Show: Wrestling Epicenter (The Interactive Interview) courtesy of www.WrestlingEpicenter.com
Guest: “Father” James Mitchell
Date: October 6, 2005
Your Hosts: Chuck D, James Walsh, and Francine
Recap By: James Walsh
He was the crazy mouth piece for Mortis and Wrath in World Championship Wrestling. He was the evil “Sinister Minister” in Extreme Championship Wrestling. And, he’s the mouth piece behind Total Nonstop Action’s fast rising monster Abyss. He’s “Father” James Mitchell and he’s back on the Wrestling Epicenter for his second go around.
On a show that can be described as crazy at best, “Father” James Mitchell discusses everything from where we left off 2 years ago including the death of Jerry “The Wall,” his work on one of Vince Russo’s Christian wrestling shows, his thoughts on ECW One Night Stand, Dusty Rhodes’ TNA booking style, and of course his thoughts on TNA getting on Spike TV every Saturday night at 11 p.m. and Monday at midnight!
And, of course our favorite partner, the very sexy “Queen of Extreme” Francine stops by to talk a little bit about her opinion of how TNA did on Spike, her take on the RAW Homecoming, and her insane interaction with our station’s resident homosexual… Yeah, that was… interesting! Be sure and check her out in all her glory at http://www.MissyHyattandFrancineTV.com. It is not for the faint of heart and may just be too hot for some of you to handle. But hey, I’m willing to take that risk.
This show was a bit out of control and you can hear it now at http://www.WrestlingEpicenter.com. Or, you can hear the interview at http://www.PWInsider.com as elite content.
“FATHER” JAMES MITCHELL
— Malice was a really nice guy. “He was probably 3 or 4 years from hitting his stride as far as being a mainstream player,” says Mitchell. James says nobody who ever worked with him ever had a bad word to say about him. He was such a nice guy, he’d call you on holidays and always remembered birthdays.
— “I’m actually happier with my place in the business than I’ve ever been,” says Mitchell about his stay with TNA. “Abyss is someone I wanted to be with when I first saw him. We teased we were going to do it right before Dusty Rhodes took over the book. The week I was supposed to come in and be revealed, Bill Behrens told me I wasn’t on the sheet. So, I was kind of pissed off about that. I had canceled a gig to be there.”
— Mitchell met with Dusty a few times in the first 5 weeks of Dusty booking and they discussed changing his character a little bit. The next time he talked to Dusty, Dusty said he wasn’t “on the radar screen.” Mitchell does a perfect impression of Dusty that you must hear to appreciate. Funny stuff!
— Mitchell did a show for Vince Russo which was a Christian wrestling show. James laughs at this pondering how someone who looks the way Mitchell looks and has the character he does would fit in a show like that. Mitchell says, “At that time, I had been off TV for almost a year and I was pretty pissed off about it. Wrestling’s in my blood. I guess my self confidence was starting to go down. When Russo called me about it, I said, “Are you out of your mind? You want ME in a Church?” If nothing else, I figured I’d do it as a rib just to see what the church would do when I walked through the door.”
— Mitchell, after burping on the radio, was concerned to see what the reaction would be to his evil gimmick. “It felt like a real hot wrestling show. It was fun. And from there, I started getting my chops back and stopped being so pissed off at the wrestling business. And when Dusty ceased to be, I got back with TNA.”
— Working that Christian show helped restore Mitchell’s confidence. But, he did not take a big bump at the end. He was expecting to. Instead, they went with a message of “Evil is always around, you can’t get rid of it.”
— “When Dusty came in, I was really excited. I knew he knew the value of a good manager. And since I’m about the only damn one left, I figured now I’d really get a run but it didn’t come to pass. Really, I was personally disappointed he didn’t do anything with me because I was an incredible Dusty Rhodes fan as a kid. Personally, I didn’t like the fact that he didn’t think I had a place in TNA. But, my problem with his booking was if there were 7 segments, he was in 5 of them. It’s overkill.”
— Mitchell respects Dusty an incredible amount. “I’m not someone that’s going to totally dump on the dream.”
— Why are there so few managers left? “I think it goes directly back to Eric Bischoff saying “I’m going to kill managers and tag team wrestling, they’re obsolete.” And Vince McMahon pretty much followed suit in the whole Monday Night War. Instead, we got the gorgeous girl. At first, I couldn’t stand any valets because none of them wrestled, none of them did anything. 95% can’t talk. I’ve seen a lot that are incredible charismatic behind the scenes but when the camera goes on, they’re like a deer in the headlights. And if you weren’t looking at the headlights on their chest, you’d probably change the channel. Now we’ve got this new generation of wrestling fans who don’t even know what the hell a manager is. ”
— Mitchell thinks Jim Cornette and Paul Heyman could beat anybody in the WWE at talking yet neither were used as managers.
— Mitchell feels managers like Scott D’Amore are great for the business and having someone like D’Amore on the card makes him want to step up his game.
— What makes Abyss and Mitchell work so well together? “He’s a big scary monster and I’m a creepy little bastard.”
— Mitchell feels TNA has had far better pay per views tnan those of the WWE for at least the past 6 months. And, what makes TNA better in his opinion is they don’t have the silly backstage skits where the guys cut these goofy promos saying what their secret plan is yet the entire audience can hear them.
— What did Mitchell think of ECW One Night Stand? “It was a lot of fun and it was emotional for everyone but it wasn’t really an ECW pay per view. It really wasn’t ECW spirit. The crowd was almost like a religious revival.”
— “ECW is probably better off staying in the grave unless it’s run like the crazy mad house it was originally,” says Mitchell. He feels one of the reasons it wasn’t an ECW show is because Paul Heyman didn’t have final say.
— At the show, Mitchell saw the WWE behind the scenes crew watching from the gorilla position completely confused because the entire show was done completely differently from what they knew from the WWE.
— Mitchell thinks it probably is as close as you could get to an ECW show this day and age. He hasn’t seen nor was he at Hardcore Homecoming so he can’t say for sure.
— Mitchell feels bringing in the WWE stars to the pay per view took a lot away from it genuinely being an ECW prduct.
— One Night Stand was to be Mitchell’s final day in the wrestling business and he was going to be a big part of the show. But, as his promos got cut down from what was discussed to 15 seconds and then that 15 seconds didn’t air, it sort of kept him in the business and he’s glad that it did as it gave him the opportunity to do what he’s doing now with Abyss and TNA.
— “Wrestling’s an addiction worse than Heroin, nobody ever quits.”
— Mitchell will appear on this coming Saturday night’s edition of Total Nonstop Action on Spike TV. Be sure and tune in and see all the hungry stars from TNA as they offer us fans what we’ve hungered for – An alternative to the WWE.
— Catch Wrestling Epicenter next Tuesday with special guest Shannon Moore as well as a surprise guest not yet announced. If it happens, it could be a big week next week for us here at the Epicenter.
