JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – By the mid-1990s Hulk Hogan had left the World Wrestling Federation (today’s WWE). Vince McMahon had just beat the federal government in court following allegations the WWF had provided its wrestlers anabolic steroids. To do that, McMahon started moving away from overly muscular performers to stars with more realistic looking physiques. One star who became champion was Bret “The Hitman” Hart. Other stars to gain notoriety during this era were names like Shawn Michaels, Triple H and “Stone Cold” Steve Austin.
One wrestler who entered the company in 1994 was a man named Mike Droese. In WWF he was called Duke “The Dumpster” Droese. His wrestling gimmick (character) was that of a garbage man. He would carry a trash can to the ring each week and feud with aristocratic characters like Jerry “The King” Lawler and Hunter Hearst Helmsley (Triple H). They were natural rivalries, the working trash man versus the upper-crust snobs.
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During this era (Droese was with the company from 1994-96) he worked with all the top stars.
In the interview, he talks at length about the unofficial group backstage known to fans as “The Kliq”. That consisted of Shawn Michaels, Kevin Nash (Diesel), Scott Hall (Razor Ramon), and Hunter Hearst Helmsley (Triple H). Many fans have believed that the group had a lot of power backstage.
Here are some of his quotes from the interview:
On Bret Hart — “I was riding with Bret”... “I was hearing all about things going on between him and Shawn (Michaels) and discussions about angles.” ... “Back in those days he really didn’t seem to like Shawn.”
On Steve Austin — “I’m probably the only person who ever refused to do a job for the eventual ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin. We still joke about that.”
On Triple H — “Me and Scott Hall were sitting watching the monitor in the back while he was wrestling, and I just remember Scott talking about how impressed he was with the guy and that he - in his words - he was gonna’ make him his project. Which basically meant he was gonna’ be jumping in with their gang. The Kliq.”
On “The Kliq” (Shawn Michaels, Triple H, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall) — “The actual Kliq had a lot of power. And a lot of guys resented them. I even did at some point. Many, many years later I realized I was stupid.”
On Shawn Michaels — “Shawn Michaels made it known that when he became champion, he was going to work with all his friends in The Kliq. So that’s different. That’s pulling your guys along with you to main event status.”
On Jerry Lawler — “Working with Jerry ‘The King’ Lawler is like a night off. Number one, he’s great. He’s got great heat without doing anything. You don’t have to run a bunch of spots and stuff. And he takes most of the bumps. Any of the bumps I was taking, he was doing the fake brass knuckles gimmick out of his tights and he would hit me.”
On Shane McMahon — “He’s a cool dude man. He was real cool. You know what’s funny, I didn’t even know he was Vince’s kid when I met him on TV. At tryouts, every time he would talk about his dad, he would call him Vince. He didn’t call him dad, my dad. He called him Vince.”
Droese still puts out a lot of wrestling content online. He can be found on TikTok at tiktok.com.