MATT STRIKER TALKS LUCHA UNDERGROUND, WWE, MORE
- 10/24/2016 (1:16:25 pm)
- Bob Mulrenin
…
Show: Interactive Wrestling
Radio
Guest: Matt Striker
Date: 10/22/16
Your Host: James Walsh
Guest: Matt Striker
Date: 10/22/16
Your Host: James Walsh
Matt Striker is a unique performer in that he is a great in-ring talent and an even better wrestling commentator. His in ring prowess saw him succeed on the East Coast independent circuit from 2000 to 2005 before getting his break with the WWE in a series of matches with Kurt Angle. Years removed, Striker has earned the distinction of announcer for the popular Lucha Underground series on El Rey and has offered his voice to the American broadcast of New Japan Pro Wrestling , Championship Wrestling from Hollywood, and beyond. He also continues working matches in the ring with varying characters and personas. But today, he's our special guest and we could not be prouder to have him!
Striker will be appearing as well as many other top Lucha Underground stars at the Arizona State Fair this Sunday, October 23rd at 12:00 noon. Admission to the show is free with your fair admission. So, be sure and check out Lucha Underground LIVE!
Download the MP3 or stream it on YouTube at http://www.wrestlingepicenter.com/
MATT STRIKER:
On if he will be at the Arizona State Fair show at the Phoenix Fairgrounds on Sunday: "I will be under the mask as Drago at the Arizona State Fair!"
On if he will be at the Arizona State Fair show at the Phoenix Fairgrounds on Sunday: "I will be under the mask as Drago at the Arizona State Fair!"
On what it is like calling Lucha
Underground: "I love it! I'm like a little kid! I sit there with my friend
Vampiro and we talk about wrestling. It really is a lot of fun. That is as basic
as I can give it to you."
On Vampiro's off-beat style:
"There's that term, orthadox. If every announcer put on a suit and used their
big boy voice and used cliches, we wouldn't have any potpourri to life. I think
Vampiro is a spice. I love working with him. He is the only of his kind that
I've worked with... Although, William Regal is similar in a more refined
way."
On what makes Lucha Underground
different from the pack: "I think what most people's eyes are attracted to there
is a Hollywood presence. A certain type of camera person, a certain type of
director. a certain type of mind to the way that is seeing this. We as wrestling
fans have only seen wrestling presented 2 or 3 different ways. This has such a
different look to it and I think that is what goes in to the difference."
On preparing differently for Lucha
Underground than WWE: "I look at that, those shows (WWE), in being in that
theater as being a wrestling announcer as many before me and after me will do
and have done to varying degrees of greatness. On the flip side, on Lucha
Underground, I feel a little bit more like an actor, if you will (In an English
accent) Playing more of a part, a role. Who is Matt Striker in the Lucha
Underground Temple? Well, he really is this kind of wrestling announcer with 3
or 4 days worth of a beard on his face. I really do look at them different. The
preparation for a WrestleMania? Zero, zero similarities to the preparation for
an Ultimo Lucha."
On the characters: "We all love
wrestling and we all also love movies and TV. This gives us the good warm
feeling and we start to discover the shows that we love or the wrestlers that we
love. It is pure."
On returning to the ECW Arena with
House of Hardcore after having worked there originally before his WWE run in
3PW: "Everything in our lives is a circle. When I was working for 3PW and we
were working the ECW Arena, a lot of that magic was still there. There's
something different about guys that passed through ECW and that were there for
longer than a cup of coffee. Every time you come across them, they are good,
decent human beings. They really are. Something Paul Heyman was putting in that
Cool-Aid was a positive thing. That brotherhood, that fraternity. House of
Hardcore's slogan is "No politics. No BS. Just wrestling". That's what it was
for me back then in 3PW and a lot of other independents. Work for the betterment
of the whole show. I had a good time for my "x" amount of dollars. That is what
it was for me and that is what I've learned from those kind of places and it
pays forward for House of Hardcore and Lucha Underground. Everybody wants to do
better than the match before them. It is awesome!"
On his parody gimmick in 3PW: "I
appreciate that. I'm doing a parody of a wrestling announcer every Wednesday
night at 8 p.m. on the El Rey network! This might sound a little bit hippie...
The minute we lose our wonderlust, we're done! They say we do not grow stop
playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing. I always want
to be that 7 year old kid who saw Superfly Snuka dive off the cage. I always
want to be your 7 year old son that loves Drago. I don't ever want that to go
away. I don't think any of us do. That's my theory."
On working for WWE the first time:
"Before I do a minute with anyone, I do a little research. I recall an interview
you did with Ted DiBiase years ago. I had no idea it was you. There's something
about, each are called according to his purpose. I can't speak on it because I
was in this wave of, "This is what is going to happen." It was the greatest
thing in the world to me... It still is. Every morning I wake up, I say a little
prayer and say "Thank you for this life you're allowing me to live." If I don't
get to go to Heaven, I didn't do too bad here! But, if I do, can you imagine how
great that Kingdom would be for me, personally? I count my blessings - I really
do."
On working with Kurt Angle his
first time on a WWE show: "Wow, I'm glad we got the extra time here because it
goes back full circle. They gave me, this kid who was going place to place doing
his thing and then I'm in the ring with Kurt Angle. You could argue the same
kind of thing happens once or twice a month in Lucha Underground. You didn't
know some of these guys that get built, Fenix, Mil Muertes. I think it is full
circle that companies are still going to do this. We are always going to need
guys to come in and wrestle. We never know who that next guy is going to become.
You have to wait 15 years and say, "Oh!" CM Punk came out for somebody's
entrance at WrestleMania 22 with a Tommy Gun. You don't know! To your question,
when I was given that opportunity, I didn't know but I knew enough to be a part
of it and keep my mouth shut for the most part and go with it. Lucha Underground
is now that new wave where your son is going to have a new favorite and some kid
is going to discover Sexy Star for the first time!"
On being a national heel: "People
really do! If I go out shopping somewhere with my grandmother, people come up to
me. It is like, "Dude! You're going to try and fight me right now? Dude! It is
an act!"" Who was the better heel teacher character, himself or "Dean" Shane
Douglas: "Oh my God! Shane has been in the business longer than me. He has
seniority. If you ever have a chance to sit down and talk to him, he really is a
genius. But, it is not for me to say who does something better. Let the people
decide, I suppose."
On if he was praised or discouraged
from referencing Superstars' accomplishments outside of WWE while calling WWE
action: "I had neither. I really was able to get in, get out. Instead of going
back up the ramp after the show was done to get your pat on the back from Vince,
I always went side ramp. For several reasons. There would be a mad rush to leave
and I wanted to get out of there. And also, there may have been a few things
that I may have said that maybe after 24 hours or so, he'd (Vince) forget about
it. It was never submersive. It was never out of malice. It was just how I
speak! Again, it is like when Vampiro and I call a match, it is like 2 guys on
the couch talking. When somebody does a claw, how do you not stop and talk about
the Von Erichs? How does someone a little older not say Killer Kowalski? It is a
natural progression of the art. I never really had any encouragement or
discouragement either way on that. Just a part of my personality that everyone
seems to adore. (laughs)"
On if he likes to wrestle or
announce more now: "Both because I'm still the little boy who wants to jump off
his couch onto his dad. But, I also have a little bit of understanding of what
it does to the body. So, if I can sit and exercise my mind and talk with Vampiro
about, for my money, arguably some of the very best athletes bar sport, in the
world! Think of some of the things these guys do! But as I get older, I'd have
to say announcing makes more sense. If I didn't, my mom would hit me over the
back of the head. (laughs)"
On Inter-Gender matches as featured
on Lucha Underground: "For me, I look at it a little different. I have 4
sisters, I have a strong grandmother, a strong mother. For me, there never was a
weaker sex. Somewhere along the line with a newspaper or television put out this
myth that this was the case. My sister Corey beat my ass a lot! (laughs) I only
know strong women!" (James mentions seeing Mundo punch Sexy Star and it feeling
strange) "All right, you see the punch and you think either that guy can't hit
or that girl is tough! You then go beyond the man and woman thing and you just
see a fighter now! It is. It is made of sugar-glass, this perception of
women."
On his firing: "There are things in
scripture that I read everyday that confirm that worry will do nothing for you.
But, before I was enlightened to that concept or that defense, I cried because I
felt like it was a dream that I got there and I got woke up. If you feel
something for something, then you're emotionally invested in it. That is kind of
the thing to life, to find things that you get attached to in a safe and healthy
way. It was upsetting, but it was enlightening."
On if WWE is in his future
again: "I have learned to stay in the moment. If you think about the future,
that's anxiety. If you think about the past, that's depression. Also, I was
raised on, "If you want to hear God laugh, tell him your plan." If you had asked
me 3 years ago if I'd be here with Lucha Underground, I'd have said, "What are
you talking about?" I've learned to never speak for the unknown. I'm incapable
of knowing."
Tags:
