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Mitchell & Traci Interviews: Mitchell on Abyss, Traci on her career & TNA |
» Reported by Adam Martin of WrestleView.com
» On Wednesday, October 19, 2005 at 7:09 PM EST
The following was transcribed by Betsy Byrd:
James Mitchell on managing Abyss, what makes a good manager, and Bound for Glory and Traci Brooks on the lack of indie bookings, WWE's beauty myth, and doubling as a zombie:::
On October 16, Wrestling Weekly with Doc Young and Les Thatcher hosted a night of Total Non-Stop Action (TNA) with guests "Father" James Mitchell and TNA beauty Traci Brooks.
Special guest correspondent Bryan Alvarez, author of the Figure Four Newsletter and co-host of Wrestling Observer Live joined Doc and Les to introduce the weekly hot topic, the "Jim Ross situation," as he called it. Bryan described the not-so-graceful firing of Jim Ross at WWE as "pure misery," but had some interesting theories on what he thought actually happened between the veteran wrestling broadcaster and Vince McMahon. Was it an angle or is Vince just being evil incarnate again?
James Mitchell
Speaking of evil, the first guest of the night is the man who is now the mouthpiece for the monster Abyss at TNA, "Father" James Mitchell. He talked about getting his start down in Smokey Mountain Wrestling and how he is amazed that 12 years later he's "doing the same damn thing."
Inspired by such illustrious managers from the past as Gary Hart, Boris Malenko, Bobby Heenan, Jim Cornette, and Ernie Roth ("Grand Wizard"), James was always intrigued by managers who oversaw a stable of wrestlers or represented "the big monsters who don't speak," which is exactly what James is doing right now with Abyss.
James says getting to work with Abyss is providing some of the best working chemistry of his career. He said, "Abyss is the feather in my cap." He loves that he is now part of a force at TNA where he can help showcase the big, creepy monster and since Abyss' story has not been told yet, he's anxious to help establish the character and let his "story" be told. He said, Abyss "has come a long way from Prince Justice," his former alter ego.
He also marvels at how well Abyss works as a performer saying very often, "You don't see a guy that size who does a five-star match." He believes Abyss has what it takes to understand what a guy with that persona and size would do in the ring. James said, "Watch Frankenstein. There's a certain way a big guy should sell," and Abyss does it. He said other big guys like the late Malice (Jerry Tuite) "sold too much" and just didn't "get it."
When asked about comparisons of Abyss to WWE's Undertaker and Kane, James replied, although Abyss is "of that lineage" when the stories were revealed about Undertaker (dead man) and Kane (killed his parents), Abyss is a "different character altogether." Besides he joked, "every promotion needs their monster."
James, who started out wanting to be a rock star said even though as a singer "I looked really cool," he just wasn't very good. Since he was always a wrestling fan, he decided in the late 1980s to parlay that love for performing into a wrestling gig. The irony is he's still managed to take his love of wrestling and his love for music and make two careers for himself. At the coaxing of his longtime friend, Chris Kanyon, he opened up a karaoke business in Orlando to great success. Chris even gave him the money to start the business.
Now James only takes select wrestling gigs because of his income in the karaoke business. A promotion has to pay him what he would lose from not working. He said, "I make great money" but the hitch is he's "a guy who looks like the prince of darkness singing rat pat songs." Now he rarely takes independent gigs unless he personally can get something out of it. More often than not, taking an indie gig will cause him to lose money.
James has known Chris Kanyon since the mid-90s when Chris was still green. He says even from the early days "you can look at this guy and know he just had it." Chris, who is now in semi-retirement, is understandably disappointed in the business. James said he hasn't been given the credit or respect he deserves, that he is an innovative and passionate guy.
As a manger, James talked about some of the ways to make a promo good. He likes to get "four bullet points" from the booker and run with it when he works. He has always tried to inject himself into it saying, "You can't write for a Jim Cornette." He says, "A guy who can really talk just needs the bullet points." He will tweak ideas with his quirky phrasing because from the beginning, bookers tried to give him scripts and he didn't follow them. He said the problem he sees all the time, especially at the WWE, is the "same voice over and over again" because the promos are so tightly scripted. He said workers with bad mic skills would be better off being "silent and mysterious" rather than reading off a script.
He used Samoa Joe as an example. He witnessed Steve Corino, a great promo guy, when off on Joe in his usual way and Joe's reply was only about "five words" but his charisma blew everything away Corino had just did. He said he thinks Samoa Joe is a legitimate wrestler in the old-school style and sees him definitely going places.
Participating at TNA when it was still a start-up business, he said he always felt pro wrestling was the healthiest around 2001 when there were three companies going strong. He believes "the business suffered when there wasn't competition" and "competition ultimately turns out a better product for the consumer."
He is looking forward to the upcoming "Monster's Ball" at TNA's "Bound for Glory" October 23. The bout is an anything goes, falls count anywhere, with the "dramatic stipulation" that all competitors, Abyss, Rhino, Jeff Hardy, and Sabu will have to endure a day with no light, food, and water beforehand so their senses will be diminished.
Traci Brooks
Another participant in "Bound for Glory" is the beautiful and athletic Traci Brooks. She and Les talked about how she tried to get trained by Les at Heartland Wrestling Association earlier in her career but couldn't pull it off because since she is Canadian, she couldn't get a working visa. Although "it all worked out in the end," she still regrets not having the opportunity to train with Les.
Not only working for TNA, Traci takes as many independent bookings as her schedule will allow, but finds that the "indies have gone downhill." Either the bookings aren't there anymore or the payday is small or in some instances, the promoters don't pay at all. She wondered if many of the indie bookings have been taken up by former WWE superstars who have been let go recently. Training too sometimes has to fall by the wayside because of her busy schedule. She tries to arrive at shows early to get into the ring and sometimes will train in Toronto at home in a boxing ring doing chain wrestling.
Once marriage proposals from the chat room died down, talk turned to her tenure at Ring of Honor. Traci said, "Ring of Honor was a really good experience for me" and a "great organization." She said last year the women's division at RoH was being pushed, making it an exciting time to be there. When talk turned to the newest fed to crop up, Shimmer, the November 6 all-women show is something Traci couldn't participate in due to a previous engagement but she joked, "Anyone who wants to put a bunch of women in a room in crazy."
Traci says she has always gotten along well with fellow female wrestlers, particularly ODB ("first choice"), Daizee Haze ("crazy, cute, adorable"), and Mickie Knuckles ("I've never seen a girl train as hard as she has"). She talked briefly about Tammy Sytch being an inspiration and having "better timing than most girls" in the ring. When asked about her relationship with the late Chris Candido and Tammy, she said, "I still can't believe he's gone."
Traci's motivation for pursuing a pro wrestling career lies on Miss Elizabeth's spangled shoulders. Traci said, "She's the reason I got into wrestling because I wanted to meet her and shake her," referring to Elizabeth's role to just look pretty in a dress and wave to the fans. Still, she does give Elizabeth her props for paving the way for women in the business just as Tammy Sytch has. It's frustrating for her to see that the focus at WWE for women is "blonde hair, blue eyes, big boobs, small waist." She says, "That's what WWE thinks works" but "not everyone likes it."
Doc asked Traci about her movie role as "Sexy Killer Zombie Traci" in Zombie Beach Party. Traci said, "Oh, no." She described her experience as fun but a little bit grueling. She doubled for the main girl and had to wear a mask that impeded her vision and the boots she wore were too big. She said trying to do a top rope hurancanrana was next to impossible because she couldn't see or feel her feet, plus it was filmed in a very cold Canada at the time. She described the movie as "awful." She said a highlight included her wearing a short skirt, furry boots, bikini top, all covered in fake blood, laying on the ground while chewing on another woman's thigh.
Watch Traci Sunday, October 23 at TNA's "Bound for Glory." You can find out more about Traci at www.tnatracibrooks.com.
Wrestling Weekly Radio featuring Doc Young and LesThatcher can be heard every Sunday from 6:00-8:00 pm EST at http://www.wrestlingweekly.com.
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