Did they come up with Messiah gimmick or you? They came up with it, because when he was brought in he was put under a mask as �the Blunatic� and jobbing to Nicole Bass� shitty chokeslam every night. He saw an ad for XPW, and used his trainer Carlito as an �in� to get into XPW. He wanted to wrestle, but not with Slammers, because he saw it was going nowhere. They broke up, he moved to Georgia, hated it, moved back. How did you get into XPW? He left Slammers because of girlfriend issues, and faced a decision to either move to Georgia with his family or stay with the girlfriend. That�s the only time Felony ever beat him, because Felony sucks. First match? Against a guy named �El Spirito,� who later became Felony in XPW. He eventually took a break from wrestling due to personal and family issues. What was it like competing on the Cali indy scene? He basically trained at Slammers for two years, and knew nothing else. At the time, his trainers told him he could never be a heel because of his �All-American Boy� good looks. The Slammers crew would wrestle at Strongbow Stadium, a little rundown redneck place, and some drunk fan would always call him �Iron Mike� so the nickname stuck. At this point, Trent shows up and mugs for the camera, and does his Messiah impression ��THAT ROB BLACK CAN SUCK MY ASS LICK MY BALLS!� Trent leaves, and Messiah says his first gimmick was �Iron Mike� Erhardt, the younger brother of an older Cali worker named Mark Erhardt. What was your original gimmick? Trent Acid. Ed Ferrara (former WWF writer who is most famous for being Oklahoma, the fattest cruiserweight champion in WCW history) was a secondary trainer, but it was mostly Carlito. Who trained you? Mostly Hombre D�Oro, who also wrestled as Carlito Montana in XPW. He loved what he saw, and immediately he graduated from high school he began his training. Did you check out the California indies growing up? When he was growing up there was actually a local all-wrestling cable station, which had a TV show called �Wrestle Talk,� which constantly advertising a place called �Slammer�s Wrestling Gym.� He made a bet with his Dad that if he got good grades he could visit the gym. That match cemented his decision to wrestle professionally. Perfect, and he was blown away by the amazing sequences of holds and counterholds. One night at the LA Sports Arena he saw Bret Hart against Mr. Who were the wrestlers that inspired you growing up? His first memory was seeing Hulk Hogan, but the guy that really made him want to become a wrestler was Bret Hart. His father stated if he spent as much time studying as he did watching wrestling, he�d be a genius right now. Were you a fan of wrestling growing up? Definitely, in order to be a worker in this business you have to be a fan first. This was taped shortly after the �Wrestlemania of CZW� Cage of Death 4. (*Note: There is no XPW footage due to Smart Mark Video not owning the rights to it.) Smart Mark Video�s �Best on the Indies Volume 3: The Messiah� features an in-depth shoot interview, as well as some of the Messiah�s best matches in CZW and various West Coast independents.* The former XPW Heavyweight champion and deathmatch champion has overcome tremendous personal adversity and continues to wrestle his balls off in intense matches against men like �Sick� Nick Mondo, Adam Flash and Justice Pain. The two prevailing trends in independent wrestling have been junior-heavyweight highspot wreslting, aka �let�s see how many flips and rotations I can fit in coming off the top rope,� and a modification of the old Japanese �strong style,� which has come to mean �hit each other as hard as possible with no regard for safety.� However, despite these two styles being trendy in the 21st century, the good ol�fashioned brawler will always have a place, and arguably the best brawler on the independents is the current CZW World Champion, the Messiah. True 'Till Death Review: Best of the Messiah
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |