Source: Brady Hicks
This week, TNA’s own DON WEST steps IN THE ROOM with PWI contributing writer Brady Hicks, DJ, and Kevin McElvaney to talk TNA Wrestling, announcing, managing The Amazing Red, and all of TNA’s great holiday dealsssssss on shoptna.com … including a few scoops that HAVE YET TO BE RELEASED! All that, plus WWE’s Slammy’s are discussed, and Brady announces the show’s own year-end awards … THE WHO’S SLAMMY’S! Check it out at thebradyhicks.com.
DON WEST, ON THE CHANGES SINCE TNA’S ORIGINS:
As somebody who has been there from the beginning and seen what it could be like and how far it could go, the exposure has been incredible. I remember doing these shows Wednesday nights at the Fairgrounds in Nashville. Just the exposure has been unreal. Just the perception is so different. It’s just been phenomenal.
ON GOING LIVE ON SPIKE:
When it’s live it’s just a whole different field. It seems like everybody just fine-tunes a little more and your senses are just alerted a little bit more. At this point, the company is good where it is at.
ON RE-EMBRACING SALES:
It’s been something that I’ve been wanting to do from day one. Jeff Jarrett and I talked about this back around day one, where I would eventually go back to being a pitch-man. And then when we finally became big enough to where sales began to matter, they kind of approached me. It has been almost like a rebirth for me. It’s what I do. It’s what comes easy and natural. We’re really clicking. I wouldn’t trade places with my old job for all the tea in China.
ON HIS TIME WITH THE AMAZING RED:
Timing was just bad on that. At the time they hadn’t started me on the road yet. Vince Russo came to me remembering how I had always been an Amazing Red fan, standing on the tables back in the day going, “GO RED GO.” I think the concept was good as far as me being his voice-piece, but the concept was sort of off in that I was never supposed to be his manager. I was supposed to be his promoter.
ON COLLEAGUE JEREMY BORASH:
I don’t know how JB does the schedule. He’s a man amongst boys.
All that, plus a very unique perspective of the Don West EARLY YEARS selling everything from baseball memorabilia to knives, and his more recent experiences doing the hard-sells for TNA pay-per-views. This is a really different take on the wrestling interview you’d expect.
Thanks for supporting the In the Room podcast on thebradyhicks.com. To leave a message for the show, you can e-mail us at intheroompodcast@gmail.com or call (206) 337-1031. And while you’re at the site, be sure to check out great interviews with AJ Styles (8/9/10), Kurt Angle (10/8/10), Serena Deeb (11/8/10), Madison Rayne (6/8/10), and Kevin Thorn (10/25/10).
Brady Hicks has been writing about wrestling for more than 15 years, for Web sites, newspapers, and magazines. He is a contributing writer for Pro Wrestling Illustrated and is also the host of his acclaimed weekly podcast – In the Room.
You can check out the entire interview by clicking on the link at the top.
