Former WWE/WCW star Lance Storm is the guest on this week’s episode of “Sitting Ringside with David Penzer.”
Storm was one of many people on the WWE staff who were released/furloughed in April as part of budget cuts. Storm is now officially a free agent.
Here are some highlights from the podcast:
Lance Storm talked about becoming friends with Chris Jericho when they started at Stu Hart’s academy: “I think it had to have been the wrestling end of it because realistically when you look at it, we have very little in common otherwise. He is so into music and I’m not really a big music guy. We didn’t have much in common other than the wrestling end of it. When you’re starting wrestling camp, I guess that’s enough. I consider him one of my best friends ever and probably always will. I doubt I go a week without texting him on some front, but it’s not like we are close that we chat for long periods of time. Again, outside of wrestling and mutual respect and the journey, we don’t have that much in common.”
Storm gave his viewpoints on the similarities and differences between Jim Cornette and Paul Heyman as promoters: “I’ve always said they are the opposite sides of the same coin. They are both very passionate. They both really know wrestling and have a very distinct style of wrestling that they like. They are both great promos and smart guys. I really enjoyed working with both and thankfully I had Japan in between which at least was a bit of a bridge. If you thought culture shock going from Calgary to Knoxville was hard, going from Jim Cornette’s Smokey Mountain to ECW’s Paul Heyman was a couple cultures removed for sure. But, I really liked working with both. I was in a different place in my career too. In Smokey Mountain, I was just trying to learn. In ECW, I learned a lot more. Granted, I still had a lot to learn as I had to learn to work on television and really find a character. With Jimmy, he would look at you and see who in wrestling history you reminded him of. If Jericho and I reminded him of the Rock ‘N Roll Express, he would push you as the new Rock ‘N Roll Express. What I found with Paul, he would look at you and try to find what is unique and special about you and then he would put you in a situation where that would be highlighted and allow you to find yourself. I credit Paul with finding Lance Storm. Before that I was just Lance Evars, a good athlete and skilled athlete that went out there and wrestled very well. I found a personality. I don’t like using the term character. Characters are fake. I found part of my personality I could use. I found myself.”
Storm told an interesting story about how he got into WCW: “I got an email from a fan from my website that said you should contact Terry Taylor in WCW. He would be interested in your work. I’m thinking, who is this dumb mark? I’m thinking he is a fan. I don’t know who he is. A week later, I got another email from him and it’s an email forwarded from Terry Taylor. It says, if Lance Storm can contractually talk to us, we would really be interested in talking to him. Let him know that if he is able to legally talk to reach out to me. I did. It turned out it was a 15 year old kid from Medicine Hat, Alberta who was Terry Taylor’s internet stooge. I guess if this kid saw someone on a wrestling show somewhere who he thought had promise, he would forward it to Taylor and he would actually look at it. So, I reached out to Terry, and I think the next day I was flown to Atlanta to meet with Bischoff and Russo and worked out my contract.“
Storm discussed his suggested storyline entry into WCW: “I was in as a babyface doing silly run-ins for a month before the big push. I was going there to negotiate a favorable contract for security more than creative. Vince Russo’s, and again, it wasn’t a pitch as much as a statement. He’s sitting at the table. I’m sitting across from him. Eric (Bischoff) is standing behind him because I negotiated the contract with Eric, but talked more about creative with Vince. He’s looking at me and said, off the top of my head, my first idea for you is for you to be Eric Bischoff’s illegitimate son because you have the same arrogant look on your face that he always has. I’m thinking, this doesn’t sound promising. I’m looking over at Eric and he is rolling his eyes. I think Eric’s only 8 or 10 years older than me. He thought of the idea because Eric was involved in a lot of angles and guys were hot at him and mad at him. Russo was pitching ideas where someone goes to attack Bischoff and I would run in and save him and it would be like, why is this guy saving Bischoff and it would eventually be revealed that I’m his illegitimate son. I was like, ok. He said that is just off the top of my head. That is not necessarily what we are going to do. I’m like, ok, whatever. I flew into the first TV and I bumped into Eric in the hallway who said, by the way, I kabashed that whole illegitimate son thing. I’m like, ok, fine by me buddy.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit Sitting Ringside with David Penzer with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription
