Catching Up

August 13, 2013

It's been way too long since I updated the site with a new commentary, and for that I do apologize. The problem is, my life now that I am off the road is pretty routine, which doesn't lend to interesting commentaries. When I do have events of interest come up, I'm so busy getting caught up on everything I need to do when I get home that I seldom have time to write. If you miss hearing my regular goings on, you have a couple options that might help; I am on Twitter @LanceStorm and interact there a ton (Too much if you ask Christian, but what does he know?) or you can join the Wrestling Observer website as I do a bi-weekly audio interview/Podcast with Bryan Alvarez on alternating Wednesdays. Okay enough dilly dallying ( The Steve Austin Show is having an effect on me, I'm expanding my vocabulary) I don't have a specific topic today but since I haven't updated in forever I figure I would just wander around covering as many things as I can.

Bookings: I get asked all the time whether I am retired or not and the answer is a bit ambiguous. I am completely retired from full time wrestling action, I have no interest what so ever in a comeback or as they say "One more run", nor am I actively looking for Indy bookings or sporadic dates. That said I still occasionally agree to bookings. They have to be just the right booking for me to consider it, but they do happen.

This past February I wrestled Jerry Lynn on a Pro Wrestling Syndicate show in NJ as part of Jerry's retirement tour. Jerry asked me personally to have one more match with him and there was no way I could say no to my buddy Jerry. My travel to and from the show was a complete disaster but the event and the match was awesome. A couple of my students from the NE caught the show, I got to meet Amazing Kong (Kharma) who was a complete sweetheart, and I once again got to half blow off Curt Hawkins (Its becoming a running rib/inside joke). PWS run a great professionally run show, so if you get a chance to support them please do, great guys.

My last match to date was this past June against Tommy Dreamer at House of Hardcore 2 in Philadelphia. Again this was a case of a dear friend asking me to do a show, so I accepted. I love Tommy and can't turn down the opportunity to kick his ass whenever given the chance. To make it sweeter Terry Funk was in his corner and Terry Funk is one of my all time favourite people.

One quick Terry Funk story before I move on. When we were laying out our finish it was just going to involve the 3 of us, and there was a spot where Terry would get in the ring and challenge me to a fight. He'd get the upper hand with some jabs leading to the big hay maker punch where I would bump. I was going to feed back up for more jabs but on the second big hay maker I was going to duck and super kick Terry, leading into Tommy catching me for the finish. We were all set to go; we talked through it a couple of times and were all on the same page. Shortly before we went out X Pac showed up and wanted to be a part of the finish. We made a quick adjustment and Terry was now going to land the second hay maker as well and set me up for the spinning toe hold, before X Pac jumped him to save me. He and I would then do a misdirection spot where I accidentally super kicked Pac leading to Tommy catching me for the finish.

This was all well and good now except before we went out Terry wanted to run the finish through again and each time we did he forgot that I was no longer ducking the second hay maker punch. This may not seem like a big deal to you but let me tell you something, Terry lays his shit in and when a guy knows/thinks you are ducking they throw them a hell of a lot harder. At this point I've resigned myself that when the time comes, Terry is going to think I'm ducking, he's going to throw this punch like he's trying to throw the runner out at home, and I'm NOT GOING TO DUCK, and eat the stiffest punch I've ever eaten in my life. When the time came I fed in for that last big punch, with my teeth clinched just hoping not to get knocked out, and.....wait for it....Terry REMEMBERS and throws his regular punch and I almost forget to bump because I'm so relieved to still be conscious. In hindsight I'm not even entirely sure Terry wasn't just ribbing my ass by "forgetting" the new finish, when we went over it before the match. Either way getting to share the ring and the locker room with Terry Funk made it a great day in my books. It was also the first time X Pac and I ever shared a ring together. Considering I kicked him in the face, it may be our last.

I am currently in talks about a couple bookings this fall, but it is a real obscure trip so don't everyone get excited. If you don't live in the town these shows are in you will not be travelling there to catch them. I'll give you details once everything is finalized. If you are interested in booking me to work, it's got to be an offer of interest. I don't just accept bookings for the sake of taking bookings. It's got to be somewhere I really want to go, or working with someone I've got specific interest in working with. Scheduling is really tough too, as I'm pretty busy running SWA and now that I'm doing occasional guest training gigs in NXT at the new WWE Performance Center my schedule is even tighter. Part of me would like to do one last European loop, as well as a return to Japan but I just don't know if my schedule will allow it.

NXT WWE Performance Center: As I mentioned above I've done a couple trips to NXT as a guest trainer for WWE. My first trip was to Tampa at their old building and just a week ago I was in Orlando at their new Performance Center. This is not leading to a permanent move; Storm Wrestling Academy is still my primary focus. WWE and I just have a great relationship and are constantly exploring ways we can work together, and so far these trips have been awesome. There are so many hungry great people in WWE developmental and getting to work with them is just awesome, and the new Performance Center is incredible. As much as you hear guys in this business talk about the rush they get from the roar of that crowd, I get that same rush when I pass on knowledge of this business, when I see the light turn on in a young stars head, and you see the excitement in their eyes about being able to go out and apply that knowledge you shared with them. Whether it is a psychology point you've put into words they've never heard before that illustrated it better for them to finally understand or a trick to a technique that makes their execution just a little bit tighter. It's about being a part of creating art, and even if you aren't the artist getting credit for it on the live stage, you're helping preserve that art and assisting that art, and being able to do that will always give me that rush, which is why I love training so much. If I didn't have a family back in Calgary, I never would have left, and I can't wait until I go back. I hope I managed to reach a few people while I was there, because I know a lot of you reached me.

Other Stuff: I've got 2 eBooks available on Amazon for under $5 each. If you don't have a Kindle you can always down load a free app. The books can be found here: Amazon.com I was a guest on the Steve Austin Show which can be found here: Podcast One I was one of the earlier guests so you may have to scroll back a bit. Storm Wrestling Academy is still going strong. I'm about to start my Sept. 2013 session in a couple weeks. January 2014 is booked full and May 2014 is booking up fast. If you are interested in training with my check out Storm Wrestling Academy; you will not find a better place to learn pro-wrestling. If you don't want to take my word for it, check out what these people have to say about it. Here

Well that's about it, again you can follow me on Twitter ( @Lance Storm) for all the most up to date info on what I'm doing.

Lance Storm