Perry Saturn confirms that the Moppy gimmick was punishment from WWE
During a WWE match in 2001, enhancement wrestler Mike Bell accidentally botched a move involving Perry Saturn, causing Saturn to land awkwardly. Saturn legitimately lost his temper and retaliated by beating Bell around ringside, including throwing him out of the ring and ramming him into the steel steps.
While speaking to Chris Van Vliet, Saturn confirmed that his “Moppy” gimmick was punishment for what he did to Bell…
“The Mike Bell thing was my fault. That hip toss put me on my head. I saw a flash of light, and the next thing I knew he was in the corner, and I was kneeing him. I was blanked out through all that, but it doesn’t matter. I was wrong. You can’t do that.
They were hot. Tom Prichard was the agent, and he babyfaced me with the heat. ‘Perry, are you okay? We need to make sure he’s okay. I didn’t know he landed on his head like that.’ The next day, my neck was f*cked up. I had to go to the doctor to get my neck looked at, but I wasn’t hurt, and that doesn’t give me the right to do what I did.
And Vince told me, ‘Okay, Perry, you have to tell me right now that you’re never going to do that again.’ I go, ‘Vince, I didn’t do it on purpose this time, so I can’t tell you that because I didn’t mean to do it.’ He was getting hot at me, and I’m just not going to tell him something that I don’t believe. If I tell him something, he’s going to know it’s what I believe. Otherwise, I’m not going to say it, because that’s important to me.
My excuse to Vince was why I couldn’t tell him I wouldn’t do it anymore is because I landed on my f*cking head and I had no idea what I was doing. A week later, I’m doing Moppy.
They didn’t pitch it to me. They had Paul E [Heyman] pitch it to me because I was close with Paul E, and I’m pretty sure they assumed I was going to quit, and I was going to.
Paul E explaining it like I’m the village idiot. I go, ‘Paul E, I’m not going to do that. I’m going to look like a f*cking idiot.’ He goes, ‘Perry, you have no choice. You have to do it.’ I go, ‘I can’t do it. I’ll be f*cked.’ He goes, ‘You’ll be f*cked if you don’t do it.’
I go, ‘So I’m f*cked either way then? So I’ll just go home.’ He goes, ‘You won’t be f*cked if you get it over.’ I trusted Paul E, and they never gave me any direction or anything. They just go, here’s the mop and do whatever.
They called them Saturnisms. I was very serious, especially back then. Every day I wanted to quit, and every day I thought about it. But I kept hearing Paul E say, ‘Not if you get it over.’ No direction at all. I come up with all that sh*t on my own. The island, Castaway, I make Moppy into the ball, Wilson.”
Thanks to ChrisVanVliet.com for the quotes.