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Phineas I. Godwin and Henry O.Godwin are former two-time World Wrestling Federation Tag-Team Champions. When Phineas became Mideon, he also held the European Championship. In a rare interview with Perched On The Top Rope, Phineas/Mideon opens up about his tag-team title runs, becoming European Champion, and the story behind how he became Naked Mideon. The audio from the interview is below.
SportsKeeda: Welcome everyone to Perched On The Top Rope. It's me; it's me, it's the Long Island Iced Lee, joining me today former two-time tag-team champion, one-time European champion, we have Phineas Godwin a.k.a. Mideon. How are you doing today?
Mideon: Good. Long Island Iced Lee, I like that. That's good.
SK: You were brought into the WWE in 1996 with Henry Godwin.
Phineas Godwin: Yes, we were in WCW before that.
SK: You had Hillbilly Jim as a manager for a little bit.
Phineas Godwin:...and the question is, why didn't he mention us in his Hall of Fame speech? I know! I'm just kidding.
SK: What was it like being in that tag team and having Hillbilly Jim as a manager?
Phineas Godwin: Hillbilly was the best. It's good to have somebody that had been around forever. We learned a lot from him. Actually, when we first started, they put us on the road with The Bushwackers in eight-man tags. We got to learn the whole kids thing. No matter win, lose, or whatever, after the match, you bring the kids in, and everybody dances and has fun. We learned a lot from them and Hillbilly.
SK: What was it like the first time The Godwins became tag-team champions?
Phineas Godwin: It was the greatest night ever. It's very weird; I have two of my highlights in my career are both like an asterisk, the night that we won the belts in Madison Square Garden. The place was packed, it was great. It was also the infamous night they did the curtain call, Shawn, Hunter, Scott, Kevin, and all those guys. The other was I got to wrestle Vince McMahon before a pay-per-view, and unfortunately, that's the night Owen died.
It was great until we showed up to TV the next day and told us we were dropping the belts, hahaha too soon! We didn't even make it home with them.
SK: You did have a second run with the gold, what was that like?
Phineas Godwin: It was a little longer, hahaha. Everyones so jaded now, I mean it's a WWF/E Belt, it was awesome. I grew up watching Dusty Rhodes, to be a champion was awesome.
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SK: How did WWE transition you from Phineas to Mideon?
Mideon: My partner had broken his neck. He had to take time off, and Undertaker came up to me and said, "Hey, in a perfect world, I want to do this really dark gimmick could we do?" I didn't write the stuff, but I did the ideas. Me and him talk still about once a week.
He would say, "Just write stuff for yourself, and we'll do it." The Ministry stuff was awesome. It went pretty far until it was getting over, then Corporate Ministry became a thing, and it kind of just went downhill from there. It didn't work. We needed the entrance, the music, and the lights and everything.
SK: What was it like becoming a European Champion?
Mideon: HAHAHA well, I literally took it from Shane's bag. It was cool; I liked it. I still respect the belt, Davey Boy, and Shawn, and I got to keep it for a little while.
SK: I have to ask, did you enjoy doing the naked Mideon stuff?
Mideon: I don't remember where we were, but that whole thing came about after we just got done working. I just got out of the shower, and they come by saying, "Hey, we need some people for a meet n greet." I joke around a lot. So I just put my fanny pack on, and just walked out in the hallway, they laughed.
Next thing I know the next day at a TV taping, they say, "Vince wants to see you." So I went up there, and Vince goes, "Hey, we're gonna try this." I made the exact same amount of money as I did wrestling thirty minutes a night, and all I had to do was run out, save my body, and have fun. It was cool and something different — all the things I've done in my life, and that's what everyone remembers.
SK: Where can fans find you on social media?
Mideon: My Facebook is Dennis Knight. I'm never on there; I don't have Twitter. I don't have a social media presence.
SK: I'd like to thank you for taking the time to speak with me today.
Mideon: Of course.
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