Recap of Lance Storm on Live Audio Wrestling, according to Steven Fernandes and PWInsider.com:
They start off the interview by playing a clip of Matt Morgan, from his interview, talking about Paul Heyman first coming in to OVW, and I believe, he said he was talking to either Cornette or Danny Davis in private, and everyone was in shock that Heyman was there. Lance Storm sneaked in and took a picture of them two and asked the OVW guys how much they think he can get for that picture.
Lance Storm joins the show, and says he feels fabulous. Every time he is in Calgary, he feels great. He is asked about the photo, and he says he still has it, and he sent a copy to Danny Davis. Other than that, no one else has it.
His thoughts on the ECW PPV.
He thought it came out real authentic, largely due to the fans, who were fantastic and so typically ECW. He says he wasn’t a fan of the WWE invasion angle, but with the exception of the promo, he was glad it was left till the end. So you can watch the ECW PPV till the main event, and after Tommy Dreamer gets murdered or set on fire, if you don’t want to watch the other stuff, you can press ‘stop,’ He thought working one more time with Jericho was fantastic. The crowd deserves the kudos because they made the show.
Thoughts about JBL making negative comments about him.
Lance says JBL has a bone to pick with him over something that isn’t important or meaningful, but he is entitled to his opinions. He can say what he wants; it’s not going to affect Lance’s life a whole lot.
Does stuff like that make it easier for him to leave the business? Lance says it’s one of those things where if you wonder if you want to get back in the business later on, things like that make the decision easier. He says it a non-item to him. He doesn’t really care that much. You have a handful of friends, and you care what they think. But the rest of them can say what they want. It’s a free country. You’ll go insane if you worry about what everything thinks about you.
Thoughts on Paul Heyman booking Ohio Valley Wrestling.
Lance says he loves Paul and besides the fact that it is in Louisville, Kentucky instead of New York City, that this is a perfect avenue for him because Paul can take a look at anybody and find that silver lining and capitalize on it. If the Office is willing to let him do that and let it develop on OVW TV, and then bring that same character up to the main stage instead of changing it, it can help the program.
He thinks there will be a change in booking and show format from what Jim Cornette used to do. He believes that will help the WWE product to a certain extent. He says Cornette’s vision of wrestling is different from what you see on Monday or Thursday. While his vision is great, it’s not necessarily a close step to getting to RAW or Smackdown. Paul’s vision is little bit closer, which will make the transition easier for the talent.
His thoughts on Cornette getting fired.
Lance says he doesn’t think he was fired over a small incident. It was rather one of many incidents. He believes Cornette is more old school than corporate America sports entertainment. He thinks the corporate image of WWE has been on Cornette for a while, and they don’t mesh very well, so he wasn’t surprised that he was fired.
Where did the idea for the wrestling school come from?
It’s been something in the back of his head for a long time. The two years after he graduated from the Hart program in 1990, he worked as a trainer for them. He trained a few guys like Justin Credible. He really enjoyed training. He thought he had an aptitude for it. He always thought it was something he could do when he was done with his run. Then when he did his year in OVW, he realized he really enjoyed it and he was good at it. It got to the point where when he was renegotiating his contract, he felt that instead of getting paid to travel back and forth and doing it there, there could be a chance he could do it by himself, and do it well, and stay home at the same time. He said the option of staying home was the selling point.
What will be his approach to teaching wrestling?
His biggest approach will be a real solid basics and fundamentals, and start that right out of the gate. He talked with a lot of guys who he has worked with the last few years, and guys who are currently on the indy scene, and one of their biggest complaints is that there are so many guys who are self-thought or never formally trained that it’s frustrating working with them when they don’t have the basics. It’s like on the second day, they are learning powerbombs without learning how to do a headlock properly. He believes it’s time to go back and preserve the sport as an art form of wrestling. They need to tell a story in the ring, and not just do errand spots.
When will classes start?
Classes will start in September and there are still spots available for that. His January classes are getting more interest than the September ones, because it gives people enough time to relocate. He was getting interest from UK and Australia. He believes it takes more than two months to pack up and move to another country.
What will be the length of each program?
The startup program, which will be for people who want to start from scratch, or want to learn to wrestle, will be a 12-week program. Lance was trained in 8 weeks, so he thought 10 weeks was realistic, and he threw in a couple of weeks extra so they can get more practice and ring time.
He will also be offering advanced programs, which will be more about psychology and stuff, which is what he was teaching in OVW. He says besides 4 or 5 guys, everyone knew how to work. It was just a matter of improving their ring psychology, improve their technique, fix a few things that they were doing incorrectly and try to prepare them for WWE TV.
Who will be working with him at the Academy?
As of right now, he is planning on doing everything by himself. He is going to be in the ring with everybody. He figured he did it in OVW that way, and it worked well. He is a hands-on person, and doesn’t like other people doing it for him. Everybody has a different approach. He says one of the things that take a while to get used to is that when you bought up to WWE, you have Arn telling you one thing, and Fit Finlay telling you another thing, etc. It’s better to get instructions from one direction.
His thoughts on the current WWE development talent.
He feels the person who has a shot at being the next big star is Bobby Lashley. We might be seeing him on WWE TV within the next couple of months. He is an incredible athlete and one of the impressive guys that Lance has seen in his life. Lance is lucky that he got him from scratch. He hadn’t done much besides a few bumps. He enjoyed working with him and feels he is close to getting ready. He has the ability, the mentality and the look that WWE will get behind of.
His thoughts on talent like Matt Morgan being misused.
Lance says its makes you wonder what the thought process in WWE is. He says crazier things have worked. He feels with Matt Morgan, it was a timing issue. Because they got him from scratch without having worked a match before, and since he has been in development for a while, management wondered why he wasn’t ready yet, without realizing that it takes a while to get a person from zero to being a polished wrestler. He’s heard people say Morgan will gather experience, and he’s gonna show they made a mistake letting him go. He doesn’t think it was mistake letting him go. He’s heard the interviews that Morgan has done since being let go, and thinks he has a great attitude. He is the kind of guy that will go out there, and gain experience and get better, and they will bring him back, but if they bring him back, it will be like he gained experienced not under their dime, and they can make a star out of him later. He doesn’t think they let him go because they thought they are done with him. They let him go because they felt he needs more than the development program. If he works in Japan for 2 years, he will be worth ten times more when they bring him back.
Which was his favorite gimmick?
One of the funniest programs he did was the program with Tommy Dreamer in WWE. The in-ring promo where he tried to get him to do a urine test. It was one of his favorite segments in his entire career. He also really enjoyed the build-up to the three way dance with Jerry Lynn and Mikey Whipwreck. The match never happened, but the build-up took place over several months. They pretty much booked the angle themselves. Heyman gave him free reign. He used to ride with Jerry at the time and they used to throw out ideas and then talk to Mikey when they got to the building. He was upset that the match never took place because he left for WCW and Jerry got injured.
Why didn’t Justin Credible make it big in WWE?
Lance probably thinks it was a confidence issue. WWE can be very taxing mentally. It’s one of those things where if you don’t have 1000% confidence in yourself to sell yourself even better than you are, it’s an easy place to get swallowed up in. Justin is one of those guys where if he is a 9, he thinks he is a 7. And in WWE, if you don’t act like you are a 12, you get ignored. He thinks that was his downfall in WWE. In ECW, Paul would take someone who was a 4 and convince him he was a 12. He says Paul is the world’s greatest motivator and he gets more out of less. He says Justin could tell Paul he is an 8, but Paul would convince him he is a 12, and make him look like a 10. He says Justin was great in ECW, he was a world champion. But if you take that same 8 into the WWE and think you are a 6, WWE will treat you like a 6, and all of a sudden, you are on Velocity. You have to sell yourself bigger than you are, and if you don’t shove yourself down their throats, you will get ignored. The hosts joke that it has worked wonders for Triple H.
Will he be running spot shows for his students so they can get experience in front of crowds?
He hasn’t laid the ground work for that yet, but he is open to that possibility down the road. For right now, he is just focusing on getting the school up and going. There is a group in Edmonton, Prairie Wrestling Alliance, that have talked about using his students and they’ve had a good relationship so far and when his grads are ready, he can hopefully get them on their shows so they can get in front of a crowd until he gets organized enough to do it himself.
Would he consider working in TNA?
He is not interested in that right now. Because he will be focused on his school 24/7, he can’t just pack up and leave for two days because he doesn’t want to leave his students in the hands of somebody else. Besides he has that crowning jewel of wrestling against Jericho first and last, so it’s gonna take a lot to change that.
Information about his wrestling school can be found at http://www.stormwrestlingacademy.com or email at stormwrestlingacademy@shaw.ca. Sessions will start in September and January and there will be summer sessions as well.
