Gene Snitsky Says He Could Have Been “The Guy” In WWE, Explains Why He Left The Company

You can say that Gene Snitsky is an interesting man. Speaking to Colt Cabana on the Art of Wrestling podcast, he talked about about his run in WWE and what led to his release, how he got into wrestling, playing football, current projects, and more.

Snitsky opened the interview amazed that there was no long introduction, and joked around with Colt about the room they were in and facial hair. Snitsky said people don’t get to see him as a goofball in the ring, but he likes to have a good time. Snitsky brought up his short-lived tag team with Goldust as something where the audience could see his goofy side, and remembered working with Colt in WWE. Colt asked Snitsky about having a foot fetish in real life, which became a part of his gimmick in WWE. Snitsky told a story about his first date with his wife where he wanted to see her feet, and talked about why he likes feet.

Snitsky had a “cup of coffee” in the NFL and being coached by current NFL coach Andy Reid at the University of Missouri. Snitsky talked about his athletic career in high school and his college, including football and basketball. Snitsky discussed his shoulder injury that stopped him from playing in the NFL. Colt asked about Snitsky’s pain tolerance, and Snitsky said that wrestling is more strenuous on the body than football, but over the years he’s accumulated a strong tolerance. Snitsky ended up playing in the Canadian Football League for a few years prior to getting into wrestling. Snitsky brought up an interview as a teen where he said if he didn’t make the NFL, he’d be a wrestler.

Snitsky remembered watching wrestling on TV as a little kid, and found the Dory Funk wrestling camp online during his CFL years. Colt asked if he took a bus, and Snitsky told a story about a 27-hour bus ride he took that was miserable. Snitsky said he went to training camp with his tag team partner, which Colt said couldn’t happen since they had never wrestled. Snitsky countered that they wore matching clothes, so they were a tag team, called the Twin Tackles. Snitsky talked about training at the camp. Snitsky started with The Patriot gimmick on an Asian tour with Samu, Gangrel, and other wrestlers, who took a liking to him and gave him opportunities to do fun stuff on the road, but his goal was always to make WWE. Snitsky said his favorite part of wrestling was always the over-the-top characters, so he wanted to do something similar.

Colt asked if Snitsky’s character during his final time in WWE was close to the over-the-top character he imagined playing, but Snitsky didn’t love the gimmick that he got saddled with, but it was fun once he started getting over. Snitsky left WWE because he felt they were destroying his character and not going the way he wanted to go. Colt asked if he was released, and Snitsky said that was WWE’s terminology, but he had a meeting with Vince McMahon where he told him he had never sat on the bench in sports, and he didn’t want to sit on the bench in WWE. Snitsky said WWE was giving him bad angles, such as the Kane and Lita’s baby angle, and he was turning the angles to gold, but not getting anything better to do. Two days after his meeting with Vince, Snitsky was released from WWE without explanation. Snitsky said he was frustrated by his release because he has a lot to offer, but he would rather not be in WWE than be in WWE watching the show from the back.

Colt asked how Snitsky gets his competitiveness out now that he isn’t in WWE. Snitsky said he’s acting and is producing a horror film that’s about to start filming, and he is constantly trying to better himself. Snitsky brought up his childhood and said that when he would play his dad in Pong, he would be upset all day if he lost. Snitsky said he’s been like that his whole life in that he always has to be “the guy” and if WWE would have pushed him, he could have been “the guy” in WWE. Colt reminded him that it’s subjective based on Vince McMahon’s vision, and Snitsky conceded that success in WWE is a crapshoot. Snitsky then plugged his movie again, and plugged his line of beard-care products. Snitsky talked about his involvement with charities and his sponsors. Snitsky said that he likes to give back to charities when he can and talked about a house fire when he was a child.