By Josh Greene and Jeramie McPeek, Suns.com
Posted: May 20, 2006

“Eddie! Eddie! Eddie!”

A familiar chant rang out at US Airways Center earlier this week, but it wasn’t for Suns guard Eddie House, even though he was standing nearby enjoying the scene as it unfolded.

The 150-plus fans on hand inside the Casino Arizona Pavilion were paying tribute to the late Eddie Guerrero, a professional wrestler and Phoenix resident that died of a heart attack in November. Guerrero, buried in Scottsdale, was best friends with current world champion Rey Mysterio, who was in the building for a press conference to promote this Sunday’s WWE Pay-Per-View, Judgment Day.

“I got here late, but it was cool, real entertaining,” said House, whose eyes lit up watching a heated exchange between Mysterio and his opponent Sunday, the loud-mouthed Texan, JBL. “We’re going Sunday. I watch it with my son. He’s into it big time, so I got into it so we could have things to talk about.

“Those guys give up their bodies, man. It’s crazy. Batista’s my favorite. I like the Undertaker. My son likes John Cena, so I roll with him, too.”

After the press conference, Suns.com got a chance to roll with several of the Smackdown superstars, most of which are big NBA fans. And we do mean “big.”

Click here to read exclusive interviews with: Rey Mysterio, John Bradshaw Layfield, Booker T and Mark Henry

WORLD CHAMPION REY MYSTERIO

Suns.com: You have to be happy with the response you got during the press conference. The fans certainly loved it.

Mysterio: “It was a little bit tense. It got a little bit emotional. You know, I walked out there trying to speak to the people that were there, but I think it went overboard. JBL has personal issues with me and me being heavyweight champion. But I just go out there and perform and try to do the best that I can every night – including the press conference. It’s part of my job, part of what I love to do. But in the heat of the moment things started to heat up.”

Suns.com: You personally got quite a response. Can you talk about the fans here in Phoenix and how they've embraced you?

Mysterio: “I think the reason why is because we have such a big Hispanic market here and the fact that Rey Mysterio is Hispanic, I've got a big following here, which I love. My best friend is buried here at Greenhills Cemetery, so people still have Eddie Guerrero in their hearts and the reaction that I get every time I step into the ring here in Phoenix is tremendous. I’ve got a great following and I’ve got to thank the fans for that.”

Suns.com: Do you follow the NBA at all?

Mysterio: “A little bit off and on. My son’s a big basketball fan. I wish I had more time to watch, unfortunately we’re so busy, we get two days off a month and those two days I’m a father when I’m at home.”

Suns.com: Suns guard Eddie House was at the press conference and said he was impressed with how you guys give your bodies up for the show. Can you talk about that and the bond that you guys have with pro athletes?

Mysterio: “I think any athlete, whether it’s football, baseball or basketball, you have to give them credit for what they do. They work their butts off to be the best in whatever league they’re in. In this case, being a wrestler is I think one of the hardest professions that we have. We don’t have any offseason, we travel all year long, and sometimes we’re up to 20 days without being at home. So it’s hard for our families, our kids, it’s hard on our bodies. Sometimes we go on 12-15 days of wrestling day after day, traveling from bus to airplane to car, and we still gotta go out there and perform for the crowd. And when it comes down to it, the crowd is what amps you up if they give you that adrenaline, that vitamin to go out there – even if you’re hurt – to go out there and perform. And I think it’s like that with any athlete, once they step out onto the field or the arena it’s game time.”

Suns.com: The Suns have a couple days off before the playoffs resume. Why should Suns fans come out to US Airways Center on Sunday or order the Judgement Day Pay-Per-View?

Mysterio: “It's very important being that it is in Phoenix and we have a lot of Hispanic community around here, and one of the biggest matches on the card is going to be JBL against Rey Mysterio, a Hispanic who represents his people to the fullest. If you can’t get your tickets, it’s going to be one of the greatest Pay-Per-Views we have this year. The year’s kicked off great for us, me being heavyweight champion is a dream come true not only for me but the people that believed in me from day one. I’ve been in this business for 17 years, so they’re going to get their money’s worth when it comes down to Sunday.”

UNITED STATES CHAMPION JOHN BRADSHAW LAYFIELD

Suns.com: Do you follow the Phoenix Suns at all?

JBL: “I do follow the team, because you’ve got our main star from Dallas, Steve Nash, one of the very best players Dallas ever had. You get the guy and he makes MVP! And Charles Barkley is a very good friend of mine, so yeah I do follow the team.”

Suns.com: How do you know Chuck?

JBL: “Through wrestling. He’s come out several times when we had wrestling events in Houston, Phoenix. Good guy and a tremendous person.”

Suns.com: What do you like about Nash?

JBL: “He’s just a playmaker and that’s exciting to me. That’s exciting to any fan. I’m a basketball fan. I don’t know the technical aspects of the game, but I’m just a basketball fan and I see the guy making great plays. He’s throwing passes here, he’s the general of the court and that to me is just exciting. Magic Johnson first brought that to the forefront when he came out and it’s just amazing what these guys can do when they’re that good.”

Suns.com: So would you consider yourself a Suns fan then?

JBL: “No, no, I’m a Dallas Mavericks fan, have been for years. Just like I’m a Texas Rangers fan, which unfortunately has not been very good for me and neither has been being a Dallas Mavericks fan until recently. They were so bad for so long. They had a great chance when they had Roy Tarpley there years ago back in the '80s, but it didn’t work out and I’m hoping this might be their year. But I don’t care who plays for them, I don’t care what they do, I don’t care if Saddam Hussein is the coach, I’m a Dallas Mavericks fan no matter what.”

Suns.com: How would you compare what you do to what NBA players do, in terms of the athleticism and the physicality?

JBL: “What a lot of guys don’t understand is the grind. What we do is work 300 days a year and we take bumps, we get hit over the head with chairs and your body gets beat up. What these guys do is run up and down a wooden floor 82 games a year, not to mention practice, training camp, everything. That is a toll on the body that is unbelievable. I’m surprised a guy like Shaq is still playing. He's 300-something pounds and can run up and down the court, and he’s done it year after year after year. It’s just amazing to me that these guys can do that, not to mention the bumping, the elbowing and all the stuff that goes on underneath the basket. But just the grind of running up and down a wooden floor for that many months a year is just phenomenal. It's very similar to what we do. You know, we don’t have re-runs. We do live TV every single week, 52 weeks a year. We have no offseason and we do three live events every week so we work four times a week and it’s just a toll that most people wouldn’t believe.”

Suns.com: How about from an entertainment aspect? How do the WWE and NBA compare?

JBL: “It’s all entertainment, that’s all it is – bottom line – sports is entertainment. When Michael Jordan was on top of his game people loved to watch the Bulls play because he was entertaining. He looked like he was having a good time, his tongue was wagging, he was doing all this different stuff, he was having a good time and that’s what people enjoy watching.

"To me, when guys are having a great time entertaining people, people love to see that and every sport is entertainment. You look at the San Antonio Spurs, they’re a great franchise they don’t draw (TV) ratings because unfortunately Tim Duncan is not entertaining. He’s just a work horse, a great player, one of the best centers of all time. But he’s not entertaining, so they’re never gonna draw ratings and it’s all about putting people in seats.

"Steve Nash puts people in seats, Nowitzki from Dallas puts you in seats. Dennis Rodman, as crazy as he was, put people in seats. Shaq puts people in seats, so does Kobe Bryant. That’s very rare and it’s still about entertainment because if people are gonna take a night off, they’re not gonna go watch basketball they’re gonna go watch entertainment. They’re gonna go watch the Phoenix Suns entertain them. People aren’t gonna go because 'I’m such a basketball fan.' If they’re such big fans they’d go watch church league basketball. That’s not what it’s about, it’s about entertainment.”

Suns.com: Can you talk about playing the heel role? You had the fans here for the press conference going crazy booing you.

JBL: “Sure, I'm a guy everybody loves to hate. I'm a guy like J.R. Ewing that everybody loved to hate, but they turned on the TV to watch him and my character’s almost a ripoff of J.R. Ewing. But there’s also in sports the Dennis Rodmans, there’s the Dick Butkus, there are guys who have transcended their genre so much that people turn to watch them because they don’t like them. “The guy’s a jerk, I wanna see him get beat.” When Muhammad Ali first(changed his name from) Cassius Clay and he’s fighting all these guys, beating everybody, (predicting) the round he knocks them out, everybody was going 'I hate this guy' but they tuned in, everybody tuned it. There’s a very huge nitch out there for people that want to watch somebody they hate and that’s the nitch I fill.”

Suns.com: Did you ever play hoops before stepping into the squared circle?

JBL: “Played basketball one year in college. I was a football player though – Albersian Christian, small Division II school, and I played three years pro. On the court my game was terrible. I was gonna play one year and I lost too much weight running, they just ran me to death. We had a great team when I was at L.A. Christian. They weren’t national champions but they were conference champions every year. It was above my game, they wanted to bring me in as an enforcer and I could jump as high as those guys but I couldn’t jump as quick. Those guys were on a different level. I was a good player in high school but could not play the college game at all.”

BOOKER T

Suns.com: We hear that quite a few of you guys are NBA fans.

Booker T: “Totally big-time NBA fans. I’m a big Texan from Houston, so I gotta go with a Texan team, Dallas or San Antonio would be cool if they win. Right now San Antonio looks a little slower than in years past, not quite as in sync but they can still pull it out. Dallas is looking real good. It’s hard to say which team is gonna win. If San Antonio can step it up they can be NBA Champs again.”

Suns.com: What are your thoughts on the Suns?

Booker T: “I think Phoenix is really a good team but they’re just missing that one big guy with Stoudemire sitting on the sideline. He would totally be the key if he was playing and I can see them winning it all. But I think they’re gonna be in trouble without him. I don’t think they have the fire power. I don’t think the bench is strong enough to keep them in the game throughout four quarters. But no doubt they are a good team.”

Suns.com: We know that a number of wrestlers played basketball in college, Big Show and Kane, for instance. Did you ever play hoops before getting into the ring?

Booker T: “I always played in the neighborhood as a kid, but I never played organized sports. I never was one of those sports jock kids. Actually I've got a pretty good game, though. I got some inside game – I don’t do a whole lot of running around – I’m not big enough to play center, but in the neighborhood I was big enough (laughs).”

Suns.com: There seems to be a real respect between the WWE superstars and professional athletes.

Booker T: “Total respect. A lot of the basketball players come out to watch us. Shaq is an avid wrestling fan. These guys look at us and see exactly what we do from a behind-the-scenes standpoint, and it’s a total respect thing. I always say God didn’t make the human body to get beat up like this and I don’t think God made it for guys to be out playing basketball and be out banging their knees, or on the gridiron trying to kill each other. Hockey players out there, you do it for the love of it, it’s totally a love thing. No amount of money could make you want to go out and do this, you just love to do it. Total respect.”

Suns.com: The Suns have a couple days off before the playoffs resume. Why should Phoenix fans come out to US Airways Center for Judgement Day on Sunday?

Booker T: “Judgement Day is gonna be a extravaganza. It’s gonna be a spectacle of all spectacles. Booker T, of course, is in the "King of the Ring" finals, which is gonna be totally off the hook, off the chain. But all the matches on the card are gonna be great. Pay-Per-View from a WWE standpoint is like the Fourth of July, it’s like Christmas every month for us when we go out and do this stuff.”

MARK HENRY

Suns.com: Do you follow the NBA too?

Henry: “Yes I do. I had been a Lakers fan my whole life, but when Shaq and Kobe split it turned me against the Lakers. I was a Lakers fan my whole life and now I don’t have a basketball identity. I’m not a fan of one individual team now, but I still love the game. I enjoy watching Nash play, but I have a problem with watching Shawn Marion – I don’t know how he gets that shot off. It’s the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen, but they play together and they’re aware of each other on the court like nobody else in the league, so they're definitely entertaining to watch.”

Suns.com: What do you enjoy about Steve Nash's game?

Henry: “As a player I think he can probably dribble through rush hour traffic and not pick up his dribble until he’s ready to pass or shoot, which is a compliment in itself. His vision is unbelievable. He can definitely shoot it and he’s a good free-throw shooter. His game is geared towards getting the ball to people in situations where people have to collapse on him which I love. I’ve always loved point guards that were able to command a presence and make the people around them better. That’s what he does and I respect it a lot.

"The MVP is the person that’s most important to their team. The difference between Kobe getting hurt, Tim Duncan getting hurt, Shaquille O’Neal getting hurt, Dwyane Wade and all those stars of the game getting hurt is the players around them are still the players around them. They’re gonna go out there and do what they do even if their stars are out. The players that the Phoenix Suns have – this is not a knock on the players they have here – but the players that they have here can not create it on their own. They need somebody that can facilitate and Steve Nash is the best in the NBA at facilitating scores whether he’s doing it himself or he’s making Shawn Marion have the ball two feet from the cup. The lobs are infectious. Boris Diaw is a good player and he’s gonna be an even better player than he is now, but you can tell his natural abilities are being sped up because he’s around Steve Nash. His demeanor when he’s dribbling the ball looks like Steve Nash and he’s mimicking Steve Nash. I’m looking forward to seeing what this team is gonna be a couple years from now." Suns.com: You said the split in L.A. soured you on the Lakers. You must have been a big Shaq fan?

Henry: “I’m a big Shaq fan. I can’t really get with Miami, though, until they get rid of a couple of people on that roster that don’t fit the mentality that I like. But the NBA is kind of shooting itself in the foot with the fouling situation, because Shaq can’t get a position because people forearm him, they hand-check him, they bump him with their bodies and they do it while they’re moving. I don’t see why he don’t just start punching people, because the only way he’s gonna make it noticeable is if he either lashes out or he quits. I see how frustrated he gets and it’s like he plays on autopilot sometimes because he has to be there for his team and it’s not fair."

Suns.com: Have you ever played the game? We bet you could really post some people up down low.

Henry: “No. I love the game. I played a lot, but not at the collegiate level. I'm just a rec player. I’m nowhere near an NBA-caliber or a collegiate. I can shove some people around but after about five minutes in the first quarter I’ll be on the bench (laughs).”