Blue Meanie is commonly associated with his ECW run, but he was also a part of WWF during an instrumental time in the company.
In 1998, Meanie was brought into WWE and placed in the JOB Squad. As it turns out, Meanie told us in a crowded convention room that a man standing about 150 feet from him in Al Snow helped get him signed by WWE.
"I was coming home from an indie show in Pittsburgh and there was a message on my answering machine from Al Snow. And Al’s like, “Hey, are you under contract to ECW?” I was like, “No.” He’s like, “Per chance, if there’s an opportunity to come be part of WWE, would you—” I went “Yeah!” Didn’t even let him finish the sentence. So, within like two hours Bruce Prichard called me, got all my information and stuff like that. The rest is history," said Meanie.
Meanie would spend the next year in WWF, working alongside Snow, Goldust, Stevie Richards and others. He re-emerged in ECW as a much leaner version of himself. So lean, in fact, that some doubted that he actually was Blue Meanie!
"When I was with WWE they had asked me to lose weight." Meanie recalled. "So, I went and lost 160 pounds. And I was seeing Headbanger Mosh’s brother John, whose a nutritionist. Through him I lost 160 pounds in a couple of months. But, I got to the point where they sent me to Memphis and I was trying all these new characters. I was going to try, the big band at the time was Smash Mouth, so I tried to grow the little chin strapped beard, I tried to wear the heat shirts, like movie Swingers and all that. I was trying to be that kind of character, WWE releases me. So, when you go out and do the indies, you try to do the character they remember you with. So, I’m going out there and doing the Blue Meanie and people are like, “Man, that’s not the real Blue Meanie!”
The change in appearance was a gift and a curse. While he didn't look like the Meanie of old, it did birth "The Blue Boy," a porn-star seconded former overweight wrestler who now fat shamed random in-shape fellas on the beach. Meanie recalled how it all came about.
"So, I approached Paul [Heyman?], I was like, “Hey, I got ideas.” He’s like, “But, you don’t look like yourself.” So, I told them my ideas, and he came up with the idea for the Blue Boy. It was an opportunity. I would have love to have been the Meanie, but it’s just an opportunity. I hadn’t worked heel, so I was a heel character and being cocky and stuff like that. Any chance you go back and with your friends, even though it was a short run, they eventually closed, it was cool to get back there with the family," said Meanie.It is hard being a heel. It just makes life easier to be cool. I’m nice until people give me a reason not to be. But, to actually turn that on you just start thinking of situations. Like, “Somebody just cut me off in traffic,” what would I say? Dude, I’m a different person behind the wheel of a car, by the way. Thank God there’s no cameras in my car. Yeah, it was an adjustment, but it was a lot of fun. The former fat guy fat shaming people," said Meanie.
Another of Meanie's character's included "Da Blue Guy" in the Blue World Order, which was a take-off on the Razor Ramon character. Needless to say, he didn't quite look enough like Scott Hall to get the call to play the fake Razor Ramon, the late Rick Bognar did. But even that started in ECW.
"The funny thing is, he did that in ECW first," said Meanie. "It was amazing. It was [Slice N’ Dice Ramirez] they called him. I think it was in Allentown. It popped the boys. I guess that was his gateway into WWE. I guess Paul E. was still secretly still working with WWE at the time, so. Nah, amazing. It’s pretty cool."
You can see our interview with Blue Meanie above.
