Former WWE Superstar Scotty 2 Hotty recently appeared on Talk Is Jericho where he reflected on first did his popular finishing move, The Worm. The former Tag Team Champion says he got the message from Vince McMahon himself to use it.
“I remember Vince said, we were doing like King of the Ring qualifying matches over on SmackDown. And I worked with D’Lo,” he added. “Vince had told whoever the producer was for my match, ‘Vince said use the Worm, if Rock can use the People’s Elbow, you can use The Worm as a finish.’ I remember beating D’Lo with it for that match. Most of the time I would hit it and just pop up and fire up because there was more to come.”
Despite that being the first time he would use the move inside of the ring, it wasn’t the way Scotty 2 Hotty originally did it. That’s because The Worm was actually something he did to pop the boys during his entrances alongside DOA.
“It started when we were with DOA, I would just do it on the entrance. We would get in the ring and I would drop down and start doing the Worm, just to pop those guys,” he revealed. “I remember we were working with The Acolytes a lot at the time, I would do it just to pop them. It was just kind of a joke then.
“But while Brian was out with his torn ACL I was working house shows, and I remember specifically working with A-Train and laying him out. Then hitting the ropes, and then hitting the opposite ropes, stopping, dropping down and worming across and dropping the elbow, or dropping a headbutt, I was doing different things just playing with it. I knew I had something because of the reaction I was getting from the crowd.”
Because The Worm was such an insane move that took a long time to set up, Scotty 2 Hotty used it to encourage talent to throw things at the wall. This is something he did during his time as a coach at the WWE Performance Center, which is a job he recently left.
“I would tell the wrestlers at the PC, ‘just throw sh*t against the wall because you do not know what’s going to work,’” he admitted. “If I had sat down, wrote that whole thing out, and presented it to somebody, they would have said, ‘this is h——-t, don’t ever do that.’ But sometimes you just have to try stuff.’
If you use any quotes from this article, please credit Talk Is Jericho with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
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