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To read Part 2, click here.
Continuing our discussion with ROH star Chris Hero....
MC: You mentioned TV earlier. Do you think that with the addition of the TV
show and the internet pay-per-view streaming, RoH can become a viable
alternative to the mainstream wrestling audience, or do you think that there's a
limit to the appeal of Ring of Honor?
CH: No, I think our product - okay I have a lot of friends who don't know
anything about wrestling. All they know is what average people know. And
anytime, even strangers that I've just met via music or friends of friends,
anytime I show them any Ring of Honor, they've been like 'Wow, this is really
good,' it's not what they expect because they expect WWE soap opera, mud
wrestling, two minute matches, twenty minute promos. So when they see that
there's an alternative out there, or any real-life friends that come to watch me
wrestle, they're like 'Wow, this is really intense.' I think ya of course, the
only thing needed - it's not anything we can really do - but if our TV show gets
picked up on more cable networks, I think we're at 15-20 million homes right now
in the US, but if we get into Comcast, that's a huge jump. As long as we're out
there, we have some kind of promotion to get people to watch us, ya I definitely
think we're an alternative, because you can put our TV show up against any shows
in wrestling, and you're gonna get more action, you're gonna get more
determination, because our guys are so driven to go out there and have the best
matches. The intensity level of our matches, the way everybody's laying into
each other - it's unlike anything you'll see anywhere else. You have great
wrestlers in WWE and TNA, but for some reason or another, for every good match
you'll have an hour and a half of blah, and who wants to sit through an hour and
a half of blah just to get to the good stuff? We've got a TV show and in 40
minutes, it's balls-to-the-wall.
MC: You guys bring the physicality way more than the mainstream.
CH: Absolutely. But at the same time, there's a stigma attached to that. 'Oh,
these guys are unsafe,' but we have the same amount of injuries as any other
company has. Our guys are all young; everybody's walking around healthy, icing
themselves after matches, taking care of themselves. It's not like we're diving
off of ladders and landing on our heads, stuff like that. It is controlled
physicality.
MC: Who has been your favourite person to work with so far in Ring of Honor,
and who haven't you had the chance to work with yet that you'd like to?
CH: Well...it's a little late now, but I always enjoyed my matches with
(Bryan "Daniel Bryan") Danielson. Whenever we met in Ring of Honor, we both had
different things going on. He's somebody that I'd have just liked to have
wrestled for a really long time. Maybe not a long time over one match but over a
series of matches. Our mat-wrestling styles really work well together, but it's
not like we could just go out and do whatever we wanted to do out there, we
still had to think about the fans. I enjoy teaming with Claudio, and now that
we're back teaming as a team it's completely different. He and I are at greater
levels than we ever have been individually, and to bring us back together as a
team now, I don't think there's any team in pro wrestling that can match us as
far as that. You've got the Motor City Machine Guns and there's a great team,
but they're a completely different team than us. And while they're both amazing
wrestlers, I don't think they boast the singles' credentials that (Claudio) and
I do, especially Claudio in the last year who has really come into his own. He's
become a monster and really come out of his shell. He's not afraid to throw
people around now, he's really looking out for himself now, which is good. So
teaming with Claudio, I enjoy wrestling Tyler Black, El Generico, those guys
with a really upbeat, fast-paced style. I'm more of a methodical guy, I put a
lot of impact into what I do, so those styles just kind of mesh well together.
MC: Getting into the Japanese scene, when I got into it, I became a massive
fan of 1990's All Japan. For me, it's the best wrestling that's ever taken
place. Were you a fan of that style before, because I know you mentioned growing
up a WWF fan...
CH: Well what happened was, the only Japanese wrestling that I had known
prior to getting into wrestling myself was (Jushin "Thunder") Liger, and, you
know...
MC: The guys who would come over here from Japan?
CH: Ya, Hakushi, all those guys. They were really good. And I read about
Jumbo Tsuruta, (Gen'ichiro) Tenryu, all those guys, but I never really knew
anything about them. After I had been wrestling about a year, I ordered a bunch
of wrestling tapes. I got "Best of Hayabusa," who I'd seen in ECW. I got "Best
of TAKA Michinoku," who I'd seen in WWE. I got a Kaientai tape, I got an Ultimo
Dragon tape who I'd seen in WCW. Through that I kind of started seeing who these
other people were. At first it was really difficult remembering people's names,
knowing who was who. Back then, the wealth of knowledge wasn't online; you
couldn't find out what matches were what. But then a year after that, I'd gotten
a Toryumon tape, and that was actually the first Toryumon shows; 6-man tags with
CIMA, Magnum TOKYO. It was Crazy MAX vs Magnum, Dragon Kid, and (Ryo) Saito
maybe. I was just completely blown away by all this stuff. I had seen lucha
before, and I knew a little bit of it, but this was just...amazing, and I was
really hooked on that. When that came out I started seeking out other
Japanese...I got Michinoku Pro, Osaka Pro. Little by little, I got into All
Japan. I didn't initially because it was a little boring to me, just because I
couldn't tell the people apart.
MC: Was this the Mutoh Era or the Misawa Era?
CH: The Misawa Era, late 90's. (Pro Wrestling) NOAH had not formed yet. They
just had plain-coloured trunks, I didn't know their names, I didn't know their
stories, I didn't know who was who. So it was a little slow-going. But then once
I started figuring out who was who, I started putting the things together. I
think I saw 'Dr. Death' (Steve Williams) vs (Kenta) Kobashi, and it was like
"Oh, so that's what this is."
MC: *Laughs* Oh, so that's a Doctor Bomb!
CH: Yeah, so little-by-little I got into that, and then over time (Toshiaki)
Kawada became my favourite. It was just, (Mitsuharu) Misawa was the golden
child, and (Kawada) was the little step-kid that everybody beat up on. He wasn't
good-looking, he was kinda tubby. He had the stupid mullet, he was missing his
front teeth. But he could go out there and put on these amazing matches, his
intensity, that's - and to this day he's still my favourite Japanese wrestler.
And then I finally got into that style. And then (Pro Wrestling) NOAH was born.
I wasn't really into NOAH originally, because Muta was doing the matches with
Kawada, Kawada was having the matches with Kensuke (Sasaki), they were just
doing all this stuff, and that's kinda what I was into. And then bit-by-bit, I
started - I think when KENTA and Marufuji came along, Marufuji before KENTA for
sure - I think I saw Marufuji on a Zero-One show...
MC: vs (Naohiro) Hoshikawa
CH: Ya, and wasn't (Tatsuhito) Takaiwa in one as well?
MC: Ya, in December of 2001.
CH: And I was like 'Whoa, these guys stole the show, and they're not even
Zero-One guys.' So little-by-little, you know one guy, you start watching. And
then I just started amassing all of these tapes: BattlArts, DDT, All Japan, New
Japan. I never really got into New Japan. I have a respect and appreciation for
a lot of guys, but I never really got into it.
MC: So you don't ever see yourself working there then?
CH: Well...that would have no bearing on it at all. Just that I didn't get
into it doesn't mean that if things were right...but if I did go I'm sure it
would have something to do with NOAH, because NOAH's my company and they've
taken really good care of me. So even if New Japan did offer me something, it's
not something that I would do without the consent of NOAH, because they've just
been so good to me. I was in Japan for three months last year, they gave me
great opportunities and they continue to do so. It's helped mould me into what I
currently am.
Monday's fourth and final part will feature stories about Kenta Kobashi,
Japanese business today, whether or not Hero thinks NOAH will survive it's
recent run of incredible bad luck, and his thoughts on the issue of concussions
in pro wrestling.
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