NiniaPimp Magazine

Question: Is there anything you would like to say to our fans?
BISON:  First off, I would like to thank the fans of wrestling. Thank you for your loyal support through these difficult times in the professional wrestling business. This interview is going to focus mainly on the Japanese, Puerto Rican and a little on the United States wrestling Business. If you are a WWE or TNA fan you may not know who I am but just read the interview to get a different aspect of the wrestling business. I guarantee it will be a good read.

Question: How did you become a fan of wrestling?
BISON: I started my athletic career in Fresno, California. In 4th grade I started to play football and amateur wrestle. Doing those sports I supplemented the two with weight training. I started lifting weights regularly when I was 13
years old.
I worked out at Gold’s Gym. I loved lifting weights more than I did playing football or amateur wrestling. Some kids played video games some rode dirt bikes but I loved to hang out at Gold’s Gym.
I noticed a group of guys would come into the gym once a month. These guys were monsters to me. They would lift heavy weights, they looked like movie stars and they were huge. I was really in awe of them and I told myself, “I wanted to be like them one day.”
I asked around the gym wanting to know who those people were. Some didn’t know but one guy told me they were pro wrestlers. So I went to a local grocery store headed to the media section and looked through some wrestling magazines.  I saw the same guy’s at Gold’s Gym that were in those magazines. They were WWF wrestlers.
My family had just got cable television and on the USA network there was a show called Tuesday Night Titan’s. I watched it every week along with the other WWF programming. I also watched World Class and AWA on ESPN.
This is right before the WrestleMania’s and the Rock and Wrestling connection started on MTV. When I saw Roddy Piper break that platinum record glass frame over Lou Albano’s head, let me tell you, I was hooked on wrestling.
Every time the WWF came to town I went to the shows. Before the shows I would wait around Gold’s Gym all day just to see the wrestlers work out. I remember one time Ken Patera and I talked in the locker room. He went to BYU with my high school football coach. He was really nice to me and we had a good conversation about power lifting. That was Patera’s specialty and at the time I was into it also.
After High school I accepted a scholarship to play football at the University of Colorado. I kind of lost interest in watching pro wrestling until one day this monster came into the University of Colorado’s weight room. Again, I was in awe of this guy and I wanted to know who he was.
They told me his name was Leon White and he played for Colorado back in the 1970′s. Then they told me he was a pro wrestler working in Japan under the name Big Van Vader. This was right before he got signed by WCW. Vader would rarely come to the gym and work out but when he did I tried talking to him and he was always pissed off  and unapproachable.
I started to watch WCW because of Vader. He was a real heel monster and I loved watching him destroy people. When he would show up at the gym I would again try to talk wrestling with him and again he would treat me like an asshole.
After I graduated college I was done with football. People ask me why I didn’t try to pursue the NFL. The truth is I was a stupid young kid that felt burned out on football and at the ripe old age of 22, I retired. I will always consider that a huge mistake I made in my life. I will always regret not giving it a shot.

Question: How did you become a Pro Wrestler
BISON:  When I was at the University of Colorado the football players were treated like Gods. It was first class. Best hotels, being fed the best food,  playing in front of 70,000  people at Folsom Field in Colorado or in Nebraska and Oklahoma. We went to a bowl game every year. Staying 2 weeks in Florida for the Block Buster Bowl against Alabama. Staying in Phoenix, Arizona to play Syracuse in the Fiesta Bowl. We stayed in Hawaii two weeks for the Aloha Bowl my senior year.
Then after my eligibility  was done they told me, “You can’t do this anymore,” you feel like you have been dumped in the middle of nowhere. I was a civilian for the first time in my life.
What next? Get a 9 to 5 job? I was a 290 lbs. 6’3 gorilla. How was I going to convert from an athlete to a regular person? I couldn’t, I stuck out, and I wasn’t normal looking. Me in a suit and tie?…… please.
I approached my old strength and conditioning coach Doc Kries about him talking to Vader about possibly getting me into the wrestling business. His response was not good. It seemed that there were two football players before me that Vader helped get into the business. These two idiots made Vader look bad. I guess they were sent to the Power Plant, WCW’s training school, were given special treatment because of Vader and they totally blew it by being jackass’s.  So Doc Kries told me Vader is not interested in getting ex-football players into the business.
I was crushed. I kept staying on Vader about it. I begged him to give me a shot. Vader just didn’t like me for some reason. So I decided and said to myself, “Screw him, I am going to do this the hard way.”
Back then the Internet was in its infancy. The business was so tightly sealed no one would know where to go to be a wrestler. Back then you had to know someone. Well, the someone I knew didn’t give me the time of day so I was in the dark on how to get into the wrestling business.
It was probably 3 years after my football career and I was working at a furniture store in Denver moving sofas for a living. What a depressing time in my life. I was a fat, beer drinking warehouse worker with zero direction. This was the time the WCW WWF wars were heating up. I can honestly say that is when the business was at its best.
Every Monday night was wrestling night. I was so hooked on wrestling then.  I was so determined to become a wrestler but I didn’t know how to get into the business, it was so frustrating.
I remember one time WCW was in town for a Nitro tapping. I couldn’t go because I had to move sofas but on my lunch break I drove to the Denver Coliseum to try to talk to anyone who knew how I could get into the business.
I approached this roadie or some crew guy that was smoking a cigarette next to one of the WCW semi trucks. He told me to call the head quarters at 1 CNN center. So I called, talked to some lady, she asks, “Do you have any experience as a pro wrestler?” Stupidly, I said, “NO.” She replied, “I am sorry sir we can’t help you.”
One of my co-workers at the furniture store got a new computer and had the Internet hooked up. I thought the Internet was the coolest thing then but today it is killing wrestling, but that’s a whole other story.  So, I got the bright idea to put,” pro wrestling schools,” into the search engine. The first one that popped up was All Pro Wrestling in Hayward, California. I told myself ,”Pack your bags your going to wrestling school.”

Question: Tell us about your training.
BISON:  To be honest, God was on my side when he directed me to APW. At APW I was trained the right way. At APW I was trained in an, “old fashioned style.” The old fashion style is paying your dues. Learning how to wrestle slowly and laying a strong fundamental foundation before you have your first match.
I didn’t start my training learning a power bomb or a choke slam the first day. I did cardio drills the first two weeks. At first, it pissed me off that I wasn’t in the ring learning wrestling. But when I did finally make it to the ring, I didn’t like it.
In wrestling you have to learn how to fall right to protect yourself, this is called, “bumping.” For 5 months all we did was bump. It hurt, it was really painful. My whole body ached. It was way tougher than playing football. I really didn’t think I was going to make it. The class I started my training with consisted of 48 boys. After 9 months it was down to 3 men including myself. Pro wrestling is very brutal to a person’s body and how I made it was without a doubt the toughest thing I have ever done.

Question: Tell us about the first couple years of your wrestling career.
BISON:  My first match was in 1998 against a guy named James Watkins. It was a good match but you could tell I was not comfortable being in front of people and I just wrestled awkward. I was very bland. The fans didn’t like me. I couldn’t talk on a microphone. Truthfully, I sucked my first 2 years of wrestling. I am sure there are people today who still think I suck but back then I really sucked. I had no concept of how to be a wrestler.
After about two years the promoter at APW decided to put me in a hood, a mask, and make me this, “Old School Heel,” type wrestler called Super Destroyer 2000. Once I put that mask on it changed me. I was more relaxed in the ring. I started having good matches. I was moving forward. The gimmick was getting over with the fans and it felt good that I was being accepted as a credible wrestler.

Question: What was your biggest highlight the first couple of years in wrestling?
BISON:     I had an opportunity to work for a Hollywood promotion called the Urban Wrestling Alliance. I say Hollywood because it was filmed in Hollywood and was backed by Hollywood money.
The whole concept would be based around an,” Urban,” theme. African Americans, Puerto Ricans, Native Americans, Mexicans and Samoans were the good guys. Well, the bad guys would have to be White. So I was hired to come in and play a Texas redneck.
They had 8 pilot episodes to film. I was in Los Angeles for 3 weeks. I was making $200 a day and at that time it was gold to me. Some of the wrestlers that were a part of it were Orlando Jordan and Sonny Siaki.
It was such a great experience. I got to feel Hollywood and it was cool. Catering trucks at our shoots. I went to acting classes. I got to wrestle in the Grand Olympic Auditorium.
The pilots were sent to test markets on the UPN network like Dallas, Miami, New York, Chicago and a few other cities. They were running late at night going against some other ethnic shows. The pilots got good ratings but none of the networks picked up the show.
Looking back I can see why it failed. First of all it was too Hollywood oriented. They were hiring actors to be wrestlers. They were training actors in
3 weeks how to be wrestlers. That’s impossible.
The people doing the booking were Hollywood scriptwriters. That will never work even though it still is happening today in other promotions. I remember one time an acting agent was directing story lines. People calling the shots had no clue how to run a wrestling promotion. I was still very green at that time of my career but I was getting paid to be a wrestler and I was back to that life style I had when I played football at Colorado, so I was happy.
When it failed, again, I was crushed. WCW had just been bought out by WWF and jobs in the industry got scarce. It was 2000, I wasn’t getting any younger and I was seriously thinking about quitting, in fact, I was going to quit. I told everyone I was finished and I had an opportunity at a great promotion at my 9 to 5 job to be an executive at a major retail store.
People understood where I was coming from and they wished me well but the man who trained me thought I was a fool to quit.
I will never forget Mike Modest and I were standing in the parking lot at APW. He was desperately trying to talk me into staying in the business. I told him I had had enough. Modest told me to stay around for just one month because
he and some others were trying to get a Japanese wrestling promotion to come to APW and scout some talent. So I stuck around.
That next month 3 Japanese men representing a Japanese wrestling promotion and a television crew and reporters from Japan came to APW to watch some matches. I had a match with Tony Jones. It was a good match and Tony made me look good but I also made him look good.
After the matches I thought they would say, “Thanks for your time we will keep in touch.” No, what they did was, they pulled 3 of us one at a time into the office of APW. I was the last to get called in. I sat down and remember looking at the 3 Japanese men and thinking, ” what do they want from me?”
One of the Japanese men spoke dead on perfect English. The other two were silent and had these deadpan scary intimidating faces just staring at me with those cold looking eyes. We had a conversation and the Japanese man that spoke perfect English said, “Congratulations, you’re going to Japan to work for Pro Wrestling Noah .” I thought to myself, “for who?”

Exclusive Shark Boy Interview:
by Johnny B. Molestar

From the depths of the ocean and appearing in professional wrestling rings across the land, we are here to interview Shark Boy ?.

So how did you come up with the Shark Boy gimmick?  Are there any plans to tag with John ?Shark? Tenta or the Lobsterman?

The whole thing was originally inspired by a song and promoter Ian Rotten helped put the finishing touch on the name.  My brother and I designed the look of the character.  With regard to the second question, I’ve had plenty of unusual partners in the past, so nothing would surprise me.

How about a Shark Girl?  Are there any plans for the wife or girlfriend to accompany you to the ring?

No, not right now.  There was a “Shark Girl” character briefly, but nothing long-term.  I think it would be fun to do that angle at some point when the time is right.

When I see you on TNA, they sometimes announce your schools of fans.  Who came up with that?  It?s great.

I’m not sure, but I think maybe Scott Hudson came up with that when I was in WCW.  I agree with you, it’s great.

It sounds like Hudson.  You?ve wrestled in a lot of organizations, which one have you liked the most?

I’m having so much fun with TNA right now, so I would have to say them.  I also really enjoy performing in front of friends and family at Buckeye Pro Wrestling events in Ohio.

How would you compare XPW and ECW?

I never worked for ECW, but the fans in XPW were great to me.  They got with my character right away in both Philadelphia and Los Angleles.  I’m not really an “extreme” wrestler, but the character is so unique that the fans were really able to connect with it.

In my last few wrestling interviews, nobody commented on Rob Black because they were all suing him.  How was it to work with him?

He was always very professional to me and I have nothing bad to say about him personally.

And how would you compare Rob Black and Paul Heyman?

Both had a vision and ideas about taking the wrestling product to “the next level”.  I think the biggest difference is that Heyman has a much stronger concept of “wrestling” while Black’s specialty seemed to be shocking people.

Speaking of shocking, what do you think of hardcore wrestling?

I’m not a huge fan of it personally, but I understand its place in the industry.

Were you a backyard wrestler as a youngster?

Yeah, I guess you could say that.  We never did anything “extreme” or “hardcore”.  We just had fun.

Have you ever played the game titled Backyard Wrestling?  I am sure many fans would like to see your character on there.

I haven’t had the chance to yet, but I know I will at some point.  It will be great to finally see my character on a video game someday.

You?ve worked with WCW and XPW? all of those companies were ill-fated.  Do you see that sort of future for TNA?

I think big things are still to come for TNA.

You don?t think you jinxed those other companies, do you?

Lol, I hope not.

I?ve seen some photos with you and Shane Helms.  Are you two friends?  I would love to see a big push for a ?Super Friends? group in the WWE.

Yes, we are good friends, and I too would love to see he and Rosey get a great big push.

Butch Long – Indy Wrestler Interview

Posted on 20 December 2010 by SnowMan Jones

Butch Long is a former WCW wrestler who currently wrestles in the state of Florida. He, Marc Mandrake, Donnie York, Ferrari, and Star Stevens comprise the successful tag team known as the Highwaymen. Their primary stomping grounds are DWI, ASW, and FU Wrestling. He is also making a name for himself in WXW. Let’s see what Butch has to say!

Butch, it is great to have you here in the Pitt! Can you tell us a little about how you got started?
I trained at Larry Sharpe’s Monster Factory and trained by Jimmy Delray just before he became a HEAVENLY Body for the WWF.
Trained with Buck Quartermaine, NavySEAL, Leroy Howard ,Bill Payne.

How was that? The first year was fun had my first match with Bill Payne at the Sportatoriam. He would end up my tag team partner of 12 years and as The Bounty Hunters. We would feud with The Southern Posse, The Hitmen Cris Nelson and Dennis Allan.

Who did you like working with?
It really doesn’t matter who you like working the most but back in the day the Dynamite Express had very good matches with the Bounty Hunters. Mike Sullivan and his partner Emory Hail worked well when we called ourselves The Bomb Squad, and in IPW as Inner Aggression we had memorable match with Chaotic Cult.

What big names have you worked?
Biggest names wow had the pleasure of being in the ring with Ric Flair, Honkey Tonk Man, Jerico, the Steiner Brothers, the Road Warriors, the Rock and Roll Express, Public Enemy, Chris Benoit, Onita Masato, Tanaka, Hyabusa to name a few,

Can you tell us about your list of injuries? About 1996 I was trying to do a spinning leg scissors. The move messed up my knee for a long time had to wear a titanium brace!

I am sorry to hear that. Can you tell us who you liked when you were young?
As a kid, I liked Ivan Putski, Road Warriors, the Freebirds, Magnum TA, Terry Funk, and Dick Slater. I try to use my peers as examples

Is there anything you would like to promote? What about FU Wrestling?
Come out and see The Highwaymen at Gasoline Ally in Largo on 66th St. It is at 8:30 on Tuesdays. ASW is at Stroker’s Billiards on West Hillsboro Avenue in Tampa on Friday nights. Bell time is 8PM. Also, DWI is at the Showman’s Event center on Jan 13th through the 16th.

Don’t you also work WXW?
Yes. Please check out WXW in Minneola, Florida on Jan 15th!

What websites do you like?
I enjoy www.wrestling911.com. It is an informative website that covers the entire state. It doesn’t just cover one or two companies.

Anything else you want to talk about?
Just be watching for The Highwaymen to be rolling into town near you as we set out on path to tag team supremacy in 2011.

Thanks for the plug, Butch! Best of luck to you and the Highwaymen in 2011!

Brad “Lodi” Cain Interview
NinjaPimp’s Exclusive Interview!

Lodi, WCW’s West Hollywood Blonde!

Did you see the WWE recently removed Muhammad Hassan for political reasons. Same happened to Chuck and Billy. Do you have any thoughts on those characters? Chuck and Billy? What a blatant rip-off of the WHB. They were terrible. I don’t think they were removed for political reasons, but maybe from a lack of talent? They just could not get that gimmick over. Billy Gunn has had his run with other characters that I enjoyed, but with Chuck, let’s just say DUD. Hassan’s storyline was good, but the casual fan doesn’t watch enough to follow or understand that he wasn’t trying to be a terrorist, but was displaying discrimination against Arab-Americans. I didn’t like them adding the terrorist overtones at the end, I thought it was unnecessary and went against the original direction of the angle.

I thought the Flock stole the show in WCW. What did you think of the crew? Do you have any comments on Raven, Reese, Kidman, or any of the others? I owe Raven so much. He helped me in ways I could never describe in a written interview. He has a great mind for the business and is talented. The Flock angle was good/ great. It was ended way too soon. Take all of the Flock members and tell me a time any of them were more over than when the Flock was together in 97-98.

So what was your favorite sign, and who came up with the sign idea? I liked “If it is raining, bring your La Parka.” Signs, signs, everywhere a sign. Raven stole the idea from Lou E., formerly sign guy Dudley. Brilliant idea Raven. My favorite sign? Too many to narrow it down to one.

Did you come up with all your own signs? No, some of the boys would give me ideas, though probably 90% of the ideas were mine.

You’ve wrestled some huge names. Who are some of the biggest? My first Nitro match was against Chris Benoit. I wrestled Bill Goldberg, Eddie Guerrero, Booker T, Kevin Nash, DDP… at one time or another almost all of the names from WCW.

I remember you facing Goldberg. Is he as stiff in the ring as everyone says? One time I saw him spear Chavo Guerrero Jr. I thought Chavo might have died. I had no problems with Bill, we were friends from the Power Plant at WCW. he was a class act.

More recently you had some hard times. Your apartment burned, you spent time in a wheel chair… can you tell us a little about that? Hey, why bring up old stuff? Yes, in 2002 I broke my neck for the second time and was in a collar for 5 long months. My apartment totally burned last year and I lost everything I owned. God has blessed me with some wonderfully high peaks in my life, I cannot complain when he throws in a valley or two. On to bigger and better things, I have my first book coming out in 8-10 weeks. It is a fictional novel about a contest bodybuilder, and it will be available at both my web sites, my store, and Amazon.com, just to name a few places!

Can you tell people about your gym and supplement store? www.yourflexappeal.com is the web address. (www.lodirulz.com is the wrestling site) I owned a pt studio before wrestling and it is my other true passion in life. I am glad to be back in the fitness industry! I train about 20 clients a week now…

So do you think that it is ironic that you own a nutrition store that is located on “Carmel Road?” No comment…

At least it isn’t located on the Hershey Highway. Uh, no comment.

Do you have any closing comments? To all the fans out there, please know I appreciate everything you guys have given me. The boos and the cheers, I will always appreciate. Without you there would be no LODI!

Juggernaut, Wrestling Interview
Juggernaut is a 6’4″ 390 lb monster who was undefeated in 2004. He’s been seen in WCW, but he calls ECCW his home.

Ninjapimp.com likes to profile up and coming wrestling stars, but you have already had your fair share of success. What are some of the championships you have held? Oh man… I can’t even remember most of the titles I’ve held over the years. I’ll try to think of a few of them… I am the current and six time ECCW / NWA Pacific Northwest Champion…. Steve Corino used to run a wrestling company called PWF out of PA, I was the first ever PWF Extreme Champion…. ummm… I’ve had a few tag titles along the way with guys like Dr. Luther and Apocalypse (The Shadow from New Japan)… I think the total is somewhere around 20 titles in just under 10 years…. something like that.

Didn’t you also work with WCW? Did you have a tag team partner back then? I did a little work with WCW back in the day, basically appeared on TV once and got paid to sit around and eat in catering a couple other times. The TV appearance was an opening match on WCW Thunder in 2000 where myself and a couple other guys took on the STELLAR (I hope you can sense my sarcasm) tag team of Kronik in a 2 minute super squash match. That was the day that I truly found out that it didn’t matter how good you are to make good money and get a good push in a major wrestling company.

What else can you tell us about your WCW experience? WCW was a sinking ship when I worked for them. They were pretty much dead and buried and were just waiting for the dirt to get thrown on the casket. The locker room was a little bit tense because everyone knew they would soon be unemployed. Some of the guys obviously had gained enough recognition to move on to the WWE or get consistent bookings internationally, but alot of the guys came out of the WCW power plant and had no chance of making it anywhere else. I just consider myself lucky to have met a few great guys that happened to be working for WCW at the time. I received alot of really good feedback from the guys in charge at the time, and in fact I was told that I would have been offered some kind of developmental deal if the company was not going under… that was a nice confidence booster.

Where did you get the name Juggernaut. We originally know then name from the Marvel comics character. Though I think the Marvel character Juggernaut is about the most badass villain of all time, my use of the name actually has nothing to do with comics at all. Before I received my black belt in Judo, I was undefeated in every Judo tournament I had ever entered. My sensei said that he though I was the unstoppable force, and that I should be called Juggernaut. When I finally did get my black belt in 1996, my sensei got the name Juggernaut embroidered onto my Judo gi. Irony bit me in the ass when I lost my first fight as a black belt… but the name stuck, and I just couldn’t think of anything else when it was time to break into the wrestling business.

This year’s PWI 500 lists you at 292. That puts you ahead of Zach Gowan, Axl Rotten, Bob Sapp, and a bunch of other big names. What do you think of the list? I hold a special place in my heart for the PWI 500. Since I was a young Juggernaut I used to buy the magazine every year, and read all the bios in it from 500 all the way to #1. The magazine takes alot of abuse every year from the self proclaimed “Smart” marks of the world, but you have to take it for what it is. A lot of the guys on that list would never get any press at all if it wasn’t for the 500. It’s always interesting to see where I end up every year… I don’t put a lot of stock into being rated ahead of the guys you named. It’s kinda cool seeing myself move up a little every year… I’m on the right track, if I keep it up, I should be in the top 10 by the time I am 80 years old!

We think you should have been listed higher. Who else do you think are some of the underrated guys that should be higher up on that list? I appreciate people thinking I should be higher on the list, I know that I give people their moneys worth every time I step in the ring, and that’s all I can do… Do I think I am better than some of the guys ahead of me?…. there is no doubt I am, but being in Canada, and being in the west is never good for getting too much press or exposure in a magazine that is based oout of the east coast of the USA. As for guys that being rated higher…. I think I can probably name at least 20 guys that never even made the list that I would easily consider them some of the top wrestlers on earth. But like I said, you have to take the list for what it is, and as mad as some people get about it, you really need to respect the fact that a major Pro Wrestling magazine is giving some press to some guys that would normally not ever see their names in print.

Some people underestimate your marital arts skills. Don’t you hold 2 black belts? I don’t think anyone underestimates my martial arts skills, but it’s normally not something I walk around talking about all the time. Every once in a while I throw some Judo stuff into my matches to keep people thinking. I am very proud of what I achieved in the world of Martial Arts. I earned a First degree black belt in Judo in 1996 and a first degree black belt in a traditional form of Japanese Jujitsu in 1997. Unfortunately, as my wrestling schedule got busier and busier, my opportunities to train in Judo and Jujitsu became less. Once I am done with the wrestling business, I’m sure I will at least return to Judo which I absolutely love.

It sounds like you are a regular ninja. You also have some pimping skills. Can you tell us about your juggernaut chicks? Also, didn’t you have an manager? Who is she? I’m no Ninja, but I am seen quite often wandering wearing Tabi shoes (Ninja shoes), they are the most comfortable shoes on earth. I do ok when it comes to the ladies, I have no complaints… I love the Juggerchicks… I love them all in their own special ways. I’ll admit that I’ve been dropping the ball getting some new pictures up there for everyone though, I’ll work on it….. A couple of them are good friends of mine that just like seeing themselves on the internet…. A couple are ex girlfriends… and a couple are just flat out dirty tramps…. but they are good for the business. I’ve had a couple managers / valets in my time…. but nothing really worth talking about…. Except Princess Lily…. she’s the best!

Can you tell us about your website, Juggernaut t-shirts, and shocker clothes? I’ve had a website since about 1997, but juggernaut-wrestling.com has been online since about 1999. A website is the absolute best way for people to keep up to date with what their favorite wrestlers are up to. With so many guys and so little mainstream press, the internet is absolutely essential in keeping your name in the mix. The Juggernaut merchandise on my website right now is pretty much crap, nothing to write home about, but if someone really wants to have a shirt it gives a couple options. The Shocker clothing is absolutely brilliant… Shocker is a company that started up here in Calgary a couple years ago, and when I saw it I need to find out more… so I worked out a small advertising deal with the owner of the company… funny stuff…. Two in the pink…. one in the stink!

Back to the ring. What are some of your more painful ring experiences? One of my most painful I remember is actually one of my most recent… I was recently in a match down in Idaho with Maniac Matt Borne (AKA the Original Doink the Clown) with Mick Foley as a special guest referee. At one point I turned around in the ring to see Matt in full swing with the ring bell, by the time I saw it, it was WAY too late to try and bring a hand up and block it… I could have sworn someone shut the lights out for a quick second and I found out when I got home that I was the proud owner of another concussion, and a very minor nerve pinch in my neck from the lovely ring bell. The neck still hurts now over a month after it happened. Other than that I have had too many painful things happen in the ring to really pinpoint any in particular… most of the time I am more dangerous to myself than anyone else is to me.

What was your most triumphant moment in the ring? I’m not sure what I would consider a triumphant moment in the ring… I set some goals for myself when I first started wrestling, and topping that list was wrestling in Japan, which I have done now many times. I enjoy wrestling and the people I know through wrestling so much, that every time I go to a building for a show it’s triumphant. No matter when I decide to hang up the boots, I am confident that I can look back and be proud with what I have done. I appreciate everything from my first match ever, to this interview. I have been extremely fortunate to make a career out of what I love (and sometimes hate) for almost ten years….. I can’t think of anything bertter than that.

With that, I thank you for your time. Fans, please check out Juggernaut Wrestling

TNA’s Konnan – Interview

Charles Ashenoff, better known by his ring name, Konnan, is a semi-retired Cuban American professional wrestler and rapper of Puerto Rican descent.

Konnan is very well-known in Mexico, and has been described as “the Mexican Hulk Hogan,” reflecting his mainstream popularity. He has also wrestled for major American promotions such as the World Wrestling Federation, World Championship Wrestling, and Extreme Championship Wrestling. Konnan is currently employed by the Nashville, Tennessee-based Total Nonstop Action Wrestling promotion, where he is currently the manager of the Latin American Exchange. He is also facing some major health issues.

Konnan, how are you doing today? I’m doing good.

As you may know, ninjapimp.com has become extremely popular lately… but probably not as popular as Konnan. Why do you think that you and TNA (Total Nonstop Action) are so popular these days? I think TNA is popular because it is new and they are giving new people a chance to shine.

What do you see for the future of TNA? I hope TNA will expand internationally. I also hope that TNA will get more than one hour of prime time TV.

You are one of the best “talkers” in wrestling. How did you get your start on a microphone? I don’t know. I have always been very comfortable in front of a microphone. In WCW Terry Taylor gave me my first opportunity to talk, and I took it from there.

What do you consider your best match? I have had a lot of great ones, and I have had a lot of bad ones. I loved working with Eddie Guerrero and Rey Mysterio the most.

What has been your most painful injury? A lot of them have been painful. I had torn triceps, a torn bicep, a hip replacement, broken fingers , a fractured wrist, and many more.

You are a huge name in Mexico, so what brought you to the United States? The simple answer is ECW.

Did you enjoy your time working with 3 Live Crew? Can you tell us about that? Yes, I did enjoy it. I am good friends with B.G. James, and we have good chemistry. Unfortunately, TNA never did anything with us. They just let us die.

Where do you see yourself in a few years? I see myself helping run AAA in Mexico.

If you had creative control of TNA, is there anything you would change? I would change a lot of things. First, there would be more wrestling. Second, there would be less skits.

Do you have any products, schools, or websites that you would like to promote? No.

Is there anything else you would like to say to our fans? Thanks for the support! I always try to entertain the fans. That’s what I get paid for.

Well, thanks for your time!