The Interactive Interview courtesy of www.WrestlingEpicenter.com
Your Hosts: Patrick Kelley, James Walsh, & Nick Noel
Transcript By: Patrick Kelley
David Young is one of those wrestlers who everyone saw as a talented performer but never really broke out the way he could or perhaps should have. In this interview, we talk to the 20 year veteran about his time in wrestling, most noteworthy his time in TNA, and get a fun, enlightening, and entertaining look into the life and mind of a true unsung hero of pro wrestling…. Plus the Samoa Joe story is one of the best we’ve ever heard in 7 years of doing this show!
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DAVID YOUNG:
– David Young calls into the live show and he says that right now he’s been busy. He’s working with THQ doing motion capture work for the Raw vs. Smackdown game & Legends of Wrestlemania game. He says most of it is him, and he says that when you see Arn Anderson do the Spinebuster in the game, that it is definitely him.
– When talking about his own Spinebuster, he says that he developed it while working with Air Paris on the Indy scene. He says that he did it as a way to hurt him and it just kept getting better and better.
– He says that there were a lot of politics in TNA. He had alot of fun in TNA and made alot of friends, but recalls specific examples of how politics getting involved. He recalls one example where he was told that both he & Skipper would be pinned by Shark Boy at the same time. When Young said that he didn’t like having Shark Boy pin both of them, Young was told that part of it was because Skipper kept asking for a raise and got under people’s skin. He says that he constantly got in trouble for things that other people did. He also recalls Disco Inferno no showing a PPV and that resulted in him, Johnny Swinger, & Simon Diamond all getting in trouble.
– Right now he’s getting plenty of work and specifically puts over SAW. He says Bull Buchanan, The Naturals, & Kid Kash also work there right now and says the promotion has some great promise. He puts over Bull as one of his best friends and recalls working with a match with Bull when Bull was very new to the business. The night before, Bull had taken too much for a big guy and they wanted him to be more of a monster, and when he wrestled David Young, he went crazy and beat him up pretty good.
– He thought he could be marketable as a bigger guy that could do some more X Division moves, but nobody would back him up. He then says Samoa Joe came into TNA and was pushed basically the same way. He puts Joe over as one of the best wrestlers and is one of his best friends. In one of the funniest stories in the history of TII, he recalls a game that he would play with Joe called "Hockey Punching" The rules were they would punch each other as hard as they can when the other guy least expects it which involves a hilarious incident in the hotel room that was video taped by Christopher Daniels. He says that the game ended really badly though as David Young wrestled Joe on Xplosion and he hid on the ramp and he hit Joe as he was making his entrance. Joe became seriously injured and had to leave in an ambulance after the match, but Joe got him back in the match and roughed him up. David felt so bad that he almost considered quitting.
– When talking about his Losing Streak angle, he says he loved it. For some reason, Jeff Jarrett was never very high on him and was only signed because of Jarrett’s father (he worked with AJ in his tryout match and they both got signed) He says that he also got along with Dutch Mantel, and David pitched the idea of a losing streak and they all loved it. It also opened the chance for him to work with the Insane Clown Posse and it got him press. He also came up with the idea of being afraid of clowns. He says that he liked the ICP fans that came into the company, but management did not.
– He says that wrestlers like working with the celebrities because the spotlight gets put on them and they have a chance to elevate their status.
– David has not worked with ICP’s wrestling federation and is actually a little surprised that he’s never been called in, but he really liked working with them.
– The conversation shifts towards the Basebrawl from Turning Point 2005. He says he was watching the match a few days ago and saw Elix Skipper fall on his head while trying to do a spot and he thought "That’s why I don’t have a job anymore" He loved doing the match, and wished they had done more with it. He says that originally the plan was to have TNA put on a mini-show after Baseball games, but Dixie Carter didn’t like the idea. They then got underpushed for the rest of their run in TNA.
– In TNA he got paid per appearance and got left off the show for weeks at a time. He was making enough money with Herme Sadler’s promotion, but felt that it would be nice if TNA would use him. Eventually TNA informed him that he couldn’t work Sadler’s promotion, so he asked for his release and it was granted.
– Skipper got released as well, but TNA brought him back to rebuild Triple X, but Skipper had an IV in his arm throughout the Ultimate X match at Bound for Glory and Young says he is a very tough guy. When talking about some of Elix Skipper’s crazy stunts, and even Skipper thought that things like the Cagewalk were really stupid. However, Young was more shocked that Harris was willing to take the Hurricanrana off the cage because he was always trying to protect himself. He was surprised that Harris didn’t succeed in the WWE because he seemed like he’d be the star and he expected more from him once AMW split up.
– This is actually David Young’s 20th year in the business.
– When speaking on the passing of Test, he says that he only met him once backstage at a TNA show, and knew he was in good shape, but never knew him that well. He says that it was sad that he passed away so young, and this also leads into a discussion about the Media’s coverage of wrestling during the Chris Benoit Tragedy. He says that the media can be like vultures trying to find anything wrong with wrestling. He was always a huge fan of Chris Benoit and had met him a few times. It really hurt him when he heard what happened. He doesn’t know or condone what happened, but he knows that wrestling suffered in a lot of ways with his passing.
– He’d like to work for WWE, but its not something he’s too excited about because with the bad economy, WWE is making alot of releases and he is more interested in working for Japan. He says he would really like to work for NOAH. He also loves ROH and says that a 3 Way he had with AJ Styles & Adam Jacobs was one the best matches of his career, even though he busted AJ open the hard way.
– When asked about how guys react when they get split open or busted open the hard way, most guys don’t get upset about it as its something that usually comes with the job.
Word Associations:
Bobcat: "I love her, she’s awesome"
Simon Diamond: "One of the smartest men in pro wrestling & its a crime that he doesn’t have a job"
Johnny Swinger: "Love him…We work alot of Indys together…he’s a work horse"
AJ Styles: "One of my best friends in the world" = We also get a funny story from James about a phone call he got from AJ once.
Mike Posey: "He’s a good guy….I honestly don’t know why they (WWE) would let him go"
Air Paris: "I have known him since he was 14 years old…he worked his way up….now he’s one of my best friends"
Abyss: "Great guy…probably the best big man in the business"
Glen Gilberti: "Love him…I always had fun with Glen….it was always funny"
Raven: "No inbetweens…I either walk away so pissed off I want to kill him or so depressed I want to kill myself"
Dixie Carter: "Very nice lady…a very fair person to work with"
Jeff Jarrett: "Never liked me…always awkward…as a wrestler I think he’s great…he is key to TNA getting as far as it has"
– He also says that Air Paris is one of the funniest men he’s ever known, but that personality never came out on screen. He also says that the same problem occured with Brad Armstrong who was said to be hilarious backstage but it never came across on the air.
– He tells a funny story about a 3 Way Tag match he had against The Naturals & The New Age Outlaws/James Gang/VKM. During the match, Billy Gunn/Kip James did BG’s usually moves including the dancing knee drop and BG went nuts and said "I have two moves and you just did them both!" And David says it was one of the funniest things he’s ever seen in the ring.
– When comparing the Nashville Asylum Crowd to the Orlando Impact Zone crowd, he says that Orlando was much more personal and it was easier to get to know them. He doesn’t watch the current TNA product because he doesn’t think its as good as it once was. When voicing concerns about the product, he says his son doesnt’ watch it either.
– He then talks about an angle they did where he would get out of shape and then months later he’d get back into the shape and do a "Before & After" thing. Dusty took over the book and he recalls a match where he defeated Shark Boy (who he jokes has been kind of the bane of his career, which Shark Boy also mentions to him in jest) with the help of The Naturals & Chris Candido. When he showed up to the PPV, & Dusty had no plans for him. He also said that he was not interested in pushing him and brings up Phi Delta Slam (who were Dusty’s hunting buddies) David went up to Terry Taylor & quit, but Terry begged him to stay and said things were changing. At the next TV taping, Dusty was let go and The Diamonds in the Rough were formed.
