Ex-WWE Star Says He Nearly Quit After Vince McMahon Handed Him A Mop For His New Gimmick

Perry Saturn still remembers the moment he realized the WWE gimmick waiting for him was going to be very different from what he had been doing before. The former European Champion was handed a mop, asked to build a character around it, and according to him, there was barely any direction attached to the idea. For Saturn, this wasn't some harmless comedy angle he had willingly picked. He believed it was punishment for what happened during his 2001 match with Mike Bell, and at the time, he was already thinking about leaving WWE. 

The strange part is that Saturn didn't just perform the gimmick and move on. He ended up creating much of the material himself. During an appearance on INSIGHT with Chris Van Vliet, he explained that Paul Heyman was brought in to pitch the idea because they were close. Saturn said he was pretty sure WWE expected him to quit. He even told Heyman he would look like a "f*cking idiot," but Heyman's response left him with basically one option: make it work. 

The Mike Bell Incident Changed Saturn's WWE Direction 

The story goes back to 2001, when Saturn faced Mike Bell in a singles match. Things went too far, and Saturn broke character before attacking Bell. Management didn't take kindly to what happened, and Saturn believes the fallout directly led to the bizarre gimmick that followed. 

Heyman was the person who presented the idea to him. Saturn recalled being told he had to do it, even after pushing back against the concept. When he argued that he would be "f*cked" by doing it, Heyman told him he would be in trouble if he refused too. 

That left Saturn with a pretty simple choice: quit or try to make the ridiculous idea work. 

Saturn Built Moppy Into More Than Just A Joke 

There wasn't a detailed creative blueprint waiting for him, either. Saturn said WWE basically gave him the mop and told him to do whatever he wanted. 

That lack of direction became part of the reason the character developed the way it did. Saturn came up with what he called his own "Saturnisms," turning the mop into the focus of his segments. He even drew from Cast Away, imagining Moppy as the ball Wilson from the movie. 

Saturn said he was very serious during that period and thought about quitting "every day." Still, Heyman's words  "Not if you get it over"  stayed with him, pushing him to keep working with the gimmick. 

Perry Saturn Still Had Championship Success In WWE 

The mop angle became one part of Saturn's WWE run, but it wasn't the whole story. He had arrived in WWE in 2000 alongside Chris Benoit, Dean Malenko and Eddie Guerrero as The Radicalz. 

While Benoit and Guerrero eventually became world champions, Saturn captured the European Championship and won the Hardcore Championship twice. His WWE run ended in 2002 when the company released him, and he never returned to the promotion. 

For Saturn, though, the Moppy period remains tied to a much bigger feeling from that time he wanted to walk away, but decided to see whether he could somehow make the bizarre gimmick work.