Love Wrestling

Spencer Love Interviews: Brian Johnson

by Spencer Love November 22, 2021

written by Spencer Love

Ring of Honor star and the #1 contender to the PURE Championship Brian Johnson joins Spencer Love to discuss the upcoming Final Battle pay-per-view, the end of the current era of Ring of Honor, memories of working in Canada, future plans, and more!

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HIGHLIGHTS

His mindset heading into Final Battle 2021

“Well, I think I can speak for everybody on the roster, the news sucked. It was a kick in the balls, right? But pro wrestlers are survivors, and if you’re going to stick around in this business you got to survive. So yeah, it was unfortunate what happened and it’s never ideal to have something like that come about. I’ve got to keep moving on to the next thing and the next thing is probably Final Battle. That might be the most eyes Ring of Honor has had on it for a long time.”

“I don’t think I’m surprising anybody when I talk about the influences of Ring of Honor throughout wrestling. Any promotion worldwide has their fingerprints with Ring of Honor on them. The biggest moments in wrestling throughout the last 19 years have moments of Ring of Honor on it, whether it’s a YES Movement or someone in Chicago. Those guys all have the roots with Ring of Honor. That being said, to know that so many eyes and so many influences around this wrestling world are probably going to be watching, because it could be an end of an era. Or, it certainly is an end of an era. Who knows what the future holds, right? I think in the long run it could be the biggest opportunity in my life, and I’m looking at it that way. So, I’m gearing up. I’m pretty tunnel vision heading into the 11th.”

Branching out throughout 2022

“When Ring of Honor closed, it sucked, man. While I didn’t always agree with every person I ran into, and I certainly had my struggles throughout the locker room, it was still home. [It’s] almost the way you fight with a brother and sister, but if Joe Schmo on the street says something that’s a problem, right? It was kind of how I felt about that place. I put out a promo talking about it recently on my Instagram and Twitter that I know we’ll talk about later or plug later, whatever. Pretty much announcing that this Mecca locomotive is free to touch down anywhere in the world. I’m in the talks with different promotions at the moment. My 2022 is filling up at the moment.”

“I’m hoping that it’s the biggest run of my independent career, I guess you could call it ever, because while you said I had a good independent career, yeah, it was okay. I worked some indies on the northeast. I wouldn’t say that I worked any big indies I wouldn’t say that I had notoriety coming in the Ring of Honor the way that a guy like Alex Zayne may have. Those type of guys are special. They’ve done it longer than I have. Now, to have to go out and swim in uncharted waters is I’m not nervous. I’m excited for the opportunity to mix it up with some of these guys.”

FOLLOW BRIAN!

Twitter: @BJO_Mecca

Instagram: @bjo_mecca

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November 22, 2021 1 comment

Brian Johnson on His Time with Canadian Wrestling’s Elite

by Spencer Love November 22, 2021

written by Spencer Love

Any way you cut it, Brian Johnson has had a hell of a 15-year career inside professional wrestling. Though he’s best known for his time with Ring of Honor, Johnson has won championships and impressed across a number of different promotions through his decade-and-a-half stint inside the business.

One such promotion – and one of the final that Johnson worked for prior to the COVID-19 pandemic – was Canadian Wrestling’s Elite based out of Winnipeg, Manitoba. Currently, the CWE is Canada’s only full-time touring promotion, and I was lucky enough to see Johnson on a number of stops during his tour with the organization in 2019. I asked Johnson about the experience as part of our recent chat on Love Wrestling.

“Up to this point, the only time I’ve gotten to see your wrestle live was when you were up here for the CWE!” I exclaimed late in our conversation. “Maybe before we get into your memories with Ring of Honor and stuff like that, let’s maybe talk about memories of Canada or maybe if you’ve got any from your in the Great White North!”

Johnson took on a serious tone, even more so than he had through our previous 15 minutes of conversation.

“I wouldn’t be the wrestler I am today if I didn’t have that Canada tour. Period, bar none,” he stated emphatically.

“Shit, I might not have even been part of Ring of Honor to point when they had to release us. I might not have made it.”

“It was coming off the biggest loss of my career at the top prospect tournament in August of 2019,” Johnson reminisced. “I lost to Austin Gunn. Hall of Famer’s son, great talent out on AEW. Jackass, but talented. I lost it, then it sucked, man. It really freakin’ sucked. I still kind of get hot thinking about it. I didn’t know where I was gonna be [and] I didn’t know what to do. Wrestlers, I think we all kind of get this panic feeling pretty quick. [That] set in, and then I had to interrupt some commentary, and still wasn’t getting the common decency of being booked, and then I had to interrupt a match where I wrestled freakin’ Ian Riccaboni in Hudson.”

“It was hell on earth, man. It was hell on frickin Earth. I was like, ‘well, where could be worse?’ So I picked up and went to Canada.”

“Seriously, I mean, there’s nothing like having to wrestle in front of an entire country of people who just barely, barely understand the invention of the wheel and fire kind of amazes them. It’s a simplistic view of just assholes and idiots for miles and miles.”

The Mecca laughed before continuing his story.

“I hopped in a car with a group of guys from CWE who, try as they must, they work their asses off, those guys. We had 25 matches in 25 nights. God damn! That’s unheard of nowadays. From town to town in Canada…they were entertained by the Mecca. I was finding my groove. If you look, I came back, and coincidence or not, PJ Black immediately wanted to team with me. Then we went on a little bit of a winning streak, and then that god damn thing called COVID showed up and kind of put a stamp on everything.”

“But, it was the run of 25 nights in a car with you know, I don’t know what you consider Juventud Guerrera, one of the greatest cruiserweights of all time, me and him rode up and down Canada together. The Mecca and a cruiserweight driving through Canada.

It should have been a sitcom! But we built a good relationship and we kicked ass man. It was awesome. It was an awesome time, I wouldn’t change it for the world.”

Tune in to Spencer Love’s full interview with Brian Johnson on Love Wrestling.

November 22, 2021 0 comments

Spencer Love Interviews: Zicky Dice

by Spencer Love November 19, 2021

written by Spencer Love

The Outlandish Zicky Dice joins Spencer Love to chat about his upcoming Outlandish Paradise show, recently signing with IMPACT Wrestling, working with Brian Myers, which wrestlers he’d like to form a band with, and more!