The former ‘Shane Thorne’ and ‘SLAPJACK’ does his first post-WWE interview.
For the past six years of his pro wrestling career, Shane Haste, formerly known as ‘Shane Thorne’ and ‘SLAPJACK’ has been under the WWE umbrella. Haste, a 19-year veteran is back on the independent scene and last week, he made his return to New Japan Pro-Wrestling for their STRONG taping in California.
Haste was released from WWE this past November and he told the Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling podcast that he had been anticipating being released for years.
Oh yeah, I expected it [WWE release] for four years. With the run I was having, so I was like yeah, every day’s good and when I got the call, ‘Thanks. I know you guys tried and supported’ and also like, they have that P.C. full of young talent, fresh, young talent who haven’t been seen so why not use those people? Fresh stuff. People love — people, consumers and that love new things so yeah, I don’t take any of it personally. I saved my money and took care of my body, made a lot of good friends, some great memories so I’ve got nothing to be too upset about. I would’ve loved one last run without the mask as myself, but it is what it is.
The last time he wrestled a televised match on WWE programming was in April 2021 while he was donning the ‘SLAPJACK’ character. Since being added to the SmackDown brand, Haste was present at television every week.
He thinks he was written into and off of shows four or five times. He said it became a comical of how long he could be employed without doing anything. Haste also added that they did not want his on-screen name to be ‘Shane’.
I was at SmackDown every single week and I think I got written into the show and off the show about four or five times. Yeah, it’s pretty funny. It became comical of how long I could be employed without doing anything. How many times can we start-stop this?
They didn’t want me to be ‘Shane’. They wanted a new name, which I was like call me Dave, call me Bob, call me John, whatever. You’re just gonna call me ‘Thorne’ in a few weeks anyway. People don’t have two names. You’re just gonna call me the one name so who cares? Like whatever gets me out there and then yeah, that didn’t happen and then I think they had me and Toni Storm in a bit with [Happy] Corbin while he was out of his luck and he was gonna do this thing where he’s just going around to people asking for money and so they had me and Toni there. They come up to Toni and go, ‘Here’s your part for that’ and I’m like, ‘Oh, what about my bit?’ And they’re like, ‘Oh, sorry, you’ve been cut.’ I’m like damn and then 15 minutes, they cut all of them. I’m like you couldn’t have just waited and cut me with the whole thing? It’s just funny. It comes and goes.
The RETRIBUTION group once consisted of Shane Haste (SLAPJACK), T-BAR, MACE, RECKONING (Mia Yim) and Mustafa Ali. The group split in 2021 and before Ali was brought into the fold, he said they pitched for Shane McMahon, Edge and Vince McMahon himself to be the leader of the group.
My theory [about why RETRIBUTION fell off], I’ve never been told anything solid but my theory was we were running out of the P.C. at the time with a skeleton crew, none of the big stars were coming every week. We moved to the ThunderDome and all the big stars start coming back. So Vince [McMahon] had his stars to play with now. So that was my thing and you can’t be like, ‘We deserve it more than Drew McIntyre and Brock Lesnar.’ I’m like, they’re stars, that’s what happens. When your TV show gets your main characters back, you’re gonna use the main characters. So, that was the thing, we kept — we pitched ideas to have a lot of different people as the leader. We wanted Shane McMahon or Edge or just someone higher, as high as possible, we went as high as possible. We pitched for Vince to be the leader as well. We went as high as possible for who the leader would be. So, we wanted to be attached to one of the main characters and I guess at the start, we were. We were doing stuff with Bray Wyatt and Hurt Business which you know, was [Bobby] Lashley so…
He recounted finding out about their name changes as they preparing to be in the opening segment of a show. They were moving around backstage and were pulled to the side and informed of the changes.
Haste said ‘T-BAR’ was meant to be an acronym for ‘That Boy Ain’t Right’.
Not at all [SLAPJACK was not my idea]. That was — I can’t remember what segment we were in. We were in the opening segment. It could’ve been the first time we got the masks, maybe? We were running through it, running through it, doors [open] so we had to run backstage and as we run backstage, we just get pulled aside and they’re like, ‘Hey guys. Here’s your new names; they’re like: SLAPJACK, T-BAR, MACE, RECKONING’ I think, I’m not sure. The girls were off doing makeup or hair and makeup I think at the time or getting ready. They were pulled aside to do something else so it’s just the three guys and we’re just like bewildered of — I know what SLAPJACK is. It’s a little weapon, they’re meant to be weapons and I just wanted to hear from them, ‘So, what’s a SLAPJACK?’ And like, ‘Oh, it’s this badass weapon.’ I’m like that’s not what people are going to know. I knew it was going to be bad and then T-BAR is meant to be ‘That Boy Ain’t Right’ I think and I was like [wow] and then ‘MACE’ is cool, like dammit, MACE. ‘You get the cool one.’
The hockey mask that Haste wrestled in as ‘SLAPJACK’ was difficult to see through. According to Haste, Vince McMahon loved all of the masks for the RETRIBUTION characters but Shane need alterations made to his.
He recalled being in a match and not seeing a kick to the side of his face coming because a part of his vision was blocked.
No [I didn’t like the mask]. It was rough man and I’d asked to have some — Vince [McMahon] loved the masks. The first time we got ‘em, we put them on and he’s like, ‘I love em. These are great’ and we’re like yes sir boss, whatever you say. We’re not gonna argue. But yeah, I asked is there any changes or whatever. The vision on the SLAPJACK one is like wearing horse blinders. So I just said, ‘Can we get these cut down a little bit? So I can see’ and I wanted the mask, the mouthpiece to change, to be like a downward line so it didn’t look like a smiley face, which they were like, ‘Cool’ and then maybe cover the nose part so it’s just the bottom of the nose, not my whole dorky nose hanging out and then only the little bit of that got changed which didn’t help anything. We had a tag match once, I got hit with a kick from the side and I was looking forward, bam and I was out, and then it was hard to breath in, it was hard to keep straight because they were trying something new so it wasn’t like — it was like a bike helmet at the back so you have to fit it really tight but then it’s gonna loosen up as you’re wrestling and of course it did so it would move around a lot which then you’re blind on this side and that side and then just, yeah.
Haste’s longtime tag team partner Mikey Nicholls was interviewed by POST Wrestling in 2021. Nicholls is still a member of the New Japan talent roster.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit the Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling podcast with an H/T and link back to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
