What have been
your favourite matches of yours in VCW?
My favourites from the trampoline days were 7/31/01 vs. MAKABE, and 8/12/01
vs. The Man-Beast (plus I also enjoyed my matches with Chris Mason). As for
the ring days, here are my favourites in chronological order:
- 12/27/01 w/ The Man-Beast vs. MAKABE & Lenny D.
- 1/5/02 vs. MAKABE
- 2/9/02 w/ Shane Mondo vs. MAKABE & Lenny D.
- 2/17/02 vs. Lenny D.
Tell us a little
about the evolution of your style.
Pretty much from Day 1, I've done way too many moves. I think it was due to
the fact that I was new to backyard wrestling and wanted to do as much as possible
and see how it felt. Since my last interview in November, I've tightened up
my moveset somewhat, and only occasionally throw psychology out the window and
mindlessly kill people. The turning point for me seemed to be when I added the
Lariat (The CRITICAL!, as I call it) to my moveset. That became one of my primary
finishers, and I was able to build entire matches around one move instead of
a bunch of moves. Also, it is an effective move because it can be done on anyone
of any size, and (usually) looks great. Until summer 2001, I never really had
a set finisher (or even a set moveset). Then when I opened BLUE THUNDER VIDEO~!,
I figured I should use the Blue Thunder (and its variations) as one of my primary
finishers. So currently, the Blue Thunder and the CRITICAL! are the two moves
I most commonly finish matches with. I also plan on debuting some top-rope moves
at the 6/9/02 Supershow. Going back to my style, I work the King's Road (All
Japan) style. Sometimes, I'll add a little more Battlarts feel to it when I'm
against someone who also works that style, like MAKABE.
What pros have
influenced you the most, and how?
Up to 1996, I only had access to WWF. My favourite wrestler in the late 80's/early
90's was Ted DiBiase. Then in the mid-90's it was Razor Ramon. I didn't really
do any backyard wrestling until 1999, so these guys weren't huge influences
on me. In 1996, I started buying some ECW & puroresu tapes. These really
opened things up for me. Looking back now, my biggest influences were the "Big
5" of All Japan (Misawa, Kawada, Kobashi, Akiyama, and Taue), some of the
New Japan Juniors (Liger, Kanemoto, Otani, Takaiwa, Samurai), the Battlarts
squad (Ikeda, Ishikawa, Hidaka, Minoru Tanaka), and, more recently, the North
American Indy crew (American Dragon, Super Dragon, B-Boy, Tony Kozina, Da Hit
Squad, Homicide, Chris Daniels, Michael Modest, etc.). In addition, two tapes
which I found to be very good learning tools were the Flair vs. Steamboat History
and the Tiger Mask vs. Dynamite Kid History. Two of the best feuds ever and
some of the best psychology ever.
Is a professional
career in your future?
Questionable. If I did get into wrestling, it would be as a side career. Randy
Tyler (a veteran indy wrestler here in B.C.) is a lawyer and a wrestler (quite
a good one, might I add), so maybe I'd do something like that.
Why should you
be the VCW Triple Crown Champion?
Besides the fact that I own the fed? Well, it's been quite a while since I've
had the title, and I figure I'm due for a run. To quote Sean Connery: "I
neva loosh."
Last comments?
Didn't I already give last comments in my November interview? Well, maybe I'll
just do what I did last time and talk about VCW as a whole. Since November,
VCW has grown in leaps and bounds. We've made some additions to the roster,
and also trimmed some of the dead weight. Yes, it sounds callous, but we want
to be the very best fed that we can be. Furthermore, because almost everyone
is relatively new to backyard wrestling, we are improving very rapidly. Matches
of ours that we thought were great in November are almost unwatchable to us
now. We are now running "supershows" (as I'm sure you've read elsewhere
on the site) at least once a month at the ASW Wrestleplex facility in Surrey,
B.C. This will give everyone valuable experience in a pro ring (especially valuable
for those planning to go pro). Hopefully everyone will keep improving, and VCW
will continue to be the best backyard fed in Canada and one of the best in North
America.