David Penzer On The Surreal Feeling Of Empty Arena Tapings, One Positive That Came As A Result
David Penzer is excited for fans to see what IMPACT Wrestling has in store and he says he’ll be seeing some of what they air for the first time on television along with everyone else.
Penzer recently spoke with WrestleZone Managing Editor Bill Pritchard ahead of the Talk ‘N Shop A-Mania pay-per-view and commented on the feeling of returning to work for IMPACT Wrestling during the empty arena television tapings in Nashville. Penzer, WCW’s long-time ring announcer, says it’s a “surreal” feeling to perform without a crowd since one of his jobs was to entertain fans on the mic. He says he’s also been doing some digital content and extended interviews for IMPACT and he’ll be around as long as they’ll have him.
“I never expected to be doing that, I never expected it especially in these times but I’m honored and humbled that Scott D’Amore and Don Callis believe in me and that they decided to go in a direction that included me. I’ll be on this ride for as long as they have me, I hope that’s a long time. I’m really excited about the product,” Penzer said.
“The locker room—you know, people say that and it sounds trite and everybody talks about ‘the locker room’—I can’t talk about any other one but the locker room in IMPACT is really something special. A lot of young talent, guys and girls, just working hard. I don’t think anyone is getting rich for the most part but everyone is making a living and really trying to work as hard as we can to put a decent product out there and build because we know this thing is not going to change overnight, it’s not going to change over a year. It may now,” Penzer noted, “but it took two-and-a-half to three years of patience by D’Amore and Callis and Ed Nordholm to get to where they are right now. It’s an exciting time; we’re excited about TV we taped and excited about going back and doing more, Bound For Glory. Nobody is saying this is going to be a new ‘war’. Nobody has said, at least I haven’t heard anyone say ‘we’re going to beat WWE, we’re going to beat AEW.’ We’re just looking to make our own lane and entertain the fans and show that what we’re doing is cool.”
Wrestling fans have been vocal about the dynamic changing at wrestling events due to the lack of a crowd, but Penzer says one good thing that has come out of it is the lack of spoilers and surprising people with content. While spoilers have come out since various promotions started taping closed set shows, IMPACT has been relatively unscathed when it comes to content leaking early. Penzer agreed that it not only helps renew some interest in the product but also
“Isn’t that cool? I don’t know that hardly any got out and I’ve been doing this since March. We’ve done three tapings… 20 episodes of television and [Slammiversary] and that was live, so obviously that got out,” Penzer said, “but not before the pay-per-view. I haven’t seen very much get out. That’s interesting, don’t you think? I have noticed that.”
“There’s other empty arena promotions and the results get out because of people in the locker room, but this is just an example of the locker room really being all in and nobody wants to be the one to [spoil IMPACT shows]. For the most part, I knew who was debuting, for the most part, at Slammiversary for four and a half weeks and I didn’t even tell my adult son who is a huge fan. A, you don’t want to jinx it and B, I don’t deal with contracts so I hear it and I don’t know if it’s a verbal agreement or a contract, so I don’t want to mess with fate. But like what you said, it’s fun again,” Penzer said. “I guess there’s something cool about knowing stuff. I’ll be the first to admit that I used to read the Wrestling Observer religiously and you’d find these things out. ‘‘This’ guy used to be ‘this’ guy, and he was in another territory under a mask…’ and you think that’s so cool and no one would have ever known that. And it is cool but it gets to a point where if nothing is surprising and you know everything, then why are you watching? I watch a baseball game because I don’t know the ending, I watch a drama because I don’t know what the ending is. If I know what the ending is, why do I want to watch it?”
“I’m looking forward to Bound For Glory and how we get there in October. You talk about spoilers and not knowing anything, I’m at the tapings so I know what happens [with the in-ring content] but I was not at the WrestleHouse tapings so I’m really psyched to see how that all came together and what’s going to happen. I don’t know if it’s going to be an elimination type thing,” Penzer said, “I have no clue. All I know is the talent that was there and I love the open that they did, like a ‘Three’s Company’ thing and I’m excited for it.”