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Charlie Haas claims WWE stars ‘beat up’ Rico in-ring and others refused to work with him over flamboyant character
Rico won tag team gold in the company (Picture: WWE)
Former WWE superstar Charlie Haas has claimed some wrestlers took liberties with Rico in the ring and others refused to work with him.
The three-time WWE Tag Team Champion – who held the gold twice with Shelton Benjamin before enjoying a reign with the flamboyant star – has opened up on the latter run and admitted Rico was ‘hurt’ by the way things went down.
Speaking on the Insight With Chris Van Vliet podcast, Charlie said: ‘I had a really great match with RVD and a great match with Rico, and they put me with Rico, and we won the tag titles there.
‘That was tough because I loved the character and I loved working with Rico, but other tag teams refused to work with us because they didn’t want to be in the ring with Rico because of the character.
‘It hurt him a lot and I knew he was upset about that, and some of them took it out on him in the ring physically when they had to, it was uncalled for with some of the stuff that he went through.
‘I think today he is suffering through concussions and all that stuff, he is having some mental issues right now. But we had a great tag team, we won the tag team titles, that was really cool.’
Charlie Haas has reflected on his career (Picture: WWE)
During his second run with the company, Haas ended up with an impersonator character taking on other wrestling personas, including Hulk Hogan, John Cena, Bret ‘The Hitman’ Hart, Beth Phoenix and more.
However, he admitted he didn’t enjoy some aspects of his alter ego, particularly when it came to what he saw as more mean-spirited as he mocked Jim Ross on screen.
‘If you are honoring them and they enjoy it, then that’s good. The only one I didn’t like was when I had to do JR. I don’t know what was going on with JR and WWE at that time, but they wanted me to really make fun of him,’ he said.
‘He’s the guy that signed me to my WWE contract, and my feet were put to the fire with that. I wasn’t too happy about that. I apologised to him for it, and I wish I put my foot down and said I don’t want to do that.
‘But I didn’t have the pull to say we were not going to go in that direction. It wasn’t fair to him and it was wrong.’
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Meanwhile, Chuck Palumbo – who worked with Rico on screen when the latter was a manager for his ‘gay tag team’ with Billy Gunn – previously opened up on the backstage response to the tandem.
He exclusively told Metro.co.uk: ‘Do people judge you? Yes. Some of the guys were like, “Why would you do that? Tell them you don’t wanna do that!” I’m not living my gimmick. A lot of the guys unfortunately start to believe their character.
‘It’s a character! We’re not great actors, but we are actors. If someone’s gonna say that we’re not out there acting, they’re blind. So play the role, play the part, right?’
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MORE : Ex-WWE star Chuck Palumbo: Some wrestlers judged ‘gay tag team’ with Billy Gunn
