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Interview with Chris Dickinson (english)

Interview

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Published on:
21.04.2012, 17:33 
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CAGEMATCH: Hey Chris, how are you? You haven't been in the ring for quite a while. I heard you are injured. What happened?

Chris Dickinson: I injured it in a match. I had a prior injury I never had fully checked out due to my lack of health insurance at the time but that was late 2009. So working and training for two and a half years on an improperly healed knee could of only made it worse. This time around as soon as it happened I knew it was a much more serious injury. An MRI showed I had a torn ACL and my lateral and medial meniscus (cartilage) had been severed completely. I had to have ACL reconstructive surgery and at the same time have a majority of the cartilage removed from my knee. Any guys out there that are injured but unsure of the severity and without insurance, I urge you to find a way to have it legitimately checked out. It can save you big in the future.

If I'm not mistaken the injury happened at an event of the German promotion Westside Xtreme Wrestling. What are your thoughts on them? Were you going to come over if your injury wouldn't have happened?

Yeah, it was one of the wXw east coast tour shows. I was going to go over and do a few shows with them as well as work around England during July/August but unfortunately due to the circumstances it didn't happen. Dealing with them was a breeze, they were really easy to talk to and putting together the plans was smooth. They weren't very fond of the match with Beck, they felt I was a bit too stiff with him and was hitting a bit too hard. I had always caught flack about the striking and though I understood why I still continued, I admit around that time I was starting to come out of that style but I resorted to my usual ways in the match and it didn't end well. I guess at times I didn't know my own strength. It's kind of funny how everything came crashing down in that one moment but life has a funny way of teaching you a lesson. I could of went out there and had a simple in and out match which is what they wanted but instead I was selfish. On and off during my time with wrestling I experimented with steroids and I'm sure a lot of guys didn't want to have their back or chest kicked in by an angry 235 pound jackass. I wasn't right in the head most the time, I knew I had this reputation for being on the edge and heavy on the strikes and I ate it up. I was being a dumb mark for myself and for the wrestling business. I think it had a lot to do with being hazed early on in my career, never feeling good enough, always feeling like I had something to prove. I didn't realize I was getting all these opportunities because I had something to offer. Instead I was so caught up in trying to be this big lame tough guy monster. In fact I don't even think I scratched the surface of what I was really capable of. I was always too caught up in feeling paranoid or nervous and put a ton of pressure on myself when I really didn't need to. I never really looked around and said, well I'm here lets have fun. It's sad but I feel like most of the time I was so nervous and under my own pressure that I never really having a good time and it showed in a lot of my matches. You live and you learn.

When will your injury be healed? And when will you come back to the squared circle?

The first month after surgery was the absolute worst. But I toughed it out and was in the gym on crutches training upper body as well as going to therapy everyday for my knee. Luckily living in NYC I had access to one of the top orthapedic surgeons in that field. Many of his patients are big time athletes from around the country so I was in good hands in terms of the surgery and physical therapy. I don't know if my knee will ever truly be 100% again due to the lack of cartilage but it is better off than it was a few months ago. I have a much smarter training routine now and pay more attention to my body than ever before. I listen to my body and approach things in a more natural fashion. I don't force things like I used to. As far as a return, I can't give you a real answer for that question. I suppose it is something you and I will have to see grow organically. My life is in a much different place than it was then and I'm a different person. My idea's are so different and my aspirations in life have changed so obviously my outlook on wrestling is radically different than it was before. It's one of those things I'd need to take one step at a time.

You were one of the main guys at Beyond Wrestling. What do you think of the promotion?

Beyond Wrestling is the reason I broke through and got the exposure needed to get more bookings. It was just what I needed to get noticed and after three years of it's existance it is truly my home in terms of wrestling. I don't think of it as a wrestling promotion because it is unlike any other promotion out there. The atmosphere is totally different and it doesn't fall under the same vibe as most places. To use music terms, Beyond is like one big crazy jam session. It seems to be a very positive place to the guys that come through now and the talent involved is really what makes me appreciate what we all built from the start. To see some really awesome guys come, go balls to the wall and enjoy themselves is what it's all about. Most of all I am very proud of how different a concept it is. I am all about doing things a little differently. Wrestling tends to feed us the same stuff over and over. Especially with the way I look at things in 2012, it's nice to see something fresh.

EVOLVE might be the most known promotion that you worked for. How did you get there? How did Gabe Sapolsky discover you?

I believe Gabe was impressed with my performance in a few of my early Beyond matches and gave me a shot. He spoke with Drew, I spoke with Gabe and that was that. I was lucky because I had literally come out of nowhere and was a part of this new concept. It was huge for my exposure but the first few shows were rough, you can tell I was still getting my bearings and figuring stuff out. Everyone and I mean EVERYONE was looking for a reason to hate me. If I was smarter then I would of been able to embrace things a bit differently and turned it into something but it just wasn't meant to be.

After EVOLVE 4 you did no longer appear at the EVOLVE events. What happened?

There was just nothing for me. I am very proud of that 4 way match at EVOLVE 4, I've had a lot of people tell me how much they liked it and it was one of the more fun matches I had at the time. I believe Gabe's idea was to have a faction of MMA style fighters with Davey, Kyle, Tony and Me. Tony Kozina was going to mentor me to control my "anger" which goes back to when he came out calm me down during a promo on the second show. But Davey went to ROH exclusively and soon they followed leaving me with no story and a few so so matches. So I think that was that. I did work with Gabe again doing a fray match for Dragon Gate in Philly and that was really fun, things were starting to click and around the time I had been hurt Gabe contacted me about doing EVOLVE again but I declined due to injury. EVOLVE was a great learning experience and I am thankful for the opportunity and all that came out of it.

You said that everyone was looking for a reason to hate you. But are there guys in wrestling that you consider friends?

I meant the fans not the workers. EVOLVE was always a pretty chill atmosphere. There are places where it may not be so laid back. Unfortunately there is always gonna be some sort of locker room bullshit going on somewhere. For the most part I kept my nose clean and didn't speak up or say much but being quiet can also work against you at times and I think I was a bit misunderstood by some of the boys. I still met some really special people and there are some guys in wrestling that are close friends I see and talk to everyday.

In Jersey All Pro Wrestling you had a run as Tag Team Champion with Sami Callihan as United States Death Machine. Even though I have seen none of your matches I imagine your team to be pretty ruthless in the ring. How did you like teaming with Sami?

That was really fun and what was cool was that it was totally organic. We had a singles match that unfortunately was not taped by JAPW which really boggles my fucking mind but there is no point harping over it now. Sami was on fire and I wanted to really see what he was about. We had a hell of a match and our styles clashed well. I remember for the first time going back to the locker room at JAPW and guys just finally showing some respect. We stole the show and I wish I could see it now but I guess you just had to be there. Management thought we had good chemistry so they made us a team and that was that. We really didn't give a shit, we said what we wanted and did what we wanted. Eventually Moxley got involved and that was really cool.

In the beginning of 2011 you competed in the IWA Deep South Carnage Cup, a Death Match tournament. You even won in the first round. How'd it go?

I loved it. I know a lot of guys shy away from death match wrestling but I embraced it. When you're in the moment and shits going down it's the best feeling. I didn't go batshit crazy like some of the real death match guys like to go but I feel Mangue, Pinkie and myself put a nice little twist on our matches. Don't get me wrong I got cut up but I wanted to add a little more structure and order to the matches instead of just tossing light tubes at each others faces.

Why didn't you do more Death Matches? I'm sure promotions like Combat Zone Wrestling are happy to find good wrestlers that are willing to do Death Matches.

The offer was never on the table to do it again. I don't know about doing anymore of the tournament style stuff but I believe the death match element can have a place in a really good blow-off match, if the story and moment was right.

Let's go a few more years back and talk about your beginnings in the world of Pro Wrestling. Were you a wrestling fan growing up? Who were your childhood heroes?

I have an older brother and sister so while they were watching late 80s, early 90s stuff I was fortunate to be exposed to it. I took to it and it became my thing when I was little. As early as I can remember I would beg my mom to take me to the video store up the street and I'd rent wrestling tapes every week. I'd rented almost every tape in the Palmer video and Blockbuster near my house over the course of a few years that I was rented them again and again and again. Plus I watched it on TV all the time. I was really consumed. Like any kid I was blown away with all of the big WWF names from that era but I really liked WCW too and I'm talking about early 90s stuff. Even as a little kid I could feel such a different vibe coming off their show. I spent most of my childhood savings on wrestling tapes from Sam Goody and all other music and video stores in the mall. They were usually well stocked with WWF and WCW PPVs and luckily that led to my exposure to the Crocket era NWA. ECW was the absolute game changer for me though as a kid. I was just blown away with it. It's really funny because looking back, I can put music up there when it comes to things in my life I hold the closest to me but nothing has ever come close to wrestling. I think for a while this last year it's almost bothered me and made me look outside the box to find other things in life and that is a good thing for anyone who is consumed with a particular thing, but I am who I am and wrestling is a very big part of my life. I can't change that.

When you told your family that you want to be a professional wrestler, how did they react? Were they supportive?

I was telling my family and just about everyone I was going to be a pro wrestler from as early as I can remember. As corny as it sounds it really was a childhood dream. I took shit from my family, from school, from EVERYONE. My family aren't the type of people that would disown you if you don't live up to certain standards or that type of stuff but they certainly thought it wasn't a serious choice that would have the kind of turn out it did. My family didn't start realizing it was really serious and start actually supporting it until I started traveling as much as I was and having things to show for it. It is what it is you know.

Where and with who did you train? How long did it take you to get ready for your first wrestling match?

I trained everywhere and anywhere I could. I started getting in the ring and learning when I was 14. My first time ever training was sometime in 2001 at the JAPW school with Magic who was the head trainer there. I followed him around to other places after the school closed and had my first match in the summer of 02. He was my first trainer and is a now a very good friend of mine, truly one of the nicest most genuine guys you could meet in a business like wrestling. I trained at CHIKARA in '04 for a few months which was awesome, I learned so much then. I worked some shows around New Jersey through ages 15, 16 but stopped around my senior year of high school. I started becoming more involved with playing in bands and music.

You are trained in Martial Arts. What exactly did you do? Have you ever thaught about pursuing an MMA carreer instead of wrestling?

My mom put me in a dojo when I was six. Luckily by chance it was one of the most respected and legit martial arts schools in the city. It was for disciplinary purposes but the things we did there were nothing typical. Jonny Mangue and Sean Maluta of WXW (USA) were also enrolled there as children and can tell you if you think I'm lying. It was INSANE. We were trained by some serious Korean guys that could kill you with their bare hands in seconds. We were whipped and beaten if we screwed up and were expected to be there everyday and they expected the parents to be just as on the ball as you. When I was around eight years old I tried quitting because the older we got the worse it got. But my grandfather talked me out of it. A lot of my complexes were formed because of that place but sticking with it and succeeding in it was the probably the biggest life lesson I'd learned at that point in childhood.

Mangue, Sean and I all became good friends back then and all shared the same goal of becoming wrestlers and without that place in our lives we wouldn't have had what it took. They had ties with the World Tae Kwon Do federation and the Olympics and all three of us competed in Olympic events, tournaments. We did traveling demonstrations at stadiums and even for President Clinton. By the time we were getting to be 14, 15 we all went in different directions. Mangue became a teacher there and I started training in what's now known as MMA. I hopped around a few dojos but by the time I was 14 I knew I wanted to be a wrestler and that was that.

No, I would not pursue an MMA career. I don't like fighting and I am a professional wrestler at heart. I love the drama, the comedy, the mystery, the whole aura about it. There is so much more to pro wrestling than two guys having a fight. I LOVED the UFC\Pride\K1 back in the day before it became the big thing, it was like the wild west. Now every fight is the same to me, they all have the same styles. What happened to the days of Maurice Smith vs. Marc Coleman? Bas Rutten, Don Frye, Royce Gracie, Andy Hug, Ernesto Hoost. I would take any of the 90s UWFi, Pancrase worked shoot style stuff over the straight MMA from now any day. I don't like how popular it's gotten that everyone and anyone with a sloppy gut that's never seen the inside of a gym in their tapout shirts claims to be doing MMA now. It's such a fad and martial arts as a fad is not only insulting but disgraceful.

Where do you see yourself in five years from now?

Hopefully happy, healthy, more comfortable financially. In my time off from wrestling I've grown up so much but there is plenty to learn. I look forward to where my relationship with my girlfriend Caitlin is going, future musical projects, traveling and overall finding out who I am. You can live your life with a certain idea and a well detailed path set for yourself and it can all just change in an instant. You have to learn to take things one day at a time.

Okay, I think we asked you enough questions. Many thanks for answering the questions so honestly. But before we get you off the hook, I'd like to play a little word association game. I'll give you some keywords and you just tell us what comes to your mind:

Mike Quackenbush: A great trainer, has original concepts and ideas and is a very consistent booker/promoter.
CHIKARA: Different, daring, grown into a big player, produces workers of all backrounds.
Jonny Mangue: Criminally underrated. Very athletic, very smart but also very realistic about his outlook on the business and life. On his way to doing great things as a wrestler and more importantly as a person.
Gabe Sapolsky: Knows exactly what he wants. A lot of guys have negative ideas about him but personally I thought he was actually a nice guy and easy to deal with. He told me after EVOLVE 4 I'd be back when time was right and he stayed true to his word, I did DG which I felt went great and an EVOLVE show was coming but I got hurt. Would of liked to see where that could of gone.
Davey Richards: Another guy that seems to catch negative flack from people in the business but I always thought he was a pretty chill guy. Takes what he does very seriously.
Ring Of Honor: Way different than they used to be.
Germany: A country rich in history of all kinds. The heavy metal capitol of the world. Had a big opportunity there and really wish I could of made it work but at the time it wasn't meant to be. Would love to open up communication with those guys and prove myself matured and on another level.
CAGEMATCH: Your website is crazy, I can't believe you guys even know half the shit you know and collect all the info you do. Keep it up, I'd love to stay involved with you guys anyway I can.