– Sam Roberts’ Wrestling Podcast recently interviewed wrestling star Chris Hero. During the interview, Hero reflected on his time in FCW and WWE NXT. Below are some highlights (transcript via WrestlingInc.com).

Hero on his first nickname for wrestling being The Wife Beater: “It was kind of this tongue in cheek thing where I’m this 18 year old kid,” Hero explained. “And I had really tattered [wife beaters] and I’m like, ‘okay, I’m going to be ‘The Wife Beater’, so people see the name on a piece of paper and go, ‘what is this?’ and then I come out and [I’m just a guy in a wife beater], yeah, coming out to Smack My b—h Up by Prodigy. Yeah, what’s going on? I don’t shave yet.”

Hero on the protests for the show due to the nickname: “So they picketed this [show] and then there used to be this show called Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher and they brought it up on the show.” Hero continued, “they never said my real name because, I guess, nobody ever knew my real name, but there was an episode with Tom Green and they were talking about, like, ‘well, Bret ‘The Hitman’ Hart’s not an actual hitman [and] Jake ‘The Snake’ [Roberts] isn’t a snake, so what’s wrong with ‘The Wife Beater’?’ Like, it was a funny little thing.”

Hero on how he came up with his Chris Hero ring name: “I got an opportunity to work for an NWA company and [the booker] was just like, ‘no, dude. You’ve got to come up with a new name. Like, I like your stuff in the ring and I’ll give you some shows, but we’ve got to come up with something different. All on the way to the show, I came up with ‘Chris Hero’.”

Hero on his stint in NXT and how it made him better: “I try not to spend too much time on ‘would’ve, should’ve, could’ve’ or ‘what if?’ because I had almost two years in FCW and NXT and I came away from there such a better wrestler with so many more anecdotes and just different little things that I can pull up and go, ‘yeah, well, this makes sense because of this’ because, I always say this in my seminars, I say that there comes a point every year when I’m like, ‘alright, I got it. I understand it. I figured it out.’ And then, just as soon as that happens, I go, ‘oh, I guess I need to figure this out a little bit more’ or ‘I opened my mind to this’ or whatever.” Hero added, “I’m very thankful for the time I had there and the little blurbs of knowledge from a Ricky Steamboat, or Dusty Rhodes, or a Perry Saturn, or a Christian, or a Lance Storm, or whatever little stuff we picked up from people passing through, or Big Show even, coming in and dropping some knowledge.”

On his friends who have found success in WWE: “I’m happy, I’m so, so happy to see my friends succeed. Man, when [Cesaro] threw Big Show out of that [Andre The Giant Memorial] Battle Royal, I lost my mind. And then for [Daniel] Bryan to go on and take it home that night [at WWE WrestleMania 30]. I mean, how could you not be completely ecstatic for all of them?”