By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
Insight With Chris Van Vliet with guest John Hennigan
Host: Chris Van Vliet
Podcast available via Podcasts.Apple.com
If he is getting used to seeing himself with no hair after losing a hair vs. hair match in CMLL: “No. Imagine your whole life, every time you see your reflection, there’s a guy there with hair. I never shaved my head. But more than that, for the last 24 years, 25 years, I’ve had long hair. When I got my WWE contract in 2003, that was the day I stopped getting haircuts. Basically, I just grew it out from then till now. I gotta admit, the match did feel fantastic. That hair match, I feel like, was one of the best matches I’ve had in years. Was the first time in a while that I felt like me again. Kind of feeling unfulfilled, basically. Not just me, a lot of people in wrestling. But for me right now, in AEW, I feel underutilized. Can’t blame anyone, that’s just how wrestling promotions work. There’s only enough TV time for a certain amount of people. Those people at AEW, we’ve coined the term the island. Those people are on the island, so to speak. I don’t feel like I’m on the island with Tony or AEW right now. So because of that, I feel like I’m doing like 10-20% of what I’m capable of, storytelling-wise, wrestling-wise, in the ring. With CMLL, I’m on their island, and so I got to do everything that I could, and it was cool.”
How he came up with the first crazy Elimination Chamber spot: “I wouldn’t say growing up, but high school, college, I was watching the Chambers, always thought they were cool. When I got signed, and I was in OVW, Louisville, I started watching more closely. Then I saw that parkour movie, District 13, and started doing parkour a bunch, and I hadn’t been in a Chamber match. Then I started watching parkour and Chamber matches, and in my head, booking all these crazy things that I could potentially do in the Chamber, and this is like two years before I had my first Chamber match. So when I knew that I was going to be in the Chamber match, I had like ten ideas of different kinds of crazy things that I wanted to do, ready to go.”
On the height: “It’s so high! The one where I crawled up to the top and then dropped down on Sheamus. It’s funny. When you’re up there, and you’re dropping, it feels like you’re three stories up. It doesn’t look like that on TV. It’s not that high, but it feels that high. It’s also when you’re falling backward, you just have to have a lot of trust in what’s behind you. I know Sheamus. I trust the hell out of that guy. He would always be there to catch you, pick you up, and then just hit you in the face with his fist.”
Whether he’s on his 34th name in pro wrestling: “It sounds accurate, if not underrated. I feel like there’s a handful of names that I’ve had. Johnny Zero, when I wrestled for Below Zero Wrestling in North Dakota for one show. There’s a ton of those one-show names that I’ve had. It’s hard to keep track of.”
Be the first to comment