By James Caldwell, PWTorch columnist

Charlie Haas, as a former amateur wrestling champion and World tag team champion with Shelton Benjamin several years ago, knew the importance of wrestling as part of his act in WWE, but he wasn't focused on delivering entertainment value to keep a spot on the roster.

His new gimmick of imitating wrestlers was spurned from his previous gimmick of donning a lucha libre mask in the middle of a match to find super powers. That only led to Heat and house show matches. The new gimmick will keep him on Raw TV, he believes.

"I want to show there is charisma in Charlie Haas," he told Tim Baines in the Calgary Sun. "I'm impersonating the best, paying homage to them, not embarrassing them. ... I was very serious about wrestling, about knowing the holds and I missed out on the sports entertainment. This is helping me relax and everything seems to come easier."

Haas says WWE VP of talent relations John Laurinaitis came up with the idea, then the WWE creative team writers put their spin on the character to make it a semi-weekly feature on Raw.

"I came to realize that it's not all about wrestle, wrestle, wrestle. It's about the entertainment," Haas said. "I looked at people like JBL and how long it took him to develop the JBL character. I never gave up, I knew I would succeed."

At the conclusion of the interview, Haas addressed past steroid use following his name appearing on a Sports Illustrated list of WWE wrestlers linked to an internet pharmacy providing steroids without proper medical clearance within the terms of the Wellness Policy. Haas said he made a mistake.

"I'm not going to lie about it. I'm not proud of what I did and I have to live with it," he said. "It was wrong, a mistake that I made. I thought I was doing something to suppress the pain. But what I was doing was hurting myself. And it was embarrassing to my family and to the company."

Link: Haas interview.

RELATED STORY at PWTorch.com: Haas scheduled for Honky Tonk role at previous WWE PPV.

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