Shane Helms, the man behind the mask of The Hurricane, has orated that he is a huge advocate of more legends cameos on WWE television.
Over the years, we have seen countless names of yesteryear pop-up when least expected in the Royal Rumble, on Raw and SmackDown and most recently at Survivor Series when a host of beloved names appeared to bid The Undertaker farewell.
Speaking to ROH Strong Podcast, Helms – who has been a recipient of such cameos at AEW Full Gear and most recently as a surprise on the July 22, 2019 Monday Night Raw Reunion – told of his pitches to WWE for more legend appearances:
“As far as multiple guests, that was something I had been putting in Matt’s [Hardy] ear for years because I tried to get WWE to do it on my first run. Leading up to like the Raw Anniversary shows, they would bring in a surprise and the crowd would always go crazy. I couldn’t figure out why they wouldn’t do that more. There are so many guys from WWE’s history that would come in for two or three weeks and the crowd wanted them there. I would suggest and suggest and suggest, and they kinda wouldn’t bite on it, but I knew it was something fans loved. You could tell fans loved it because you’d go to the Indie scene and that’s what the Indie scene is. They have a core group of guys and then they bring in an old school television character. It was working on the Independent level, I promise it would work on this level and in turn it would make the Independent scene hotter. I tried to get IMPACT to do it because when we brought in Reno Scum, I was wanting to bring in the Headbangers. At the time, the leadership there, they were stuck in the ‘everyone has to have a three-year contract’ mode. Just make a smaller contract. During all this, I was constantly having these conversations with Matt like, ‘I don’t know why they don’t do this, it would be so cool.”
Along with Dave Finlay, Shane Helms recently returned to WWE as producer after being furloughed by the promotion in April amidst the mass talent exodus caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Credit for the interview: ROH Strong Podcast
h/t for the transcription: Fightful