Don Callis Talks Wanting To Run The Wrestling Business

Impact Wrestling co-Vice President and Kenny Omega‘s manager, Don Callis, was recently interviewed by Chris Van Vliet. During the discussion, Callis teased that there is more to come in his angle with Kenny Omega and the Good Brothers.

“Kenny and I have a lot of plans and what people are seeing from a national television perspective is just the fruition of those things,” Callis said. “We take great pride in the fact that when people think they have seen the apex of it, we try to do something different, take it to the next level.”

Callis talked about how he cut a promo in WWF as a complete unknown and called out Vince McMahon. What he said in the promo, Callis said, was indicative of what he wants from the wrestling business.

“I called out Vince McMahon. I said that I wanted to run the World Wrestling Federation, I wanted to run the wrestling business,” Callis said. “But it was true. I never had any interest in being a pro-wrestling manager, or being a color commentator, I wanted to be the person pulling the strings. I was 29-years-old when I said that.”

Callis continued to say the timing wasn’t right for him to run the wrestling business, however. WWE did offer him jobs working in creative but he turned them down.

“I wrote 6 weeks of television for Kurrgan to get him to try to get him to a different level and I wrote it out in a week-by-week format,” Callis continued. “That would be fairly common now, in 1997, it was pretty unheard of.”

Callis said that after doing so, he was offered a spot in WWE creative but turned it down. He ended up getting released from the company in 1999. The belief is he was fired by Bruce Prichard for “getting over at the talent’s expense.”

Callis then went to ECW and performed as Cyrus the Virus. During his interview with Chris Van Vliet, Callis referred to Paul Heyman as one of the most influential people in his career.

“There’s probably been 3, I’d say,” Callis said when asked about the most influential person in his career. “Kenny’s uncle the Golden Sheik, for sure. Bad News Allen (aka Bad News Brown) who kind of took on my training after the Sheik moved on. And then Paul Heyman in ECW.”

Callis then explained the key difference between what he does and what Paul Heyman does, however.

“I’ve been happy for Paul that he’s had the success that he’s had cause he’s a very talented and hard-working guy. Did a lot for me. There have been people now that have been comparing us. I think it’s an unfair comparison for Paul. Cause Paul is a tremendous wrestling performer, a character on a wrestling show. He does a wonderful job of that. I’m not a character. I am the essence of who I am and what I do is done at a much higher level than what characters like Paul, with all due respect, can do.”

The full interview with Don Callis can be heard in the player below: