Wrestling
An Exclusive Interview with Danny Doring
By Jared "JHawk" Hawkins
Aug 30, 2002, 15:35

A Smartmarks Exclusive Interview with Danny Doring
conducted 8/25/2002 by Jared "JHawk" Hawkins

This past Sunday, yours truly sat down with former ECW Tag Team Champion (and current NWA Florida Champion) Danny Doring for an exclusive locker room interview following the United Wrestling Council's "Outrageous in the Cages" event in Hudson, Ohio. This interview took place in between the live show and the closed circuit broadcast of SummerSlam. Here is the complete interview.



JH: Thank you for granting me this time to ask you a few questions.

DD: It's no problem. If you have questions, I'll answer them. That's all I do all day is answer questions. The same questions every time too. "Do you still talk to Roadkill?"

JH: See, I wasn't going to ask that. I figured he'd have shown up here by now if you did.

DD: Actually, I just talked to him yesterday. He's doing quite well.

JH: That's good to hear. So what have you been up to since ECW folded?

DD: Well, I've been concentrating on my singles career, trying to reestablish that. Although I still team with Roadkill from time to time, he's doing his own thing and I'm doing mine, as a lot of promotions are unable to get both of us together. So we're doing our own thing at this time, but we're still very much good friends. I've concentrated on my singles career, winning several titles in the last year. One of them, of course, being right here in Ohio. The other one being NWA Florida. A couple of hardcore titles in Connecticut, et cetera et cetera et cetera et cetera.

JH: What's it like working Florida compared to Ohio or Philadelphia?

DD: Florida's been really good to me. A lot of the smaller organizations I work for have been class to me so far. Florida has definitely been good to me. I just hang out there, and after I'm done defending my title, I can check out Disney World or Universal Studios. Or I can just go down to the beach for some fun and sun. Maybe one day while I'm up there, I'll meet my future ex-wife. But right now, it's not in the cards.

JH: What was it like working in ECW?

DD: What was it like working in ECW. What can I say? Every wrestler in the world wanted to be in one of three places. WCW, the WWF, or ECW. And I was one of the lucky few who got a long run out of being in ECW. And not only was I there, but I got to win a World championship. It was an incredible time, and I miss it, but I don't dwell on it because it's in the past and ECW is done. So it's time for me to be Danny Doring in my singles career and go into higher places. ECW is part of my past, but it's not part of my future. I miss it, but we have to move on with our lives. It's like losing a girlfriend, you know? You've got to move on and find yourself a new love, right?

JH: Right.

DD: Right. You got it.

JH: Moving back a bit, how did you get started in the business?

DD: I went to ECW's House of Hardcore, trained by Tazz and Perry Saturn. Part time Bubba Ray Dudley was there. Mikey Whipwreck, Tommy Dreamer, (John) Kronus, a whole slew of guys, but mainly Tazz and Saturn. And as you know, I call myself the "Crown Jewel of the House of Hardcore" because I was the most successful and talented wrestler to come out of that school.

JH: What are your thoughts on Paul Heyman?

DD: What can I say about Paul Heyman besides "He gave me a chance in ECW"? Everybody wants me to talk bad about him, but my first five years in the business were in a major company instead of being an independent wrestler. I have 20 pay-per-views under my belt. I have two video games, a bunch of DVDs and magazines. What can I say about Paul Heyman? He gave me my shot; I padded my resume and took the ball and ran with it. So I can't really say anything bad about Paul as much as people want me to. I can't do it.

JH: What are some of the drawbacks to working the independent circuit?

DD: There are a lot of drawbacks to working the independent circuit, one of which being that a lot of guys are untrained. A lot of guys are untrained and they get on these shows, and they're unsafe to work with. It's a shame, but you have to deal with that. There are a lot of drawbacks, but for the most part my track record over the last year and a half has been very good. I haven't really had to work with too many guys who didn't want to listen or anything else. I haven't had too many problems, so I've had a lucky stretch so far.

JH: On the flip side of that, who are some of your favorite guys to work with?

DD: Oh jeez. I could go on all day with this. [Some of the workers on the show yell out "What about me?"] And everybody wants me to mention their name in the background. I could go on all day. I miss working with the FBI. Chris Chetti--Chetti and Nova, those matches were incredible. I miss working with Simon Diamond. There's a couple of guys in the independents that I've gotten to work with in the last year, namely Chris Daniels, Scoot Andrews. Shoot, I could go on all day with guys to mention, but if I leave anybody out they'll get mad. So let's just say I pretty much love working with everybody. I'm like God in that I love everybody, and I'm a very peaceful person. So everybody I get in the ring with is a swell person to me. I love them all. I kiss them on the forehead when I come back through the curtain every time. It's incredible.

JH: When I talked to you during the intermission, you mentioned your match last night (Aug. 24) with Crowbar. Tell me about that.

DD: It's funny you should bring that up. Crowbar and I had never worked together. It was our first time last night in Philadelphia, and we put on what I-- [pauses] I had a string of bad matches coming off of a concussion about a month and a half ago. I was gun shy for a couple of months, and then last night with Crowbar we really let it all hang out. I felt at that stage that I needed a match that was that good to reassure my confidence, and we had it. There was a large margin for error in the match, but everything clicked. He and I had great chemistry, and we had a knock down drag out match. We got a standing ovation last night, and it felt great! To get a standing ovation in the ECW Arena always feels good. To do it one more time--it was just like old times, and it was really heartfelt. That's when I realized it's like a priest finding his faith again. I remembered how passionate about the business I am.

JH: What promotion was that for?

DD: That was for 3PW. Pro Pain Pro Wrestling. It's run my Tod Gordon, Jasmine St. Claire, and The Blue Meanie.

JH: It's a fairly new promotion then?

DD: They just started running there. I think that was like their third show there. I know there are like seven different promotions that run there regularly, and so will XPW next weekend from what I understand.

JH: That's what I hear. A lot of people are expecting a riot or something, actually.

DD: Yeah well...let's just say I never know what might happen next Saturday.

JH: So what's next for you? Are you looking into getting a WWE contract anytime soon?

DD: I think every wrestler that puts on a pair of boots is trying to get a WWE contract. I think that's the plan. Yeah, that's my goal. To become a WWE wrestler. Not just become a WWE wrestler, but to become a successful WWE wrestler with a long career. A long fruitful career. A long financial fruitful career. And move on from there to open up a couple of strip clubs, you know, and just kind of leech off of everything.

[Carrie Insane and Keith Young walk over.]

CI: So did you enjoy stuffing your wiener down my throat?

KY: Speaking of which, she wants to have a threesome with us.

DD: Cool. Terrific!

KY: So as soon as you're done here.

DD: See? All sorts of things happen when I'm doing interviews.

KY: And it's all on tape too, so...

[Young and Insane walk off.]

JH: Well then.

DD: And for the record, I stuffed a sausage down her throat outside the ring, and not my wiener.

JH: What about NWATNA? Have you had any contact with them yet?

DD: No, I have not. As I am the NWA Florida Champion, I have not had any contact with NWATNA, and I've heard that a lot of guys in the Northeast region are not getting contacted for one reason or another. I think their show is great, and I think they have a lot of positive things going for them. I would love to work for them and show them my contributions to the sport. Unfortunately, I haven't had any contact with them as of yet.

JH: Who would you like to work with that you haven't worked with yet?

DD: I would love to come full circle. Even though he doesn't wrestle much anymore, I would like to work with my former trainers, either Tazz or Saturn. These guys I have never really gotten a chance to wrestle. I only wrestled Tazz like three times, and I've never been in the ring with Saturn besides school. As far as other guys I've never worked with and would like to work with? Jeez, there's so many. If you watch Monday and Thursday nights on WWE, there's so many talented guys there. The Hardys. Jericho. Just a million of them out there I would love to work with. I could even begin to start naming names.

JH: OK, we're running up against the clock, I'm afraid, but before we break, do you have a website or e-mail address if your fans want to keep up with your career?

DD: Yes. Either dannydoring.net or thedanaconda.com. They both take you to the same place, and they feature real commentaries by me, a message board, all sorts of fun stuff, and guest commentaries by some of my friends from outside the business. Which is pretty interesting, as they're not allowed to talk about wrestling, so they talk about life views. It makes for an entertaining website. It's a very personal website, as I don't talk a lot about wrestling or my career. I talk about my real life and things going on there. There are a lot of pictures about my vacations and stuff that I think people appreciate. They appreciate the more personal stuff.

JH: Thank you very much for your time.

DD: Thank you.



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