Zak Knight, the brother of WWE star Paige, recently spoke with Memorabilia Guy and below are some interview highlights:
Tell us about the experience of the upcoming film about the family.
After the documentary came out, a couple of weeks later we were approached about a movie. To be honest, a lot of what you hear is true. Basically, The Rock was over in the UK and one morning he was sat up at 3am after a long day at work and our documentary was on TV and he fell in love with the family because of the family roots and the passion we showed towards wrestling. And it reminded him a lot of his family. He went to Vince and then to Kevin Misher and Stephen Merchant.
What should we expect from the film?
Mainly the film is carrying on from the documentary – it shows you some of the documentary, but filmed as a movie and not a documentary. And then it goes on to tell you what happens afterwards – when my sister moved to America, the after-effects of me when I got turned down, you see just how low WAW got, and then it’s risen again to something that we feel is one of the best productions in Europe. For us, it’s quite insane.
Tell us about the setup of training wrestlers, and Scott Hall’s involvement in the company.
Originally I brought Scott Hall over – I was talking to Steven Fludder from PCW, and he said that he brings imports in so that people recognise his company. And not only that, they recognise the UK talent that don’t get the chance to wrestle in front of big crowds, so my dad was working closely with one of our investors and decided to do a TV pilot. And the first man I called upon was Scott Hall. And in that time, he’s been fantastic. He lets us get on with it – even if we look like we’re not doing it right, this is the man that’s been at the top and knows how it should be done, but he’s not hard on us, he works with us, and gives us ideas. He’s now started working with our camera crew to make sure they get the right shots at the right time, he’s one of the agents – so he speaks to our guys and makes sure that everything they do works psychology-wise. So he’s actually been a great part of the success over the last 18 months.
He’s fantastic. For everything that is said about Scott Hall – the guy, when he’s over here, is completely professional. He doesn’t drink before the shows or during the shows and generally not after the shows. He’s just a really really down-to-earth guy, that’s not even in it for the money because we’re still a low budget company that can’t afford a great deal, but he values what WAW is and believes it’s going to grow. And if it does, he will be rewarded greatly.
On Paige’s future and her relationship with Alberto El Patron:
Yeah, 100%. People love buying into true stories. Obviously, to start with, the family was unsure about what was going on between Paige and Alberto. Everyone can blame Alberto for what’s happening at the moment but she’s a 24-year-old girl that made fame at 18 and she’s got a horrific injury and we don’t know what’s going to happen next. This could be the end of Paige or it could be the big fight-back story. We don’t now yet, but the fact that Alberto and Paige is now coming into WAW, is huge for us. She’s now giving out pointers and Alberto is the same, he’s great. He comes over and is willing to do anything. The guy has been to the top and he’s listening to my storylines and my plots. This is the mentality of all the guys coming in. We get inundated with emails from top stars every day saying “can we come and work for WAW”. And that is a he achievement and honour.
Nick was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, and lived there until the age of 18, when he decided to pack his flack jacket and move to New York City.
