Rhino talks his return to Impact Wrestling, going to Saudi Arabia in WWE, and more!

Ahead of tonight’s match at Impact Wrestling Turning Point, I spoke exclusively to Rhino about his extensive career and why he returned to Impact.

When I spoke to Rhino, he was trying to balance his various responsibilities while also helping out a friend. He interrupted our conversation for a moment to shout at something on the other end of the phone.

“Hey Blue, get out of there! I’m watching my buddy’s pitbull and he was drinking some rainwater. I don’t know how long that rainwater has been there,” Rhino said.

Rhino has been in the world of professional wrestling for almost 25 years, and he still stays busy now. Between spending most of the week on the road at events, he also owns a marina called Big Daddy’s Boat Yard, is part of a boat club, and still finds time to watch after his friend’s dog.

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Throughout that career, he’s held championship gold in ECW, WWE, and TNA which is now known as Impact Wrestling. He captured the NWA Championship while in Impact Wrestling, and tonight at Turning Point he faces fellow ECW legend and former WWE Champion Rob Van Dam.

Both Rhino and RVD won world titles in the company now known as Impact Wrestling, and it was their shared history that brought them together ahead of Impact Wrestling Bound for Glory 2019. That night, Rhino and RVD joined forces to challenge Impact Tag Team Champions The North and the duo of Rich Swann and Willie Mack in a triple threat tag team match for the Impact Tag Team Titles.

Unfortunately, things didn’t quite go as Rhino had intended. During the match, Rob Van Dam shocked everyone by turning on Rhino. With a stiff superkick, he took out his partner and turned heel for one of the first times in years. When I spoke to Rhino, I asked him about what it was like teaming with RVD at Bound for Glory.

“It was great until he turned on me,” he said. “And when he kicked me in the head, what a kick to the head. And outta nowhere. You ever just get hit, not knowing? Like you’re just walking through life and the next thing you know you’re going ‘what the f- just happened?’ Yeah, that was it.”

.@TherealRVD just turned his back on @Rhyno313! But why? #BFG

▶️ https://t.co/r1hs3499t6 pic.twitter.com/OXdFCOXZaW
— IMPACT (@IMPACTWRESTLING) October 21, 2019

It was a far cry from the experience Rhino had fourteen years ago at Bound for Glory 2005. That night, Rhino went through three separate matches. He won a brutal Monster’s Ball Match against Jeff Hardy, Sabu, and Abyss.

That was during Rhino’s first stint in Impact Wrestling, then known as Total Nonstop Action Wrestling. Rhino talked about the way the crowd reacted to him in those early months in TNA.

“When I first came to Impact, the fans were poppin’ for me but I was aligned with Jarrett,” Rhino explained. “So it was kind of like they wanted to cheer for me, but they were like ‘aw crap, he’s hanging out with that jerk,’ because Jarrett was a heel at the time.”

While Rhino was initially aligned with Jeff Jarrett, it was a partnership that didn’t last. Ultimately, Jarrett was the man Rhino met at the end of the night. He even did so despite the damage he took in his first match at Bound for Glory 2005.

“What a long night. When I piledrove Jeff Hardy off the second rope for the victory in the Monster’s Ball Match, his shoulder drove down into my quad and it was like a deep bruise,” he said. “I could hardly walk, but you know when your adrenaline is going you [get through it].

Despite the pain, Rhino went on to win a 10-Man Gauntlet Match to decide who would challenge Jeff Jarrett for the NWA Championship in the main event. Moments after winning the gauntlet, and still reeling from the damage earlier, Rhino went on to defeat Jarrett and win the NWA Championship.

“I think it was a good night for my career. I think a lot of the fans enjoyed that. It went pretty quick for me,” he said.

Rhino made his debut all the way back in 1995, and he’s been all over the world in his 24-year career. Things really took off when he joined ECW in 1999, which later led to him joining WWE until 2005 when he departed for TNA Wrestling.

He stayed with the company until 2010, leaving for a few year run with Ring of Honor and various independent promotions. Rhino returned to TNA for the first time in 2014, before exiting in 2015 to return to WWE.

Rhino’s second run in WWE started in 2015 by joining NXT and turning a rivalry with Baron Corbin into a tag team that went to the finals of the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic. Rhino’s tag team prowess continued in 2016 when he formed an unlikely partnership with Heath Slater and the two went on to become the inaugural SmackDown Tag Team Champions.

In November of 2016, Heath Slater and Rhino carried those titles when WWE went to Saudi Arabia for a two-day live event tour two years before they started their series of pay-per-view style events in that country. I asked Rhino about his experience there as a part of that first trip.

“The first time I went over, we went over to Saudi Arabia for two shows, both of them were like an arena. They were both sold out. It was only men [who] were allowed, and [they] could bring their sons,” he said. “And the cool thing about it is, I don’t know why, but I was really over in that match. I think because, you know they have social media and everything, maybe it’s the ECW thing, or maybe it’s a combination of a lot of different things. It was funny because it was Breezango, Slater and I (we were tag champs at the time), American Alpha, and I think it was The Usos.”

“I remember coming into the locker room and Fandango goes ‘man, good thing Rhyno was in that match.’ And it made me feel kinda special, because I know a lot of the guys look up to me and they watch the stuff in ECW,” Rhino said. “Does it make me feel old? No. But it was one of those things where they show that respect. And then to hear ‘em say that as I’m walking into the locker room, I’m thinking ‘that’s cool that they noticed that.’ Because sometimes it’s a tough crowd. You don’t know how it’s gonna be. And that was the first night, it was back to back nights in the same building.”

“And then we did the big Saudi [show], I think it was called the Greatest Royal Rumble,” he said of WWE’s event in early 2018. “We did some appearances and everything.”

As we spoke, the conversation shifted for a moment to the ways Saudi Arabia is actually changing on the world stage in recent years. With continued allegations about atrocities committed by the Saudi Arabian government, the country desperately wants to change its public image.

“From my understanding, [Saudi Arabia] want to get off the oil dependency,” Rhino said. “Because it seems like the world is moving towards more electric and gas efficient cars, and this and that, and so the oil won’t [carry as much leverage] eventually.”

“Which is understandable,” he continued. “And maybe [they want to] become more like a Dubai, a touristy place where they can create new revenue and not depend on oil. And what a great way to do that with WWE, because they have a billion followers.”

“So [Saudi Arabia is] shelling out a lot of money to bring this type of entertainment, but they’re also getting acknowledged as being a country you can go and visit,” he said. “Because if you noticed, the packages we would do [were] all about Saudi, and then us doing media stuff.”

“Everybody was very welcoming. Women had the right to drive or was able to drive and all that stuff. They’re trying to move more towards a western way of life without messing too much with their own religious beliefs. So it was a great way.”

That was Rhino’s last trip to Saudi Arabia, but he did comment briefly on the reported issues WWE talent had getting back from WWE Crown Jewel recently.

“As far as coming back, I don’t know. Obviously, you can’t kidnap people. I read something on that. These are things I’ve read. One of the things where money wasn’t [being paid],” he said. “I have no idea on that, but you don’t want to shell out all that money and make advances as a nice place to come and do business, and do bad business. So I don’t know exactly what it was, but it’s good to have a good relationship with WWE, because they can promote your country in a positive light.”

“And WWE would never negatively promote anybody, and that’s one thing I’ve noticed about WWE,” Rhino said. “If they have had a bad business dealing, they just leave it be. They move forward, and they don’t try to shun ‘em or this or that. And that’s that. They don’t try to publicly go out and sh*t talk. Which is good. It’s a good business practice. Because, what are you gonna benefit?”

Rhino continued to work with WWE until July of this year. When his WWE contract expired, he chose not to re-sign and instead left the company to join Impact Wrestling and work the independent wrestling scene. I asked Rhino what led him to that decision.

“Well, my deal [with WWE] was coming up, and I was offered more than double to re-sign. And WWE, I mean, they’re great. [They were] great to me. I really enjoyed myself,” he said. “[I] enjoyed helping out the younger talent, like giving them advice in the ring and out of the ring. I just felt, with such a large roster, I wouldn’t be on the road. And I’m not saying being put over or being this or being that, I’m talking about being on the road.”

“Like, even if I didn’t do anything at TV, I enjoyed being at the live events. So it’s not like I was asking for a push or anything like that. It was just being on the road [for] the live events,” he said.

“The people would always react very well to me. I don’t want to sound like a mark and say I’m over and I’m into myself, but everyone would tell me ‘you’re just so over with the fans.’ And I think it’s a couple of things,” Rhino explained. “It’s ECW, the stuff I did in Impact, Ring of Honor, and the indies. They respect that. Plus, it’s a generational thing. A lot of guys when they were younger in their late teens or early twenties, now they have kids and get to say ‘hey, I watched him when he was in ECW.’ So that’s another reason why it helped me.”

“I knew with Impact, I’d be able to do indies and I’d be able to be on the road like three of our days a week,” he said. “I can’t say one bad thing about [WWE] or the time I spent there or how they run things. It’s just that I would become miserable sitting at home. Not that I hate my home life, but I love being on the road.”

Rhino’s WWE contract expired on July 17, 2019, but that creates a conundrum. On July 7 at Impact Wrestling Slammiversary, Michael Elgin was attacked by a man wearing black sweat pants, a black hoodie, and a black mask. The masked man seemed to have the exact body type as Rhino, hit Rhino’s signature Gore on Elgin, and did Rhino’s pose after the ambush.

.@MrGMSI_BCage retains the World Championship but CHAOS ERUPTS after the match!

Who is the MASKED MAN?

ORDER HERE: https://t.co/NMkaMOuSvc #SLAMM17 pic.twitter.com/SFQUA6IdFI
— IMPACT (@IMPACTWRESTLING) July 8, 2019

Fans have speculated about whether Rhino was really that man, as his contract with WWE didn’t actually expire until 10 days after the event. I directly asked Rhino whether it was really him underneath the mask, and he gave a predictably cagey response.

“Oh, I will not confirm nor deny. That will go down in the ages,” Rhino said. Acknowledging the appearance may have violated the legal terms of his WWE contract, but I think we can all draw our own conclusions about who was under that mask.

Now that he’s back with Impact Wrestling, I asked Rhino who else on the Impact roster he’d love to face off with inside the squared circle.

“Probably Sami Callihan. I’ve worked with him, but not like [a full program]. He’s so talented. Sami Callihan, [it’s] not just because he’s the champ, because he’s really talented,” he said. “It’s like musicians, they watch and hear someone play and think ‘I’d love to play with him and mix it up.’ And it’s like that. I’d like to get in the ring and mix it up with him.”