by Gerry Strauss
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Hey there, disciples of workrate, I'm Gerry Strauss, and I am back from vacation with a brand spankin' new, international version of "Seven Deadly Questions", the toughest interview in the land... the land, of course, being my apartment. Before getting started, I want to thank Mr. Clothesline himself, Professor Brett Schwan, for his tremendous efforts in helping me get my new website, GERRYSTRAUSS.COM, off the ground... if you want to check it out, it's up already, albeit in unfinished form, but soon it will be fully functional, and will be a simple link to my writing as well as info about my commentating and ring announcing functions as well... if you want to give me input or otherwise reach me regarding that, this interview, or anything else, hit me up at gerrystrauss@aol.com...now, onto the show... this interview is one of my favorites for several reasons... 1) The guy is an awesome talent, making a name for himself in Ring Of Honor, and internationally as well... 2) He is one of the only British guys I have seen that don't have that smarmy, Hugh Grant-like thing going that makes you want to just smack him silly, and 3) he offered rare insight into the differences between the wrestling business in two very distinct cultures... ladies and Gentlemen, I give you "Seven Deadly Questions" with "The Anarchist" Doug Williams...
1) Before your inclusion on the Ring Of Honor Roster, you were a relative unknown in the United States. How did you come to get booked by ROH, and what has it meant for your career?
It all stems back to my inclusion in the APW King of Indies tournament in October 2001. I was booked in that tournament through recommendation by Christopher Daniels and Michael Modest, both who I had met when they had toured the UK. Anyway, ROH saw a videotape of the matches I had at King of Indies and thought I would be an ideal addition to the ROH roster. I guess they liked my wrestling style which is, for people who have not seen me, mainly mat-based technical work. In terms of my career I would say that working for ROH has exposed my name and ability to many people in the business who were previously unaware of me. I don’t necessarily think it has had any effect on picking up bookings from other promoters though.
2) You were the National Judo Champion of the 72 kg weight class in 1992
and began your wrestling training in 1993. Why did you decide to drop
Judo in favor of wrestling?
I always intended on being a Wrestler. I had been a fan since I was maybe
6 or 7 years old. I was aware of the (then) process of trying to get into
the Wrestling business in the UK and thought it best to get a good grounding
in some form of Martial Art or Amateur Wrestling. I chose Judo because
there was a strong club presence where I lived and I thought that it would
be the most appropriate. Amateur Wrestling was basically non-existent
where I lived. This may make me sound big-headed but I never really had
any passion for Judo, I just sort of dawdled along doing it, used it as
a tool to hopefully springboard me into Wrestling and I only entered competitions
because my club would pressure me. I just happened to be naturally good
at it. I actually fell out with my club shortly after starting training
to be a Wrestler but I don’t think I’d have carried on much
longer anyway. I fell out with my club over lack of dedication, they wanted
me to attend in an official capacity, all gradings, competitions, exhibitions
etc., but I was more interested in chasing girls, going to gigs etc !
Plus by then I was obsessed with becoming a Wrestler.
3) Compare the indy wrestling business in the U.K. and in the U.S.A. Which is more popular? More mainstream? More organized? Pays better? How do the fans compare? Introduce any other similarities or differences you can think of.
From my own relatively limited knowledge of American Indies I can give you some insight. The UK is dominated by 2 or 3 touring promoters who run 3-4 week tours promoting across the country and running shows every night. Additionally there are probably 4 or 5 promoters who concentrate solely on running shows at holiday resorts. And then there are small promoters who run 1 or 2 shows every 6 months or so. The touring promoters generally draw reasonable houses (for an indy) between 200 – 2000 people and with them if you are on the tour you are guaranteed work every night for the length of the tour. Likewise with holiday resort promoters you can work every night in a different holiday resort, especially during the peak seasons (late Spring/early Summer). I would say that the touring promoters and holiday resort promoters offer a far more mainstream and family friendly product than any American Indy. Generally they are pretty well run with one guy (the promoter) booking the show and paying the Wrestlers. Pay is generally pretty low but if you think you can work 6 or 7 nights a week it actually works out not too bad. I am certain from what I hear from American guys I know that to get 3 or 4 nights week in the USA is good going. Fans on British shows are easier generally because they are mainly made up of families who go along for the entertainment. Wrestlers attitudes are the main difference I have noticed between the 2 countries. In the UK since there is no structure as such, many Wrestlers are happy to work the jobs they get with no ‘ambition’ to expand their career outside the UK – as such they don’t pay as much attention to their ‘look’ because they know it won’t help them secure more work or a better paying job. In the USA where there is a major company to shoot for, the attitude of Wrestlers is much more career orientated concentrating much more on their look and ‘gimmick’ as well as on their wrestling skills.
4) In 1998, you worked a match with a man who has succumbed numerous times to his own inner demons, and perhaps one of wrestling's most notorious characters, both for his amazing charisma AND his drug abuse, Jake "The Snake" Roberts. This was a time period not far removed from the filming of his appearance in the documentary "Beyond The Mat", perhaps his lowest point. Talk about that experience, and the effect it had on you.
My experiences of him around that time were fairly limited, only perhaps 20 minutes in the dressing room and then 5 minutes at an after show restaurant meal. It did not really have a major effect on me because I was well aware and had experienced in other areas of my life the effects of long-term drug abuse on an individual.
5) As a performer who, due to your affiliation with ROH and other major promotions, is featured on a great deal of popular video releases, do you feel that workers should receive a percentage of the revenue from such products? Why or why not?
This is a tricky one. If the tape featured one Wrestler ie like a ‘Best Of….’ then definitely yes. Because the reason for the sales of this product is simply down to that one Wrestler. With regards to tapes of shows featuring many different guys it’s a tougher argument, but do sportsmen in other sports get a percentage of videotape revenue? I mean, does each player on a Football team get a cut of revenue for videotapes of Football games? I don’t know. My feeling is that if you work full time for a company (really only possible with WWE) then you should get a percentage of ALL merchandise which is general ie. not belonging to a particular Wrestler.
6) As a legitimate "tough guy", has anyone ever tried to test you in the ring by being overly stiff or bully-ish? Have you ever had to use your actual fighting skills to protect yourself within the confines of the ring?
Surprisingly no. However there have been a couple of instances where I’ve had to use my ‘fighting skills’ in a Wrestling environment. One story that springs to mind was once in a Battle Royal one guy decided it would a good laugh to try a pull my trunks down. It never happened because I took him down to the mat and informed him that he had 2 choices, let me throw him out or be thrown out the hard way. Suffice to say he took his exit from the Battle Royal graciously! The other time was in Germany. We went to a High School to give a talk to kids about Wrestling. However of course there had to be some sort of demonstration and the promoter asked if there were any volunteers amongst the kids who wanted to grapple with me and see if they could take me down. Of course, the kids had already primed their local school Amateur Wrestling champ to step up. Now he may have been a kid but he was still 16 and looked about 200lbs. I took him over in a matter of seconds and made him submit immediately. Everybody was pretty shocked, even the other Wrestlers I think!
7) As a star in England and a rising force in America, which is more important to you? Which would you prefer to focus on gaining career momentum, if you had to choose? Why?
Really in terms of England I’ve gone as far as I can, there is nothing
else there to accomplish other than continue to put on the best matches
I can. To be honest with you I’m far more interested in furthering
my career in Japan, because that’s the only place I could earn a
decent living yet still live in Europe. However I am more than happy to
make regular trips over to the States so as not to disappoint my American
fans, although there simply isn’t enough work there that I could
make the sort of money I make even now in Europe.
