By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
Insight With Chris Van Vliet with guest Jason Sensation
Host: Chris Van Vliet
Podcast available via Podcasts.Apple.com
So you learned you could do these impressions, but how does that get you in with WWE? “Yeah, so I had this dream growing up. Maybe I could somehow get in as the next Howard Finkel or the next Mean Gene, just somehow find a way because I loved it, I idolized it, I ate, slept, and breathed it. After going to broadcasting school, I was able to get a demo and started sending it in to WWE Canada. But actually, just rewind that a little bit. When I was with my first girlfriend, my first love, Terri, she got me a front-row ringside ticket to the Corel Centre for a wrestling show in Ottawa, and there was a backstage meet-and-greet, and I had a ticket for that as well. Lo and behold, it was two of my favorite wrestlers: the late great Owen Hart and the late great British Bulldog. It was my first time really up close and personal with wrestlers; I just kind of went nuts, like a huge fan. I butted the whole line, started grabbing their belts, freaking out.
“I was like, ‘Guys, guys, I could do any voice, any impression!’ I started to do voices, and you could see almost the glare in Owen’s eye; his mind was rolling when he had this mischievous, childlike glare in his eye. He was like, ‘Hey, can you do the Bulldog?’ I was like, ‘British Bulldog, I have the power!’ They’re laughing their heads off, and Bulldog was like, ‘Can you do Owen?’ I’m like, ‘I’m a Slammy Award winner, whoa!’ And they were just enjoying it. Owen’s like, ‘I’m gonna bring you in the back tonight. I’m gonna get you to do impressions back here.’ It was like a dream come true to go in the dressing room. Sure enough, he kept his word. We’re walking down the hall of the dressing room, and I remember just being in awe, like ‘Owen, you’re really one of my favorites, and you’re doing something really good for me here.’ But he wasn’t even looking at me; his mind was just rolling. How was he going to use me to rib the boys at this point? So he brought me backstage, started getting me to do all of the boys’ impressions right to their faces. Most of them were getting a kick out of it. But I guess then when it was time for the matches to go back on, he sent me to George ‘the Animal.’ He’s like, ‘Jason, you gotta give your best George. You gotta get right into it and show the tongue.’ I’m like, all right. George was an agent then. George ‘the Animal’ Steele. I went up and started his impression, and he lost it. ‘Who the f— is this guy in? Get him out of here!’ He kicked me out of the dressing room. So it was Owen’s rib. I was like Owen! He was gone. But in that in the midst of that, I met Carl De Marco, which was the Canadian president.
“I started sending in videos after the National Institute of Broadcasting School, just sending videos all the time, and then when Bret Hart came to the airport when he won the belt, and they had cameras at the airport, and the fans all greeted him during the Attitude Era, the beginning of it when they were doing the Canadian-American feud. So I was there. I showed up, and I somehow popped on the camera for Raw as one of the fans doing impressions. I just shot off so many impressions, and I was getting the crowd going. Carl was there, and it was like, oh yeah, I remember you. I got your videos, so to speak. I remember Owen Hart introducing us. So from there, Carl De Marco started bringing me out to do things. The next time was Bret Hart came, and he was signing autographs, and I went out to meet Bret with my brothers, and when Carl De Marco and his assistant saw me, they were like, ‘Jason, take this megaphone, entertain this huge lineup.’ So I was doing impressions, entertaining them, and then got to meet Bret Hart, and I guess Carl was like, hey, I can use this guy?”
The first time the WWE fans saw you was when you did this segment making fun of Owen Hart with The Nation. Where’d you get that nose?
“They dressed me up backstage, actually, wrapping me in caution tape. I didn’t even know what was going on most of the time, but yeah, this big rubber nose. I don’t even know how it stayed on this whole thing. It was just unbelievable. I’ll never forget. We were kind of hidden, dressing up. We weren’t in front of anybody, and when we came out backstage, everyone was ribbing Owen. He was not enjoying it. It was like this guy opened the door for me, and now it’s his impressions being used against him. But it was what got me hired. It was such an original voice, and everyone loved Owen so much that it was like we’ve got to get him to do Owen right away. It was like a big thing for them.”
Did you come up with the lines you were saying about Owen Hart? “Some of them, actually. I was backstage with Vince Russo while he was writing this segment; he was writing most of it. It was amazing the way he wrote everything out, and I just remember him writing everything in those days. He was really brilliant in what he did, and he could sit there and just come up with these lines right away. So yeah, he was writing the segment out, everybody’s lines. But when it came to Owen, because I was there, I was able to throw in some lines with him, and I’ll never forget. He was like, ‘I need one more, bro. I need one more line for Owen. Help me, Jason.’ Were both sitting there, and I’m feeling such pressure. I’m like, ‘I got it. If anyone smells what The Rock is cooking, it’s me! Look how big my nose is!’ ‘Bro, that’s perfect!'”
Was there ever a point where, at first, they’re laughing at the impressions, but then was there ever a point where it turned into ‘Hey, it’s not so funny anymore’? “Yeah, I felt like that was going. I heard it from the office guys a couple of times, and even Road Dogg came to tell me himself, ‘I come out there and [said] ‘Oh, you didn’t know,’ and you’ve already done it. You’ve already got the big pop out of the crowd. He’s like, ‘This is going to piss the boys off. It’s going to eventually, you’re taking everybody’s gimmick, and you’re using them, and with the crowd at first.’ I never found out for sure, but I had a strong feeling I’d heard some rumblings about it that possibly there were guys going up saying he’s hosting the shows at the beginning of events, and he’s using all our gimmicks and taking our pops.”
