Storm-Candito

November 9, 2004

As promised, in my last commentary, I am going to tell a bunch of Lance Storm - Chris Candito stories. Chris and I have worked together in both SMW and ECW and had a lot of fun together. This commentary might jump around a bit but there should be a few good stories mixed in here somewhere.

HEAT ALREADY: Our first in-ring encounter was in a Battle Royal of all things and I managed to get heat with both Chris Candito and Jimmy Delray before the match even started. This match was in SMW in 1994. Jim Cornette ran SMW and this was back in the day that the true nature of the business was still heavily protected. We (faces and heels) had separate locker rooms and the ref was running messages back and forth. Delray, Candito and I were going to be the last three people in the Battle Royal and the ref brought back word to me of a few things they wanted to do near the end of the match. Chris wanted me to go for a moonsault of the top rope, and then catch me and go for a power slam. I’m not sure where the spot went from there but I didn’t want to do it. This was my first match back after 10 weeks on the shelf due to a small muscle tear in my left knee (I hadn’t told anyone in SMW about the injury so they didn’t know this) and I thought it silly to have Chris catch me in an attempt at a move that no one had ever see me do successfully. I sent word back that I didn’t want to do it. I found out weeks later that this really P’d them off and I had huge heat for “acting like a big shot” my first night in. During the match Chris and Jimmy chopped the hell out of me, to put me in my place. The funny thing is I didn’t even notice they were hot at me as I thought the chops were just a friendly, ‘welcome to SMW’ gesture. You have to hit us Calgarians a lot harder to get our attention. (LOL)

FIGHTING IN THE RING: There was no heat behind this fight but we were yelling at each other during the match. This was a small spot show on the border between Kentucky and Tennessee. Chris was notorious for working real hard and taking too many big bumps regardless of the size of the crowd. While this may seem admirable, a line has to be drawn. This show drew maybe 50 people and Chris still insisted on doing this spot where I suplex him out of the ring from the apron and he takes the bump on the floor. Taking bumps like this shortens your career at an alarming rate and doing it in front of virtually no people is even crazier. When it came time in the match Chris called the spot, and I said no. Chris started the spot anyway and it came down to me on the apron and him hooked for the suplex and we continued to argue. It came down to him yelling “just doing it, I’m taking the bump!” and me replying, “your going to have to jump yourself, because I’m not lifting you!” After jockeying back and forth I finally grabbed his head and hot shotted him off the ropes and he bumped into the ring. Chris did manage to sneak in another spot where he took a small bump on the floor, but I did my best to talk some sense into him.

DON’T TAG OUT: After Jericho left SMW I started a short program where I tagged with Brian Lee against Candito and Boo Bradley (Balls Mahoney). Our first tag encounter did not go all that well. Chris and I put a lot of stuff together for our matches and as it turns out not everyone in our match could or would remember it all. This was Boo’s first real run anywhere and he was always so tied up being this wacky character that he wasn’t always paying attention when he was needed. Brian Lee was also a little notorious for forgetting the occasional spot so our first tag match was disaster. Chris and I not wanting to simplify our match came up with a better solution. We would let Brian and Boo start the match and do something together. When they were done we would both tag and then Chris and I would just stay in. This may seem a little selfish, but we never said anything to them and I don’t think they ever really noticed. We just kept their involvement to a minimum and it all worked out for the best. (LOL)

ECW MIXXED TAG: This was a match that never aired on TV but the ring introduction part did and it is this part that was important. When Damn Marie started in ECW she was brought in as a foil for Tammy. I was feuding with Candito and Tammy was with him. We did a mixed tag match at the Arena and I did special guest ring announcer duties. Our ECW feud was likely best known for our extremely stiff almost “shoot” promos on each other. I ripped on every rumour that was ever spread about Tammy and hit Chris as hard as I could, when on the mic. We even joked how it was an amazing contrast between how light I worked in the ring and how stiff I worked on the mic. When I was putting the ring introductions together I was trying to find a way to bust Chris up. We often joked in ECW that it was as important to entertain the boys, as it was the crowd. When Chris and Tammy first left SMW and joined WWE they moved back to New Jersey and moved in with Tammy’s Mom. Tammy’s Mom had a huge house and lived alone. Chris and Tammy were on the road 200-250 day as year so this arrangement worked out perfectly, but I knew the thought of moving in with his ‘mother-in-law’ bugged Chris a lit. For his ring introduction, I introduced Chris as ‘Hailing from his Mother-In-Laws house in Spring Lake, NJ. Chris almost broke out laughing right their in the ring. He actually had to cover his face and put his head down in the turnbuckle to hide his laughing. Hey if you can’t make fun of your friends, who can you make fun of?

A BROKEN EAR DRUM: Chris broke my eardrum on night. This was during our Tag Team title reign where we were both defending the titles and feuding against each other. We were working back to back matches, where we would start our singles match immediately following our successful title defence. This night we were in the Golden Dome just outside of Pittsburgh, PA and Chris slapped me across the face but caught me just enough in the ear to pop my eardrum. Of course this was at the beginning of our tag match so I had to wrestle both matches with a painful whistling sound in my ear. I didn’t notice any balance issues at the time but the noise of every bump pounded in my head something awful.

GET OFF THE TABLE! : I wasn’t the only one who had ear problems. In a tag match against RVD and Sabu at a Dog Track near Boston Chris had his right ear torn almost completely off his head. The injury happened after Chris took Rolling Thunder from Rob and Sabu. Sabu usually sprang over the top rope into a leg drop but on this night he over shot, and did a knee drop instead. Problem was, Sabu always carried a large metal spike in his boot and the head part of the spike caught Chris right in the ear and basically cut it off. After Rolling Thunder Rob and Sabu put both Chris and I on a table so they could both come off the top rope onto us. As Chris and I lay there head to head on the table I noticed Chris holding his ear to his head with a lot of blood on his hand. I asked him, ‘are you okay?’ to this he replied, ‘I think my ear is off.’ ‘Then get off the table!” I replied, feeling that he has suffered enough punishment and we should probably try to get this match over with as soon as possible. Chris sat up off the table as both Sabo and Van Dam came crashing down on me. I got pinned and Chris was off to the hospital. IF you see any ECW matches where Chris wore amateur headgear, you now know why. He needed to protect his ear because he didn’t take any time off to let it heal.

A BROKEN COLLAR BONE: It’s funny Chris and I considered working with each other a blessing because we both took such good care of each other. At one point Chris even said, ‘I need to work with you for the rest of my life’, yet oddly enough I have a lot of injury stories to tell. This match was in New Orleans, LA in the hottest gym I think I had ever worked. I was in a single match with RVD during our tag feud with RVD and Sabu. It was so hot everyone was blowing up like crazy during their matches. I remember Rob even admitting he blew up, which I took great pride in because I hadn’t, and I think it was the only time someone ever blew Rob up. At the end of the match there was a Sabu and Candito run in and in the after math both Chris and I were left lying. As Rob and Sabu made their way to the back Rob grabbed a chair and tossed it back over his head towards the ring. The chair landed on the top rope and spun like a discus and hit Candito right in the collarbone shattering it. Of course this being ECW Chris took no time off for this injury either.

Well this will have to do for now. I was going to tell the “Naked in Baton Rouge” story but I remembered that I told that one in a previous commentary. Again I apologize for the on-line hiatus, but until I either fix or replace my laptop you will have to bear with me.

Lance