Heath Slater’s Story: Hanging Up on WWE When They Offered Him a Return Post-Release

In an exclusive interview for WrestlingNews.co, Steve Fall interviewed former WWE/TNA star Heath Slater (Heath Miller) about his career in wrestling. You can view the entire interview below. There are a few transcripts of highlights below the video.

Heath Slater on getting released by WWE:

“When you’re released by WWE There are an indefinite period for no-compete. So you’ve got three months in which no-compete. It’s a matter of fact, that 2 1/2 months following the release date, I have two weeks left before I’m able to be as free as I like. Then they called me and said”Hey you’re a man. We have an idea to join forces with Drew as he was fighting in a feud with the Dolph Ziggler. He said”We’d like you perform a segment with him, and then we’d like you to do another segment alongside Dolph and the other segment on a pay per view.’ I replied”No. You’ve fired me. I’m not going to do it again, man. I’m not interested”, and I hanged up. It was a writer. I don’t even know his name. If you remember me telling him this, I apologise. Then I received a phone call. It was a close friend of mine who was a writer. He proposed the idea. I replied, ‘I have zero interest and zero interest.’ That’s the moment that McIntyre phoned me. He told me”Come on, buddy. It could result in you signing a new contract or, at the very least it will allow you to appear present on TV with me. I’m the champion now and you’ll receive a nice little rubbing before you head to with the Indies or whatever you’d like to do. I told him”I don’t want do that and then naturally, we continued talking and he pushed me into the idea. We did it. We went down there. They asked me to do three things. I told them that I would only perform one, and the thing you saw: me going in together with Drew.”

Heath Slater on getting injured in Impact Wrestling:

“Mentally it shook me. I’m not lying. If you’re physically injured you, you exercise and heal, then you take care of your rehab, and you are confident that you will recover, but when you’re hurt mentally it can take a long time to recover. I’ve experienced several mental issues throughout my life but this injury was my first one to the point where the doctor said”I don’t know whether you’d like to wrestle any more.’ I was required to have two hernias repaired on either side of the pubic bone. The abdominal wall just below my belly button cut seven inches wide and they had to insert three mesh pieces in it to keep it in place. My groin muscles, within it, is called a rectus muscles that is what holds your groin to your lower abdomen. It was torn where they needed to cut it, so I don’t have it now. It all started with me sliding around in the ring, and hitting a neckbreaker, and an ankle lariat, and I was in a bind. For eleven months, I was out until I was able to get back in the my ring.”