Shane Helms saw a packed 2018 that featured him adding a Ring of Honor run to his resume.
The former WWE Cruiserweight Champion entered the year after being let go by TNA Wrestling in 2017 with a lot of question marks. However it seemed like Helms himself was the answer to a lot of those question marks, appearing seemingly monthly on national television. One of those appearances was a run with Ring of Honor that continues, but saw him main eventing ROH TV with a series of "hero vs. villain" matches with top star "The Villain" Marty Scurll.
When Fightful spoke to Helms, he detailed to us how it was the deal with Ring of Honor came together.
"That too, was me being funny on social media. I saw Marty Scurll, the Villain character, good presence, good look, he gets it. I'd never met him and had no idea who he was at a person. I was tweeting anyone I saw wearing that villain shirt, just being funny. I think he said 'thank you,' and I'd suggested something to Christopher Daniels and I think he spread the word. I wanted to do something hero vs. villain. That was me just lobbing that out there. I could have just ran in and he shut me down, and I'd be happy. I thought I could go in, hero vs. villain, shine him up, and that's it. I wasn't trying to be Ring of Honor World Champion. ROH ended up reaching out to me and asked how I'd feel about working a couple of dates. That led to the feud with Marty. What started with one match, led to two, led to three, led to four, and we had this really cool feud," Helms told us.
Helms and Scurll's series of matches involved a street fight in Philadelphia that saw both men end up getting a taste of thumb tacks. That's not exactly the type of match many would envision seeing thje 44-year old Helms in, but he said that he wanted to make a statement with the match.
"That street fight match was in the ECW Arena. We can't go out there and have a lackluster street fight. They've seen all the wrestling they need to see from us. If Marty's doing the tacks, I'm doing the tacks. I'm not going to be the old guy who won't do it. Had never did it before, and never look forward to doing it again. It worked for that story. It wasn't gore for gore," said Helms.
You can hear our full interview with Shane Helms above, and check out our archive of evergreen podcasts with him at this link.
Make sure you tune in to the reborn Highway 2 Helms Podcast!