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Dave "Evad" Sullivan Reveals What His Life Is Like After Pro Wrestling, Which WWE Character Was Inspired By The Character He Played In WCW

Posted: Jul 9th 2009 By: CMBurnham

Get ready to catch up with another well known name from wrestling's hisotry, ClubWWI.com is welcoming a former WCW star who has found new life after wrestling. That's right. The #1 WCW Hulkamaniac, Dave "Evad" Sullivan has come to the Club for a rare 32 minute uncut shoot interview that hits just as hard as he does on the football field.

Since leaving the wrestling game, Bill Dannenhauer (the man behind Evad) has seen success in his personal life. As a football coach and college administrator for Dana College, Bill has gone from stretching opponents to teaching young people the importance of athletics. Now he looks back at his high profile career with James Guttman on ClubWWI.com and discusses a ton of topics including: Why He Never Went To The WWF, Hulk Hogan's Weird Gift, What Trainers Used To Teach New Students, What They Teach Them Today, High Spots, Backstage at WCW, Why Fans Connect With Triple H, The Logic Holes of Fighting a Man With a Sledgehammer, Whether He'd Do Pro Wrestling If He Was a Rookie Today, Ric Flair's Longevity, Whether He'd Be a Part of Today's Wrestling, ECW, Vince McMahon Getting Blown Up, Rick Rude, The End of Territories, The Pacific Northwest, Advice From Harley Race, GWF, Road Warrior Hawk, and more.

One subject that many fans have pointed out is the similarities between Bill's "Evad" character in WCW and WWE's Eugene character. They both went down the same paths, even including the #1 fan gimmick. James asks Bill about the debut of Eugene and whether he too saw similarities.

"Yeah (laughs). They brought me back."

But it's not just speculation. Dannenhauer spoke to some people from the company and found out that - yes - his WCW character inspired the Eugene we know today.

"The guys in New York that I still know, Finlay and those guys, I still talk to them. They said the idea came from my character. Eugene, yeah, they thought it was a good time to do it. It was fun to do it. So yeah. They ran with Eugene. They recycle stuff. You know that. That's just part of the game."

James points out that people compare both of them to George Steele, although Eugene was more like Evad than The Animal. Bill tells ClubWWI.com listeners that George played a role in his own character's creation too.

"That's where Kevin (Sullivan) got it. The Evad, that was Kevin's kind of idea. And I think he got I a little from the character of George. It's just like football. In the West Coast office, there's always copycats. You take your little bit a different way and you do it a different way to fit you, but it's no different."

Bill talks about creating characters and connecting with fans - and why it's a dying art form today. Although Evad was on top of the business for a while in the mid 1990s, his WCW departure came suddenly at World War 3 pay-per-view. James asks if he had any idea that the release was coming.

"No. I did not know at that time."

Even more surprising? To this day, Bill still doesn't know why he was let go.

"Yes. When it happened, I was surprised quite a bit. No. I was never told a reason a why. Welcome to the business world of wrestling. To be honest with you, Kevin didn't know either."

This is just one of tons of topics that Dave Sullivan discusses with James Guttman. On that same note, Dave is only one of tons of stars you can hear right now on ClubWWI.com. With over 160, you'll have plenty of superstars to put on your Ipod, Phone, burn to CD, or just listen through your computer.

Tags: WCW, Dave Sullivan, WWF, Ric Flair, ECW, Rick Rude, WWE