in addition to giving his thoughts about Mike's tenure in the WWE. "I always thought that Mike was thrown into an awkward position, and everyone just immediately, like in most things in wrestling, when you do well, they're so-so to praise you but when you do wrong, they're immediate to jump on you & jump down your throat. I always thought your announcing skills were top notch. Some of the information, whether they gave it to you or information you had, was a little off, but that's things they could fix up. As an announcer, I thought you were great. You took a lot of unnecessary flack for a lot of things that might not have necessarily been your fault."
So much more is contained in this near hour-long exclusive interview with Mike Adamle, including his uncensored comments on what he would do if given another opportunity with the WWE (and if that does not come to fruition, why he would consider being a part of TNA Wrestling), why his role as RAW General Manager did not last as long as he hoped (and what some of the potential ideas were for him in the final chapter of his WWE run), why his debut @ MSG was more intimidating than having to replace Joey Styles, why he wanted to take a page out of Jonathan Coachman's book & actually get into the WWE squared circle, why he classifies wrestling fans as the most-knowledgeable of all fans out there, his takes on memories of watching professional wrestling live as a child in Cleveland, his thoughts on the opening weekend of the NFL's 2009 season, as well an "American Gladiators" reunion live on The Mayhem airwaves, featuring Dan "Nitro" Clark & Raye "Zap" Hollitt. Remember Mayhem Nation, all-new "American Gladiators (The Original Series): The Battle Begins" DVD is now available! Log onto www.ShoutFactory.com for more information on this exciting DVD, including how you can purchase your very own copy & make it part of your DVD library!
