Slick was a guest on “Prime Time With Sean Mooney”. During the interview, he discussed feeling that The One Man Gang was treated poorly in the WWE, how the Akeem gimmick came about and why he didn’t enjoy working with Rick Martel. Here are the highlights:
On The WWE Treating The One Man Gang Poorly:
I thought George was treated unfairly in the WWE. We even talked about that yesterday, and to some degree, it was [George’s] fault because, right in the middle of having a big, big push with Hogan, he requested some time off. He had a young kid, and my kids were just a little bit older than George’s… young kid, maybe 3 or 4, and he just missed his wife and kid, you know? And Vince has given you the big push that everybody wants.
After that, I thought Vince was extremely brutal in his dealings with George. George was a former world champion in the UWF and everything. He was a big star in World Class, everywhere he went, you know? But they brutalized him and butchered his career and I always thought it was in retaliation for that.
On How The “Akeem” Gimmick Came About:
Vince would not have achieved, in my humble opinion, the gigantically enormous success that he has, without being an opportunist. They were really getting ready to end the One Man Gang contract. So when I came up, I went to George, cause we were very close, and I said, ‘Man, I think I came up with a way to convince Vince of how you can really blow up and make money.’ He’s about making money, you know? And I said, ‘We’ll just call you Akeem, say you’re from Africa. You come to the ring dancing, and acting black, it’ll go over.’
So I went to him… he was enamored by it. That’s how that came about, and that added another two or three years to George’s career.
On Why His Partnership With Rick Martel Didn’t Work:
Rick Martel liked me as a person, but he did not like me professionally. He thought I took away from him, rather than add to him. He pretty much ended our time together by going to Vince and saying ‘this just isn’t working.’ He wasn’t really used to having a manager.
When Vince came to notify me, I was relieved, because I didn’t think it was going any place anyway.
You can listen to the podcast by clicking HERE.
Credit: Prime Time With Sean Mooney. H/T WrestlingInc.
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