Few Albertans have impacted the province’s independent wrestling scene as much as TJ Wilson has. Whether it be through his own exploits with the legendary Stampede Wrestling, the Prairie Wrestling Alliance or training some of Western Canada’s current top stars, Wilson’s influence on the province is not only immeasurable today, but will be for decades to come.

Wilson and I chatted recently about breaking in with Stampede Wrestling, as well as his training of Albertan wrestling stars Michael Richard Blais, Brandon Van Danielson, and Alex Plexis.

On breaking in with his home-town promotion, Stampede Wrestling

Spencer Love: “Now, let’s get back to yourself as a professional wrestler, and let’s take it all the way back. Obviously, I mentioned right off the bat (you) wrestling for Stampede Wrestling, wrestling for the PWA. Just right off the bat, as an Albertan yourself, as someone who grew up here watching the wrestling scene, did it mean a little bit extra for you to break in with Stampede Wrestling?

I guess the comparison I’d make is it’d be like an Edmontonian getting drafted by the Oilers.

TJ Wilson: “That’s exactly it. That’s exactly it. It was very interesting that – so, I loved wrestling. I really liked wrestling, I’ll take that back, I really liked wrestling when I was a young kid, but I was not – my cousin showed it to me, and then I wanted to emulate some of the moves on my sisters, and then wrestling got banned in my house at a very young age.

Fast forward a few years, and I go to school with Teddy Hart, and we were in the same class. He kept inviting me over to his house, which he called a gym, and when you’re a kid, the only gym you really know of is like a gymnasium where you play sports in school. So, finally, I give in and say ‘okay, I’ll come over,’ and I go to his house and he lived in a – his dad owned a gym, BJ’s Gym. He lived, the family lived in (the) quarters above the gym. So, he lived in a workout gym, which was mind-blowing to see at that age. Next thing you know, I’m going up to Stu’s (Hart’s) for Sunday dinner, and here’s Bret Hart, and here’s Owen Hart, and here’s Davey Boy (Smith), and here’s Jim Neidhart. It’s like ‘wha – what? I see these guys on TV, what’s going on?’ I just became engulfed in all aspects of it, in wrestling and in the Hart Family.

TJ: “I mean, to wrestle in Stampede, and especially that one year that Stampede Wrestling was back on TV in ’99-2000, that was such a cool thing because Stampede had gone off the air in ’89, and now here we were ten years later in ’99 restarting Stampede Wrestling TV. Things like that were very, very cool milestones in my career.”

Being a part of such a talented group of wrestlers in Alberta at that time

TJ: “I tried to. I try to live in the moment. It’s obviously a little – sometimes we don’t always see exactly what’s in front of us and we’re always looking ahead. And that’s all of us, and I’m as guilty (of) that as anybody. But, I tried to immerse myself and slow down and enjoy what was in front of me. I remember, for example, you bring up Chucky, Michael Richard Blais, and BVD, I remember saying like ‘hey,’ – so, there was a little break, and then Stampede Wrestling restarted in the fall of 2005, and I remember saying ‘hey, I want these kids that I’ve been training, I want them at ringside almost like New Japan with the Young Boys.’ I’d been going to New Japan at that time, and I was like ‘I want them kind of down there.

’

TJ: “In my mind I knew, I thought I knew what I was creating. I ended up creating (a) way bigger thing than I had bargained for.”

SL: “As usually is want to happen.”

TJ: “Yes. In my mind, I was like ‘okay. What I’m gonna do is I’m gonna sneak these guys on to shows here and there and get them that experience.’ And they were young, 16, 17. But that was the same – I had my first match at 15, so I understood that you could. If you’re a kid, I felt, and someone kind of helped you along and kind of gave you a bit of your first break, you will never forget that.”

TJ: “I remember telling the guys that I was meeting with about that, and I said ‘if we use these kids once in a while – we don’t have to put them on shows if you feel that’s going to take away credibility from other things, that’s cool. But, if we use them sporadically, these guys will never forget. And, you know, believe it or not, we don’t have a giant budget, so we need people to come set up the ring and do stuff like that. These guys will come down, and they’ll be in that Ogden Legion all day long doing whatever you want them to do. They’ll set up the ring so they can get in the ring in the day and get some reps in. They did agree, hesitantly, but they did agree and I had an idea that maybe it was a triple-threat with Michael Richard Blais, who was Chucky at the time, BVD, and Plexis. I think it was like a triple threat, and I said ‘hey, here’s the thing, it can go 30 seconds, it can go four minutes, it doesn’t matter, and then Duke (Durrango) and Rik Viktor come and attack these kids and get heat for beating up, bumping around these kids.’ That’s was what I kind of sold them on, and everyone was cool with it. But then, you fast-forward, like, this is going ahead, but then you fast forward six, seven months, the most over guy on our shows was Chucky. I had no clue what I was getting myself into, but I knew these guys were really good, and I knew they wanted to get even better, and I knew they would – I was training them at the time, so I knew how hard these guys wanted to train and I knew how serious, how serious they took wrestling and how much they loved it.”

What he saw in Michael Richard Blais, Brandon Van Danielson, and Alex Plexis

TJ: “It was something funny, I came home from England in 2005, and I was home for two weeks. I’d been in England for four months, almost five months, then I was home for two weeks and I was going to Japan for the Best of the Super Juniors tour. I had like two weeks in between, and I was like trying to just get in shape, and I was training (with) my Japanese in the mornings, and then I would come in at night, and these guys were there training. I was like ‘okay.’ I said ‘hey, guys. I have two weeks right now, but when I come back from Japan if you guys are still here – I see you guys all the time, and you guys…’”

TJ: “I’d come in and I would do stuff. I knew who they were, but I wasn’t essentially training them hands-on at this point. I’d see something and say ‘hey, try this. Hey, try it like this.’ Chucky had been around for a while, he’d been around since he was a kid. Brandon, I kind of knew online or whatever, now he started coming around, and Plexis as well. So they trained with me a little bit during those two weeks, and then I said ‘hey guys, when I come home, if you guys are serious about this, let’s seriously train.’”

TJ: “I came home from Japan, and I was like ‘okay guys, so this is what I do with my Japanese trainer. It’s not going to be easy, but I’m not gonna be – you guys are kids, I’m not gonna be super hard on you, but I’m not gonna take it easy also, so we’ll find that balance.’ Man, those kids showed up every day and they trained hard every day. Right away, I was like ‘okay, this is really fun,’ and I think at that time maybe, I think maybe we were training twice a week, or three times and we bumped it up to four or five, because I was loving it. You started seeing, like, these guys were just, they were these young sponges that just, they absorbed everything. Every day at practice, they would just be that much better, as silly as that sounds, they were just so much better every day. I loved being a part of that. It inspired me to keep getting better, too, and not just kind of stagnate.”

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

There may not be an individual more associated with Major League Wrestling than Mance Warner. In just over a year with the promotion, the Southern Psycho has endeared himself to even the most casual fan of the promotion for both his boundless charisma and his ability to get it done inside the squared circle.

Recently, Warner joined us on the Conversations With Love podcast to discuss wrestling against MJF in front of no fans, why he feels he stands out in MLW and what he loves about the promotion among other topics.

Wrestling against MJF in a Loser Leaves MLW match in front of no one:

“See, it’s a whole ‘nother ball game right there, because like you said, my favourite thing is to go and do the fights, do the shows, the events. Right now, we ain’t got a lot of that going on, so to go out there in front of what I’m used to as a big ol’ crowd, and there ain’t no crowd out there. You ain’t got the people to pull from to get that energy, so you’ve gotta kinda just go out there and remember that they’re going to be watching this, and they’re rooting for you, and you’ve gotta put on a fight that they’re going to appreciate.”

Why he feels he stands out in MLW:

“I think, for me – and like you were saying, that roster’s stacked, man. You can look through that entire roster and from the top to the bottom, everybody in there brings something different to the table. It reminds me of old-school ECW. I think the MLW shows, there’s sometimes people that don’t watch it, and then I’ll tell some fan that don’t know about MLW yet, I’ll say ‘hey, go watch this show.’”

“I’ll always hear that. I’ll always hear ‘man, it’s one-hour long, from the beginning to the end there’s always something going down.’ There ain’t no bulls**t in it. The backstage promos are always fun and it goes to something else that’s going to happen, and they enjoy it. I never hear anyone watch it and say ‘I hated that damn show.

’”

What he loves about working for MLW:

“Out there, they let Ol’ Mancer do what Ol’ Mancer does. You know what I mean? Ain’t nobody gonna tell Ol’ Mancer ‘do this or do that.’ I show up, and I go out there and I get to do the same thing that I do at any show that you come and see. No matter what company it is, if you know Ol’ Mancer’s going to be there, you know what you’re going to get. Out at MLW, they’ve let me do barbed-wire matches. They’ve let me do empty-arena fights. They’ve let me do backstage. I go out there and there’s always something different going down that you get to see Ol’ Mancer doing something different in a different environment with different people.

It’s fun to watch a fight, man, that’s what I always say.”

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

Few professional wrestlers in recent memory have encapsulated fans quite like Mance Warner. Ol’ Mancer has earned a reputation as not only one of pro wrestling’s most badass brawlers, but also one of it’s most charismatic stars. His ability to captivate people both in the ring and on the microphone has earned him comparisons to some of the biggest names in professional wrestling.

Warner recently joined me to discuss a wide variety of topics, including the importance of authenticity in pro wrestling, why he feels he’s been successful thus far, and dealing with comparisons to the likes of Dusty Rhodes and Stone Cold Steve Austin.

The importance of authenticity in pro wrestling:

“Now, I can’t speak for nobody else. My thing has always been I ain’t going to bulls**t nobody. I ain’t going to lie to nobody. If I get hurt, I’m going to tell people ‘hey, I’m hurt.’ I ain’t going to bulls**t nobody. But, for me, once you lie to the fans, to the people that are spending their money to come see this, you’ve already lost them.

At the end of the day, you wouldn’t want to get lied to, I wouldn’t want to get lied to, so why would you want to lie to the fans out there that are spending their money that they’ve gotta work for every day to put a little bread in our pocket? I ain’t going to want to break bread with somebody if they’re lying to me, so I try to always be honest, I try to always call it right down the middle and let people know what’s going on.”

Comparisons to major names in professional wrestling:

“The way Ol’ Mancer looks at is is, we all get into pro wrestling, even maybe you’re just a fan. Maybe you want to become a writer (in) pro wrestling. Maybe you want to be a camera guy. Maybe you want to be a talent. Whatever it may be, we all get into it for a certain reason, right?

We can all remember at some point when we were kids the things we loved about pro wrestling. For me, it was Arn Anderson, Ric Flair, Macho Man, Dusty Rhodes, Terry Funk, Jake the Snake, all these guys that you could sit there and listen to them, and you forget you’re even watching wrestling. You’re just listening to someone tell a story about how he is gonna beat someone’s ass or whatever it may be.

“You can’t ever forget that once you’re into pro wrestling, because that’s the stuff – I didn’t get into pro wrestling to do cool moves. I got into pro wrestling because I like fighting people anywhere I go, and I like telling stories. So, if I can sit down and talk to you and pay attention without even doing anything, right there, here we go baby. It’s that thing of it’s not relying on, because I think the way you worded it was relying on something the past, you’ve got to remember how it all got to this point. So, while other guys are trying to do the craziest thing over here, I’m gonna be over here dancing in the circle doing everything. It’s just kind of take your own spin on it, and then beat the hell out of people and tell some stories in between.”

What he feels has allowed him to succeed thus far:

“I think anyone that gets into something new, right, they always have doubts. They always question things. I never did that, though. Once I got into pro wrestling, I knew ‘this is the thing that I’m going to do, and if I don’t make it at this, I’m f**ked, I’m s**t out of luck.’ For me, it’s going ‘okay, this is the thing you’ve always wanted to do, here we go, this is how you get into it, this is where you need to go.

’ And then, just keep going. Keep going to companies, keep getting your name out there, keep busting your ass. Do what other people don’t want to do. People don’t want to do promos, I’m doing promos every week. I’m always doing promos. People don’t want to tweet stuff out all the time, I’m always tweeting out s**t.”

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

Few professional wrestlers are able to balance their professional wrestling and social media use like Chelsea Green. Not only is the Victoria native active in promoting any upcoming wrestling endeavours, but she consistently engages her fans with new content and behind-the-scenes looks into life as a professional wrestler.

Green recently joined me to discuss the COVID-19 pandemic, her use of social media, and maintaining relationships in professional wrestling.

Keeping busy during the COVID-19 pandemic:

“Oh, my god, isn’t it insane? I was saying this before to all my Canadian friends: I know I can’t complain because I’m in Florida, I’ve got a pool, but still, it’s so crazy!”

Walking the line between her character on NXT and her personal life on social media:

“I really struggle with that, actually. I kind of get people telling me all sorts of different things when it comes to social media. When I was with Impact, a lot of people were kind of annoyed that I would post as myself, but then also post as the Hot Mess. But, that’s what I love about my job and about social media is I can choose. So, I really didn’t give a s**t that people thought that was annoying or it broke kayfabe, because at that point it’s 2018 and people know that I am dating who I’m dating and that I live where I live and they know who my good friends are. So, they know that when I leave the Impact Zone or when I leave NXT, I am not the Hot Mess. But, of course, yeah, my co-workers kind of were a little bit annoyed, a couple of them, but I think they quickly realized, like, ‘look, she’s playing a character, it’s who she is.’”

“We really haven’t had many people like that in the generation of social media that have to figure this out, because everyone in wrestling is kind of an extended version of themselves, and the Hot Mess really wasn’t. It was a true character. I have to say, it was difficult, and I struggle with it every day. I struggle with how much do I give away versus what I want to keep private and stuff like that.

All in all, I just like my fans to know exactly who I am, and that’s every side of me, whether it’s my family, my relationships, my friends, and I don’t give a s**t if a friend is in a different company. I’m sorry, but I’m going to post with Britt Baker and Cody Rhodes and Brandi Rhodes. I don’t care. They’re my friends. I get a little bit of flack for it, but I think everyone is pretty understanding nowadays.”

Maintaining relationships when working for different companies:

“It’s funny, I actually have a harder time keeping in touch with my normal civilian friends. My wrestling friends know – like, Britt and Santana (Garrett) and Deonna (Purrazzo), those are my best wrestling friends, and they know if we’re super busy, we might not talk for two weeks. We might see each other every day, but then we might go two weeks and we haven’t even spoken to each other, but we’re all kind of just as busy. It’s harder for my girlfriends in Canada who are normal human beings to understand how busy I am, or to understand that I truly might go 48 hours without looking at my phone if I’m taping a RAW or an NXT or something. That’s kind of the more difficult side of things, and especially having a bunch of friends all over the place.

All my girlfriends from Impact, we’re now all in different companies. Allie is in AEW, Rosemary’s in Impact, Sienna is with NWA. We don’t care. We just do us. We’re friends, and we really don’t care what companies we’re at.

We just happen to be at different companies right now, but who knows what will happen in two years?”

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