By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
ALL Real Wrestling Podcast with guest Davey Richards
Host: Eric Novak
Interview available via ARWP YouTube Page
What are the lessons you learned throughout the years and coming back: “Thankfulness, definitely thankfulness. I didn’t cherish the gift that I had in pro wrestling, but one because it happened so fast and I think two I can see now that wrestling was a drug for me because my childhood was pretty messed up. My mom was in prison for drugs and my dad wasn’t around and then both my grandparents like the night I won my first title for TRW wrestling in Abbotsford, British Columbia, I was so excited to come and show my grandfather that I’d won a title, you know, it’s a little plastic title, but I won a title and he died on the way home. And then when I was in Japan when I was living in Japan for Pro Wrestling Noah, my grandmother died. So I didn’t fall into drinking or driving or any of that stuff, but to numb the pain of Wes’s (his real name), I lived in Davey’s, I lived his days because when people are chanting your name and you’re the best wrestler in the world you don’t have to feel that. There’s plenty of times I would have matches that people remember like my five star matches and go home and just go back to the hotel and just cry yourself to sleep because your hurting inside so I had to step away to actually deal with that and face that and now I want to return to wrestling for not because I need to, but because I want to, so that’s why I say wrestling is emotional for me. It’s very, very deep. It’s not a job first, it’s not a career first, it’s family first because that’s my last connection to my family.”
What it was like working with then-wife Angelina Love in storylines: “I hated it. I was so worried about her. That was the mother of my child. Angelina is so talented, so professional, but the wrestling got a little too real if that makes any sense. Me and Eddie [Edwards] actually were talking about this and its business but when you see someone that’s a mother of your son, you’re like be careful. And obviously Eddie and Alisha [Edwards] are just true professionals, but it was hard to watch. You’re like, oh you sure you want to keep doing this wrestling thing because you don’t want to see them get hurt, there’s one part in the match where we get hit. We have the garbage can over our heads and you kind of see me give her a little pinch and I just say, are you okay? The match and the angle was awesome such a good story.”
Whether there are plans for The American Wolves tag team with Eddie Edwards: “Me and Eddie have talked about it and it’ll inevitably happen somewhere down the road. The American Wolves are coming back inevitably. It’s gotta happen.”
Why he pursued pro wrestling: “Um, so I was raised by my grandparents and, um, so I used some families, you know, like I live in St. Louis now. I’m not from here, but I live in St. Louis Island and every family seems to watch, you know, Blues hockey or Cardinals baseball. And we didn’t watch sports growing up. We watched wrestling, uh, that was always something that me and my whole family, but especially me and my grandfather really, really bonded around. That was our sport, things we would talk about, and not so much WWF. I don’t know if we got that where I lived, but I remember very vividly watching a lot of NWA, so like NWA Pacific Northwest. So I got to see Roddy Piper and Billy Jack Haynes and the Dynamite Kid. We would get some of the bigger shows like Starrcade, so I got to see the Four Horsemen and we got World Class. I got to see the Von Erichs and, I think like most kids, it really captivated me. Dynamite Kid especially just because he made it look just so real. I mean back then, especially to a kid, everything looked real, but he had just an overwhelming tenacity, so it was really captivating and so that’s how I got involved in it and then I got involved in amateur wrestling (at) about ten years old, because I come from a very rural farm community and farm communities and wrestlers seem to go hand in hand. I was horrible in football, so I felt wrestling just… it’s not even been a sport or a hobby, it’s just been a massive part of my life… since I was 10 years old, so you know a long time.”
Why he signed with TNA/Impact Wrestling after negotiating with WWE/NXT: “We had an offer from both WWE and TNA/Impact I will call it TNA. We [he and Eddie Edwards] went down to the WWE’s training facility in Orlando and they were very kind to us. They were very nice. I didn’t have anything, but you know Eddie’s very Boston, you know, and you just have to understand his family’s all from there. I mean I get it, and he was not digging moving to Florida, and I’m from Washington State, so that heat just, I can barely take St. Louis, so Florida’s like oh God, i’m gonna die, and just living down there and that would have been a little rough for us to commit to that at that point. I was also finishing up my paramedic school, so I really wanted to work as a paramedic in addition to wrestling and then TNA/Impact, they came along and they offered us a good deal, and to wrestle in their schedule was more conducive to both our desires at that time, so that’s how the whole thing started.”
On wrestling for NXT: “Yeah, the match didn’t go smoothly. There was a miscue, a missed timing, which thankfully I walked away from and our opponents felt horrible. It’s one of those things, it’s no one’s fault, but the crowd was awesome, really really fun a really great atmosphere backstage and out there in the ring, but I just don’t think it was meant to be. And i’ve always said, and it was never meant with any disrespect, WWE just wasn’t a big goal of mine because I didn’t grow up watching it. I didn’t see Shawn Michaels versus Bret Hart unfortunately, because Bret has subsequently become one of my favorite wrestlers, but I just didn’t see that growing up. You know, absolutely no disrespect, but that was just never a prime target of mine, so that’s why it was just better for both parties that we didn’t work together in the future.”
What it means to sign with MLW: “Yeah, I was… you know it’s funny because I never wanted to be the guy that was on the tail end of his career, broken down, couldn’t go anymore, and then finally I get the hint that maybe I should leave. I wanted to at least leave… To me, match quality is the most important and when I couldn’t perform, if I ever got to that level, I would have been really embarrassed. So i’m glad that I left when I was on top, but I just got to a point where it was just one of those things where the Impact thing was great. When I came back, I can’t name names, but I had a few different companies reach out and MLW was just amazing I watched their product and the way we spoke and corresponded was just like, man, this is awesome, this is great, this is what I personally think wrestling should be. And is that’s not a knock to other companies, it just everyone has their own taste and I just think I really made the right decision signing with MLW. I can’t tell you how good I’ve been treated and how excited I am for joining them.”
How it felt to return to pro wrestling: “It’s wow. I was truly convinced that when I stepped away I stepped away completely, and I was pretty certain that people weren’t gonna remember me at all or just be like, oh yeah, that guy, because I didn’t engage a lot on social media. I was very focused on other things at that time and then I gotta hand it to Global Syndicate Wrestling, because they’re the ones that really told me I should come back and we’d like to book you. And I’m like, to wrestle? They’re like, yeah, are you physically able to. And I’m like, yeah, I’m in the best shape of my life and I’m like yeah why not? And there’s always been, its bigger to me than just returning to wrestling, so I can’t do anything half-assed, especially when it comes to wrestling because it’s such an emotional connection for me, so it was like all right, if we’re gonna do this, someone’s gonna pay to see me, they’re gonna get their money’s worth I don’t believe in half-assing things. I just went back and then it was like, I mean I’m not gonna lie, it blew me away, just the love and support showing everyday I’m getting more booking offers, and I was very wrong about people thinking that I was gonna be forgotten, because, wow, I mean the support, I got a little emotional to be honest with you, so I very much appreciate every single bit of it and I don’t plan on letting anyone down.”
Who he wants to face now that he’s back: “I mean, well, absolutely me and Alexander Hammerstone are on a collision course, there’s no question about that. I’m gonna do my best to make sure he doesn’t make it to three year champ, but for whatever reason Alister Black (Tommy End) was released [last week] so I’ve been getting a lot about facing him again because he’s always so talented, but that’s the cool thing, not all but a good portion of the people I came up with and have wrestled with, they’re under contract with other places, so it kind of frees me up to face a lot of new people and I’m excited, man, a lot of new matchups and I’m sure there’ll be some nostalgia.”
Would he consider an NXT contract offer: “Sure, yeah, you know how the wrestling business works, you never say never. I would be just as happy looking at that as I would be being in MLW for the next five years. Right now, my biggest thing is just I want to get back and I want to just have the best wrestling matches possible, where I do that right now isn’t as important as just the act of actually doing it right now. I am fully 100 percent committed to MLW.”
Why he left pro wrestling: “So when I left, it was kind of three-fold. One, I’ve wrestled full time since I was 10. I never took a break, so I definitely had some nagging injuries that I had to address, so that was one reason. The next reason was school. I want to go to medical school and to do that you need to go all in, so I’ve done that. And then third was I became a dad and I didn’t have a dad that was part of my life. And as you get older, you kind of see how that affects you and there was no way I was gonna let that happen, so it tore me up to miss certain things. And I was like, okay, so it was those three things lined up. I was fortunate enough that I had a really good job as a firefighter and a paramedic, so I just stepped away. I stepped away kind of from everything for a while and just kind of take a sabbatical, which I think was good. Some people are kind of forced into it because they get hurt or they fall out of favor with a wrestling company. TNA was a greatly completely amicable. I wasn’t too beat up, nothing more than would be expected, and just kind of left to go do other things that made me happy, and now those things are solidified and everything like that and I resigned from the fire department. Now i’m fully back fully charged and fully motivated for wrestling, which was kind of inevitably going to happen anyways, because that’s who I am as a wrestler.”
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