Reported by Adam Martin of WrestleView.com
On Wednesday, August 24, 2005 at 12:20 PM EST

Doc Young of WrestlingWeekly.com sent in the following recap

On Sunday, August 21, 15-year wrestling veteran turned trainer Lance Storm joined Doc Young and Les Thatcher on Wrestling Weekly to talk about Storm Wrestling Academy, respect in the business, being trained in Calgary with the Harts, and much more.

Doc made sure to focus on Lance's current post-retirement endeavor, Storm Wrestling Academy located in Calgary. Les marveled at the fact that he observed Lance move up in the business and now he is winding down his career and becoming a wrestling trainer for his own school. Lance joked, "You're in trouble when the young guys start retiring."

When Lance was asked why he decided to become a full-time trainer and open up his own facility, he said there were several reasons including the health of his back, not being thrilled with the creative direction his career was taking, and not receiving the usual "rewards" on the road that he had in the past. After being given trainer opportunities at WWE and later, Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW), he decided to take a look at his personal finances and see if he could stay home more with his family. His wife said, "One more year at the absolute most" but Lance decided to make it happen immediately instead. Now according to him, he can "stay home, be a dad, be a husband" and "pass on what I've learned in 15 years."

While "showing the ropes" to some of the stars at WWE, Lance was often torn between his duty to show the guys what he knew and the desire to be on television himself. He said when he went to OVW it was nice to take himself off the roster at WWE and eliminate the "double-edge sword" dilemma. Only then did he have the freedom to show workers other than the Divas what he knows without having to "help guys get on TV besides him."

At Storm Wrestling Academy he hopes to teach athletes respect in the business. Part of being a success, according to Lance, is how easy it is to work with you. He also said that there are so many wrestlers out there who are self-taught or not trained properly. He thinks many are "too eager to run and not ready to crawl" and he wanted to prevent those pitfalls with his school. He believes "the reward will be a lot better in the long run" if the focus is on the training. He wants to make sure his students are getting the fundamentals and learning about respect before anything else.

Lance knows from his own experiences that "it's really important to be easy to work with." Word of mouth in the business can take an ambitious wrestler far and getting booked sometimes depends on how others remember you. He wondered early in his career if success in the business depended on how good you are versus who you know. Lance said that although he got a lot of work from people he knew, he knew them because he was easy to work with.

Doc asked about kayfabe when the conversation turned to respect in the business of wrestling and Lance said he always calls wrestlers by the names they want to be called. For example, he never calls the "Undertaker" by his given name and Sabu will not even answer to any other name. If he is introduced to someone and it happens to be their gimmick name, unless he's told otherwise, he uses it out of respect.

Lance talked briefly about the many tag team partners he's had during his career, including the man he trained with in Calgary at the Hart Brothers' camp, Chris Jericho. He considers himself lucky to have so many partners, Jericho, Chris Candido, William Regal, Christian, just to name a few, who he gelled with. He considers himself lucky to have guys that he's worked with that were like him physically and mentally. He talked about the first time he worked with Chris Candido, who happened to be the second person he met when he first went to Smokey Mountain Wrestling. He said he "hit if off right away" with both Chris and his wife, Tammy.

He considers his WCW run the biggest push he ever received in his career even though he was only with the company for a year and was only in the spotlight for 10 months out of that year. He said he's done more at WWE and felt he was a bigger part of ECW.

When asked by Les about what it was like to train with Stu Hart in the early 90s, he said that although Stu was "not an active part of the training" not many hopeful wrestlers escaped his clenches. Lance said that it was nicer to stay about four feet away from Stu because once he said, "Hey, kid, come here," you were caught. Lance joked, "Once he got a hold of your arm, you were done." He went on to say that Stu's intense style was based on Japan style and respect for the business, a style and ethos that in believes in deeply now as a trainer himself.

Lance addressed his back trouble and about trying to self-diagnose what was happening to his back. He began using Pilates to work out for flexibility and core strengthening, which has helped him tremendously. He said, "The difference was night and day" once he started doing 10 minutes of Pilates for flexibility and 10 minutes concentrating on his abs. He says Pilates as stabilized his lower lumbar and he's getting a six-pack again. He intends to use what he's learned in Storm Wresting Academy as a good prevention tool for his students.

After dispelling the rumor that Victoria is his sister, talk turned to Lance's love for reading. He recently finished William Regal's book and thought it was "very, very interesting." He admired his honesty in talking about his drug issues. Doc asked him if he ever thought about writing himself, he affirmed that he had and already has half of his own biography written. He's also considered following the footsteps of his friend Mick Foley and writing a novel someday. He said, "I really enjoy a good story" which also can translate into a good wrestling match. He said he's talked to Mick about taking the crowd on an emotional journey whether it is as a writer of a novel or in the ring.

The first session of Storm Wrestling Academy begins in September and he is currently accepting applicants for the following session in January, 2006. The best way to get more information and "train in the wrestling capital of the world," said Lance, is to log on to www.stormwrestlingacademy.com and send an email.

Doc and Les' guest this Sunday, August 28, will be yet another superstar from the Armstrong family, B.G. James, better known as "Road Dogg."

Wrestling Weekly Radio featuring Doc and Les can be heard every Sunday from 6:00-8:00 pm EST at http://www.wrestlingweekly.com.