Last night at the Fully Loaded pay-per-view in Buffalo, D’Lo Brown regained the WWF European title for the third time, beating Mideon.
D’Lo Brown.
The title had been significantly devalued over the past year, going from being hotly contested, to being won by non-wrestler Shane McMahon, to be retired. Then out of nowhere, it was brought back and handed to Mideon.
Saturday night in Toronto, D’Lo Brown told SlamWrestling.net of his hopes for the European title — and why it was brought back.
“I think they brought it back because it was something, a year ago to the day, that meant a lot to me,” Brown said backstage after his non-title win over Mideon at SkyDome. “I think I was one of the few guys that carried it around with pride, it wasn’t something I just threw in my bag.”
But the jokester in him couldn’t resist adding “actually, the belt meant as much to me as I meant to it.”
He even has a timeline worked out for restoring the belt’s glory.
“This time last year when X-Pac and I had that belt, it was one of the most highly-contested belts in the company. People actually went ‘that belt actually means something.’ So, maybe if it goes that direction we can do it again and maybe by Survivor Series that belt can mean something again.”
With long-time tag partner Mark Henry out with injuries, Brown is more than happy to be concentrating on singles wrestling again.
“I’m re-directing, and my character’s re-directing his career towards singles now. I think we’re going to go in that direction,” said Brown. Winning the European title is “a stepping stone starting back into the singles ranks. Mark and I worked out well, but Mark has kind of been a little accident prone the last six to eight months.”
The Chicago native went to the University of Maine and was a certified public accountant before moving into pro wrestling full-time.
Brown is more than a little excited about his time in the WWF. He said of his time in the WWF that he is “loving it, loving it, loving it” and that nothing in the world compares to “walking out in front of 20,000 people, having them cheering and screaming. Your music hits and the people go crazy.”
Football comes a close second for the 6’3″, 268-pound Brown, however. At SkyDome, he wore a customized Toronto Argonauts jersey to the ring, with D’Lo and #75 on the back.
“[The jersey] was given to me last time I was here,” explained Brown. “At the same time, Steve Austin was given one. So I didn’t wear it the last time I was here just because Steve had his. Well, this time I promised that I’d go out there and wear it.”
Brown then went on to rave about the great Argos vs Hamilton Ti-Cats game from Friday night, which he watched on TV. The Argos won on a field goal with no time left on the clock.
Before he could finish his raving about the CFL however, Brown was interrupted by friend Scott D’Amore, indy wrestler and former player for the University of Windsor football team.
“D’Lo has no understanding of Canadian football,” joked D’Amore. “I’ve been telling him for years that it was the greatest game on the planet.”
“And he’s not getting out of here without getting his ass kicked unless I get that Argos jersey.”
In spite of the threats from his friends, Brown’s career appears on the way up again.