From The Pain Clinic Radio Show in 2001 (only half of interview available)

Today the Pain Clinic was thrilled to have the one and only Daffney (Shannon Spruill Ward) on the show for a live interview. The interview went as follows:

Andrew: We have our special guest on the line. Truly one of the top performers in WCW, someone the fans really took to. She is one of the most unique characters I have encountered in my 30 years of watching wrestling the one and only, Daffney-Shannon Spruill Ward.

Dr. Love: I heard you're laid up. What's going on with you?

Daffney: I actually played a soccer game. I play in a women's indoor soccer league on Thursday nights; during the day I went to Dusty's school and I was training and I broke my finger. So I was all pissed off about that, and I didn't really want to go, but I thought I should go get some frustrations off. So I went and I rolled my ankle. I've got a severe sprain and I'm on crutches for a week. I've got it elevated and icing it right now.

Dr. Love: You have to tape your ankles before every game; you know that.

Daffney: I actually did. I had on a brace but I just started to wear it; it's my weak ankle. But it's not broken and it's going to get better. I'm taking really good care of it; I'm elevating it and icing it every hour.

Sybil: As a female fan of wrestling, I really do love seeing the women get out there. What is it for you that makes you get out there and go all out?

Daffney: Well, I really enjoyed the character; I really enjoyed playing sort of a comedic type of person. It's really cool, because Daffney had so many different aspects to her character, so one week I could be totally evil and have people not like me, and the next week I could play the little girl and just a ham and try to have people laugh at me. But for me, it was like I've played soccer all my life, I've done all sorts of sports, so I love the athletic part of it, but then I've always wanted to be an actress. So the mix of the two was something that just totally appealed to me. I got bit by the bug, and now I love the job. I loved going out there and have people laugh at you and scream at you.

Sybil: So basically you got the best of both worlds, the acting and the athleticism. Also, reading your bio, your father was career military, you spent a lot of time abroad, living in a lot of different places and moving from place to place. How was that for you?

Daffney: It was fun. At the time, every time we got ready to move it was sad because you'd be leaving your friends. But then you go somewhere new and you meet new friends, and you get to see things that a lot of kids have not been able to see. My mother is English, and when we were living in England we got to meet her side of the family. I got to see William Shakespeare's house, and the Changing of the Guards at Buckingham Palace. Just things like that. It was really cool. In Germany too, going to Munich and places like that. A lot of kids have never even left the United States.

Richie: Daffney, who developed your character, and who decided to pair you with David Flair?

Daffney: Well, it was the writing team. When I came on it was Ed Ferrera and Bill Banks who had just joined the team. They just basically wanted a character who was just kind of a crazy girl who would just stalk David. They weren't sure if we were going to end up boyfriend/girlfriend. They wanted to see how well the performance went and the crowd response. So after a couple weeks they offered me a longer contract. And then I developed the character from there, but they initially gave me the name and told me exactly what they wanted me to do, which was just basically act crazy.

Richie: Did you ever see yourself wrestling in the ring at that point?

Daffney: At that point no, but then whenever Crowbar joined our team he would go in the ring with me and show me some stuff. During the week when I would be home I'd sometimes go down to the Power Plant and try to do some things. I trained with Molly Holly a little bit. Mona was down there, and anybody else who would show me stuff. At that point Mike Sanders was at the Power Plant; he would work with me a lot. And Elix .I thought I would just be a valet or whatever. Now that I've seen that it does take a lot of hard work and dedication but it's a lot of fun getting in the ring and having a match.

Sybil: Being the Scream Queen, you get to be around all of those luscious, delicious, tight bodies. Who has been the most help as far as getting you trained and motivated; who really does make you scream?

Daffney: Well, my husband (chuckles). My husband is really the only man that I am attracted to. I know a lot of these guys out there with no shirts are good looking and whatever, and some of them help me in the ring, but I really don't gravitate toward them. I try to keep it just friends, we're business associates. Usually it doesn't go there with me. But people that have really helped; There's a guy, he's on UWA (Urban Wrestling Alliance). It's run by The Rock's dad, and I think he's their current champ. He lives in Atlanta, and he comes to the school. His name's Sonny. He has helped me more in the last two months than anyone. If Crowbar was here, I'm sure he would help; he lives in New Jersey. He always calls me and encourages me to learn new things and when I was around he would always take me in the ring and show me stuff. But there is Sonny and there is this guy, Shocker Shawn Evans. They work with me every day at Dusty's school and just show me stuff. They're so patient and such great teachers. And they're not bad to look at either!

Sybil: What I wanted to know, for those female fans who do want to get into the wrestling business, is what advice do you have for them about getting started, staying real, getting in shape, getting characters?

Richie: Getting breast implants.

Daffney: Well, thankfully I have seen a couple women who don't have (breast implants), because I don't. And to be honest with you, that makes me nervous, getting breast implants. As far as training goes, I've had a couple people e-mail me with questions. You need to go to a school that is reputable. I would recommend going to a school that has produced at least one or two fairly successful wrestlers and that has been around for a while. People put up these fly-by-night schools and you dump all your money in them and then you don't get anything worth leaving with. Then, as far as keeping in shape, it's just your basic exercising and eating right. I'd try to latch on to someone who is an experienced, seasoned wrestler and then try to go one-on-one with them, and have them show you new things.

Sybil: Cool. Now, with all the happenings that's been going on with WCW, what's your take? Where do you see yourself going from here?

Daffney: Well, I thought it was a good thing. WCW obviously for a few years kept struggling to get their act together. It was kind of how I felt when one hand didn't talk to the other. Granted everyone that was there was really nice, it just ended up the product wasn't very well. Vince McMahon is obviously very successful and he knows how to do it, so hopefully now the show will be run a lot smoother, and hopefully he'll bring back some of the old faces in WCW. I'd love to go back and work with them.

Dr. Love: I'd love to see you.

Andrew: Shannon, when I look back at your WCW career, a lot of the big highlights happened when they brought Vince Russo back in April of last year. You did the work as a Cruiserweight Champion for a couple weeks, and of course the famous Wedding Gown Match at Bash At The Beach with Miss Hancock. What was it like working with Vince Russo? Did he really try to expand on the Daffney character and try to have her more involved in the storylines?

Daffney: It seemed to me like he really liked the character, which was cool, and I was thrilled. The highlight of my career was being Cruiserweight Champion; that was awesome! It was nice working with him because he liked to get me involved and he liked for me to do things. He is the one who sent us to the Power Plant and tried to get us to have more matches, which I think was a little premature, just because most of the girls were ex-Nitro girls, that were just primarily dancers. Granted they were good and they had good potential, we didn't have enough experience in the ring to have an entire match where it looked really well.

Andrew: Right. I know you are probably one of the only ones who had a real athletic background, playing soccer.

Dr Love: On a serious note, did Vince McMahon, prior to this whole WCW thing happening, ever contact you? In reality, the whole character you played fits in with today, and Vince likes to jump with whatever's happening today.

Daffney: No, I've never been contacted by them. I think I probably would have I might have waited out my contract, it wasn't really too long. I have heard rumors (on the Internet) that they did not like my character I m an actress! I can do anything. If you don't like it, I can do something else!

Richie: I've got to say one thing. I think that when you were working with Crowbar, they wasted his talent so much in WCW.

Daffney: Amen!

Richie: I don’t think they gave him the time of day, and now it looks like he’s getting a look-at from WWF right now, because he wrestled on a Dark Show the other night for Smackdown. I was wondering, what was Chris's attitude during his whole run on WCW? It was either feast or famine, he was either on TV every week or he was sitting in the back room for two months at a time.

Daffney: Not to speak badly because I valeted for him. From the acting perspective and the performing perspective, Chris and I felt we had great chemistry together. I felt like we kind of went together. We played this whole kind of love angle between us, where he had this big crush on me and he couldn’t pursue it, and then I had this big crush on him, and I wanted to do a whole Scully and Mulder thing. It never really happens, and they are really good friends. We wanted to play on that, but that was all backstage stuff. In the ring, he always came through; there is not a move that he cannot do. He works like a Cruiserweight but he's a little bit bigger. His facial expressions during his matches-the crowd was always with him! I don't think he'll admit this or not, but I think there was always a little frustration there where he was telling them he was willing to take all these crazy bumps and do all this hardcore stuff, and they gave him the Hardcore title, then they stripped it from him. They were going to give it back to him, and then they decided not to.

Richie: Then the Hardcore champion left and went to WWF. That ruined the whole thing; I felt so bad for him at that point.

Daffney: Yeah. And he really wanted it; he was willing to earn it, and he was willing to keep on earning it after he had it. And they just poo-poop'd all our ideas. I don't run a wrestling federation, so I don't know how difficult it is. You have to be so PC with all the different wrestlers and not really offend anyone. So I think he understood. For me, being right there with him, and hoping that good things are going to happen, and then they just sit you at home. It does get kind of frustrating.