For the first time since WWE fired him from his trainer job last year, Billy Gunn has addressed the situation publicly. “I don’t blame them at all,” the former DX member told Sports Illustrated.

“I’m going to take every single bit of it because it wasn’t fair to NXT for what Hunter had done for the company. What he’s done with that brand is amazing,” he continued.

Gunn was let go in November after it emerged he’d tested positive for elevated testosterone at a powerlifting event last Summer. “I popped on their test, because I was over their test limit,” he admitted to SI.

What’s interesting is that WWE never knew he had entered the event and therefore never caught wind of the issue until months later. That’s presumably why he wasn’t punished right away.

Gunn claims he wasn’t using the steroid like hormone to cheat anyone, because he was actually trying to beat his own record. “I want to make clear is the powerlifting meet that I went to. I wasn’t on it to win that powerlifting contest because it was me against me anyway.”

However the governing body didn’t see it like that and banned Monty Sopp (his real name) from competition for 4 years.

“Let’s face it: I’m 52 years old,” he continued. “I have my prescription from the doctor.”

While it’s true that older males (especially those who have abused steroids in the past) can go through testosterone replacement therapy to keep a natural level of test in their system, Gunn was found to have a 37-1 testosterone/epitestosterone ratio, which is way higher than a therapeutic level. He either took more than was prescribed or it was never prescribed at all.

Under the Wellness Policy WWE’s limit is 10-1, which itself is considered high when compared to other sports such as the NFL or Olympics which don’t allow any more than 4-1. The Attitude Era star was clearly jacked to the gills!

Despite the contradictions in his statement Gunn at least accepts that WWE did what they had to. As a trainer for future stars he obviously needs to set an example that enhancement is not allowed per the Wellness Policy, even if there are legitimate arguments for wrestlers to be allowed to build bigger bodies. It’s not like it’s a legit sport that you can cheat at.

“I’m perfectly fine with it, and hopefully one day they’ll hire me back because I feel I was a pretty good coach. It’s just the way it all came out. It wasn’t anything that WWE did; they [had] to do what they did, and I feel like I let the NXT kids down. I never, ever wanted to do that. Ever. So I’ll take that.”

All of this does raise an interesting question though. Do WWE actually test trainers? If they do, testing clearly wasn’t common enough to catch Gunn out and it would be pretty foolish to take testosterone if he believed he would be caught.