Actor Paul Walter Hauser on wrestling, turning down a John Cena movie, WWE’s ticket prices, possibly playing Mick Foley
During the most recent episode of Insights with Chris Van Vliet, Emmy winning actor Paul Walter Hauser spoke on wrestling on the side, turning down a John Cena movie, WWE’s ticket prices and possibly playing Mick Foley.
On turning down a John Cena movie:
“I got offered Ricky Staniki at one point, the Efron Cena movie, and it just wasn’t a lot of money. They didn’t want to fly my whole family first class to Australia. I was like, that’s a long flight. That’s not mad chill. I kind of had that Matt Riddle moment, he had that thing where he’s like, You guys put me in second class with a ham sandwich between three people squished like he had that. But this was me seven weeks out, going, I don’t think that makes sense for me. I passed and I felt horrible because I think Zac Efron is really fun.”
On wrestling being a side quest for quest and how pay differs based on the promotion:
“My pay differs based on the company too. If I were to do something with TNA, and they were like, Hey, come do a match with AJ Francis, or a tag match, you’re gonna be paired with the Rascalz against three heels. I would want 10 grand for that match, because, to me, you’re also getting eyeballs and press and whatever else comes with it, and I’m going to go out of my way to make it as good as it possibly can be, at the risk of hurting myself. But if Action Wrestling down in Georgia is like, Hey, do you want to come fight, take an L to Adam Priest or tag with your buddy Darian Bankston, I’m not going to charge them more than three or 400 bucks. I still got to drive down there and drive back. I don’t know if I’m selling merch or not. I don’t know if they’re not going to have catering, there’s X amount of things that you give up to just wrestle and have fun.”
On which weapon hurts the most:
“First off, that kendo stick hurt like hell. Kendo sticks, the only way to fake a kendo stick is for a guy to hit you very lightly. And nobody does that because they know you can’t sell that. So that hurt a lot. The thumbtacks, I didn’t even feel. The thumbtacks were my idea. They’re all like, Are you sure you want to do this? I’m like, Yeah, I’m gonna be doing this in match. Just wait. But when I poured out the thumbtacks, I didn’t pour them out in the middle of the ring, which I should have, because that’s the softest, bounciest part of the ring. Not thinking. 15 minutes into a match or blown up, I poured them near the turnbuckle, which is arguably the hardest part of the mat, pretty equivalent to the apron that everybody’s like. That’s the hardest part of the mat. The turnbuckle is too. So when I took that Power Bomb, well, for one you can see me pulling up my shirt. I was hoping he was going to pull up my shirt like a hockey fight, to expose the back, and then we could see the tax, see the blood. That was the plan. He didn’t for whatever reason. So I’m literally trying to pull up my shirt as I’m in the Power Bomb position. It looks so goofy and stupid. He powerbombs me, and the wind got knocked out of me. I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t talk, so him and the ref were like, Let’s close this up. And then he didn’t want to get thumbtacks in his hands or body, so you see him roll me up with my legs, but it was weak, so I could kick out easily, and and then I was trying to set something up in the corner, and of course, he hits me in the ball bag and got me with the diamond cutter, which was more offensive, because I’m dear friends with Diamond Dallas Page.”
On the match that hurt him the most:
“The elbow drop I delivered onto BRG at Battle riot for MLW, [off the ladder?] Yep, that hurt. And by the way, it wouldn’t have hurt that much. There was a padding outside next to the ring. We weren’t on the padding. Had we just moved it slightly and I landed on the padding would have been fine. I hit the elbow perfectly in the middle, but then my butt cheek, my right butt cheek, and my hips slammed into concrete, seven, eight feet off the ground. Hard to recover from that and fake that, that sucks. Also, I didn’t want to put too much of my body on him to crush him. I was like, just hit the elbow. Maybe you’ll twist your ankle or something, but you’ll be fine. In the moment, you’re not thinking totally you’re just like, I believe I’m going to be okay. That’s a, that’s a big belief thing, too. I believe these guys are going to catch me if I do a Senton off the apron. You know. The other thing is, of course, the Power Bomb from Qt Marshall. Maven, who I’m a big fan of his YouTube page, I loved your interview with him recently. Maven, I want to see him make some form of a comeback in a company, and be an active member of a company. I would like to see that. But Maven said, of all the moves he took in his video, where he takes all the finishes, he said the Power Bomb still hurt the most. And I was like, You’re telling me, man! I took one Power Bomb and I felt like I was out of commission. So, yeah, falling on a concrete and getting a hematoma in my ass cheek and being power bombed in the corner turnbuckle area, that was the worst.”
On what he thinks will happen if WWE tickets keep increasing:
“It’ll become this douchey, uppity thing that only a bunch of rich tech bros and investment bankers go see. Average people won’t be going to that.”
On if he thinks WWE’s hardcore fans are being priced out:
“I think that’s factually happening. Yeah, not, not, not that everybody’s destitute, but the country, if you look at the trends, because I’m only going off trends, I’m not saying like I’ve arrived at this knowledge. It’s more me tracking and with AI and with job loss and us being on the verge of another recession, all the trends tell you that people have less and less disposable income, and it will be more necessity-based income. So the way the world’s going, people aren’t going to be able to afford it.”
On possibly playing Mick Foley in a biopic:
“I won’t get into details, but I’ve been approached about it, and we’re talking to the producers right now, and we’ve been in discussion for a while. I also got approached to play two other people in the wrestling world in the last couple of months alone. So I’m just kind of like waiting it out to see what what rises to the top. Because movie making is so weird. It might seem like a sure thing, and it goes away, and then sometimes something just pops up out of nowhere. The way we’re talking about it, I want to do a Mick Foley limited series, do like a four to six episode thing, and be able to tell the story a little more fully and not just be like, remember the time you fell off the cage? It’s like, the guy’s done so much more than that. He deserves more respect than that, too.”
Paul Walter Hauser also talks on what his wife thinks of him wrestling, AEW, on not being considered a celebrity wrestler, his favorite storylines and more.
You can watch the full interview below:
All quotes are courtesy of Insights with Chris Van Vliet.
