Chelsea Green has always been vocal about her Canadian roots and the unique situations that she’s found herself in due to being born above the 49th parallel. Of course, as a fellow Canuck, the country and it’s wrestling scene is always a large part of any conversation we have, and that was no different when we last chatted.

One specific Canadian-related piece I had to pick her brain on was the Canadian Destroyer made famous by Petey Williams. No matter your opinion on the move, it’s one of those things in wrestling that’s sure to spark a debate in any wrestling circle. However, in 2018 on an episode of The Wrestling Perspective podcast, Green was, in fact, handed down the Destroyer by Williams himself. With it rightfully being hers by all wrestling metrics, I asked her, how does she feel about the move being performed on such a consistent basis by so many wrestlers?

Green laughed.

“I have debated tweeting that because I remember on the podcast that was like a big moment for me! Like ‘did he just like really give it to me?'” she commented. “I mean it’s kind of unfortunate that this move that was so cool and that I almost won All In with is now just kind of a like thing, just kind of another move. Hopefully, that goes away. Wrestling happens like that. It happens in waves. And so, maybe we’ll ride this Canadian Destroyer wave and then everybody will get off it and it will become unique again. Who knows?”

“But I mean, everyone, just remember that I’m the only person who’s allowed, okay?”

As is often the case in pro wrestling, chatting about one legendary Canadian often leads to chatting about another. Whether we were talking about wrestling moves or the wrestlers themselves, that was the case more than once during our interview.

Another topic that came up with a Canadian flavour to it was Green’s past training in Calgary under Lance Storm. While we briefly touched on it during our first interview, it was something I was eager to dive deeper into her experience with the SWA. As she’s often said, her training at the Storm Wrestling Academy in Calgary wasn’t just her first experience in a wrestling ring, but foundational to her future success in the business.

“Now that you’ve had the opportunity to train with Lance and train in Japan and train with a lot of great individuals in the Performance Center, what do you think differentiates Lance Storm?” I began. “Looking as an outsider, it’s not like it’s a cookie-cutter program for lack of a better way to put it.”

“Whether it’s yourself or a Peyton Royce or an Oney Lorcan or a Rachael Ellering, you guys are all very different professional wrestlers. What do you think makes Lance great at giving the best of everything?”

“Well, here’s the thing,” Green began. “He starts from day one from the basics and he builds from the ground up. He doesn’t try to throw you in and teach you a move before you know how to lock up, or he doesn’t try to teach you how to be a character before you even learn how to wrestle. You start from ground zero, and you build this great foundation and you just keep building on that. I think that’s why everyone that comes out of Lance’s has a great mind for wrestling and is able to build a perfect, basic match.”

“That’s what I love about the Storm Wrestling Academy is that you can learn all the other fancy stuff everywhere else,” Green closed. “You can just try it, you can cross your fingers and hope that you can do a Frankensteiner or, you know, whatever it is, a Canadian Destroyer. Lance teaches you how to entertain and how to build a match that people are going to want to continue to see.”

Please credit Spencer Love/Love Wrestling with any transcriptions used.

Mike Bennett is perhaps as well known for his openness with his mental health as he is for his professional wrestling. That statement should speak volumes in and of itself, and especially when considering the immense talent that Bennett possesses for the sport.

Most are just as quick to recognize him as an influence on their own journeys with mental health as they are to note his influence on their in-ring work. While, personally, I’ve never experienced the in-ring side of things, Bennett’s willingness to share both his successes and his struggles have been monumental in my own attempts at personal development, and of course, I was excited to get the opportunity to ask Bennett directly about maintaining his positive mindset and his feelings on being an inspiration to so many.

“As a guy who’s very, very upfront about where his mind states at all possible moments,” I asked him, “how do you continue to keep yourself in a positive frame of mind and continue to keep yourself motivated that way?”

“It’s a battle, I won’t lie,” Bennett began. “I’m human. I think it’s a matter of just being honest with yourself and constantly telling yourself – like, to me, the industry is so negative and the fan base can be so negative sometimes.

But, I’ve reached a point in my life and in my career where I’ve realized that if someone is that unhappy with me, what is going on in their life that they are bringing that unhappiness and presenting it towards me? [I’m] someone they don’t even know, or they don’t even understand. But, it’s also a culture.”

He began to elaborate.

“There’s been this culture in professional wrestling of like – I mean, I remember when I was coming up the first time in Ring of Honor, and guys would tell me like, ‘oh, if you ever want to go to WWE, you just have to be an asshole. You’ve got to be a jerk. [You’ve] got to be,’ because that’s the culture. That’s the mindset. Vince always wants people that are just – they told me that when I was with the company, they’re like ‘Vince likes assholes. That’s just how he is.’ So it is a culture that that trickles down.”

“But,” he continued, changing course. “What I feel like is ever since there’s been this uprising of indie guys getting signed and indie guys kind of changing the industry. I mean, there’s a ton of positivity now, too, if you look at guys like [The Young Bucks], or you look at guys like Kevin Owens, or myself, there’s a lot of guys that are like, ‘no, this industry doesn’t have to be this way.’ This is our industry. Even Cody! Cody always says that this is our industry. The industry is for the guys and girls that step in the ring.

And we have the ability to change the mindset.”

Bennet paused for a breath before carrying on.

“I honestly think it was just always [that] there was so much negativity in the industry that it just trickled into the fans, too, until the fans started becoming negative,” the former ROH Top Prospect winner stated. “I’ll never understand why fans complain about some of the things they do. I’ll never understand why the fans will go to bat for a billionaire but will crap on the wrestlers that are unhappy. That’ll never make sense to me, but I don’t try to make sense of it.”

“But, what I can do is I can use my platform to try to spread some positivity and good, and it’s a struggle. I mean, I won’t lie. Daily I get comments about how terrible of a human I am, and some days it gets to me, and some days it doesn’t. But, what I have to do is just check myself at the door and remind myself like, ‘no, no. You’re okay. These people, they’re going through something, and clearly, they’re going through something,’ because for me, I’ve never in my entire life, I’ve never gone on Twitter and been like, ‘I’m gonna go attack someone I don’t know.’ It just isn’t my DNA. But I feel for these people, and I remind myself of that.

“So, you know, I think it’s a constant battle to try to stay positive.” Bennett concluded. “But to me, it’s a winning battle, and it’s an important battle, because I think especially more than just wrestling, in this world we’re living in during this virus and, like I said earlier, an insurrection and like this just political tribalism, it’s important to keep a positive mindset because this will consume you, and the negativity can consume you and you just have to fight back at it.”

Please credit Spencer Love/Love Wrestling with any of the above transcriptions.