Chris Harris & D'Lo Brown Interviews - Harris on career & D'Lo on Japan
On Saturday, July 1, 2006 at 8:20 PM EST The following was transcribed by Victoria Lee of wrestlingweekly.com:
Wrestling Weekly once again went live on Tuesday, June 27 at 8pm Eastern at wrestlingweekly.com.
Our first guest of the evening was one-half of the TNA tag team America’s Most Wanted, “The Wildcat" Chris Harris. Yes, the same Chris Harris who was supposed to be on the show a few weeks back, but was unable to be reached by Doc and Les. Chris said he was on an airplane at the time, and that’s why he couldn’t be reached.
Chris said that he’s pro-long Title reigns, and mentioned that he and “Cowboy" James Storm were the longest-reigning NWA Tag Team Champions since the ‘70’s.
While Chris has been a fan of wrestling since the tender age of 10, he didn’t decide he wanted to be a wrestler until he was two years into college, which Chris only went to because of the peer pressure to lead a “normal" life and get a “normal" job instead of following his dreams to wrestle.
Chris was met with skepticism when he finally decided to become a wrestler, partially because of his size. Harris may be tall, but he was one skinny kid back in the day. But Chris took a full year after contacting Charlie Fulton in Ohio to build up his body - not to mention his wallet - before heading to Fulton’s wrestling school in Dayton.
Chris knows how important it is to look like a wrestler. Chris thinks it’s ridiculous when a wrestler who is “fat and sloppy" complains about not being pushed. Chris said that wrestlers should “get in shape and look like an athlete."
When Chris started out, he wasn’t even sure he needed training. After all, he was really good when he wrestled with his friends out in the back yard. Chris has learned a lot since then, and now wants to “knock upside the head" kids with that attitude.
Chris is resentful toward the people who denigrated him for going into wrestling early on, only supporting him after he became successful on his own. He mentioned his father specifically. Chris said that all the negative remarks served only to further motivate him.
Chris is a huge fan of Bret Hart. Chris said that Hart was his favorite during the time Chris was just getting into the business. Chris patterns some of his wrestling style after Bret, and even used to use the Sharpshooter until Petey Williams started using it. Chris backed off the move then, as he didn’t want to tread on sacred Canadian grounds.
From the chat room, Stevie J asked Harris what ever happened to his solo push. Chris would like to know himself. He said that the singles push was a big confidence boost, and admitted that he would like to be a singles wrestler again.
Apparently, Doc had an admirer in the chat room, as the next question came from “Nurse Young." Nurse asked Harris if there are any plans for AMW to break up. Harris gave the only answer that makes sense.
AMW has been offered deals to go to WWE before, but have declined, as they feel WWE “doesn’t believe in" tag team wrestling.
TNA4Life asked Chris if he still talks with Kid Kash. Chris said he met up with Kash in Nashville a little while ago and talked for a while, and Kash apologized for how “bitter" he was toward TNA in the end.
Chris plugged USA Championship Wrestling running weekly, and said that he’ll probably appear at those events every couple months or so - whenever he’s needed.
The featured guest this week was D’Lo Brown, who, after knowing him for over 10 years, is like family to Les. They joke about the "father/son" relationship between the two.
D-Lo talked about wrestling in Japan for the last three years, and mentioned that he doesn’t wrestle in the US, as he likes to spend all that time with his family.
One of the differences between Japanese and US fans, according to D-Lo, is that Japanese fans consider it an honor to be hit by a heel. D-Lo remembered fans intentionally getting in the way of Stan Hansen’s bull whip, actually trying to get hit by it. D-Lo joked that if he were in the audience, he would be running from the whip.
Speaking of Stan Hansen, where is he now? Hansen is 60 pounds lighter now, and is a Driver’s Ed teacher.
D-Lo discussed New Jack, saying that many people love him, and many hate him. D-Lo, for one, loves him. They’ve roomed together many times, and D-Lo said New Jack is very smart and witty (despite popular belief).
Rhodeislandred asked D-Lo about the differences between WWE and TNA. Like many before him, D-Lo talked about the more relaxed atmosphere in TNA. There was a lot of pressure in WWE, said D-Lo, but TNA is just “a bunch of guys having fun."
In spite of the rumors, D-Lo’s status in WWE didn’t suffer at all after the accident with Droz. In fact, he signed a three-year deal for triple the money he had been getting only six months later.
BG & Kip James may be older now than in their DX days as Road Dogg and Billy Gunn, but D-Lo thinks they’re just as entertaining as ever.
The last question came from Miss Destiny, who asked D-Lo what his first job was. When he was 13 years old, D-Lo pushed carts at a grocery store.
Listen to the show in it's entirety for all this from our guests plus more. Also, Doc & Les find out who won the PPV prediction game from Vengeance, they discuss why Raw and DX is a little too much, wrestlers who have passed, and much more!
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