Shane Douglas

The world is made up of good and evil, and everybody has their own take, and everybody thinks they are on the good side, and a very few, select group of us will admit that we come from the dark side.

To me, there are certain things you lay claim to proudly and others you hope the people look over them, and for me, the NWA title throwdown is something that I wear like a badge of honor and what we did and what it achieved for ECW at the time, and ultimately we failed, but damn, we came close to grabbing those keys to the kingdom.

I got my break in the business with the now-defunct Bill Watts' TWF, the old Mid-South. Which was really, in many ways, the predecessor to ECW in its time, in that age. It was a really cool, high-impact, snug type of product.

For those of you who weren't a part of the era of ECW, understand, you're looking at the guy that made ECW what ECW was. So, simply put, I'm as close to royalty in this sport as it comes.

If I went out and tried to be 'Shane Douglas the Superstar' when it wasn't my time, one of the veterans would have put me back in line.

I had no desire to leave ECW, but in '95, I was reaching my mid 30s. I'd been the World Champ multiple times... I'd pretty much done everything in ECW - all I could do is repeat.

I think Ric Flair has been tarnishing his legacy since 1990 - he has done more to tarnish his career then anything I could have said or did, then anybody could have said or did.

Vince McMahon could care less about the ECW legacy.

To be someplace for ten years or to work anywhere for ten years is a tough deal. But to work in the WWE for that long, knowing how their dressing room is run with this top heavy, condescending 'do this and nothing else' attitude, it gets tiresome.

Optics can drive an economy.