Last week’s Dark Side of the Ring documentary took not only captivated wrestling fans across the globe but was widely acclaimed as one of the most accurate portrayals of the Benoit tragedy in recent memory. A large part of that was due to the acting work of Canadian wrestling star Tyson Dux, whose portrayals of Benoit throughout the documentary’s vignettes added a realistic feel to an otherwise unbelievable tragedy.

Recently, Dux joined me to discuss his recent appearance as Chris Benoit on the Dark Side of the Ring documentary and his relationship with Benoit himself.

His previous experience with Dark Side of the Ring:

“If you check out that first season, there’s a pilot episode. The pilot episode is the Bruiser Brody one, because why not start with one of the craziest stories ever? That being the Bruiser Brody story, being stabbed in Puerto Rico and the promoter getting away with it, right? (It’s) crazy, just crazy. Well, in that first episode, I played Dutch Mantel. It was really neat, because those guys, Jason and Evan, the guys that are behind this, they’re the vision behind this amazing series.

The thing I love about Dark Side of the Ring is you don’t have to be a wrestling fan to really enjoy this program. You can be completely in another part of life other than professional wrestling and if you watch that for five minutes, I guarantee you’ll be hooked. You’ll be hooked by it. It’s just great TV. It is just good TV, and those guys, their vision of it, how they keep your imagination into it, because just watching interviews will kind of get on you a bit, you know what I mean?

You don’t wanna see just faces. Just having that dramatic illusion of how it looked and stuff like that to give people an idea of how it went down is just monumental. It’s just great stuff.”

Getting the opportunity to play Benoit:

“So, they base their stuff out of Toronto, of course, because Toronto’s a great filming area because it’s cheaper. It’s easy to get rings because it is Toronto. It is easy to get talent, all this stuff. Jason, who’s the director, is from Nova Scotia, so he’s a Canadian boy, and then Evan, of course, is just across the pond, he’s just in the States. So, those guys got together, and I got hired just because of my name to do the Dutch Mantel role because of my beard that I had at the time, and it was great! It was a great experience.”

“So, when the second season came up, they were looking for people to play different roles for the series, for the whole series. They asked me to see if any of my kids could fit any of these roles. So, I put one of my kids and said ‘hey, he could probably play Benoit,’ and they’re like ‘ah, he really doesn’t have that Benoit vibe, we were honestly really hoping that you would play the role of Benoit other than him.’ I said ‘of course, I would love to, just I have a whole bunch of tattoos, so I really didn’t want to make a mess of your thing.’ He (said) ‘don’t worry about it, we’ve got a lot of makeup artists that are the best in Canada, so we’ll just cover them up and if you could, you play Benoit.’”

“I chomped at the bit. Benoit’s always been my idol when it comes to professional wrestling. Let’s just get that out of the way. When it comes to wrestling, Benoit’s always been my guy. He’s the guy I watched when I wanted to become a professional wrestler, he’s the one that I watched and said ‘yup, that’s exactly what I want to do.’ It was really easy to – it was an easy hire because they already know me. I know how it all works, I know how the script worked and all that stuff. It was supposed to be four days, it got cut to three days because I had to wrestle on the fourth day. So, they crammed my stuff all into three days over twelve hours a day of work to make the finished product, which turned out – I just watched the finished product along with family, so I was just blown away by how well it turned out.”

Separating the person from the act:

“I just look at the body of work. I knew the guy, and I’ve met Benoit many times. I’m not saying that we’re best friends, I try not to tell people that we were super chummy, but I worked with WWE in 02-04 consistently every month as a freelance guy and just worked with the company. I did know Chavo (Guerrero), I still talk to Chavo from time to time. I knew Eddie well, I knew Chris well, and I know them as people and as human beings. That’s what I try to remember, I try to remember the Chris that I knew and the body of work that I’ve always loved that he did. So, I still watch his stuff as if nothing had ever had happened or this horrific nonsense had happened, because, at the end of the day, we’ll never know – it’s a mystery of why, the question is why. I don’t know what would make a man that I knew was a cordial, very quiet, polite, humble human being turn like that and snap like that, and I guess we’ll never know. Just know that he was broken, he was definitely mentally broken. So, I can separate, yeah.”

On the documentary bringing him closure:

“I feel as though it being shared out there, because even if you watch it again or somebody watches it and you watch Chavo talk about him, Chris talk about him, Jericho talk about him – you watch Dean, even like Dean Malenko, who is just one of the greatest human beings on the planet, they’re still torn up, because that is still their best friend, but yet they can’t come to terms with it even now, so that really shows you that there’s some kind of disconnect where there’s got to be some therapy involved in making this better.”

“It’s so hard, even for them. Dean I found was the hardest because Dean just could not separate the horrific act from his friend. That might not ever happen and that’s not on him, that’s not his fault – it’s not even a fault thing. If he doesn’t come to those terms in that, so be it, but if he does, even better.”

“I get a lot of these questions. I put on Twitter how I felt about the role, being able to be Chris Benoit. Of course, I always have to re-think my words all the time, because you have a lot of people that would first attack instead of finding that – they just want to attack at you, they don’t really want to think about what you’re saying.

”

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

It’s hard not to immediately name Royce Isaacs when speaking of the breakout stars of the National Wrestling Alliance. As part of the promotion’s Strictly Business faction, Isaacs has impressed in both singles and tag team action through his regular appearances on NWA Powerrr. Not only has Isaacs wowed fans with his work inside the squared circle, but has earned the gold to back it up, claiming the NWA Tag Team Championships in September of last year with Thomas Latimer as the Wild Cards.

Recently, Isaacs joined me to discuss his unique introduction to professional wrestling, as well as if he prefers singles or tag team wrestling. The full interview can be found here.

His unique introduction to independent wrestling:

“So, I went to a Lucha Libre and Laughs show. They still run shows in Denver, Colorado. Nick Gossert is the promoter there, and he does an amazing job. Back when I saw it, I mean, they weren’t drawing a crazy crowd, and the wrestling was not of the highest quality, but there was something about it and being in that live setting, that I was like ‘oh yeah!’ Like, everything that I thought was confirmed. This is something that I want to be involved in. So I talked to (Nick) afterwards and he recommended a place in Denver to train: The Butcher Shop and Lonnie Valdez was the head trainer there at the time, he started training me. So, I started training maybe two days after the show, but Lucha Libre and Laughs, now, talk about growth, they sell out the Oriental Theatre, 600+, wall-to-wall. It’s a nuts show, with stand-up comedy and wrestling. If you’re in Denver, or you’re in town visiting and there’s a Lucha Libre and Laughs show that’s going on, I super, super recommend going and seeing it because it’s one of the most fun, crazy extravagant live shows. And, it’s a good date night, too.

“But yeah, I started training at The Butcher Shop literally the next week which was just – at the time, it was like a big storage trailer in Commerce City in Colorado in this terrible neighborhood. I remember this guy, Bubba, bless his heart. Bubba was awesome, but like I thought he was like an assistant trainer, but I think he was just like living in the Butcher Shop at the time. I pulled up, and he was like ‘someone just stole my truck, like, just now from out front.’ Commerce City is one of the few neighborhoods that’s not great in Colorado still in the Denver area. At this point, it might be better, but this is 2014 and literally, a car had gotten stolen right from out front of (the Butcher Shop), and I was like ‘okay, cool, I’m just going to park my car and I’m going to go in here for hours and train. Hopefully, nothing happens to it.’”

Singles vs. Tag Team wrestling:

“For me, I love that I can do both and I love that at the NWA, I can still do both. I think that teaming with Tom (Latimer) has been great for my growth as a wrestler. Tom obviously has a few years on me as far as experience and everything like that, so there’s so much that I’m already learning from him, and he’s a really good dude, too, so it’s been really cool. But, I do also of course enjoy doing the singles wrestling and, I mean, I don’t know of any other places where people have been able to do quite as much in both a tag team setting and a singles setting, so it’s been – I mean, not to dance around your question, but I love both tag team and singles wrestling. Like, I’ve always been part of tag teams, and I’ve always had my own singles career. Even on the Indies and even before I met Tom, I would always do both and I think that both are really important, so it’s nice. I just like being able to do both, so if I can continue to ply my trade at both of the arts, I’m way into it man.”

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

When speaking of the recent breakout stars of the NWA, it’s hard not to immediately think of Royce Isaacs. As part of the promotion’s Strictly Business faction, Isaacs has impressed in both singles and tag team action through his time with the NWA. Not only has Isaacs wowed fans with his work inside the squared circle, but has earned the gold to back it up, claiming the NWA Tag Team Championships in September of last year with Thomas Latimer as the Wild Cards.

Recently, Isaacs of the National Wrestling Alliance joined me to discuss Billy Corgan’s involvement with the NWA, fitting in with the promotion and the National Wrestling Alliance as a whole. 

Billy Corgan’s direct involvement with the NWA:

“He’s there all day, every day. He is 100% hands-on with everything. This is Billy’s baby, and he didn’t just purchase the NWA to be like ‘alright, guys, figure it out.’ He is on the front lines, in there with us, and he – it’s his baby. It’s his passion, and he’s all about it. Billy is more involved than anyone else in the NWA, in the creative, and making sure everything is running correctly.”

Fitting in with the NWA:

“I think that on both my side and the NWA’s side, it was one of those things where I work well in that environment and I’ll say that a lot of the guys at NWA, they look like wrestlers and they wrestle like wrestlers and it’s a good setting for people that are like that. I think that there are some people that are really gimmick-heavy, there’s some people that are less so, there’s some people that, like I don’t have a very gimmicky gimmick, but I do feel that I show a lot of personality and it’s fun to be part of the NWA where I get to show off quite a bit of that and that’s something that’s embraced.”

“I just think that the NWA’s been a really good fit so far, it’s been really cool to have studio wrestling on such a big stage, and I think being part of a product that is legitimately that different and unique and interesting has been really cool. I can’t say enough good things about it. It’s been quite a wild ride but I’m loving it so far.”

Filming in a consistent studio setting:

“It’s been really cool. One of the things, too, is a lot of those fans come in from all over. Even though it’s a lot of the same people, it’s actually a pretty diverse fan base. I think, obviously, we were planning on branching out a little bit and doing some other stuff, and then the madness has all kind of come over the world unfortunately now and there’s things bigger than wrestling that everyone’s dealing with, but I would assume at some point the NWA, once things are back to normal we’re going to be doing some different stuff and getting out there a little bit.”

“But, at the same time, I 100% agree with you. It’s been really crucial to our growth to have this crowd that’s really, really into the product. They care about all the storylines, and they’re not just like “oh, NWA Powerrr, what is that?’ They’re like ‘oh, NWA Powerrr is my jam, and I know all the little intricacies,’ and it’s like they’re actively a part of the show in a very positive way.”

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

In his just over two years in professional wrestling, Brian Pillman Jr has done an admirable job of not only honouring his father through his in-ring work but continuing to be an innovator through the entire industry of professional wrestling. Currently signed with Major League Wrestling, Pillman Jr is a member of the New Hart Foundation with fellow legacy Davey Boy Smith Jr.

Recently, Pillman Jr joined me to discuss the expectations that come with being a Pillman, if he considered wrestling under a different name, and more.

If he considered wrestling under a different name:

“Yeah, it was definitely a reality for me at first. I wanted to protect myself and protect my performance and my name, but as I was able to see, the right move was just to be myself. Some people recommended, Lance (Storm) recommended perhaps wrestling under a mask or trying to protect myself so I could get a few shitty matches out of the way, but at the end of the day, my first match was one of my best matches. So, I’m looking at it now and I’m thinking ‘man, I had a pretty god damn good match, kid!’”

The advantages and disadvantages of being a Pillman:

“I think it was both (an advantage and disadvantage). It was definitely both. It’s always an advantage because of the booking and being a positive draw. Every promotion I go to, they’re at least going to experience some kind of increase in draw or ticket sales, just by the nature of the beast y’know what I mean? There’s only one of me, there’s only one second-generation guy like me on the market right now. Whether you like it or not, fans are going to come pay to buy a ticket to see me, so by default, I’m booked.

It helps to have that on my side.”

“But yeah, the expectations are high. The expectations have always been high. My first year or so was a lot of failures, a lot of going out there and finding myself. These weren’t some great matches, these weren’t some f***ing five-star classics. This was the story of a young guy following in the footsteps of his father that set a huge, huge expectation above his head, a huge shadow cast upon me.”

“But, as we see right now after about two years and some change into doing this, I’m starting to figure it out, (I’m) starting to have some really good matches, have some really good synergy with some different wrestlers, some really good storytelling, and I could never be happier with my career right now as it stands.”

Developing his in-ring style:

“I think just by being myself. I just always wanted to be myself out there. I’ve always been very interested in boxing and kickboxing and striking and stuff, and I’ve done a little bit of mat work in there too. I’m a very versatile person in real life, so I feel like I’m a versatile person in the ring.”

“I never wanted to have that expectation, because according to my dad’s friends, they said the name Flyin’ Brian is what killed him because he was always expected to do the most, he was always expected to fly. You gotta think, you work for this big company and your name is Flyin’ Brian.

Anybody else that wants to fly is coming for your spot.

If you’re the Flyin’ Brian of the company, you’ve gotta set the highest precedent for flying that they can see. It’s very hard, very hard to deal with those expectations, so I thought that maybe more of a rounded approach to things or an approach that I can really be myself and have a lot of fun in the ring and really confuse my opponents, while also having some innovative offence. I’m an innovator. I like to do different things. I don’t like to do every single move that everybody else does, and if I do, I like to do it my own way.”

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