Lance Storm recently appeared on Sitting Ringside with David Penzer and discussed various topics. Storm reflected on his impressive career and looked back on his time in Smoky Mountain Wresting. Here are some highlights.
On moving from Calgary to Tennessee:
Storm: “Yeah, it was certainly culture shock. I’m really glad, like it’s one of the times in my career that I’m most happy that I got because it was really the only authentic territory, you know, from an old-school territory standpoint where, you know, you’ve got your loop of your regular towns, you’ve got your regional spot show, you’ve got the old traditional, you know, once a month, or whatever, you taped your TV, you got your squash match and stuff, so it really was that traditional territory. So I’m so glad I did it, but it was shocking. And I think, too, which is probably a little bit different for me, it’s like, I also got married like literally a day or two before I moved there, so my life changed in a big way on top of the culture shock of Smoky Mountain Wrestling, but yeah, I think the biggest thing for me, and I just mentioned it somewhere, I don’t remember who I was talking to, and it’s appropriate today with the Black Lives Matter movement going on.”
“And this was 1994, I didn’t believe racism on a large scale still existed. Again, I grew up in a town where there was one other black family and his dad was a surgeon, so they were the rich family in town, so I never had an opportunity to experience racism. So, you know. I thought it was something that was in movies and used to be around, and then I got to Tennessee, Kentucky, you know, West Virginia and so forth, North Carolina, and it still exists. And the New Jack Gangstas, you know, New Jack and Mustafa Gangstas feud with the Rock ‘n’ Roll Express, it was just unbelievable that the babyfaces were being supported by a crowd that would scream the N- word at people. And I was just like, what is this? And it was just shocking.”
On working with the Midnight Express:
Storm: “As a territory, it was so much fun and I was a gigantic Midnight Express fan. Bobby Easton was one of my all-time favorites as a fan, and I loved the Midnight Express, so actually getting to work a program with Jim Cornette was probably my first, if you have sort of, and again, I don’t think I marked out, I don’t think I’ve ever been that bad, but if there’s ever been that one where your wrestling fan self sat back and went, ‘This is really cool,’ I think the feud with Jim Cornette in Smoky Mountain was my first.”
On Jim Cornette’s temper:
Storm: “I’ve seen him, you know, kick and throw the monitor backstage while throwing his headset around and screaming. And I remember the one was always funny, he would scream and lose his s—.”
“I worked with Jimmy again in OVW and that’s something that I learned early in Smoky Mountain was, once you get past the anger and the passion and being called a stupid bumblef—and a mouth-breathing knuckle-dragon, whatever, his advice is often usually really good and he screams and rants because he’s passionate and cares, so as long as you don’t take it personally, I learned a lot from Jimmy.”
The full episode is available here:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/3OEmfhN3mA1r55FcCYRhRx
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