Jon Heidenreich on His Infamous Michael Cole Segment in WWE Being “Still Disturbing And Weird”

The September 16, 2004 episode of WWE SmackDown featured former WWE wrestler Heidenreich being involved in an infamous backstage segment with Michael Cole. This segment revolved around Heidenreich pinning Cole up to a wall and recited a poem creating a scene of implied unwanted sexual acts taking place.

A recent episode of the Insight with Chris Van Vliet podcast featured Jon Heidenreich as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Heidenreich’s thoughts about his reaction to the segment still is distributing to him.

“It’ll always be disturbing, there’s no doubt about it. I mean, it was brought to me, I don’t remember particulars, but I do remember thinking, man, this is really off the wall. When you’re training to do vignettes and practicing in Louisville, you don’t practice for a vignette like that.”

Heidenreich also gave his thoughts about what the pitch was for the segment.

“Well, I mean, they said I was gonna abduct him, and bring him to the back, and then put him in a room. Then I think it was like you’re gonna act like you were like watching him, and you’re going one place with it. It’s like you’re going like it, and then you say, I’m gonna give you a poem. But it sounds like I’m gonna give him something other than a poem. I don’t know if it’s innuendos and stuff when you say it, ‘I’ve been watching you, I know what you want, and I’m gonna give it to you.’ But I look back and all the things that have been said about all these years, it’s kind of made me infamous, more than famous. But it’s disturbing still, and it’s weird.”

Heidenreich also gave his thoughts about how he understood the innuendo in the segment.

“I mean, when they bring it to you, I’m not gonna say no. Like when they said you’re gonna be with Legion of Doom, I’m like, all right. Whatever they bring to you, that’s where I was. If they told me to do a backstage thing or do this, and not like killing somebody or something, where you have to go to jail. I would do it, I’m gonna do it the best I can.”

Heidenreich also gave his thoughts about how Cole had felt about the segment.

“I guess he was kind of like, this is weird, and joking around. But he wasn’t like I didn’t like it, off-put or not wanting to do it. I mean, I could tell he was down for whatever. It’s like we’re working together, right? It’s a scene, and we’re building a story. He was whimpering. I mean, even though it was disturbing and weird and bizarre, I would have never come up with that on my own. I think it helped. That thing made me more memorable. People will never forget that.”

Heidenreich also gave his thoughts about if he had any regrets about the segment.

“No. I think I did the best performance, I guess. I liked it the way it ended. He was about to leave, I said, “You’re going to thank me? It was a poem by Heidenreich. I thought it was cool. I ended up calling them disaster pieces after a while, because I figured they’re so bad instead of masterpieces, but yeah, I mean, I like the character Heidenreich.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com