"There is a very intelligent man in there" - Former WWE star Lars Sullivan receives a very encouraging message (Exclusive)
Lars Sullivan was quietly released earlier this year after a largely forgettable WWE run.
The former NXT Superstar was once earmarked to be one of the company's top monster heels, but untimely injuries, severe anxiety issues and a slew of past controversies spelled the end of his WWE career.
Sullivan astonishingly spent eight years in the WWE, and despite his frequent hiatuses, 'The Freak' still had few solid programs in NXT, one of them being his angle featuring Killian Dain (aka Big Damo).
The former Sanity member sat down for an exclusive interview with Sportskeeda Wrestling's very own, Riju Dasgupta, and shared his experiences of working with Lars Sullivan.
Killian Dain was well aware of Lars Sullivan's problems in his personal life and had some encouraging words for the troubled former WWE star.
Dain is hopeful that Lars Sullivan will learn from his negative experiences and strive for positive long-term results. The former Sanity muscleman praised Lars for being an elite athlete and an intelligent person who was unlucky with the injury bug in WWE.
"He was a lot of fun to wrestle with. With his personal life and stuff like that, I just hope the best for him as a person, and I hope that every negative experience that he has he can learn from and everything else he can turn into a positive because there is a very intelligent man in there. There is an incredible athlete in there as well. I think he was very unlucky with injuries, which was one of those things as well," Dain stated.
He had this incredible look, this incredible intensity: Killian Dain on Lars Sullivan in the WWE
The Irish superstar continued to speak highly of Lars Sullivan and credited him for being an intense performer with a fantastic look.
Big Damo had a lot of fun wrestling against Lars Sullivan despite being unfamiliar with his opponent's in-ring work. Sullivan transitioned to professional wrestling from a bodybuilding background and spent a relatively longer time training at the Performance Center than most of his peers from the developmental system.
Killian Dain and Lars Sullivan had not worked on the NXT live event circuit but could still create good chemistry and hard-hitting matches on WWE TV.
WWE's decision to put the two behemoths against each other was a quintessential booking call, and Dain recalled that he was also Sullivan's first credible rival in terms of height and weight.
"His personal life is his personal life. As a talent, he was incredible," Dain continued. "He had this incredible look, this incredible intensity, like, him and I had a lot of fun wrestling each other, actually. One of the worst parts, the first time we wrestled each other, was on TV. We didn't do anything on house shows, so we literally really had no feeling for each other, and it went way better than I expected because he was very new, and it was probably the first time he was wrestling somebody who was at kind of his height and weight."
Since leaving WWE, Lars Sullivan has begun working towards moving away from the professional wrestling business, and he has also apparently found a new career to pursue.
As for Killian Dain - who was also released this year - the third and final part of the superstar's interview with SK Wrestling features his insightful thoughts on Matt Riddle, Damian Priest's push, WWE WrestleMania debut, and more.