Jason Sensation made a name for himself in WWE by impersonating some of the biggest wrestlers of the Attitude Era, but apparently not everyone backstage was thrilled about him getting huge crowd reactions using other people’s catchphrases. In fact, Road Dogg personally warned him that his act could eventually create problems with the locker room
During an interview with Chris Van Vliet, Sensation discussed his time working WWE house shows, where the company used him to entertain audiences before the matches began. The impressionist would imitate popular wrestlers, deliver their famous lines and get the crowd fired up. While the act was initially well received, Sensation admitted he eventually started hearing concerns about whether he was taking away reactions that belonged to the actual performers. According to Sensation, Road Dogg was one of the people who addressed the issue directly with him.
“I heard it from the office guys a couple of times and even Road Dogg came to tell me himself.”
Sensation explained that Road Dogg used his own entrance catchphrase as an example. By the time Road Dogg came through the curtain, Sensation had sometimes already used the phrase and gotten the crowd to react to it.
“I come out there and ‘Oh, you didn’t know,’ and you’ve already done it. You’ve already got the big pop out of the crowd.”
Road Dogg warned that the situation could eventually upset other wrestlers who didn’t appreciate someone else getting over with the audience using their established characters and catchphrases.
“And he’s like, ‘This is going to piss the boys off. It’s going to eventually, you know, you’re taking everybody’s gimmick and you’re using them with the crowd at first.'”
Sensation clarified that he never established whether wrestlers were actually complaining about him behind the scenes. However, he had heard discussions suggesting that some performers weren’t particularly happy about his role as the opening attraction at live events.
“I’d heard some rumblings about it that possibly there were guys going up saying, ‘He’s hosting the shows at the beginning of the events and he’s using all our gimmicks and taking our pops.'”
Things became even more interesting when Sensation brought up what he had heard about Vince McMahon’s philosophy toward crowd reactions. According to Sensation, a ring announcer once told him that McMahon believed audiences had a limited number of big reactions to give during a show. That meant WWE needed to be careful about using those reactions before the actual wrestlers appeared.
“I had heard something from a ring announcer that Vince thought the crowd only had so many pops in them.”
Sensation explained how he understood that philosophy, saying the company wanted him to welcome the audience without getting the same reactions that were supposed to be reserved for the talent.
“Vince had this idea that the crowd only has so many pops in them. So it was like, ‘Welcome the crowd and then the pops belong to the wrestlers.'”
It’s worth noting that Sensation described the potential locker room complaints and McMahon’s thinking as information he heard from others. He didn’t claim to have personally witnessed wrestlers confronting management over his act.
Even so, the situation offers an interesting look at how protective WWE could be of crowd reactions during the Attitude Era. Sensation’s impressions were popular enough to get him regular work, but that same popularity may have created concerns about whether the actual wrestlers were losing some of their spotlight before they even stepped through the curtain.
Do you think Road Dogg had a legitimate point about Jason Sensation taking away crowd reactions, or should WWE have encouraged an act that was getting such a strong response? Let us know what you think in the comments below.
This transcript was produced exclusively for Ringside News from the original recording. Republishing the transcription in full is prohibited. When using excerpts, provide prominent credit and a link to this article.
