Bob Holly Interview

January 10, 2003

Holly discusses Tough Enough, and his own injury

Jan. 10, 2003

Bob "Hardcore" Holly has had a string of bad luck: a severely broken arm in June 2000; surgery to remove the steel plate from his arm in September 2001; and, the latest setback, spinal fusion surgery last October, which requires one year of recovery time.

But Holly was in excellent spirits during a phone interview with WWE.com Friday morning. In fact, the first thing on his mind wasn't surgery; it was Thursday night's episode of Tough Enough III. On the show, he ended up in the ring with one of the contestants, Matt, on whom he inflicted a black eye and a cut lip.

As far as Tough Enough III goes," Holly said, "I've never seen a bigger bunch of crybabies in all my life. I'm serious. Matt gets on there and says I disrespected him? I don't have to respect somebody I don't know (and have never been in the ring with).

"He was crying over a black eye and bruises on his chest from when I chopped him. This isn't ballet. People are going to get black eyes and busted lips. I don't know how many times I've had those in my career. But you don't cry about it. (As a trainer) on Tough Enough II, I put Jake through the ringer, I put Hawk through the ringer (and) I put Kenny though the ringer. Because I wanted to test those guys. None of them complained about it."

He continued: "They made a mockery about what I did on Tough Enough III. They should be embarrassed. I'm not sorry for what I did. I don't regret what I did. (When) Bob Holly is coming; I'm coming to be Bob Holly. I'm not going to change for anybody. They said they didn't know what to expect when I got in there. If they were a fan of Tough Enough I or II, or wrestling in general, they would have known what they had in store for them when I got in there."

Holly also said he warned them when he got there. He said he filmed the show just a few weeks before he had the operation on his neck.

"I didn't have to do it; I wanted to do it," he said. "And he's going to sit there and cry over what I did? He doesn't need to be in the business. The only thing I do is hurt people's pride. I don't hurt people physically. I just hurt their pride. That's all part of learning. If you can't take what I dish out, don't get in there with me. What I dish out, I expect back. There are no bones about that at all.

That's just the way it is -- tit-for-tat."One of the toughest competitors in WWE, Holly enjoys wrestling Superstars who are equally "snug" in the ring.

"Take Chris Benoit, for example," he said.

"When I work with him or Kurt Angle, that drives me. It does something to me when I'm out there -- drives me to where I want to do more. It's hard to explain."

Holly said wrestling those guys make him want to work even harder and put on an even more entertaining match "because I know they're not going to complain about it," Holly said. "It's weird when you get out there (in the ring). It's a whole different feeling. It's something to look forward to, basically."

Unfortunately, there will be no wrestling matches for Holly until October, give or take a few months. Holly had surgery in San Antonio on Oct. 10, performed by Dr. Lloyd Youngblood, who conducted similar procedures on Stone Cold Steve Austin, Chris Benoit, Scotty 2 Hotty, Rhyno and Lita. Just as he had done with the other Superstars, Youngblood removed part of a bone from Holly's hip and used it to fuse the C6 and C7 vertebrae.

Holly said his back had been bothering him for a while.

"I just never said anything to anybody," he said. "I'm not one to go out there and say I'm hurt, or I don't feel good. In this business, if you have an injury, you work through it. I have enough passion for what I do that I'm going to keep going. If I have to crawl to finish a match, I'll crawl, because I have a job to do. People pay for tickets to be entertained. Granted, they may not pay to see me -- they may pay to see somebody else -- but no matter what, I'm going to go out there and entertain the people so they don't say, 'Bob Holly didn't do a very good job.' They'll say, 'Bob Holly worked his ass off to entertain us.'"

Holly wrestled Brock Lesnar at the Sept. 10 SmackDown! taping in Minneapolis, which aired Sept. 12 on UPN. Lesnar apparently had the flu that night. When he threw Holly down for a powerbomb, Holly landed on his head.

"I was hurting before I got dropped on my head," Holly said. "That was just the straw that broke the camel's back. It was just an accident. It was nobody's fault. It's just stuff that happens out there."

Immediately after he landed, "Everything just went numb, tingling," he said. "I've never told anybody that, but I'm fine now, so I can tell everybody."

After a few moments, Holly said the feeling started to come back, so he finished the match.

"After I got dropped, I thought maybe I could work though it and it would eventually go away," he said. "I went back on the road the following week, and it just kept getting worse and worse.

I could hardly hold a dumbbell in my left hand."

With virtually no feeling in that hand, Holly said Jim Ross and Vince McMahon made him go to Dr. Youngblood's office for testing. It was determined that the disc between his C6 and C7 vertebrae was ruptured, and he had bone spurs pushing against his spinal cord.

Today, exactly three months after the surgery, Holly -- who takes as much pride in his physique as anyone in the business -- has already started working out.

"I'm gaining my weight back," he said. "Slowly, but it's coming back. I got a staph infection in my hip where they cut me open. ... They put me on antibiotics. (The antibiotics) had me so messed up, it just killed my stomach, and I couldn't eat. I lost like 15 pounds.

"But the infection's gone, and I'm back working out. And I feel really, really good -- weak as hell as far as lifting, but I feel good. It's starting to come back slowly. Muscle has memory, and it's not going to take long. I think within a few months, I'll be able to start rolling around in the ring because of the way I feel. I feel good. I don't have any pain in my neck or anything."

Holly, who is scheduled to host RAW at The World in Times Square on Feb. 3, hopes he can made it back to the ring in less than a year."I just can't sit around for a year," he said. "I just can't."

A self-described "motor-head" and "wrench-head" -- his love of auto racing has been well-documented -- Holly said he's been passing the time by reading about building engines, which is exactly what he plans to do while he recovers.

He'd also love to be a trainer on the fourth season of Tough Enough, if there is one."At least I got to do Tough Enough II instead of sit around," he said, referring to the time when his arm was injured. "If they do Tough Enough IV while I'm off, I hope that I can do that. That way I can contribute in some way to the company.

I'd like to do Tough Enough IV. Al (Snow) probably won't let me because I'm too hard on those guys."

Credit: WWE.com

January 10, 2003

WWE: So you had a good match against Matt in Tough Enough

Holly: yeah i beat the piss out of him..uhhh i mean showed him respect for the business

January 10, 2003

Bob is an ass. I can't believe they let him around those kids with an attitude like that. Yeah these kids got a break he and the others didn't get but that's no reason to take out your frustrations on them. And after all that, he hopes to be a trainer for TE4. Geez, get a life Spark Plug.

January 10, 2003

Bob's actions were inexcuseable. Does he have some in-ring talent? Yes. His matches are usually a decent watch. But does he have the right to go out there and stomp the hell out of a trainee just because they're a trainee that happens to be getting a break, is already looking better in the ring than Bob ever has, and has a look that makes people want to watch him? Nope.

January 10, 2003

"I don't have to respect somebody I don't know"

What a piece of garbage. I agree that you don't automatically give someone respect but you know god help the kid who didn't automatically give Bob Holly the respect that he apparently feels he deserves. And there is a difference between working snug and kicking someone as hard as you can right in the mouth. Working snug is a stiff forearm to the chest or a hard clothesline a little higher on the head. What he did was not "working snug", it was kicking the hell out of someone you knew couldn't defend himself.

January 10, 2003

Lets hope when he comes back to active duty he gets stuck with the gimmick of Moppy Version II

January 10, 2003

The one thing I am happy about him being on for is it is showing what a truly shitty wrestler he is. I guess he sucks so bad that he can't actually make his stuff look good without hurting people for real. Many more people good be decent wrestlers if they weren't worried about the health of their opponents.

January 10, 2003

He totally missed the point of why Matt was so torn up. It wasn't the bruises, he could deal with those. It was the fact that Holly violated his trust in the ring. Al teaches all the kids that they need to trust the guy across the ring with their lives, and Holly undid that in one match, just by being a "pay your dues" preaching asshole.

January 10, 2003

He should have beaten him harder. They all should get beaten like that every day. TE sucks.

January 10, 2003

Ha, funny how he won't admit the REAL reason why Brock dropped him on his neck.

January 10, 2003

I'm probably in the minority opinion here, but I don't think Bob Holly was overly out of line there. Granted he's an ass, but from what everyone's describing happened (I didn't see the episode in question) Matt didn't take it very well. Pretty much everyone can see through Holly's predictable tough guy act, he really should've seen it coming. Instead of complaining after the fact, he should've just stiffed him back. Hell, Bob might've even appreciated it- he says he likes guys who work snug after all.

Besides, fed up rookies fucking up Hardcore Holly= ratings.

January 10, 2003

Yeah, but DeMott's been telling them all along that you trust them to keep you safe, and they'll trust you back. They don't know HOW to stiff a guy safely.

Although I probably would've janked the hell out of Bob. I hate the guy so much.

January 10, 2003

"I don't have to respect somebody I don't know"

What a piece of garbage. I agree that you don't automatically give someone respect but you know god help the kid who didn't automatically give Bob Holly the respect that he apparently feels he deserves. And there is a difference between working snug and kicking someone as hard as you can right in the mouth. Working snug is a stiff forearm to the chest or a hard clothesline a little higher on the head. What he did was not "working snug", it was kicking the hell out of someone you knew couldn't defend himself.

Exactly!

Some tough chops and/or forearms to the chest are A-OK w/ me. Some stiff forearm shots to the forehead aren't bad either. However, when you intentionally go after a guy's face (mouth, nose, eyes) with some barbaric stomps, what lesson are you teaching? "To be entertaining, you must bloody and bruise another's face?" Please. Granted, I thought Matt was being over-emotional about and should've gotten over it once the other trainers put him over.

And what was Matt going to do during the beat-down? Fight back? huh, he was so shell-shocked, he was reduced to the pont where he had to take his beating and like it.

EDIT: If more people actually watched TEIII, it would build a lot of heel heat for Bobby (when he returns) if Matt wins it all. Hopefully, Vince would give Matt the ok to give Holly a shit-kickin'!

Paul Stanley · January 10, 2003

I was there at that taping, and i loved it. Take that for stiffing DDP so bad he had to retire, Bob.

January 10, 2003

Did Bob kill matt? Is matt now unable to wrestle because of what bob did? Is matt dead?

If Matt is a wrestling fan or even a tough enough fan he should know what bob holly is all about. It's wrestling, not scuba diving.

January 10, 2003

I didn't think it was necessary for Bob to completely beat the shit out of Matt. Sure some people work a little stiff. Some don't. But to purposefully kick Matt in the face over and over again was unnecessary and just wrong.

His comment on "respect" was full of shit. If one of those kids spat in his face or cussed him out because they didn't know him so they don't have to respect him, Bob would have had a fit. He's so full of shit.

January 10, 2003

I'm waiting for a match down the road between TE3's winner and Bob. I know Matt's practically THE winner already (with either Jonah or John as well). Matt vs. Bob Holly down the road in, say, 2004...

...AND MATT STIFFS THE LOVING HELL OUT OF BOB. MATT BREAKS BOB'S JAW, AND THEN SAYS "PAYBACK'S A BITCH."

January 10, 2003

Who the fuck is Bob Holly again? Exactly.

That's what happens when you get bitter fucks like him to train kids. Tazz was rather prickish but he isn't bitter, and he didn't even get half the chances in WWF/E that Holly had.

January 10, 2003

Personally, I don't think there was anything wrong with what he did. I heard Hogan got his arm broken the first time he attempted to wrestle. I also remember hearing how razor Ramon beat the hell out of Jeff Hardy in his first match on Raw. These things happen all the time.

I think the WWE might be trying to see how some of the contestants would react in an actual match if they got busted open or injured. Its important to see if they will panick or snap in that type of atmosphere.

January 10, 2003

by Bob Ryder at 1wrestling.com:

Bob Holly should be ashamed of himself.

If you watched “Tough Enough” last night, you know what I’m talking about. If you didn’t, you should watch one of the replays to see what happened. You will see one of the most unprofessional things you will ever see a “professional” wrestler do.

For those that didn’t see it, here’s what happened. During an impromptu match involving the current “Tough Enough” cast and former cast members and trainers, Bob Holly bullied current cast member Matt into the corner and proceeded to brutally maul him with kicks and slaps. He made no effort to protect Matt and laid in one stiff blow after another. The result wasn’t pretty. Matt was pulverized and had nasty bruises all over his face and chest, and an eye injury that could have been serious considering the totally reckless way Holly behaved. As it was, there was a nasty bruise and the eye was almost swollen shut from Holly’s kicks to the face. His lip was also bloodied and swollen, and I’d imagine he might have also loosened a tooth or two. Like I said, it wasn’t pretty.

After it was all over, Matt staggered over and shook Holly’s hand and thanked him.

Holly was shown afterwards saying he was trying to teach Matt a lesson.

I’m curious as to what the lesson might have been that he was trying to teach. Was it that the wrestling business has jerks like Bob Holly in it who will take advantage of a kid and brutalize him like Holly did Matt? Was it Holly’s misguided attempt to tell the kid that he hadn’t paid his dues yet and didn’t deserve shortcut routes to the wrestling business like the one he was getting on Tough Enough? Whatever “lesson” Holly intended to teach, he succeeded in only one thing and that was embarrassing himself, his company, and his profession.

As Matt absolutely correctly pointed out, he thought being a professional wrestler was all about putting your trust in the hands of the people you are in the ring with. Every time a wrestler steps into the ring they are putting their lives in the hands of the people they are in the ring with. That’s what being a “professional” wrestler is all about…trusting the other people you are in the ring with.

What Bob Holly did to Matt is inexcusable and unacceptable. It should never happen under any circumstances. Accidents happen, but this wasn’t an accident. It absolutely boggles my mind that Holly would try to justify what he did and that the burden was then put on Matt to just accept what had happened so he could earn respect.

Matt definitely did his part. He earned respect from a lot of people who saw what happened. He may not end up winning the competition (although he would be my pick), but he definitely proved he’s “Tough Enough”.

January 10, 2003

It's wrestling, not scuba diving.

That sounds like the classic JR quote "This aint ballet" to the ex-WCW'ers.

On a completely unrelated note, Holly was on WCW Worldwide over here in the UK the other night jobbing big-style to good ol' Lex Luger. It was from 1990 and Bob had on a camp pink outfit and no sign of the roi...erm punishing fitness regime he obviously has. That is all.

January 10, 2003

Did Bob kill matt? Is matt now unable to wrestle because of what bob did? Is matt dead?

If Matt is a wrestling fan or even a tough enough fan he should know what bob holly is all about. It's wrestling, not scuba diving.

So Bob Holly should just be able to beat the fuck out of some kid to teach him a lesson?

Bob is just a bitter old man who knows he never amounted to shit in wrestling

January 10, 2003

He should beat the fuck out of a kid who is getting a free-fucking-ticket into the WWE. What did you expect him to do? Cuddle with him? Read him a story? Quit being pussies; wrestling has always been a 'tough guy' sport - not living it up in a fuckin beach house or crying like a lil baby because someone hurt his neck. It's called "tough enough" not "could you please wipe my ass for me".

January 10, 2003

well, they didn't show the real reason Holly was pissed. when Holly explained to Matt what he wanted to show him, Matt replied "Whatever you say...Sparky". that, justifiably, set poor Bob off, y'see?

January 10, 2003

I completely agree with RRR.

Its called Tough Enough. Are you tough enough to take a beating without quitting and crying about it. that being said, I can understand the confusion from Matt's point of view because they have been pampered SO MUCH that he did not know what was really expected in the ring.

January 10, 2003

Wait, isn't the point of Tough Enough to point out how hard the business is? I admit, Holly went a little far but it was nothing I'd consider out of line. There are alot of guys who will hae people in the ring like that, and not just one time, but three nights a week. People are, unfortunately, going to take advantage of him. Holly had some stiff stuyff he did safe, and he had some intentionally hurtful looking shots.

The other problem is Tough Enough is a crash course and students don't learn everything. They don't pick up on a lot of the necessities of the business.

January 10, 2003

Stiffing the Tough Enough kids?

Yeah thats a real manly thing to do Bob, I hope he does it to an ex shootfighter without realising next time

January 10, 2003

Wait, isn't the point of Tough Enough to point out how hard the business is? I admit, Holly went a little far but it was nothing I'd consider out of line. There are alot of guys who will hae people in the ring like that, and not just one time, but three nights a week. People are, unfortunately, going to take advantage of him. Holly had some stiff stuyff he did safe, and he had some intentionally hurtful looking shots.

The other problem is Tough Enough is a crash course and students don't learn everything. They don't pick up on a lot of the necessities of the business.

When they had Bradshaw on they should have let him hog tie and rape one of them in the shower, since that is something they should expect down the line.

January 10, 2003

And if they have HBK on they should have each of the TE 'kids' suck Al's dick to win the contest

January 11, 2003

Hmmm...yah it was a little tough. But Matt shouldn't have broken down like that. He have to be able to take that stuff and keep a cool level head. People are going to exploit that weakness and attack it everytime.

Bob Holly Interview

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