DEFY World Champion Randy Myers Talks Mental Health, Training, More
Photo Credit: DEFY Wrestling
The Win Column Sports Network‘s Spencer Love recently sat down with DEFY World Champion Randy Myers to discuss a myriad of topics. Take a look at the highlights of the conversation below and also see the entire interview.
Transcription credit to Spencer Love of the WCSN
On his love and passion for DEFY Wrestling:
When I got involved with DEFY, it was at a point where I was taking my first-ever break from professional wrestling. I’ve been doing wrestling for the last twenty years, so I’ve been going, like, every weekend, (a) couple shows for quite a while. And then, it was a time where I developed some mental health issues that I’d kind of needed to focus on, so I’d taken a step away from wrestling. But, then, there was a big show at DEFY down in Seattle, and they had Davey Boy Smith. It was a stacked card, and I needed to go down and I needed to witness this live. So, I went down. I had heard good things, I went down, had some friends down there, and I was blown away when I saw the product. The fans were incredible, the actual in-ring was awesome, and just the vibe was phenomenal. So, I just went down there as a fan and was blown away.
How professional wrestling has helped with his mental health:
More and more I realize each day. During this time when we have it off, it’s been hard. It’s been really a struggle for me, because wrestling is my therapy. It gets this aggression out in me, that fire, that energy. I look at it like nuclear power. If you can use that nuclear power for good, then that’s awesome and you can get that power out. But that energy’s not going to go away. It’s not just going to disappear. It can go – it can be led in the wrong direction quite easily. Wrestling is so much about control. It looks like extreme, wild violence at times, but it’s so much about control at the same time, and so much about consent, and so much about caring about that person you’re in the ring with. It’s about being able to get that energy out in a wild, frantic manner, but it’s done in the most healthy of ways. For me, when I first got into professional wrestling, I was a 17-year-old kid who was kind of lost and could have easily gone down the wrong path. But then, I found wrestling.
On beginning his training at the Hart Dungeon:
When I first started at BJ’s, I did that for about a year, and then there was the short-lived Matrats promotion that came through. Basically, Stampede Wrestling had run low, their talent pool had run low, so they didn’t have a lot of people on their shows. I was always going and supporting their shows. I went to one where there were only three matches on the card or something like that, so I started to bring my gear to the shows. I started asking Bruce – Bruce Hart, I started asking him, he was the promoter at the time – if they needed anyone, ever, I’ve always got my stuff with me. Like they say, bring your gear to every show, so I started bringing it. Then, one day, he was like ‘hey, we’re going to use you tonight,’ and he threw me in the ring against Hannibal, who was my very first match. I didn’t know I was welcomed in the Dungeon yet. So, I started doing the Stampede Wrestling shows and sheepishly being at these shows, tentatively going and doing my best. One day, TJ came up to me and said ‘Bruce is upset that you’re not coming to the Dungeon practices.’ And the whole time, I wasn’t going was because I thought either I wasn’t invited, and I’d spent all my money on Teddy Hart’s pro wrestling camp. My grandmother had given me a little bit of money for when I graduated high school, and I spent all that money for a lifetime membership with Teddy’s school. So, at that point, I had nothing left in my bank account, and I didn’t have the price for the Dungeon. So, I was like ‘I can’t do that,’ and then Bruce was kind enough to waive the fee and invited me into the Dungeon.
On when prospective wrestlers should begin training:
I think bumping is something that you should maybe give some time on, because you’ve only got so many bumps in you, unfortunately. I didn’t want to think that was true, and I denied that for years and years. I thought if you were doing things right, you were going to be fine. But, you can’t guarantee you’re going to do things right every single time. So, you do – I guess you have unlimited good bumps, but only so many bad bumps on your card. So, I wouldn’t necessarily start with that at a young age, but you can easily start with amateur wrestling or weight lifting. Maybe not heavy, heavy weight lifting like some, but getting athletic, learning how to be in the gym, doing gymnastics, even some diving. Some of the best aerial people I know were divers as a kid. There’s all sorts of different stuff. Even drama and stuff like that, but then also building in pro wrestling and chain wrestling and stuff like that. I just wouldn’t do any major bumping until you’re, I don’t know, in your early teens. But, like, fourteen I would say it’s okay to maybe do some crash pad bumps and go from there.
On his blown opportunity with WWE:
I’d gone down in 2009 for a tryout. They were doing these tryouts where if you paid I think it was $1,000 and flew yourself down to Florida, they would have a look at you. I think it was 72 people in that camp. It was funny, because actually Hannibal was in that camp, too. So, he was my first Matrats match, my first Stampede Wrestling match, and then I had a match with him in front of WWE talent agents, so, weird. It was the first time WWE had ever seen me. I just wanted to kind of know what they were looking for in a wrestler, and kind of learn how to train their style. To find out where I was lacking, basically. They had us doing promos every day, and Dusty Rhodeswas there encouraging us or having us do promos for him. One day, we all cut our promos, and he went up and he pulled me out of the crowd to cut a second promo. The promo was basically about how there (were) a lot of people who want to be professional wrestlers for the fame or for the sex or the riches or whatever, but I wanted to be a role model, and how I had seen a kid singing Rey Mysterio’s theme song, even though nobody knows the lyrics to Rey Mysterio’s theme song except for this kid at the top of his lungs at a wrestling show, and how one day, that’s what I would hope to be, is to have my song sung like that.
There is much more content to the interview and you can listen to the entire interview below.
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