�Reported by Adam Martin of WrestleView.com

On Wednesday, August 10, 2005 at 1:59 AM EST

Tim Stein sent in the following recap:

WrestleTalkRadio.com: WTR Sunday Night featuring Lance Storm and Juggernaut
July 24, 2005; Hosted by Tim Stein, Jason Clevett, and “Internet” Dave Standish (at the Bottoms Up sports pub in Calgary), JJ Sexay (in Oklahoma City)
Listen to the full show by clicking here.

WTR returned to its home away from home this past week, as we welcomed Lance Storm and Juggernaut to WTR Sunday Night. The show opened with the guys threatening to beat a few dead horses (aka Lance Storm’s gimmicks) to death, such as… the dramatic pauses.

After the intros, Tim dipped into memory lane, reminding Lance of a time when they worked at the same nightclub in Calgary. Jason then jumped in and tried to ask Juggernaut a question – which led him to talk about a concussion he got from Matt Borne, who clearly wasn’t clowning around…

Juggernaut then talked about a road trip from hell with an indy guy called Ice, who decided to leave him and Scotty Mac stranded in Idaho after an independent show this past week. When asked about Ice’s near future, he said “he may die”. He talked about the show he did over the weekend, where ringside seats were priced at $50 with Mick Foley working as a guest referee on the show.

Jason asked about his return to ECCW. Juggernaut said that things worked out well for him, as he returned just as ECCW were promoting more shows, while several guys were starting to develop in the ring. Jason brought up a planned road trip with Juggernaut, causing Lance to smile outside of his usual “once every 15 years” schedule. Dr. Luther’s name came up, with stories about Luther being a great ribber and one of the few people who could get away with ribbing a promoter. They drifted onto talk of retired wrestlers, who are “all retired until their next booking”, as the Terry Funk impressions came out of the woodwork.

They ran down some of their favourite promoters to work for, with Tony Condello (and his broken English) coming up first, while Lance threatened to burst out laughing over Roddy Piper’s past with Condello. They took a quick break, before returning to Lance Storm’s chicken and Jason’s nachos – so JJ jumped in with some questions, asking Juggernaut if he should be unstoppable (because of his gimmick), and made a joke about Marvel Comics. He asked Juggernaut whether he should be a world champion and Jason joked “He is a world champ. The ECCW Champ.” At that point, Juggy said that he had a few World belts, but didn’t have any idea what areas they were for.

Jason asked Juggernaut about Buddy Rose, where he told the story about a show involving himself, Dr Luther, Christopher Daniels and Nova (Simon Dean) in Vancouver, WA, where they were selling merchandise, before two old women approached them to get autographs, before Buddy Rose demanded $5 for a photograph with the 75 and 100 year old women – using their own camera. (Storm again cracked up, saying “That’s tremendous”) After that, Rose left the area after the boys gave him heat over it.

Juggernaut then talked about moving to Edmonton, before getting an offer to wrestle in Florida, where he drove almost 70 hours to get paid in chicken wings (not the hold) and $10 and $20 pay-offs, before moving to Illinois. Jason asked about the Stu Hart birthday shows, where Juggernaut “wrestled on a Stampede show that actually drew money”. Juggernaut said that the birthday show was a success because it was actually advertised and they spent money on improving their production – which caused Lance to break down laughing again.

Jason asked Juggernaut for some of his favourite opponents. He said he liked working with Tommy Dreamer (saying “he got a bum rap for his reputation for his good he is as a wrestler”), Dr Luther and Steve Corino (“the harder I hit him, the more he whines”). Storm then said that Tommy was “one of the easiest guys to work with” and “if you can’t have a good match with him, then you should hang up your boots”. Listen to the full show by clicking here.

Jason asked about the origins of the Juggernaut name. He said that it stemmed from his streak in judo where he won 140 straight bouts before getting his black belt… where he lost his first match (as a black belt). The name has nothing to do with Marvel Comics, apparently, and was just a nickname given to him by his fellow judo students. They talked about Don Callis, with Lance saying “he’s a pain in the ass, in a really good way” about the former Cyrus – before adding that he’s made more money per bump than anyone in this business (Hulk Hogan excluded).

Jason asked Lance about the Northern tours with Callis and Condello. He said that the tours provided you with some great stories for the rest of your life – if you survived them – but the tours were only as good as the guys you traveled with. Lance brought up an old rib he played on Johnny Swinger during one of these tours, where he made Swinger freak out when he told him that the ice they were driving over was about to break, while Edge kept Swinger in the van by his jacket. He wrapped up the story by saying “you know you’ve been to hell when you consider Thompson, Manitoba an oasis”

Juggernaut said that he considers himself to having been a success, because he’s having fun all the time, before talking about his run on the indy scene, saying that when he stops having fun, he’ll stop wrestling. He talked about a spot he got wrestling Yoshinari Ogawa in Japan where he was hired for being “a big ugly guy”, although his match with Ogawa was short. Lance said that “you can’t have pride if you’re a pro-wrestler… if you get booked, you’re happy”

They wrapped up Juggernaut’s portion of the show before going into a break, with Lance Storm’s “half” coming up next. During the break, they played “One Thing” by Finger Eleven, which let them talk about Finger Eleven’s variety as they came back.

Fifty-five minutes after it started, Jason welcomed Lance Storm to the show. He thanked Lance for getting him hooked on Janet Evanovich’s work – through his Book Marks club – and asked him what gave him the idea to do the club on his website. He said that it started when he had to turn down an interview with a magazine when he was with WCW, and it all spawned from a mention of David Morrell on his website reached him (via the journalist), and the idea of “being the next Oprah” grew from there.

Jason said that Lance had quite a diverse choice of books in his club, and asked him how he picked the stuff. He said that he seems to get involved with books which have been recommended by authors. They kept on talking about books, with Jason bringing up Dean Koontz’s work, with Lance revealed that he “found” Koontz’s books after a recommendation from Al Snow (of all people). Lance talked about author F. Paul Wilson mentioninghis name when the main character was wearing a WWE Lance Storm T-shirt (which was non existent), but WWE’s merchandising department couldn’t even get him a t-shirt.

Jason asked Lance if he ever marked out when he was speaking to any of the authors he was a fan of. Lance said he didn’t, and said that one time – despite being a fan of Arnold Schwarzenegger – he walked past him in catering at a SmackDown taping, and totally missed him. Jason asked what it was like to work with Hulk Hogan at Atlantic City (where Lance revealed he saw Hogan wrestle at WrestleManias 4 and 5). He said that Hogan was physically limited during his run with Edge. He talked about how Chris Jericho was particularly happy with working Hogan on a house show because wrestling with Hogan was easy and the fans were popping for anything Hulk did, which meant that they could do “anything… even the really hokey stuff”.

JJ cut in at this point, and asked Lance about his prediction for the Hogan/Michaels match. He said that he expects the crowd to love it – saying that Shawn could work a good match against a table leg, while Hogan’s matches would be loved because it’s Hogan.

They asked a few questions from the chat-room, including one from “The Jobber”, or as Lance said “Val Venis is on the line…”, asking what his recollections were in working in Canadian Rocky Mountain Wrestling ten years ago. Lance said that he had a lot of fun there, and he was a big enough name locally to pretty much do what he wanted in the ring – as if he were a Hulk Hogan.

Jason asked Lance if he was surprised over some of the guys he worked with in CRMW didn’t progress further than they did. Lance said that Dr Luther could have broken through onto the mainstream, but despite getting tryouts with the WWF, WCW and ECW, “things just didn’t click for him at the right time”. He said that “Lennie” didn’t have the “Lex Luger” build to have a big opportunity in the mainstream.

Jason brought up the Chris Candido tribute show that WTR produced. Lance said that Candido was all about wrestling and having fun – he loved to entertain the boys and taking bumps in the ring, whether it was in front of a large crowd, or just ten people. He said it was such a tragedy, because of the way that Chris had gotten his life back on track, and the way he died was nothing short of baffling.

JJ brought up Lance’s time in Europe, working for Peter Williams and Otto Wanz in Germany’s Catch Wrestling Association. Lance said that Otto “paid people by the pound”, and said that he used that to justify pushing himself, as Otto was “big and fat and huge”. He told a story about how he was surrounded with “big monsters” in CWA before a tour, as he was one of the few wrestlers there who weighed under 300lbs, and wasn’t expecting much when he was told “things would pick up when Fit Finlay turns up” – only to be pleasantly surprised when Finlay joined the tour. Lance said that Otto often cheated him on his money – promising to pay him in dollars, only to get paid in Austrian Schillings or Deutschmarks, then lose out again when he converted the cash back into US Dollars.

They asked a question from the chat room, asking for Lance’s thoughts on the Anarchy Rulz 99 pay-per-view, where he wrestled Jerry Lynn in one-hell-of-a-match, on a show which was Taz’s last PPV for ECW. Lance questioned that, but then said “I know my sh*t, but I don’t know Taz’s”. Lance said that him and Jerry complained to Paul Heyman to change the finish, which was meant to be a draw, but since it was the first match on the card, and that Jerry got the last win over him, Lance ended up getting booked to win the match. Lance remembered discussing the match beforehand, and separating spots out from each other, and how it felt to get a standing ovation from the fans.

Jason brought up Lance’s last match in ECW – which was against Justin Credible, with Tommy Dreamer added to it, although he withdrew through injury. Lance said the match was booked and advertised before he knew he was leaving, and they said that they used Dreamer’s addition to the match to mask Storm leaving.

Jason talked about the re-signings of Matt Hardy, Jamie Noble and Spanky – and how internet fans were complaining that the guys “would be held back in the WWE”, rather than praising them for going where they’d get money. Lance said that the “you sold out” stuff doesn’t really bother him, and a lot of the wrestlers shrugged it off, saying that “you have to go where you can make a living”. He said that he’s happy if he’s working with someone he likes – whether it be on Raw, Heat, or Velocity… and that while having a belt would be nice, “not everyone can be Pacific Northwest Champion”.

JJ talked about Lance Storm’s run as a triple champion in WCW, and forming the original Team Canada. He said that the original Team Canada were in FMW – but very few of those members were actually Canadian, and in WCW, there was only one weekend when he had four Canadians in “his” Team Canada (Jacque Rougeau, Carl Oulette, Bret Hart (for Lance’s own Ego purposes) and himself).

Lance said that things took off and went so fast, but he remembered getting the US title and renaming it, then the same again for the Cruiserweight and Hardcore belts – before being told “you’re wrestling Booker T for the World title”, and saying “Jesus Christ, you’re not really going to do this, right?”. He then said that he ended up carrying three title belts in his carry on luggage, and it was all one big rib – and he was actually relieved when his title reigns ended. Lance said that the WCW Hardcore belt was originally going to be called the Stu Hart Invitational Title – but they couldn’t get clearance from the Harts, so the S in S.H.I.T. ended up standing for Saskatchewan.

Tim asked Lance what he felt like when WCW finally did a show in Vancouver, Canada, at the New Blood Rising PPV. Lance said it was one of the highlights of his career – particularly when Bret Hart was involved after his US/Canadian title match with Mike Awesome, even after the way WCW killed it with their lame booking ideas and absurd finishes. Lance brought up how he thought he missed the best photo opportunity of his career after that match, but in the end it was saved when a ringside photographer caught the shot.

After a short break, Jason talked about some of Lance’s more colourful gimmicks. They brought up the “boring” gimmick, and the one where he had a big penis, which Storm lamented “they made me give that back when I left”. Storm said that the gimmick was done so badly that the fans didn’t even realize that the big-penis was meant to be his gimmick. Lance said that Val Venis was recording him on a camcorder, and that Val was eventually meant to reveal that he was scouting Lance – on account of his abnormally sized genitalia – except they didn’t quite work out “how to get this over to the fans… short of revealing your hose on TV and showing this is all a work.” Lance then said that the “boring” gimmick could have worked if it’d been done differently.

Lance then talked about his team with Goldust, with Brian Gewirtz telling him that his dancing would originally be an “end-zone dance” for him to celebrate when something went well. Unfortunately, things got lost in translation, and the “celebration dance” morphed into “Lance, you’re dancing”. Jason said that Alex Wright made a career out of dancing, before Lance corrected him and said that Wright “made a career out of being repackaged”, bringing up all of the changes he had in WCW, as they sought to justify his big contract.

Jason then said that Lance’s sister took up the slack of the dancing gimmick and made it her own (before you all start scratching your heads… he’s talking about Victoria). Lance said that the whole “sisters” thing started with an e-mail to his website where someone said that Lance and Victoria looked similar. Lance replied back, and joked that “yeah, we’re brother and sister – they’re just hiding her last name”. After that, it took on a life of its own, as Lance continued to spread the rumor even more, saying that “we are identical twins… why do you think she has the deep voice?”

Jason brought up Lance’s final match – against Chris Jericho at the ECW PPV. He asked Lance whether there was anyone on the indy scene who he’d work with if he were still active. Lance said there was nobody who he really wanted to work with – outside of Bret Hart – and although there were some guys he was curious about working with, he’d work with them. He said that he wanted to work with Chris Benoit if they did another ECW PPV next year, but the whole “my first and last match was against Chris Jericho” thing was special to him.

They (finally) talked about Lance’s wrestling school, which is opening in Calgary on September 12. Lance said that the idea for the school had always been in the back of his mind, after he found he had a knack for it while training with the Harts. He said that was brought back to the fore during his recent run in OVW, and at one point he pitched running a developmental territory in Canada – but the office said they wanted to get Atlanta running first. He then said that when his contract came up for renewal, he didn’t want more than a year on the road, and after crunching some numbers, he decided that opening the school was a good idea – and the rest is history.

They asked another chat-room question, asking Lance what his academy would be offering that no other school would. Lance said that it’d be offering proper wrestling training – saying that a lot of wrestling schools only teach the moves, and not the basic principles. He then said that his teaching and performing experience would be invaluable for the students – and he still has connections with the WWE that could help the really good students progress to the next level.

Jason brought up how a lot of guys were being pushed from OVW even though they weren’t ready. Lance said that the WWE seemed to be making people take the large step of working from small crowds to big crowds – but said that the WWE developmental system was good, even though that wasn’t ideal. Lance then said that when Harry Smith does sign with WWE, he’d probably end up in developmental for a short time, as it’s the way WWE seems to do their business.

JJ asked Lance if he planned to “take over” the reigns left by Stampede’s apparent demise. Lance said he wasn’t ruling out starting up his own promotion, but the wrestling academy was going to take up a lot of his own time, and if he could convince WWE in a few years time to start up a developmental territory in Canada, then it could happen.

Jason brought up a recent show for the Prairie Wrestling Alliance, which Lance was in attendance for. Lance said that the show was good, and had a good crowd for an indie show, but it also had the chaos usually associated with those events. He then said that, after the ladder match, he told the wrestlers that they probably could have done about a third of that work and still have received the same reaction, and some of their work was wasted – including a Shelton Benjamin-like run-up-a-ladder-into-a-moonsault inside the first few minutes of the match. Lance said he’d be teaching his students how to avoid wasting spots, and hopefully show people the error of the indy ways. Jason said that Lance already had a bunch of testimonials from wrestlers like Steve Corino and Jerry Lynn who said that “if they were going to get trained, they should get trained by (Lance)” – to which Lance said that they were “smart men”.

Lance brought up an analogy he used early in his career when he was talking about his goals, and how he’d rather be respected than win titles, saying “I’d rather be a Brad Armstrong than an Ultimate Warrior”. He said that he didn’t regret “never winning the big one”, mainly because when he broke into the business, a guy weighing 220lbs wasn’t really considered for a World title run – which meant that his goal was to make a living and support his family from wrestling. He brought up a scene from a tournament in Germany where the wrestlers were waiting on edge to see who they were facing the following night, as everyone went “oh yay! I’m working with him” or “oh crap, I’ve got to work with him.” Lance said that if he were one of the guys who got the “oh crap” reaction, he probably would have given up the business, out of personal pride (and this is from the same guy who, an hour earlier, said that you can’t have pride in pro-wrestling…)

Lance talked about some of the testimonials his former colleagues had given him, and said that he was grateful for the comments made by the likes of Chris Benoit and Eddie Guerrero, as it meant that he was good at his job, even if he “had a large package and danced like a buffoon on TV”.

Lance said that training with Keith Hart made him want to explicitly make it clear to potential students that he’d be training them – as numerous other schools use a “big name” to draw people in, only for someone else to be doing the training. He said he’d be doing 12 week programmes so he could teach everyone the basics – and then spend a few extra weeks fine tuning and sorting out things like ring psychology. He talked about how he spoke to Aaron Aguilera (Jesus) in OVW, and told him that WWE hired him because he was a big guy – and if the WWE wanted someone to do huracanranas and various lucha stuff, then they’d have hired someone to do that. He recalled how Aguilera broke his habits, largely because he trusted Storm’s judgment.

Storm said that we’ll start noticing new wrestlers breaking in who can do more than just spots – saying that there were guys who had done powerbombs for years, but didn’t know the correct way to get up from the mat. Lance said that you could get booked easily if you were easy to work with, bringing up PJ Walker who anyone would work with, and ended up getting a gimmick and TV time after doing a string of matches as a jobber. He gave an example that you won’t find anyone who complains that they’re working with Jerry Lynn, because he knows all the fundamentals. Lance said that “you shouldn’t work on having to pick someone up – you can powerbomb someone? Great. Go powerbomb somebody else.”

Jason asked if Lance would mind it if his achievements as a teacher overshadowed his wrestling career. Lance said he didn’t, and recalled booking some ECW shows, and getting goosebumps as the fans reacted to what he helped to book. Lance said that feeling comes back today as he spent around six months trying to get the WWE to sign Joey Matthews (Mercury) and then bring up MNM in their OVW form, rather than screwing around with the gimmick. He talked about bringing up Bobby Lashley up from the grass roots in OVW – and said that he’ll take pride from him if he becomes a success in the WWE.

They went to a short break, before returning to ask Lance about his last commentary on his website, about the whole issue of steroids in Sport. Lance said he wrote it when he was in OVW, when every politician was seemingly giving their own two cents on the issue. He said that politicians “need to get their heads out of their ass” if they wanted to deal with it. Lance compared the issue of steroids to smoking, although there was a significant upside from using steroids – mostly in the form of bigger-money deals. Lance said that society was putting out the impression that “sportsmen need to look like this” (have rock-hard abs, and the like), and said that the problem was a lot closer to home than the politicians were thinking.

That wrapped up another star-studded edition of WTR Sunday Night. Don’t forget to listen in the next two weeks for live updates from TNA’s Sacrifice and of course, the WWE’s SummerSlam. Listen to the full show by clicking here.