<TABLE borderColor=#a8000 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=4 width="90%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>Chris Sabin Speaks On His X Title Win, Ultimate X 1 & 2, More
By Tim Brown (tim@w3bsite.com) on January 12, 2004 at 10:24 PM EST</B> Show: The Interactive Interview (Courtesy of ProWrestling.com)
Guests: Chris Sabin & Frankie Kazarian
Date: 13th January 2004
Your Hosts: Daniel Edler & James Walsh
Recap by: James Walsh & Daniel Edler
[NOTE: You need the Real One Player to hear the show, which you can download by Clicking Here (http://uk.real.com/freeplayer_r1p.html)]
The Interactive Interview is a revolutionary concept in the world of broadcasting. While we always can be considered the wave of the future, we really should be this week as we present "The Show of the Future" with guests Frankie Kazarian and the new NWA TNA X Division Champion, Chris Sabin.
This is Chris Sabin's first in depth interview since capturing the X title just a few days prior in Ultimate X2. We also catch up with Frankie Kazarian and get his take on the initial Ultimate X match.
Chris Sabin
-- Chris says he is sore after the Ultimate X2 match. His back is sore but otherwise he feels good.
-- "I didn't think it was ever going to come down," said Sabin about the X belt from the match mentioned above. He added, "I had a death grip on that thing. There was no way I was coming down without it."
-- The last Ultimate X match saw 2 pauses in order to put the belt back up in the cross of the X. To avoid this happening again, they put electrical tape on the belt. "Electrical tape isn't that strong. I guess they assumed if I hung from it, it'd break, " said Sabin. It took a good 5 to 10 seconds to break.
-- Sabin has been a wrestling fan for as long as he can remember. Hulk Hogan and Ultimate Warrior were his two favorites as a kid. Later, Bret Hart became his favorite. In later years and to this day, Dean Malenko is his favorite.
-- Growing up, Sabin always wanted to be a wrestler. It was always his dream and he followed it.
-- Sabin played soccer, ran track, and wrestled in school.
-- Sabin had trained at a school for a stint but it ended up folding. He was refereed to Scott D’Amore who finished up his training.
-- When asked about his first match, he says "the only thing I can really recall is how nervous I was."
-- Sabin has been wrestling just over 3 years."
-- Sabin was the NWA Great Lakes Heavyweight Champion. Other than winning the belt, Sabin shares little by way of memory of holding that title. "The company kind of stopped running shows," said Sabin. James and Dan then proclaim that Sabin is indeed still the NWA Great Lakes Heavyweight Champion!
-- In the eyes of the fans, Sabin wants to be considered a cruiserweight. "It's always been considered a curse to be a cruiserweight," said Sabin. But, he does not feel he is big enough to be considered a heavyweight.
-- Daniel then asks Sabin his take on the WWE's attitude towards cruiserweights. "The two examples I can give you are Paul London and Spanky who are two of the best wrestlers North America has to offer and they're not even getting used on TV. I don't really know how everything is run there, but I can give you that as an example," said Sabin.
-- Sabin would not entertain an offer from the WWE right now due to a long-term contract with NWA TNA. But, he would certainly like to go there in the future. "It's hard to turn your back on something you grew up watching. It's hard to turn your back on something you wanted to do since you were a kid. So, I would consider it," Sabin said.
-- The XWF tag titles that Sabin held is not the same XWF that Jimmy Hart ran and operated. "It was a small promotion here in Michigan," said Sabin.
-- Everybody is "cool" backstage at TNA. "As it went on, everyone became just like a family," Sabin said.
-- He loved being given the X title the first time. He also loved being put in an angle by joining SEX. He does say he wishes he could have faced Red one on one, though.
-- The WWA tour was something he looks back upon fondly. "They hadn't had wrestling in New Zealand in many years so the crowd was really into what we were doing, plus, it was my first time in front of a really big crowd," said Sabin. He feels the match with Jerry Lynn, Johnny Swinger, and Frankie Kazarian that made it on the pay per view may have been his best match to date.
-- When asked about Vince Russo, Sabin says, "I really don't have anything bad to say about him. A lot of people do, I don't."
-- "The first time we actually got to hang up there was when the match actually started," said Sabin when asked for his thoughts on the original Ultimate X match. Michael Shane, Frankie Kazarian, and Sabin himself were flown in early to prepare for the match. They had poles rather than the giant lighting grids that you saw in both Ultimate X matches. Kazarian reached up to hang from one of the wires and the pile it was attached to bent in. "Everybody was freaking out," said Sabin. But, it turned out to be good in his opinion.
-- The Interactive Interview is the very first to bring you Chris Sabin since his Ultimate X2 victory capturing the X title, as said directly to us by Sabin himself, just like we were first to bring you Michael Shane after his win in the original Ultimate X match.
-- A ring announcer at a Michigan show kept calling Sabin "The Future." On the website promoting upcoming shows, he'd advertise "The Future" Chris Sabin. Sabin liked the name and it ended up sticking.
-- When asked about the Super X tournament, Sabin said, "That was one of the best things I've done in my career." He added, "Being able to work with Juventud
was really cool. I'm not that old. I mean, I'm only 21. So, I remember sitting in high school watching WCW Nitro and seeing Juventud on there. Just to be able to wrestle him was really cool."
-- When asked about Ring of Honor, "I always enjoy working for them. The fans there are great because they always appreciate wrestling ... Wrestling more than anything else."
-- Sabin was not at the Ring of Honor show when the Teddy Hart incident discussed heavily on The Interactive Interview took place. He says, "I wish I was just so I could have seen what happened."
-- When you listen to the audio, you can also hear Sabin's upcoming events calendar read on the air. Download the audio at http://www.theinteractiveinterview.com. (http://www.theinteractiveinterview.com./)
-- http://www.chrissabin.com (http://www.chrissabin.com/) is up and running. You can keep up with the latest in Chris Sabin's career. You can also book him for shows through that site or at http://www.tnabookings.com. (http://www.tnabookings.com./)
-- James asks, "If you were to put together a "Best of Chris Sabin" video, what would be on the tape?" Sabin says one of his matches with Truth Martini would be on the tape. Also, his match with AJ Styles from IWC a month and a half ago would make the tape as well as his match with Kazarian from the Super X tournament, his TNA match with Paul London, and the 4 way dance with Jerry Lynn, Johnny Swinger, and Frankie Kazarian at the WA tour would as well.
We then do "Word Associations" with names like Jeff Jarrett, Jerry Jarrett, Trinity, Michael Shane, Christopher Daniels, Low Ki, and many more!
Frankie Kazarian
-- Frankie has been working locally in Southern California recently, and plans on going back to Japan for Zero-One at the end of the month.
-- As a young child he was a fan of Tito Santana, Hulk Hogan and Ricky Steamboat, and then as he got older he enjoyed Bret & Owen Hart, Shawn Michaels & Sean Waltman.
-- His first match was really unexpected, and he had no time to get nervous, as he wasn’t supposed to be wrestling. A guy on the show had car trouble and couldn’t make it. There were a couple of thousand people at the show, and he thinks that it was the perfect way to make his debut as it was a big test for him.
-- In his earlier years he worked for feds like EWF (Empire Wrestling Federation), started teaming with Nova on the indy scene, and UPW who he’s been with since. Daniel brings up how he sometimes deputises as a trainer for UPW schools, which Kazarian says he really enjoys.
-- On the topic of Nova, Frankie still talks to him on a weekly basis and really feels he should have been on television in WWE a long time ago.
-- Kazarian said he’d be lying if it wasn’t a goal of his to go to WWE, and even though he hasn’t been on TV for a while he’s happy where he’s at now, working places such as NWA:TNA where he’s under contract.
-- Nothing really came of all of his dark matches and TV tapings. They just told him good work, keep on doing what he’s doing.
-- Talk then turns to Frankie’s WWA Tour match with Sabin, Jerry Lynn and Johnny Swinger. It’s not only one of Sabin’s favourites, but is one of Kazarian’s too. “The crowd was very very hot, and it was just a very good match, very very fun”.
-- Frankie says he really hopes to see Jerry return to TNA as soon as possible.
-- Scott D’Amore and Glenn Gilberti put in good words for him in TNA and he was brought in pretty much right away. Speaking on his pretty immediate push in the company to a title match with AJ Styles, Frankie exclaimed how talented Styles is.
-- During that match however, Styles’ Styles Clash went horribly wrong; “botched moves you know, this aint ballet its wrestling”. He says luckily he’s alive to talk about it.
-- The way that Frankie got the nickname The Future was that before he got into wrestling he envisioned that name for himself. He had a logo and everything. Another factor was that he always was a big fan of the “Back To The Future” trilogy.
-- Of course, since Ultimate X 2 was last week on NWA:TNA, James now asks Frankie for his thoughts on the first Ultimate X that he, Michael Shane and Chris Sabin was involved in. He says they got nothing but positive feedback from it and feels proud to have been a part of it.
-- On the topic of future gimmick matches to be in, he cant think of anything original, but he’ll perform in anything they throw at him.
-- Before he was taken off of television, Frankie was just entering a gimmick as a ladies man. That idea was a combination of an idea he had and what the writing team wanted for him. This was during the spell where the writers wanted to add more character to some of the X Division guys.
-- He’s not sure why he’s not on TNA now. They’re always trying to switch things up and bring in new faces but he’s really not sure why he hasn’t been on.
-- Frankie clears up a rumor about his involvement with the Learning Channel’s Wrestling Reality show. He was offered something by the group, but he had a scheduling conflict that day. However, they still threw his name out there as being a part of it – he never was!
-- Fans who want more information about Frankie can check out www.thefuturefrankiekazarian.com, which is the same resource anybody looking to book Frankie can use.
-- We then roll into word associations with names such as Shark Boy, Christopher Daniels, Rob Van Dam, Sean Waltman, Jeff Jarrett and many more. The answers to these can only be known by listening to the audio of the show.
-- Frankie then gives out a message to all of his fans listening to the show, and one to the hosts.
-- The interview itself closes off with a question on whether anybody’s ever told Frankie how much he looks like Antonio Banderas. Frankie says he gets that almost every day. Daniel then asks if he’s ever thought about going in as a celebrity look-alike, and while he’s not too sure about that, the idea of acting is something he really wants to follow and he’s been doing some acting workshops, and has decided to look into that a lot more in 2004.
-- We then move into our after-show recap where the hosts talk about such things as upcoming interview names and give their thoughts on “The Show Of The Future” that you just read the transcript of.
***We at The Interactive Interview are very keen to know if readers enjoy the product we, and this website, provide you with in these regular interviews. We also like feedback on each individual interview and what bits you liked and didn’t like or felt could’ve been added. Thus, please send through feedback (positive or negative) to us at daniel@theinteractiveinterview.com (daniel@theinteractiveinterview.com) & tiikingofnoise@hotmail.com. (tiikingofnoise@hotmail.com)
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