13.10.2010, 02:23
Here we go.
Zitat:AC: So do you think your career on the creative side of wrestling is now over and do you want to just go back to concentrating on your own wrestling career? Obviously, there’s been talk of you maybe having a role in TNA. I think a lot of people would say your creative skills could really be used there.
AP: There have been conversations with people in TNA. I think some of the things that have been reported have been a bit overblown. I have a lot of friends that work in TNA, and a lot of them came from Ring of Honor. D-Lo Brown, who is in a good position there now, worked for me and Cary Silkin in 2009 for a stretch. And I’ve known Terry Taylor for more than 10 years, and obviously he’s head of talent relations there. There have been talks, but I talk to those guys all the time. But there’s been nothing set in stone about me going over there to try out. But you never know.
I don’t know what the future holds. I have obligations to the National Wrestling Alliance. Today we’re taping television in Hollywood that will later broadcast on KDOC TV—real Los Angeles television, finally, for David Marquez, who I’m excited for. And for the talent here in the Los Angeles and the Southern California area, this is an opportunity to really do something that hasn’t been done in Southern California since the days of the Olympic Auditorium. This is kind of the dawn of a new era in a part of the country that in the Internet doesn’t get a whole lot of play outside of PWG. We’ll see what happens. I’m sure I’ll be involved on the creative side of that in some way. Beyond that, who knows?
AC: Let’s talk a little bit about the NWA. Some people would say that the NWA is a shell of what it was 20 years ago. How do you think the NWA fits into the wrestling landscape today?
AP: The only difference between the NWA of today and the NWA of its heyday is money. It’s that simple. When Jim Crockett closed his doors, some would think that was the end of the NWA. It depends on what your perspective is. At that time, when Jim Crockett closed his doors, there were still 29 members who said, “This ain’t over yet.” But in the entertainment business, everything comes down to dollars and cents. So if you’re going to find the right kind of exposure, you’re either going to find a partner with a lot of money who could buy it for you, or you’re going to have to have a lot of money so you could buy it. And the NWA hasn’t had that. I think you could count on one or two fingers the people who have that money. Vince McMahon and the Carter family. I think for any wrestling company, Ring of Honor, PWG, any of these entities to try to take on and be a direct competitor to those two is foolish. People can say what they want about TNA, but TNA is on Spike TV every week. And even if they’re drawing a 1.0, I think people need to understand what that is. I would kill to draw a 1.0. We never got numbers from HDNet, so I don’t know what our television ever did.
The NWA I think has, obviously, a place in wrestling history. The unfortunate thing for people involved in the NWA is that without the visibility that they had in the late-’80s, today’s wrestling fan has no idea what the NWA is. Vince McMahon has done a great favor to the people involved in the NWA by putting out these DVDs about The Four Horsemen and Ricky Steamboat featuring all this great action from early in their careers that happened in the NWA. If used right, they can kind of re-light a candle that’s been smoldering for almost 30 years. I don’t blame that on the NWA board of directors. You play the hand you’re dealt. And if you simply don’t have the operating capital to go out and make a splash, then you do what they’ve done and keep a low profile and you keep it grass roots and you keep it local and you keep it alive. From that standpoint, I’m 100 percent behind the NWA because as a governing body, they could have folded up shop and left people without a proverbial pot to piss in 30 years ago. And for good or bad, these people have been struggling to keep something alive because it has a place in history.
It’s a matter of finding the right partner with the right television exposure and the right money to do something else. And David Marquez, I think, has been the one champion of the NWA, certainly in my time in the last three or four years, who has always been on the cusp and the cutting edge of seeking out and finding people. He was on Dish Network for a year. David Marquez’ NWA Pro Wrestling in 2007 and 2008 was running arenas throughout the desert Southwest. We drew 4,000 people in Las Vegas, nearly 4,000 people in El Paso, Texas. We had over 5,000 in Houston. But the Internet doesn’t follow these events, so it doesn’t get the notoriety.
But when the economy really took a dump, the first thing that goes is your entertainment dollar. And shows that David Marquez was able to sell in 2007 and 2008 for $24,000, the same buyers were only offering eight or twelve thousand. And in any economic climate, you get what you pay for. So, if you can’t afford the big name lucha libre stars and go into Phoenix and draw two or three thousand, maybe you just bring one or two stars and you draw a thousand. He was never going to put his own money in, and that’s a smart thing. And the mindset of most NWA promoters is, if you’re going to run wrestling, rule number one is don’t spend your own money.
AC: The same way that Harley Race was the definitive NWA champion of one era and Ric Flair later of his era, I think it’s fair to say you’re the definitive NWA champion of the last several years—the post-TNA era. Obviously, it’s a different era for the NWA, but what does that mean to you, to be the flag-bearer of this company that has so much history? And what do you think you bring to the table as a performer that’s given you this opportunity?
AP: I’m always going to be honored that the people in charge of the NWA, the board of directors, found that my skills were worthy enough to put a championship around. I’ve been wrestling 15 years and three of those 15 years were spent in Ring of Honor. When I started in 1995, the Internet was in its infancy. There was no Youtube. People got along by sending VHS tapes to promoters and then calling them and bugging the hell out of them until they gave you a tryout. And it wasn’t uncommon for David Prazak and I to drive 20 hours for 20 bucks, and then get shorted when we got there. The NWA has given me an opportunity to keep my in-ring dreams alive, as cliché as that may sound.
I had opportunities in the late-’90s and early-2000s with WCW to take the next step and go to a big time promotion, which obviously was on its last legs at that point. And I made a decision, personally, not to do that. And I’ve kept myself on the periphery of always taking that next step. Colt Cabana likes to say I’m the one guy who’s had every opportunity and turned them all down. And in a way he’s right. And the NWA has allowed me to live out some of the things that may have been had I made different decisions and allowed me to be in a position to be a focal point and showcase the skills that I have. I consider myself a humble person and I don’t like to put myself over, but to me drawing is talking. I think history has shown that you don’t necessarily wrestle them into the seats. You talk them into the seats. And I would put my skills on the microphone up against anybody in the world, truthfully. I think that’s the alluring part of me. That’s the entertaining part of “Scrap Iron” Adam Pearce.
Beyond that, I’m good to do business with. I do my business with the guys I’m in the ring with. My role as NWA champion, especially in this third reign, is much like it was in the ’70s in that I go to an NWA promoter in a given part of the country, let’s say it’s Kansas, and I face his top babyface. And my job is to go in there and make that wrestler look as good as I can and leave him a step higher on the pecking order than he was before I got there. And that’s what I do. And that’s what Harley Race did, and that’s what Ric Flair did all those years. And, granted, we’re not on the same level of exposure and we’re not on the same level of notoriety and we all understand that. But the job is the same. The job hasn’t changed.
And from that standpoint, it’s extremely gratifying to go into a town and work with somebody I’ve never worked before and, in the end, having him say to me, “Man, that was the best match I ever had.” And as ridiculous as that may sound to some people on the Internet, that happens to me all the time. And that means more to me than getting paid huge money or having a great amount of notoriety. And I’ll always be grateful for that opportunity.
I love professional wrestling, and I always have since I was a little boy. And for the last 15 years—we’re talking nearly half my life—it’s allowed me to be one of the guys who’s not in WWE or TNA and is making a living off of this thing. And that’s all I ever wanted to do.
- da brauch ich bissel für.. aber der erste Absatz is schon ma gut an..
