When Kenny Dykstra returned to WWE in October 2016, it had been eight years since his last appearance on WWE television. In that time, he noticed plenty of changes in the backstage atmosphere.
Dykstra appeared on Fightful's The List and Ya Boy podcast to talk about the difference in attitudes backstage from 2008 to 2016.
“It’s very laid back. I don’t want to say it was more a business setting, because it always was. It’s more laid back. When I was there, when we were coming up, there were a lot of big names there. Not that there aren’t now, but there were like, names from the past like Bill DeMott and stuff like that. Hardcore Holly, some tough dudes. And you had to hold your own. And now, it’s not that there aren’t tough dudes, there’s still tough dudes there. It’s just never that mentality of a dog eat dog world. It’s more of ‘we know our part,’ and they’re trained now to know that.
“When I started in the business, you had to fight for your spot. You had to do what you gotta do and somehow you gotta get there. Where now, everyone accepts their spot. And I think that’s a good thing because everybody is part of the show. Even if you have to go out and wrestle and lose in two-minutes, you’re part of that entire two-hour program. That’s your part, that day. It may not be your part all the time, but if you use your time right, in that two-minutes, you can slowly get yourself over.”
Holly was released shortly after Dykstra in 2009, while DeMott was let go by the company in 2015.
