Kevin Nash has heard the criticism for years. Plenty of fans have looked back at the final stretch of his in-ring career and labeled him “lazy,” pointing to the slower pace of his matches as proof. Nash says they’ve got it completely wrong. Looking back now, he insists the issue was never a lack of effort—it was the reality of trying to wrestle through a body that was breaking down.
Speaking on Kliq This, Nash reflected on criticism he’s received after someone questioned whether he’d had any good matches after 2000. While he admitted there weren’t many bouts he considered great, he also felt people ignored everything his body had already been through.
“People don’t understand. I’m not a giant. I don’t suffer from gigantism. I’m a 6-foot-10 basketball player, right? That’s what Kevin Nash is. There was so much criticism… They said, ‘Name a good match that Nash had after 2000,’ and I took offense to it.”
Nash admitted his later career didn’t produce the same number of standout matches, but he pointed to his work with Triple H, Mick Foley in TNA and younger wrestlers who helped him work around his physical limitations.
“When it comes down to it, I probably only had a handful, and they were all with Paul after that. But I had some solid matches with Mick at TNA, and I had some solid matches with young talent that basically worked around my shortcomings.”
That’s when he pushed back against the label that’s followed him for years. To drive the point home, Nash compared it to watching someone in a wheelchair and expecting them to sprint.
“I just don’t think people understand there’s a huge difference between being lazy and being f****** crippled. When I was a kid and I used to watch Ironside and he didn’t chase the guy down, I don’t remember saying, ‘God, Raymond Burr is a lazy motherf****r.’ I was smart enough to realize that that fucker was in a wheelchair.”
Nash then explained exactly what his body looked like during those later WWE appearances. He recalled walking to the ring with his right knee collapsing inward despite wearing a heavy brace, while also revealing that pain medication wasn’t even an option for him.
“If you couldn’t watch me walk down that ramp on Raw and watch how far my f****** right knee goes in… that’s with a f****** Breg Tradition brace on it to keep it in that position. And when I took that thing off, it was dug to my fucking bone. And I can’t take painkillers because when I do, I throw up.”
The WWE Hall of Famer added that fans often act like they know everything about a wrestler’s journey when they really have no idea what they’re dealing with away from the cameras.
“Everybody acts like you know my journey, and you don’t know shit about me. You don’t know what kind of f****** pain tolerance I have. You don’t know what it’s like to be operated on 35 f****** times, and after about seven you start wondering, ‘Man, is this it?'”
Nash isn’t pretending he was the same performer he had been during the height of the nWo era. What he is saying is that fans often mistake physical limitations for laziness, when in reality he was simply doing everything he could with a body that had already been through decades of punishment.
What do you think of Kevin Nash’s comments? Do fans sometimes judge aging wrestlers too harshly without knowing what they’re dealing with physically? Let us know your thoughts 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.
