Hard Hit Prince
Not really working as a
LET'S GET TO IT! IT'S DRAGON SAGA!!
Shit, I wasn't expecting to take so long between the first one and the second, but I had to do it. College got in the way. My second guest can be found mainly on the ROH section, but he's quite controversial with his posts and you generally like him or fucking hate him! He's Irish though, he punches people with a pint in his hand, whilst using his leprechaun as a slave to count the gold coins he has in his, I don't know, cauldron? Let's go, to the bio!!
1. Hey Jason, first thank you very much for agreeing to do this interview. You seem to be doing whatever you can and still be able to study - how do you find the perfect balance for your personal life and your professional life? What do you think your parents think about it?
It's not easy but it's something you just have to do. I tend to put social life to the side a bit but I still go out and enjoy myself whenever I can. I went out last night, had a lot of fun, drank one too many margaritas! My parents are supportive. It was their decision. I, and my three brothers were all told at 19-years-old that we were on our own, we all moved out at 19, all began working for ourselves and our parents rarely give us money unless they have to, we're stuck or as a present. I thank my parents for everything I have done or will do in my life.
2. You have your priorities I can see that. However, I have to ask is there a special Mrs. Dragon Saga in your life? if there's, what does she think about your love for pro-wrestling? If there isn't, at least tells us what your mates think about it!
Not at the moment. I'm not too big on relationships, especially at my age, I think they hold me down. That said I do go out with girls quite a bit and one girl who I've been seeing for awhile even came to a Survivor Series party with me in a Dublin bar called the Woolshed who do WWE PPV parties and she had a great time! I've never had any issues with past girlfriends to do with me liking wrestling, some treat it like they did my love for football, they just really didn't care, negative or positive.
Some of my friends will go to the PPV parties for the drinks and the craic and enjoy themselves, so they don't care. Some take the piss out of it when I tell them I'm going to a bar to watch a PPV but its just us being us.
3. I get it. Them bitches! Specially Irish bitches with their mustaches and shit... Oh yeah you're Irish, so this has to come up. Do you feel proud to see such workers as Finlay, Prince Devitt (personal friend /acquainted) , Becky Lynch and Sheamus representing your country? Or you just don't give a fuck about it? Who do you think is the biggest star in Ireland of all four and why?
Yeah, I do, especially since I've had a little insight into how the Irish wrestling scene works. It's very tough for guys to get noticed even by British indie promotions. Finlay came up in a different time where wrestling was an attraction in Belfast, then he started travelling around Europe and even did World of Sport before it was canceled. Fergal's route was completely different, being through Japan, because when he originally went to the US to try and breakthrough he couldn't get booked anywhere! And he was one of the more talented guys on the Irish indies when I was growing up, right beside Sheamus. Sheamus had a connection of some sort I believe, not sure what it was, but he rarely left Ireland when he was coming up unless IWW (Irish Whip Wrestling) sent him somewhere, like Germany or England. And Becky Lynch is very unique because a lot of people don't know this, but she was retired when WWE signed her! She went to the same gym as me, RAW (coincidentally named) in Rathmines as we live in the same area, I don't even know how she got signed.
I'm happy for all of them, they're all good at what they do. Out of the four Sheamus is definitely the biggest star, hes done every radio show and talk show in Ireland. Fergal is now getting a lot more spotlight because of the RTÉ (our national broadcaster) documentary they did on him. I'm more interested in who'll breakthrough from the current Irish scene though, lots of good guys on it.
4. I see that you really love Bret Hart, but you found him in the last year of his run on the WWF. Did you get into WCW to see "The Hitman"? Try and give us three of the best thing you remember Bret Hart doing.
I watched WCW on Bravo to watch Bret. I didn't like WCW because I was a big WWE fan and I thought they were the enemy. My brothers tried to explain to me why Bret had gone but I never understood it until I got older. I have gone back and watched a lot of Bret's old stuff and have been doing so since I was like 10 or 12 years old. Seen a lot of his stuff most people probably haven't, his Stampede work for instance. No amount of times watching things back can replicate what it was like watching it as it happened but I really appreciate Bret Hart as a wrestler and think he is the best wrestler, ever.
My three favorite Bret Hart moments are him vs. Austin at Mania 13, his WWE return in 2010 and him winning the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 10. He was the best there is, was and ever will be.
5. It's time to cut to what people's been wondering. Why you think some people in this boards feel that you come way too strong? Who's your best e-buddy on WZ and who's the one you just can't stand? Try and explain it dude!
So here's how this is. I like something that is niché, it's not what the majority of the people on this board are here to talk about. If you replaced every post I make about ROH with WWE discussion, nobody would even notice my posts. It just so happens that I have a fondness for something that's different than what the majority are here to discuss or talk about. If people think I come on too strong, I don't necessarily care. This is a discussion board, if you don't want to read something, don't read it. It's quite simple really.
There's nobody I can't not stand. There are some people I kind of take what they say with pinches of salt, so for example, I take a lot of what Rayne says with questioning because he tends to word things in a way that makes him right even if he's wrong, if you get what I'm saying. But whenever we have discussions they're quite good and I enjoy them. He gives me a challenge at least.
I don't really talk to anyone on here off the boards, but I know Sam and I follow one another on Twitter. JAM and I used to talk on MSN a bit. Jake Smizzy who isn't around as much and I used to talk a bit. Anyone who frequents the ROH General Spam Thread is good with me, I consider that our Impact Support. xfear and I used to agree on a lot of the same things and I think we have the same perspective on wrestling. KB is one of the few people on here I'll go back and forth with happily because again, he challenges me. You too have done this, as has Papa Pillman and Lariat. So yeah, there are a few.
6. Well let's hope this beautiful bastards can get a new perspective on you- Seriously, your bio was pretty cool. So how did you find the boards? I've seen it that in your first year, you were all over and people really liked your knowledge of this sport/art form. What's the first thing that comes to your mind of your own early run here?
So I started on discussion boards in 2006, right before ECW One Night Stand. The first one I was on was quite shit, but at that time I was just happy to talk wrestling with people online. I can't even remember the name of the boar, wrestlingforce.org rings a bell though. So that died and I moved onto a couple of other wrestling boards, the ROH fan forum being one and Wrestling Clique being the other. Some don't know this but I was a moderator of the WWE section of Wrestling Clique for a year or so, and I hated it. Don't know why anyone would do it.
What happened there is, I wound up getting removed because I being in Ireland go to sleep earlier than others, and during the night after some PPV two posters got into an argument and one threatened to kill the other and do some other crap. This comment was visible for 7 hours and caused a massive flamewar between posters and I didn't get on until the next day when I saw what had happened and my inbox was filled with complaints, etc. Some people had forgotten I lived in Ireland. It was really weird. Anyway, I was blamed and was un-modded. I didn't care but I also felt like the main admin was a bit of a dick so I just stopped posting. He would wind up being removed because in real life, he genuinely went to jail, for what I don't know.
I literally just signed up here on a whim of boredom. Nothing to it. Just wanted to talk wrestling. xfear was on the ROH fan forums and had a link to his account on this site so thats how I got here I remember.
First thing that comes to mind is me and Coco going back and forth a few times. I never tried to or cared but I would up winning him over in time.
7. You obviously are a guy that look for "alternatives" for the WWE. What do you think is the reason that just pushes you away from the "mainstream" product? What do you look for in wrestling?
I love the WWE for what it does. It's not wrestling, it's sports entertainment and a big part of that brand of entertainment is the wrestling element which depending on whose in it can be awesome. But it isn't straight up wrestling, it's so over produced that it just screams "phony." One of the things I loved about mid 2000's Ring of Honor is it looked like a bit of a fight club, it looked like somebody just set-up a ring in some building and a bunch of guys beat the crap out of one another. It had a big fight, rabid atmosphere akin to the original ECW, but without a lot of the blood, guts and gore - even though ROH has at times had that. NJPW has that same feeling, it seems "real", and I like that. I like grit, I guess.
If I'm watching WWE, I want spectacle. If I watch ROH or NJPW, I want high quality wrestling. I want the wrestlers to have me on the edge of my seat. I want things to happen that can make me jump out of my seat. In the last year alone some of the things to do that include Jay Briscoe winning the ROH World title from Michael Elgin - my jaw dropped. That was an amazing moment in wrestling if you knew the story. It was like The Streak being broken but on a smaller scale.
8. ROH clearly played a big role in you staying a fan of professional wrestling. I, myself, am trying to really get into the early product of ROH. What was the match that got you? Are you that kind of fan that feels really proud to see someone like CM Punk and Daniel Bryan becoming such big stars?
So the first DVD I bought was called The Conclusion. I still have it at home in my parents house. The cover had Raven on it, so when I saw it online I was like, "man, I like Raven, I'm going to buy this", and never even noticed the other long, blond haired guy in yellow shorts also on the cover. So I get this DVD, I pop it in and start watching, and the first guy on the screen is called, "CM Punk" and he starts cutting this pissed off promo because his girlfriend Lucy (Daffney) was taken out, and from that moment I was hooked. I was hooked on ROH, I was hooked on CM Punk, I was just hooked. Punk was all over this show, he'd come out after matches and beat people up trying to find out who did it, each time his promos becoming more and more angrier and intense, it looked real. The main event was Punk vs. Raven in a steel cage and it is one of the big things that got Punk noticed.
After that I'd do jobs around our house to earn money so I could buy another ROH DVD. Specifically another ROH DVD. Sometimes a WWE one. I do feel proud that guys like Bryan and Punk make it to WWE and prove me right when I tell people how good they are. That's one of the most jaded outlooks on wrestling, "being big on the indies means nothing in WWE", that philosophy is long dead and buried. In recent times Steen's NXT debut is the perfect example of that. Sometimes, I get it wrong, but there are some who I can categorically tell you without question will be big. For example, Adam Cole will main event WrestleMania in I'd say the next five years. If you don't know who Adam Cole is, do yourself a favor and learn, cause that guy is the future of "the business" and the current face of ROH, which is a pretty illustrious list. CM Punk, Samoa Joe, Bryan, Kevin Steen and now Adam Cole, BAYBAY!
9. Currently, who's the best wrestler in the world and what's the best match he ever had?
I genuinely believe AJ Styles is the best wrestler in the world, without question. 2014 was the best year of his career and everything he touched turned to gold, or be broke (ba-dum-dum-tsk). There are others on that same level, Shinsuke Nakamura, Daniel Bryan, Adam Cole, one or two others, but AJ's at the top for me. Nobody had the amount of quality matches he had last year between ROH and NJPW alone, forget anything he did on the indies.
His best match of last year was vs. Minoru Suzuki in the G1 Climax for NJPW, but my favorite is his vs. Kyle O'Reilly on Ring of Honor Wrestling. O'Reilly's this guy who has so much potential and ROH can literally pull the trigger on him whenever they want, he and Styles had an awesome match on TV, one of the best of last year and I think everyone should watch it.
10. Let's wrap this up - who would you like to see as the next guest of the WrestleZone IntervieWZ?
I think someone like justinsayne would be cool, someone we know bits about but not a lot, but who has been around here awhile. Lariat is another good option and there'll always be Sam who'll give an entertaining interview.
Special Treat - Kyle O'Reilly vs. AJ Styles - Highlights
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