J.R. Benson Interview.

By P. Staniforth 2004.

This is a rare insight into the world of hardcore wrestling, with someone who could be considered a legend of the genre; J.R. Benson. People always assume that to be hardcore and to do the crazy things that are done, you're either mad or illiterate or a bizarre mix of both. This man proves that you can also be very intelligent and creative and still do this style of professional wrestling.

PETER) : - Thanks for making the time for this interview. What was your childhood like?

J.R.) : - Well, I grew up in San Francisco in the Haight Ashbury. What that means is, I had a lot of exposure to all drugs at a very early age. I can handle my drugs, but juggling school with them was a bit much; so I dropped school. Saying that, I loved my childhood in the city, one big party.

PETER) : - Well, that was a nice non controversial start! When did you first discover wrestling?

J.R.) : - I must have been four, maybe five years old tops. I turned on the television and there was Pat Patterson repeatedly smashing the Masked Invader's leg against the steel ring post, resulting in a "broken leg". I was hooked. This was the mid 1970's and I grew up on Roy Shire's San Francisco promotion. I watched the studio television show religiously, but I was very young so I was only able to convince my parents to take me to the live shows at the Cow Palace on a few occasions. I grew up watching the likes of Pat Patterson, Ray Stevens, Moondog Mayne, Don Muraco, Roddy Piper, Bob Roop, Kevin Sullivan, 'Playboy' Buddy Rose. I have many great memories. I also would watch the Los Angeles wrestling in Spanish. It appealed to me as a child with sillier gimmicks and more far fetched angles. The talent couldn't touch San Francisco. I remember smartening up to the business when I would watch Roddy Piper and Moondog Mayne have wild pull apart brawls on San Francisco television where they were feuding, and it seemed like if people weren't holding them back they might kill each other. Then two nights later you could watch them team up and be the best of friends on interviews on Los Angeles television. That was a revelation for me really.

PETER) : - When you first discover it's not how it all appears on television, it either disillusions you; or makes you want to find out more.

J.R.) : - Of course, years later I was a teenager for the big national wrestling expansions of the 1980's. I used to attend the AWA monthly in San Francisco and Bobby Heenan was my idol. Month in and month out the manager would out bump all the wrestlers, he would wrestle in a preliminary and more often then not had the best match on the show. Then he would manage in the main events and get incredible heat. He would always bleed gushers, I remember getting up close views of the bloody mask on his face. I wanted to be Bobby Heenan, though I didn't actually consider it as any sort of a possibility. Then when the national expansion went down, I watched WWF with the whole Cyndi Lauper thing. I got a kick out of the mainstream acknowledging wrestling and I followed it but I was never a WWF fan because I was a huge NWA fan. The entire roster was great, but the two acts that really captured me were Ric Flair and Jim Cornette. They made promos look so fun to do and the in ring action was intense with a lot of blood. The NWA took the interest that I had in wrestling to a new level.

PETER) : - It's always made me amused when mainstream media pays attention to this game that we love so much. Flair and Cornette are two people that I still feel the same way today over that I did then, utterly captivating and you can still learn from now. Was it that period of watching the NWA made you want to be come a professional wrestler?

J.R.) : - For the longest time I wanted to be a manager. I never considered the possibility of wrestling. I was way too small, not particularly athletic and I had a great mouth for talking trash. To me, being a manager seemed the natural fit. Going to wrestling school was a great experience, but it cemented further the fact that I was cut out to be a manager and not a wrestler. I quickly learned to take good bumps, loved getting thrown over the top rope to the floor but when it came to learning moves; let's just say I was the obvious manager in the class.

PETER) : - And at that point, you had a fellow soon to be wrestler who went on to be a star in ECW and the WWE alongside you….

J.R.) : - Actually the other manager in the class was Matt Hyson, who went on to fame as Spike Dudley. There were twelve other guys with good size and athletic ability, and then us two scrawny little guys. Funny part is, at the end, only me, Spike Dudley and Steve Rizzono were still standing. And Spike was the stand out star of the class. But getting back to the question, it was obvious I was not cut out to be a wrestler in the traditional sense.

PETER) : - What changed that point of view for you?

J.R.) : - I had been in the business managing for a couple of years when the proliferation of garbage wrestling changed my opinion. Lets call it hardcore, it sounds a lot better. I had watched Japanese death matches on tape for years, and I loved them; but they had never hit me as something I thought I could do. Somehow, ECW presented the same style in a cool manner and they made it into something I wanted to do. I remember watching Sandman vs. Tommy Dreamer and Sandman vs. Cactus Jack and thinking "I could do this". I quickly discovered that once in that element, I had no fear and a healthy threshold for pain. I discovered I could also do the Japanese death match stuff, thumbtacks, barbed wire; I just wanted to do it all. And for the most part I did and it was a blast.

PETER) : - So, from there; how did you get your break in the business?

J.R.) : - That's kind of a tough question to answer, and in a lot of respects many things just fell together. I was dabbling in the backyard wrestling, and while my wrestling was not going to impress anybody; my promos were strong enough that Roland Alexander gave me free training. His school charged a hefty amount for training so I felt like he saw something in me. Around the same time, Jim Cornette got his hands on some of my backyard wrestling tapes and they were a hit with the Smokey Mountain Wrestling crew. It was mostly for laughs, but again; I was good enough on the microphone that they let me manage on some SMW spot shows. At that point I started taking any indy bookings I could get. I would drive 12 hours for a ten-dollar payoff, I just took any work I could get and I made a name for myself fairly quickly.

PETER) : - How was the transition between managing and wrestling?

J.R.) : - Wrestling was very different from my first shows managing. Actually, my first match wrestling in front of a crowd; I took three chair shots to the head and couldn't remember what to do next. I had this entire match laid out spot for spot, and I was supposed to lead it and call the spots. There I was not even two minutes into the match and I'm telling the guy "I can't remember the rest of the match". It was a pretty helpless feeling actually, but I improvised my way through it.

PETER) : - I tend to wake up that forgetful naturally! When did you first consider ESW (Extremely Strange Wrestling) and ISW (Incredibly Strange Wrestling)? Did you ever realise it would have the cult following even today, years later; that it has?

J.R.) : - Well, I always wanted to be a booker. I had always felt like I had a good creative mind for wrestling. But the first few times that I had the chance, and with no offence to the crews I was working with at all; I had very little talent to work with. So, really; I went over the top with being creative to make up for it. I was a big Howard Stern fan, as at this point Jerry Springer was still trying to be Phil Donahue; so I didn't have him as a role model yet. This was years before Vince Russo did his thing in the then WWF, so I can really only point to Stern's influence and just my own sick sense of humour. But I went that direction every time I had any creative control over something, and I found that it was always a hit with people. It always aggravated old school types, and I would get a lot of heat for many years over my antics; but the people who were not offended always raved about my ideas.

PETER) : - They say you can't please all of the people all of the time. But you didn't let this stop you?

J.R.) : - No, I didn't. It was something I had in mind and I did on a very small-scale basis in the early 90's. But it wasn't until Johnny Legend set up the Incredibly Strange Wrestling thing in San Francisco that I had a chance to really go all out. Even then, as crazy as we got; about 75% of my ideas were being shot down. So Extremely Strange Wrestling was my first true chance to just throw it all out there and I don't regret a thing. I think it was great and someone needed to do it, and I'm forever glad it was me that did it. As for the cult following, when something is good and controversial and presses buttons that people don't want pressed; it will gain a following and keep a following. That's how this worked out, because people still love it and they still want more to this day.

PETER) : - What would you say to anyone with designs on recreating some of the things you have done in your past?

J.R.) : - I'm all for it. If they did it and gave me credit as an influence, that would be great. However, in wrestling everyone steals everybody else's concepts so; I wont hold my breath for that. I would like to see it done again just because I think it's good. It wont be easy as any state with an athletic commission will shut it right down. Finding a venue that will tolerate borderline illegal activities is never easy. Another problem is to find a crew willing to do such outlandish things is always difficult. But I'm all for someone else going for it, let's see if you can out 'sick' what I've done in the past.

PETER) : - It won't be easy, that's for sure. What would you consider your best moments in wrestling so far?

J.R.) : - That's tough. I'm going to say that it's a tie between my stuff at XPW's Night of Champions in 2002 and wrestling on the side stage of Lollapalooza in Seattle in 1995 for ISW. To be honest, dozens of things I like better come to mind that I did on smaller shows; but these two shows top my list just for magnitude. The Lollapalooza show actually was the worst thing we did for ISW, it was a chaotic mess and I'm so not proud of anything we did in the ring that day. But how can you complain when we were on the side stage of a show that had 30,000 fans?! Were they all watching the wrestling? Of course not. How many were is tough to say, I'd say only a few thousand tops; but that is still a huge crowd for any indy promotion.

PETER) : - It's a potential audience that any independent wrestling promotion wouldn't turn down. XPW has quite a reputation that goes along with the sheer mention of it's name, tell us about your time there.

J.R.) : - As for the XPW thing, that was great. There was a big crowd outdoors at the Pico Rivera Sports Arena, which is this broken down old bull ring where Rob would run shows when he wanted to blow things up and couldn't do it indoors. The show was tremendous, it had XPW's third king of the death match tournament; the big angle where Shane Douglas took XPW and Lizzy Borden from Rob Black; and also Angel took a bump off a 40 foot scaffold into an exploding ring. For my view, I would say don't hold your breath waiting for that one to be topped. I was managing Snuff against Vic Grimes, and whenever Grimes and I work against each other; we turn the sickness way up. I got murdered out there, not as bad as I have on many of the small shows I've worked; but it was my best performance on a big stage and I'm pretty proud of it.

PETER) : - There must be many misconceptions and false assuming about someone who has done a lot of the things that you have done. How would you describe yourself?

J.R.) : - I'm guessing most people think I am an absolute psycho. I like that, and I go out of my way to cultivate that reputation. But in honesty, I'm not really like that at all. I just love to do sick things, and when I'm in front of a crowd and cameras; I have no fear. Nevertheless, away from the ring I'm much mellower then most people probably think.

PETER) : - It keeps people guessing, and that's never a bad thing in a weird business like this one. What do you like to do in your spare time?

J.R.) : - I have a bottomless pit for wrestling. If I'm not actively taking part, I spend a lot of time watching videos and reading about it. I'm actually a television junkie, trash television while smoking a fat one is my favourite past time. San Francisco is great for two things, pot and strip clubs; and I take full advantage of both.

PETER) : - Heading mainstream just for a minute, what are your thoughts on WWE and TNA; and the indy promotions?

J.R.) : - WWE saddens me as they really had something in between 1997 through 1999. They could have really built on it but they just threw it all away. The television has been unwatchable for a good four years now and they have chased most of the fan base away. I find it pitiful, frankly. Just think of it this way, if they had not wasted one hundred million dollars or whatever it was on the XFL and instead used a portion of that money to keep the illusion of WCW alive; if they had attempted to get all the big guns on board right away like Goldberg, Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, the NWO, Eric Bischoff etc; and had done the invasion angle right with two existing companies, and god forbid, elevate some young talent; I don't think the business would be in a slump today. You always hear wrestling is cyclical, and I think a lot of that is lies. It does have it's up's and down's but show me a company that is still booking at the top of it's game and making the right decisions that has gone down. Yes, wrestling hit a slump in the early 1990's, but if you go look at the garbage that both WWF and WCW put on television at that point and you will see that they deserved to be in a slump; just like WWE do now. If you put on a good product, you will do well. They are in this mess now 100% on their own incompetence.

PETER) : - Strong words, but an opinion that it's hard to disagree with.

J.R.) : - As for TNA, I'm glad it exists as an alternative for my entertainment. I think it was much more interesting last year then it is now. I don't think a pay per view only company has the chance to do anything but burn money, but I'm glad it exists. As for indies, it sucks that XPW went down but there is still a lot of good stuff out there. If you want old school with booking that makes sense, OVW is great. ROH presents a hell of a product, and is the closest thing to a Japanese product that I've seen in the USA. If you want the blood and violence, CZW and IWA are as good at it now as any other group has been. I wish more people would support the indy's in their areas because without them we'd be left with WWE. In other words, we would lose any wrestling worth watching.

PETER) : - Changing pace again, you're hardcore, no doubt. What's the most hardcore incident (or incidents) you've been involved in or seen?

J.R.) : - The most insane thing I've ever been involved in was APW Gym Wars, 1997. Vic Grimes at his absolute heaviest, he had to be hovering around 400 pounds; climbed 18 feet in the air and dove off on top of me through a table. That is the only time I have ever been scared during a show. Vic was still new to the business, he'd been working about six months and only for APW. He had many crazy ideas and none of the guys were willing to do any of them. Vic knew that I was the only person in APW sick enough to even consider it so he told Roland to call me. I didn't even have to think about it, and said 'sure, sounds great'. It wasn't until I was lying there, and looking up at Vic climbing that I realized I had really made a bad decision. Every foot higher, Vic's ass seemed to get twice as large. I realized that a 400-pound bomb was about to be dropped on me; and it was very scary. One thing about Vic though that you have to realise, we have done spots with barbed wire, thumbtacks, fire, you name it; and crazy moves he thinks up that I cant even picture in my head beforehand - yet he has never ever hurt me.

PETER) : - That settles it, I'm staying this side of the keyboard! But it also says a lot about him that no mistakes were made.

J.R.) : - That was the scariest thing I have been involved in, even though it turned out fine. As for the scariest thing I have witnessed, that's easy; and it was XPW 'Rapture', at the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles; 2001. Supreme and Kaos had quite possibly the best death match I've ever seen, it was off the charts. But at the end, a flaming table spot went wrong; and Supreme caught on fire for a long time. He was running around ringside trying to find someone to put him out, and those ten seconds seemed like two minutes. It was a scary thing to witness.

PETER) : - Do you have any advice for people who want to get in to the business?

J.R.) : - If someone wants to get into wrestling because they love it and they want to live out their fantasy, I say go for it. I would say to find a reputable wrestling school and do your thing. You only live once and I cant imagine my life if I had not ever tried any of this. If you want to get into wrestling to make a fortune, you're in the wrong era. It's not a dead business, but the odds are so steep that you're going to make it to that level these days that you have to be realistic about it.

PETER) : - Hey, me and you fall into the category of people who do what we do because we love what we do!. To call this a day, what are your plans for the future; and just add anything you'd like to say overall?

J.R.) : - I'm not sure about future plans. In 2000 I somewhat quietly retired from wrestling, then XPW sucked me back into in 2002; and now I'm hooked again. I don't know how many shows I have left in me but I'm certainly not going to take it easy until I'm done. If anyone gives a damn, they can keep track of what I'm doing at www.jrbenson.com; and I highly suggest everyone buys at least one video while there.

PETER) : - Funnily enough, so do I. Thanks for your time, it's much appreciated my friend.
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Peter Staniforth.
Peter is an English based professional wrestling journalist, currently writing for the following websites : - www.prowrestlingdaily.com, www.wrestlingclothesline.com, www.pwbts.com , and www.ukevents.net.

Peter has written press releases for http://www.eeuroshop.com/?tid=ps101 , the official WWE merchandise outlet for the UK & Europe.

Peter reviews video tapes for the following wrestling tape traders, who come strongly recommended by him - www.simania.co.uk, www.violentjtapes.com, www.bluethundervideo.com, www.modtrom.com (the official video production team behind Jersey All Pro Wrestling), www.a1wrestlingvideos.com, and www.ruffneckwrestlingvideos.co.uk .

Peter is also a booking agent to such names as CZW's Nick Berk (and others), and runs a independent wrestling bookings website for wrestlers - http://www.pstaniforth.vze.com/ . Peter was also mentioned on the credits of the cult PC wrestling simulation game EWR 4.0, by Adam Ryland.

When using any of this information give proper credit to Cactusb and the Wrestling Clothesline at http://www.wrestlingclothesline.com

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