By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
The Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling Podcast with Bull James
Host: JP John Poz
Twitter: @TwoManPowerTrip
Website: www.tmptempire.com
Interview available at Tmptow.podomatic.com
Butch was on his list of potential ring names prior to him donning the name Bull Dempsey: “There’s all this uproar about Pete Dunne being Butch. Butch was one of the names I put on my list, thinking, ‘Oh, they’ll never use this’, but not realizing that Bill DeMott’s nickname for his son was Butch, so he loved it. He kept trying to get me, like, ‘Oh, I think you should be Butch’. I’m like, ‘I don’t wanna be Butch! Please don’t make me Butch.’ It’s funny that Pete has it now. He’s so talented, man, that a name is not gonna hold him back. He’s awesome.”
Was Triple H someone Bull could go to while he was in NXT: “I’ve had a lot of different bosses and a lot of different jobs and I can easily say that he (Triple H) is the best boss I ever had. If he had a million things to do he didn’t mind one million one. If you asked him for one minute, he’d give you five. It is his baby and he is putting his heart and soul into it and why wouldn’t he be all hands on deck.”
On Samoa Joe and their match prior to Bull’s release: “Joe is the man. The only time I wrestled him was that one TV match and it was only a couple of minutes and I’d love to be able to do it for longer next time. I have so much respect for him as a person and as a performer and he is definitely one of my favorite people that I have ever come across in wrestling. We just clicked and I felt that I got really close to him before I was let go and I think that for him and everything he has done and as much as he has accomplished that I still think this is just the beginning for him. Everywhere he has gone and been World Champion he has been ‘the guy’ and the right guy for it.”
Training with Taz: “Taz opened his finishing school, and I applied, and it was supposed to be for six weeks or eight weeks, and then, like two sessions a week. But at the end of it, he had taken such a liking to me. He said, ‘I want you to come back for every every group that comes in, every six week or eight week group that comes in, because I want you to be here and be like the example.’ He goes, ‘I won’t charge you a dime. I just want you to be here.’ And I was like, yeah, obviously, sign me up. Between him and Matt Borne, I really started being a more serious wrestler. Whereas before, like, I was doing a lot of gimmick stuff and I was doing the baby gimmick and all that kind of thing. So it really kind of did a total 180 for me in terms of character and how I was portraying myself to people. We’re both Brooklyn kids. We both grew up in Brooklyn. We both grew up tough. We both grew up fighting. So, I mean, there’s a respect there that goes deeper than wrestling. And yeah, he was always very giving to me. I mean, to this day, he really, really is the man.”
Training with Matt Borne: “He had moved to New Jersey and actually started working for ISPW. And his first match for Tommy was with me. Wow. Okay. Yeah. And we just hit it off, and we went and had the match, and we didn’t talk about anything. And after the match, he was like, ‘Kid, you’re great. You’re staying at my house tonight’. Okay, cool. Because I’m going to pick anybody’s brain that I can and want to learn. I still am. But I was just so hungry to make it somewhere and get knowledge and get better and be able to talk to the people that a lot of guys are afraid to talk to and just get their opinions on things and see how they view the business and see how they see things. I was always fascinated by that. And so I got to Matt’s place, and he popped in a Bruiser Brody DVD and threw down a bottle of Crown. He said, ‘we’re finishing this tonight.’ And we sat there and had a bunch of drinks and watched Brody. And I just listened to him talk for hours.”
On being happy with his time in NXT: “For as much as, like, when you’re in the pressure cooker, you can get down and complain or, like, be frustrated with things. At the end of the day, Robbie Brookside always said this to us, and this really stuck with me a lot through my time there, we have these key passes to get into the door at the PC. And Robbie goes, ‘look around’, he goes, ’80 of you have this key, and there’s tens of thousands of people basically lined up outside the store that would stab their mother in the throat to have one, but you all have one’. And that always did it for me. Keeping that perspective of like, yes, some days sucked. Yes, some days we had to do things that were just stupid, that we were just doing to do busy work. And yes, there was times we got fucked with, but at the end of the day, we were in that top one percent. There’s a lot of guys in major League Baseball that want to play and they’re on the bench, but you have a much better chance of seeing the field from the bench, then from Triple A or Double A, a Single A. So at least you’re on the bench. You’re next in line. You’re literally right there. So don’t get too frustrated with it. Don’t let it eat you up like that.”
Being released from his WWE deal and other releases: “I was really surprised. I thought I was getting a raise. I thought I was either getting called up or getting a raise because Santino [Marella] had just been forced to retire with his neck injury, and so there was that open comedy spot on the main roster, and Vince loves self deprecating humor. And here’s Bull-Fit. Yeah, of course this is going to get called up. Are you kidding? I didn’t think that. I was still kind of pessimistic about it, but everybody else was like, Dude, you’re going, that’s it. There’s no way. There’s no way. This doesn’t. I’m like, yeah, all right, well, we’ll see. And sure enough, I get called in the office, and I’m like, oh, wow, this is actually going to happen. And then it was, oh, I think you know why I’m here. And I’m like, am I getting called up? No. As if I should have already known. I was there to get released. And I was like, oh, this will be fun. And he was like, what? And I said, no, let’s go get this done.
“And we had a conversation, and it was a good talk because we both respected each other a lot. And I was given kind of the luxury of not having to be escorted to my locker to clean it out. I was just kind of allowed to hang out for a little bit and pack my stuff up and leave on my own accord, which I was really grateful for. And then I got in the car, made a booking email, sent out a tweet, and that was the end of that. That was it. Look at all the releases that have happened recently. It happens. It’s business. It’s not something to sit there and cry over. Without them, I wouldn’t still be able to make a living off wrestling. And it’s because they gave me that platform. So how can you be bitter about that? All right? It didn’t go the way you wanted it to. That’s stuff off. Try again. I’m not afraid to fail. And I think that’s what separates me from a lot of people.”
Other topics include his NXT run, Bull-Fit gimmick, Training with Matt Borne, training with Taz, his friendship with Scott Hall, his NXT release, and more.
You can listen to other shows apart of the TMPT Empire including Shane Douglas’ Triple Threat Podcast, Taking You to School with Dr. Tom Prichard, Talking Tough with Rick Bassman, Taskmaster Talks with Kevin Sullivan, Pro Wrestling 101 with Justin Credible and the University of Dutch with Dutch Mantell.
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