Chris Jericho was joined by his former Thrillseekers partner, Lance Storm on the latest episode of Talk Is Jericho to discuss his new career transition as a producer for WWE. Storm’s new role in the company also means he’s closing the doors of his well-known Storm Wrestling Academy up in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
The first part of the conversation Lance shares as to why he thought it was the appropriate time to close SWA, citing several reasons, one being that his 50-year old body is feeling the effects of bump-taking a little bit more, something he still does on a regular basis.
“My body has been getting more sore, more tired and because I’m so hands-on, like I still have matches with every student. I’ve been questioning how much longer I can do it. The last couple of years, I’ve had a student, Chris Knight, really good guy, really good friend of mine…but he’s been helping me two days a week to helping me reduce my bump total and so I’ve been looking at that and you know to be honest enrollment has dipped a bit and so I started looking with what’s the financial pluses and what’s the physical pluses and with my kids now being adults, my oldest daughter lives on her own now and my youngest is 19, the need for me to stay home full-time isn’t as much so I started weighing the options and I reached out to a few places to see what my options are and came to the conclusion that my best option isn’t Storm Wrestling Academy anymore.”
Storm said the initial jump from being an in-ring performer on national television to working with WWE developmental as a trainer was a smooth one, considering he started training talent way back in 1991. Opening a school seemed like it was the right move after leaving WWE.
“It felt very natural and I really enjoyed it and that was the thing that always got to me when people, ‘Oh don’t you miss the ring?’ I’m like, ‘I’m still in the ring.’ So many of the guys miss the pop, like they like that adrenaline rush from the crowd where that was great, but I always just enjoyed the art form and getting to do it still and being in the ring…”
“It’s really rewarding when you see the light bulb go off in their head or you’ll get that text or whatever, it’s like “Ohhh, I finally get what you meant,” Storm said.
(Transcription credit should go to @DominicDeAngelo of WrestleZone)
You can listen to the entire conversation between the long-time friends below:
