Former WWE Superstar Brodus Clay was recently the guest on VOC Nation’s Wrestling with History. Here are some highlights…

On who came up with his name:

“Dusty Rhodes, God rest his soul… Calvin Broadus is Snoop Dogg’s bodyguard. He let me out of my contract to go back to WWE, so that was out of respect to him. Originally it was Brodus Prior, and Dusty didn’t like Prior…so I said ‘what about Clay?’ Dusty said, ‘that sounds southern, you should wear overalls’…we were just laughing about it, and he said ‘Brodus Clay, Brodus Clay,’ over and over again until he said, ‘you know what, I like it.'”

On getting advice from Dusty Rhodes when WWE switched him from heel to babyface:

“When the decision was changed for me to be a babyface, because I had such a great core of mentors, I said give me a week and let me go sit down with Dusty and figure this out. The first thing he said, ‘the Dream is always going to be the Dream. Because you’re my protégé, you’re being punished for my sins; you, [Cody] and Dustin are being punished for my sins…’ So, we sat down and figured it out; he knew I didn’t like to dance at all…he made it uncomfortable – he made me dance with him in an arena for about an hour… We figured it out.”

On the support he had:

“I was lucky… Road Dogg was huge, he really helped. Cena was supportive, Bill DeMott… Everyone was supportive. In that era, we all had each other’s backs and were supportive. A lot of people knew I was out of my comfort zone doing the dancing and stuff, but it was necessary. Dusty Rhodes did it, JYD did it… this character wasn’t going to be heavyweight champion, but he was going to open the show every night and get the crowd riled up. That’s a great honor I think; if you can’t close [the show], you should open it.”

On why characters are being phased out in wrestling today:

“I think the business changes, and we have to accept the fact that the business changes. It’s gotten to the point where it’s more about the show than the wrestlers and that worries me a little bit. I think the wrestlers have become replaceable…with the pressure of the internet and trying to get ratings, we show too much of the magic now. That’s just my opinion… At some point, we all become dinosaurs. I’m not there yet, but I’ll continue to work my style.”

On his future in wrestling:

“I’m still a wrestler; I don’t consider myself anything else. Even though I’m doing very well with those other things, I’m still thinking, ‘well, do I want to go ride with Matt Hardy and put hands on Cody? Do I want to go back to WWE? Do I want to go to NWA just so I can cut a promo on that set?… I’m definitely not done… one last ride. I have maybe a year left and then retire, leave my boots in the ring and let somebody else do it.”

Click here for the full interview.