WWE.Com Interviews Nathan Jones

[CandyKANE]

Nathan Jones hasn't even made his debut on World Wrestling Entertainment television yet, and he's already one of the most talked-about Superstars. Vignettes have been airing on WWE TV for weeks now, portraying Jones as a monster. A recent article in an Australian newspaper seemed to indicate the same. He certainly has a monster's resume -- eight armed robberies, several years in Australian prison, the ability to snap a man's neck like a toothpick.

But Jones was soft-spoken, even shy initially, during this interview with WWE.com, conducted Monday at a non-televised event in White Plains, N.Y. He even chuckled when he recounted stories about robbing banks and throwing police officers into walls. He certainly seems to be a gentle giant. Still, just to be safe, we saved the really controversial questions until the end of the interview.

WWE.com: With the vignettes that are airing on TV, a lot of people are talking about your background. What do you want to say about your background?

Jones: It happened a long time ago. I spent 10 years in prison. I haven't got much to say. I did what I did; it happened. That's part of me. If you like me, you like me; if you don't, I don't care.

WWE.com: Are you a different person today than you were back then?

Jones: I think I've changed. I've learned a lot. I've grown a lot. I've gotten a lot wiser. I'd say yeah, I'm a lot different than I used to be.

WWE.com: What happened that caused you to change?

Jones: I wouldn't say I've changed completely. There's still that side of me that's hard to control. I've learned from my mistakes. I've learned a lot about life. In there (prison), you grow up very quickly.

WWE.com: There was a story that came out recently in an Australian newspaper, the Queensland Courier-Mail. I wanted to ask you about some of the details in the article. For example, it said that you were jailed for eight years in 1989 for armed robbery.

Jones: Yes. I was actually jailed for 16 years, but I got out after eight. I did seven in maximum-security prison and one year on work release.

WWE.com: The article said you were known for ripping cell doors off their hinges and breaking handcuffs.

Jones: I've never broken any handcuffs, but I did used to rip cell doors off the hinges. (Laughs)

WWE.com: You just decided one day to see if you could do it?

Jones: Well, I didn't realize I could actually rip a cell door off the hinges until I did it.

It was one day that the prison officers were all on strike. We were sitting in there and it was becoming (unbearable). We hadn't had breakfast; we hadn't had lunch. It was the middle of the day and we were all sweaty. I got pissed. Everyone was banging on his cell doors trying to break out, so I started kicking the cell door. Next thing, the thing started coming off the hinges. I got out. I thought, "I'm hungry." I went straight to the kitchen. I broke into the kitchen (and) I took a whole heap of food. I went back to the guys in the cells and I started feeding them through the holes in the cells. Then I went back and took a whole heap more food with me.

WWE.com: Is that the only time you ever broke a cell door?

Jones: Well, you know, once I realized I could do it, I started to use it to manipulate the system and get what I wanted. I wanted a special diet (and) I wanted a double ration -- because there wasn't enough food. They did adapt. They started to reinforce the cell doors. But I managed to kick off about a dozen cell doors in my time in my prison (and smash) armor-plated glass with my fist (laughs) -- it was supposedly armor-plated, but I kept on hitting it and kicking it until it caved in.

WWE.com: So how do they keep you in prison if you can literally break down the doors?

Jones: Well, I used it as a bargaining chip to get what I want. I never really had intentions to escape. I could never hide. Here's a 6-foot-10 guy running through 2,000 people. You could see me for miles away. It was kind of a power thing too. It scared the s*** out of them, and I enjoyed it. (Laughs)

WWE.com: The inmates never really messed with you, did they?

Jones: Oh, there are some people who don't give a f***. They wouldn't normally come at you head-on unless you got in their way. But that happened a few times. We had disagreements a few times. And then you got some people -- because of my size -- that would try to stab me (or) hit me over the head with certain things. Stuff like that happens. But I managed to do all right, and come out on top most of the time.

WWE.com: The article also said that one time in a Tasmanian jail it took 10 officers to restrain you.

Jones: Yeah, that's about right. They gassed me and ran in with their batons and their shields and tackled me, and I was throwing them around. They had it all videotaped -- you should get the videotape if you want action! (Laughs)

[CandyKANE]

WWE.com: Didn't it start a controversy in Tasmania over the use of gas?

Jones: Yeah, they started using knockout gas because it took so many prison guards to restrain me. (Laughs) But I wouldn't say much for the prison guards -- they weren't very fit or in very good condition, I'll tell you that now. It wasn't that big of a feat.

WWE.com: Why was it necessary for 10 prison guards to restrain you?

Jones: I think it had something to do with my size and strength.

WWE.com: Yeah, but I mean, why did they jump you? Were you going crazy or something?

Jones: I broke out of solitary confinement, and they had to try to subdue me. The first time, they used normal gas on me; it just made me more pissed. (Laughs) It made me angrier. It made my eyes burn; it made my throat burn. I said, "This doesn't make me feel like submitting to them at all. I want to hurt them now." So then they started using a different sort of gas -- gas designed to actually knock you unconscious. Because, you know, they didn't want to get hurt. Prison officers were getting hurt trying to subdue me. They were all so scared of me -- a lot of them were sitting outside going, "You go in! I'm not going in first!" Because they knew the first guy that came in was going to get his head taken off. (Laughs)

WWE.com: It's funny that you're laughing about it.

Jones: Well, you know, the reason why they locked me up in solitary confinement in the first place was just simply because of my size. I hadn't done anything wrong. I just wanted to be treated like a normal prisoner. But because of my size, they overreacted, had a knee-jerk reaction (and) stuck me in solitary. I objected to it. I didn't think it was right that I should be treated differently because of the way I look.

WWE.com: How did you wind up in a Tasmanian jail anyway?

Jones: I got captured down there.

WWE.com: So this didn't have anything to do with the armed robbery?

Jones: No, this was because of armed robbery. I committed eight armed robberies altogether -- two of them down in Tasmania. I remember I was in a bank drawing some money out. It wasn't hard. A couple of plainclothes police officers came up to me and asked me to come with them. I said, "No." One went to grab me. I grabbed him and threw him into a wall. The other guy looked at me, I looked at him, and he started running out the door. So I jumped the counter, went out the backdoor of the bank.

Next thing, the whole place was surrounded and they were all chasing me. And I remember there were lots of them pointing their guns at me, and they were yelling, "Stop or we'll shoot!" I remember looking back -- I could have run around this six-foot fence -- but I kept on running. I hit the fence, I actually knocked the whole fence down, and I just kept on running. (Laughs) It was funny at the time, and when I think about it now.

WWE.com: How did you end up turning to a life of crime?

Jones: Anger. I had a lot of pent-up aggression. (Laughs) And I really knew I was going to get caught, and I knew I was going to go to jail, but I just didn't care.

WWE.com: Was it the way you were raised?

Jones: I don't know about that. It's just circumstances, the way things happen in life, and you just end up getting to the point where you snap, and you just don't give a s***. You're angry at society and you want to lash out. You don't care if you die. You just don't care. You're angry at society and you just don't want to comply.

WWE.com: Do you know how you came to be angry at society?

Jones: It was a lot of things. It wasn't any one thing. It may have been one thing that made me snap, at the end. But it was over time.

WWE.com: What's the story with your mammary gland?

Jones: It was when I was in prison, because I was going through puberty -- I was very young. I had soreness, and I had a painful lump in my nipple. And the doctor said it was quite normal because when your body's going through puberty, you produce so much testosterone that you're getting a feedback. And they eventually said if it's really painful, they can remove it. So they just removed it. It was about the size of a 10-cent piece. It was on my right side. Apparently, most young men go through it, but only a very small percentage have to have surgery because of the pain involved. I remember reading in something that it was producing milk, but they just made that up, I think. That's not true.

WWE.com: The article said something about how you used to brag about rampant steroid use.

Jones: Well, what happened was, when I first went into prison, there was this big thing about steroids and how they cause violence. So I thought, "Hold on. What I'll do is I'll research about steroids and drugs, and what they do. And I'll tell them I took them." Because of my size -- I was naturally bigger -- I said, "I'll tell them I took all these steroids, and I was like a walking experiment.

[CandyKANE]

And that's what caused me to commit the crimes I committed." It was to try to get a lighter sentence. So I did all this research. And the fact that I actually had high testosterone levels anyway, and I had that thing (in my nipple) that I complained about being sore -- which corroborated my story -- I'd tried to get a lighter sentence. But it didn't work. They still looked at me and said, "16 years."

WWE.com: But these allegations of steroid abuse have stuck with you, at least in the media.

Jones: Yeah, I know. But I can expect that after what I tried. Because I genuinely tried to use that story to get out of prison. I never actually took steroids, believe it or not. I don't look steroidal -- look at my face. I trained for 10 years, and I was naturally big anyway. At 19 years of age, I was 127 kilos -- about 280 pounds. In 10 years, I've gone from 280 pounds to 295 or 300 - 10 years of training, and it's hard training. It's diet and hard training. At one stage, I was heavier. I was 350 pounds at one stage in jail. I was putting on the extra weight for leverage in powerlifting. It wasn't really all muscle -- there was a lot of body fat as well.

WWE.com: What kind of reception are you getting backstage? You've only been around for a few days, but there are so many stories about you out there. Are the other Superstars hesitant to approach you because they don't know what to expect?

Jones: No, no. Everyone's been friendly. I have no problems with anybody. I read stuff on the Internet -- it's typical media, I think. I know so many people who have been in prison and have had things written about them. Half of it, I find, tends to be exaggerated. They're trying to create a story -- trying to sensationalize things.

WWE.com: Are the Australian media known for that?

Jones: I think the American media are known for that, aren't they? (Laughs) They're the ones Australians learn it off! Australians actually learn to sensationalize from the American media. We're five years behind. We're actually catching up though.