“Plans change” is a phrase that most professional wrestling fans are familiar with, and almost always in a negative connotation. We’re all more than well-versed in matches being canceled, pushes being negated, or storylines being dropped at a moment’s notice.
However, the phrase isn’t always one to be taken negatively. In fact, those infamous changing plans directly resulted in Wilson’s appearance in the 2012 Money in the Bank Ladder match, which many people view as one of the former Tyson Kidd’s breakout performances in his WWE career.
Wilson recently detailed the story to me in our upcoming conversation on Love Wrestling.
“My theory, also, as a talent was that any Monday, the next Monday could be your Monday,” Wilson stated. “My go-to example of this is [that] I was sitting at a RAW once, and I see a bracket for the next day for Superstars. It was like myself against Yoshi, or JTG, or somebody, which is fine. I saw Jamie Noble, and I said, ‘hey, Jamie, if you get a chance in the meeting,’ I said ‘I understand how these meetings go,’ and I didn’t understand, now I actually do. I didn’t. I said ‘I kind of understand how these meetings go. If you get a chance, if you could try to get it switched to me against Trent’ – I always liked my chemistry with Trent – ‘if you can get that, I haven’t wrestled him in a few weeks, it’ll be fun.’ And Jamie’s like ‘yeah, no problem.
That shouldn’t be a problem.’
“So the next day, I’m working out and Jamie sends me a text,” continued Wilson. “He’s like, ‘hey, it’s you versus Trent on Superstars.’ I said, ‘awesome. Thank you so much.’ Then, he texts me back, like, 20 minutes later. I’m still at the gym and I see Jamie texted me. I’m like, ‘I wonder what this is about.’ He’s like, ‘actually match changed.’ I’m like ‘goddamn.’ And he’s like, ‘now, it’s you versus [Jack] Swagger, [and] you’re qualifying for Money in the Bank.'”
“So like, next Monday, it could be your Monday,” commented the three-time tag team champion. “That week, the day before, I didn’t think ‘hey, I think I’m going to be in the Money in the Bank this year.’ I didn’t think that, and then I was in Money in the Bank that year in Phoenix. So any Monday, next Monday could be your Monday. Or, if you’re a SmackDown talent, next Friday could be your Friday. It could be. You may not be booked this week. You may not have been booked the three weeks prior, but next week could be your Monday [or] your Friday.”
“I’m just speaking from my experience,” he finished. “This is how I view my career, my in-ring career. And, what I do now is all positive. It wasn’t perfect. There were a lot of things that ,you know, a lot of times I thought I could be utilized better. And that’s fine. That’s my opinion versus other people’s opinions.
And that’s fine. I’m not looking for someone to agree with me or disagree. I just know my value in the ring and where I thought I could, at the very minimum, get to. But at the same time, I also was wrestling for the top company in the world, and I’ve been there ever since 2006. So I can’t – at the same time, I also can’t complain about that. So, like I said, it wasn’t always positive, but you got to find little positive spins.”
Please credit Spencer Love/Love Wrestling with any transcriptions used.
Enjoy the very first episode of “Network and Chill” here on Love Wrestling!
For today’s match, I choose Melina vs Michelle McCool in an underrated slapper from the WWE Night Of Champions 2009 PPV! ENJOY!
Timestamp & Network Link
LINK: https://watch.wwe.com/episode/Night-of-Champions-2009-9770
Timestamp: 1:00:24
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As a well-known aficionado of rarely-seen and hard-to-find wrestling matches, TJ Wilson was as excited as anyone with last year’s discovery of the long-lost Bret Hart/Tom MaGee match that had encapsulated wrestling fans worldwide for decades. That fact was well-documented in the feature that WWE released on the match in 2019; however, Wilson shared some more memories of that match in our recent conversation, including how he had actually seen the match before.
“Oh, man, how cool was that!” he replied to me when the match was brought up. “So Harry [Smith] – people know I have a very good memory. People who know me know that I have a very good memory. Harry also has a great memory, too. I don’t know why. I don’t know why the two of us have pretty great memory. But he remembers watching that at Bret’s house before, and so he kind of remembered – he remembered the finish. And then, when I saw the match, like when they showed it to me when I did that piece on social media whatever, WWE.com [or] wherever they posted it. I kind of remember watching at Bret’s house, like [a] kind of fuzzy, foggy memory.”
As anapolon for cutting israel takes out digital it did to many, Wilson believes that the match certainly lived up to the hype. Of course, that’s due to the yeoman’s work put in by the Excellence of Execution.
“Man, it was very cool to watch your back and kind of see like the – what I thought was most cool was that like it lived up to the legend of like this pretty good match that if you later on – and I’m not trying to knock him – but if you watch other Tom McGee matches, they don’t look anything like that Tom McGee versus Bret match that we finally got to see.”
“It holds up to the legend of like, Bret definitely did his part that night.”
Of course, long-time WWE fans will remember that Wilson, known as Tyson Kidd throughout his in-ring career, was introduced to fans as ‘the number-one protege of Bret Hart’ in his first official television appearance, and was routinely – and rightfully! – referred to as the last graduate of the Hart Dungeon. It was something I had to ask him about when we recently chatted.
“I’ve watched so many – I mean, I’ve watched a lot of his matches in real-time, and I’ve gone back and watched so many of Bret’s matches, especially the last – like I said, my travels much easier, so with this pandemic, I watched so many of his matches back. It just like, it’s unbelievable, man, his matches,” started Wilson.
“I think he’s maybe even pretty underrated, which might be kind of a weird statement to make, but I think Brett might be fairly underrated.”
After I agreed, Wilson continued.
“Oh, man, and like the little things. Even like – you know, his promos obviously got better, but even his promos like still in 92, like at least they feel real. They felt real. And, I mean, 97, I don’t know what happened.
All of a sudden, Bret, like he is really untouchable. He looked phenomenal, his work was just as great as ever, and his promos were insane.”
In the hyperbolic world of wrestling, relationships are often exaggerated or, sometimes, flat-out made up. However, that’s not the case when it comes to his dynamic with the Excellence of Execution, says Wilson. When it comes to the relationship between the two men, the former Tyson Kidd considers the Hitman a mentor both personally and professionally.
“[Bret’s] a huge, huge influence,” he confirmed. “Because, you know, growing up, and just you know, the way it worked out like at that time frame, Bret’s the guy. So when he’s – like, my best friend’s uncle is the world champion. It’s a cool thing. So, I watched obviously a lot of – I’m gonna probably [be] super biased, but I watch a lot of Davey [Boy Smith] and Owen [Hart] and [Brian] Pillman and other guys like Dynamite [Kid] and guys that like had maybe had starts in Calgary or a little bit of time in Calgary, like a Liger and all these guys later on. But at that time, obviously, I’m watching the family that are in WWF at that time, but I’m really watching – like, Bret’s the, at the time where I’m really – I started coming around in like, 1990. So like, ’92, Bret’s world champion. So, it just was, I guess, a natural progression that I would maybe kind of navigate towards what he was doing.
“
In 1996, Wilson wrestled his first match for the WWF at the Calgary Saddledome. It was there that Bret first saw the then-16-year-old in the ring, and according to Wilson, Hart took an immediate interest in his career.
“There was a while in like, ’96 [that] Teddy and I were going to Bret’s house like every day after school to train in this ring,” Wilson said on training with Hart. “And sometimes he’d be in there, and sometimes he wouldn’t. This is like, right before he came back to wrestle Steve Austin. And he would be there and he would – he took a real interest in us. He took a real interest in us when he saw us wrestle at the Saddledome at that – I don’t know if he’s resigned yet at that time. It’s October 5th, 1996. I don’t know if he’s resigned yet at that time, or if he’s – he ends up coming back to RAW that month. And then that’s when he sets up the Steve Austin match. But, he comes to the show. I remember, like, he loved watching us wrestle. I think it just was maybe – now that I’m 40 and I have my nephews and I brought them to my ring a month ago, I get it.
I saw them like wrestling around [and] you kind of get, like, that youth and that almost invigoration.”
“I don’t know if that was a part of it or if Bret just – anyway, he’s always taken a liking, and he’s always been somebody that I’ve been able to talk about wrestling anytime,” Wilson concluded. “As great as the storyteller as he is in the ring, he might even be a better storyteller outside of the ring. So like to sit and listen to Bret’s stories are so fun.”
Please credit Spencer Love/Love Wrestling with any transcriptions used.
Since the inception of Calgary’s Stampede Wrestling, Alberta has never been at a loss for quality professional wrestling. It goes without saying that the industry owes an incredible debt to the Hart Family; without Stu Hart’s inventive booking, the star power of his sons Bret and Owen Hart and his entire family’s involvement in the business the wrestling world today would surely be much different.
An excellent article from Mike Malowany details some of the talents that have passed through Alberta over the years. In fact, some of the finest wrestlers in history have graced our province; legends like Gene Kiniski and Archie “The Stomper” Gouldie put Alberta on the wrestling map in the sports early days, with The Dynamite Kid, Davey Boy Smith, and the aforementioned Owen & Bret Hart carrying on the promotion in the wrestling boom of the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s. Even today, the world is feeling the Alberta influence, with wrestlers like late-generation Stampeders Tyson Kidd, Natalya Neidhardt, and Davey Boy Smith Jr reaching the upper echelon of worldwide wrestling talent.
Unfortunately, Stampede formally closed its doors in 2008 after struggling in its later years. While a number of revitalizations have been attempted in subsequent years, Stampede has never returned to the heights of its glory days despite a number of talented wrestlers passing through the organization. These wrestlers, however, have helped lift wrestling in Alberta to the highest peak since the glory days of Stampede.
Continued Development
Since Stampede’s closure, Alberta has continued to produce high-quality talent at an incredible rate. Michael Richard Blais, one of the most highly-regarded wrestlers in Western Canada, sees it as a natural development in the industry. “Thirteen years ago,” he says, “you had TJ Wilson, Apocalypse, Duke Durrango, Johnny Devine, Juggernaut, (etc) all here in the upper echelon of talent, with a bunch of hungry young guys wanting to get to their level. Now it’s just changed to different people; basically, the guys that stuck around moved up into those (veteran) roles and now there is a new group of hungry young guys.”
Not only is Alberta’s talent being recognized provincially, but it’s more visible on a worldwide platform. In 2017, Calgary saw its first WWE Champion in 20 years crowned when Jinder Mahal defeated Randy Orton for the title. Seven Alberta-bred female wrestlers were featured on this year’s PWI100, an independent list ranking the top wrestlers in the world. Countless Alberta-trained wrestlers like Taya Valkyrie, Rachael Evers, and the now-signed Rohan Raja consistently feature in promotions like Ring of Honor, IMPACT!, and NXT: UK.
A major reason for the continued success of Alberta’s wrestling scene is the Storm Wrestling Acadamy in Calgary, founded by former WWE and WCW wrestler Lance Storm. His stellar reputation as a trainer has drawn many raw talents to Alberta, with a wide variety of graduates going on to experience success both in Alberta and abroad.
“Maybe the biggest change is the sheer amount of young guys that come around every so often through Lance’s classes,” continues Blais. “Training at SWA is like the Harvard of wrestling schools,” says Mo Jabari, a graduate of the school. “I think it attracts wrestlers and people striving to be wrestlers from all over the world to come to Alberta and experience it. You want to go to the best school to get the best education from the best professor.” As a testament to the quality of the training, names like Chelsea Green, Oney Lorcan, and Tyler Breeze are all SWA graduates making major names for themselves in the WWE, with countless others continuing to impress locally.
With so many talented individuals departing Alberta, however, how does the scene continue to stay relevant?
Alberta’s Independent Scene
Like any sport, the key to success for many Alberta-based wrestling promotions is its continued development of quality stars. Alberta’s own Prairie Wrestling Alliance – of whom, coincidentally, Storm is a former booker – is one of the largest providers of professional wrestling talent worldwide, with no less than ten wrestlers that could be considered Alberta-based littered throughout the WWE roster today. More and more talent from promotions such as Monster Pro Wrestling and Real Canadian Wrestling are starting to make waves on the international scene, too; RCW Women’s Champion Angelica recently toured both Mexico and British Columbia, with a number of others making inaugural excursions abroad to fine-tune their wrestling skills.
Despite many of the province’s stars graduating to bigger promotions in recent years, many of the top independent talents in the world still reside in Alberta. There’s no lack of talent in any of the major promotions in Edmonton; The Western Lions, the Millennial Rebels, and Sheik Akbar Shabaz have been staples at the top of the PWA card for years. Headline Shawn Martens, “Nasty” Nate Nixon, and Mitch Clarke are internationally recognized wrestlers coming out of Monster Pro Wrestling. Chris Perish, Dirty, Inc, and the duo of Top Talent (Heavy Metal & Big Jess Youngblood) of RCW are all regarded as some of the top names outside of WWE today plying their trade in Alberta. That’s just in Edmonton, too; the list could go on and on if you include talents like Dylon Stone, Pride and Jude Dawkins of the Canadian Wrestling Coalition, Kyle Sebastian and Sydney Steele of Pure Power Wrestling, and a number of other names poised to make an impact on the worldwide wrestling scene.
The talent in Alberta is truly at an all-time high; however, has it reached the peak?
What’s Next?
While wrestling in Alberta may be of the highest quality it’s ever been, many still feel as though the Great White North doesn’t get the recognition it deserves compared to its worldwide counterparts. “I think you could put a lot of the wrestling that happens here against anywhere else in the world and it would hold up, if not surpass some places, ” Blais remarked early in our conversation, “but most of the wrestling community doesn’t know about it. My biggest example is always this: I was Samoa Joe’s second last indy match before he was officially in WWE. Most people outside of here don’t know that unless I tell them. Not to mention some of the other amazing matches we’ve had here over the years, with “names” and even just our guys. There is so much that deserves to be seen and recognized by a wider audience.
But how does the province not only continue to succeed but eclipse its past success?
“The big thing is needing to find ways to appeal to the outside wrestling community,” Blais remarked. “I also think the more our own guys get themselves out there the better it’ll be here. I know from experience that it is easier said than done, but it can be done as I’ve shown at times and keep pushing for more.”
While a WWE contract is always the goal, said MRB, there’s simply something about wrestling in Alberta.
“There are people here who have seen the ups and downs all of us have gone through. There are people here who made the comparison between me and TJ Wilson before I ever saw it myself which is one of the highest compliments I’ve ever gotten.”
“More than anything I want to travel the world & be a superstar, but this will always be home.”
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