Source:The Rack
TNA Superstar, former TNA X Division Champion and one half of the TNA Knockout Tag Team Champions, “Showtime” Eric Young joined The Rack Thursday Night. In a nearly 20 minute interview, he discussed new show on Animal Planet, “Off the Hook: Extreme Catches” and all the fun that comes with doing a show involving himself and fishing, like how he got into fishing, wrestling a paddleboard fisher with blood in the water, what kind of pantyhose one should use to catch Sharkboy and how it is actually a good way to catch sharks, who he’s more afraid of: ODB or a shark, paddleboard fishing for sharks, talking with turtles and a host of other topics.
How Eric got into fishing and how the show came into being: “I liked fishing since I was a little kid; my dad got me into it and I grew up in Canada in a little village of 100 people, my house was right on a river. But I’m an amateur at best, maybe even lower than that; I don’t know the word to describe my fishing abilities but it would be lower than amateur. But I got into pro wrestling and that led me away from that (fishing) and pretty much consumed all of my time up until this year, basically; I had fished on and off, here and there but not very much and then this opportunity came along and I jumped at it. ‘Off the Hook: Extreme Catches’ is an awesome television show where I travel all around the country, meeting all these really cool, amazing people and doing genius and inventive way to catch all kinds of different fish and get myself into some pretty wild situations. It’s a funny show, there’s a lot of comedy in it… it’s been an unbelievable experience for me.”
On a segment where he had an impromptu wrestling match while filming on paddleboards: “Yeah, I get bored easy. I don’t know if I have ADD or not, but I’m probably pretty close to it. I like to stay busy and as you guys know, in fishing, sometimes there is a lot of waiting around. So, we were shallow enough where I felt confident enough to jump in, even though there was blood in the water and it ended up Jory Pearson was a super cool guy; we still friend to this day and talk a couple times a week. I was really cool to go out there with him and catch a shark from a paddleboard.”
If other TNA Stars will appear in this and any future seasons: “It’s just me this season. I know that there’s been some talk of having some guys go out with me and as you guys can probably well guess, there are several characters that are lined up and have been bugging me ever since I started filming the show to come on, and none of them are fisherman. So, it would probably make from some interesting TV and that’s what the show is about, so that could defiantly happen. Hopefully, season 2 will come and that’s something that we could try.”
Who he’d like, from TNA, to go out on the water with: “I think Robbie E. would be interesting. He’s a Jersey Shore guy, and very good looking for a man, has crazy hair and loves to spray tan and do all that other kind of stuff. I think it would be pretty interesting to get him in maybe a swamp, maybe catching snake heads or something like that. Alligator gar perhaps …Yeah, I don’t imagine any fish makes the list. I dunno. Maybe he likes fish.”
On who he is more afraid of: ODB or a shark: “I love ODB; she’s my wife. I have a healthy respect for shark, I think. I think I’m more interested and fascinated with them than I am scared of them. Actually, this past week, we did scuba spear fishing on an oil rig and I was actually in the water, near a shark for the first time, like physically under the water and I saw probably about a 7-foot sand shark swimming around the oil rig; kind of cruising around, checking things out. So, how it was explained to me is: we’re too big, well I’m to big anyways, and they’re not interested in us. That’s what they say; I don’t know how I believe that but they say they’re not interested.”
What it was like paddleboard fishing for sharks: “I’m a person that will try anything once; life is about experiences and each one of these episodes has given me something that I’ll remember for the rest of my life. Catching a shark from a paddleboard is definitely crazy; if you’ve even been on a paddle board you know that it’s not the easiest to stand up and keep your balance, and I was just paddling. On top of that, you’ve got to learn to cast and then when the shark hooks up, that’s when the real action begins. It’s pulling you and spinning and its changing directions. You have got to keep your feet moving and your balance and really pay attention because you’re in the water, you’re in their element, there’s blood in the water and I promise you, it’s not the only shark around; it’s pretty crazy.
You can find Eric through is personal Twitter (@ShowtimeEY) or through TNA’s Twitter (@ImpactWrestling). “Off the Hook, Extreme Catches” gets a special pre-Shark Week promotional première on Discovery Channel Monday, July 30, at 9 PM (ET/PT), with a special repeat showing on Animal Planet Sundays at 9 PM (ET/PT). Animal Planet will première new episodes regularly beginning Sunday, August 19, at 9 PM (ET/PT). Go to animal.discovery.com for more information on the show and viewing schedules. He can also be seen weekly on TNA’s Impact Wrestling, 8 pm ET on Spike TV. Go to www.impactwrestling.com or (@ImpactWrestling) on Twitter for more information.
Wild Talk Radio Network was founded in 2008 by Tim Stein and is the home of such programs as Wrestle Talk Radio (Sundays 10 pm ET/7 pm PT), Kayfabe Wrestling Radio (Tuesdays 9 pm ET/6 pm PT), Just Another Goddamn Rasslin Show (Wednesdays 8:30 ET/5:30 pm PT), The Rack (11 pm ET/8 pm PT) and CB Radio (12 am ET/9 pm PT) The Wild Talk Radio Network offers a wide range of programming that covers Professional Wrestling, Video Games, Movies, Sports & Entertainment. Log on daily for new content at www.wildtalkradio.com.
