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On May 16th, Cagefighter: Worlds Collide premieres on Fite TV, starring All Elite Wrestling's Jon Moxley, UFC legend Chuck Liddell, and WWE legend Christian!
Well, ahead of the release of the movie, I had the opportunity to speak with Christian, AKA Jay Reso, who stars behind the camera and in front of it as he plays Stephen Drake in the movie, as well as being on board as an executive producer!
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Reso told me all about how he personally recommended Jon Moxley for the starring role. I also spoke with Christian about why he isn't in the WWE Hall of Fame, and his run in TNA among other things. But I had to ask about the recent return to the ring of his long-term tag team partner and best friend Edge!
Sportskeeda meets Christian!
You can watch the video below or keep reading for the transcript.
So, Jay, there's one place we need to start off, your upcoming movie - Cagefighter.
You're both in front of the camera and behind it in the movie. How did that all come about?
Yeah, so, what happened was I had done an independent movie a couple of years ago in Regina, Saskatchewan in Canada, where we shot this movie as well, called SuperGrid.
One of the producers on that movie knew Shayne Putzlocher, who is a producer on the Cagefighter movie, and they talked about the wrestling aspects of what was going on and he said, "Hey, you should send this script to Jay and have him take a look at it."
So he sent it to me and I made a couple of suggestions, and they asked me to come on as an executive producer from there and, from that, asked if I wanted to do a small but pivotal role in the movie and, of course, I jumped that chance as well so that's kind of how it all came to be.
The movie stars some pretty big names. Obviously yourself, then the likes of Chuck Liddell and one man who I hear you recommended for his part - Jon Moxley. How did that happen?
Yeah, well, it's one of those things where, when I read it, it just seemed like, to me, kind of written for him. When you see it, you'll know. Now that it's done, I don't think that I could see anybody else in that role the way that he did it. I just knew at the time that he was... That it was being cast, that he was going to be a free agent at that time, so, yeah, basically the timing worked out for that.
Obviously, Jon Moxley plays a wrestler entering the world of MMA. You mentioned him being a perfect fit but were any other wrestlers shortlisted?
I think there was never really anybody like, "Hey, this is who we..." There was a couple of names thrown around but, when his name was brought up, everyone was kind of like, "Yeah, that's who should play this."
Next: Reso reveals which other wrestlers could become great actors
I recently spoke with Dustin Rhodes about the transition from wrestling to acting and he revealed how similar both jobs are. How do you see that transition?
I've always said that wrestling is an entertainment boot camp. You're out there playing a character, you're in front of a live audience. There's no net so it prepares you, in that sense, to kind of be able to react quickly and to absorb things quickly so I think that's a real advantage - moving into acting and those sorts of things.
But I kind of equate wrestling to more being in a live play, like Broadway or something like that, where you're trying to project bigger because there are fans in the front row and there are fans in the top row so everyone has to be able to figure out what you're doing, so you kind of project bigger. In acting, to me, it's kind of like you're talking and your kind of letting people into the conversation. It's more intimate. That's kind of how I view the differences in that, just trying to figure that part of it out.
Which others could be big actors?
Yeah, I mean, I would think a guy like Bray Wyatt off the top of my head. With the stuff that he comes up with, it's just, to me, it's unbelievable and I think he's an incredible talent. Off the top of my head, I would say him for sure.
You're on WWE Backstage, which we sadly don't get to see here in the UK but I do get to see some snippets thankfully on Twitter! I love your analysis but I especially loved the SmackDown hacker taking over. What are your thoughts on that storyline and how cool was it to be a part of it?
Yeah, of course, and what I like about that particular story is that it's the intrigue. I think we even saw it, even like weeks previous when the Twitter account was kind of taken over and had people buzzing about it then and it turned into what we see on television.
I just like the mystery of it, the unknown of it. I think it's got a lot of people talking and guessing, trying to figure out who it is and the sort of thing so any time you can do that, I think it's good.
One NXT Superstar who's recently caught my eye has some shades of Christian in there... I spotted Chelsea Green using the Unprettier, but calling it the I'm-Prettier. What are your thoughts on that?
Yeah, I think it's great. It's a good old spin on the name and I think she's great, I think she's really talented and obvious that she's a friend so it's cool to be able to see her use the move.
Next: Reso discusses which wrestlers are catching his eye
My favorite wrestling theme tune of all time was The Brood. I need to ask, what's your favorite entrance theme right now?
Oh, man, I've got to say that... I've only seen it once but Karrion Kross had a pretty bad**s entrance the other night on NXT. That looked pretty cool to me. Aleister Black has a pretty cool entrance I think. Yeah, I think, off the top of my head, those would probably be the two.
So you still watch the WWE product, otherwise, you couldn't really do your job on WWE Backstage, but do you watch other promotions, like AEW or IMPACT?
Yeah, of course, I'm a wrestling fan so I try to take in as much as I can. I even catch a little bit of Ring of Honor whenever I can as well. I have friends in all of those companies, so I definitely try to keep up and see what's going on and check out what my friends are doing.
Who is catching your eye outside of WWE?
Man, I like the... I like Orange Cassidy. I don't know anybody who doesn't find him entertaining. I also like Darby Allin. I like his vibe. He's very Jeff Hardy-ish, which I kind of like. You don't know what it is but there's something interesting about them.
One of the main reasons I asked that was, with the unfortunate situation that happened recently where over 20 WWE Superstars were released and with so many options out there, I'd love to know who you think is the one to watch!
With everyone that was released, obviously, it's unfortunate the situation that we're in, but these things happen and everybody in the world has been affected in some way by this. But everyone that was released is talented in their own way and were where they were for a reason.
Off the top of my head, Zack Ryder is a good friend of mine and I think he's a very forward-thinking guy, obviously what we saw years ago with the YouTube show that he did and he's always been kind of ahead of the curve in that respect, so I think he's going to be fine and I think that, actually, he will flourish with this challenge in front of him.
Off the top of my head, I think he will probably be, in my opinion, the guy. He's such a passionate guy about wrestling. He loves it. He's a die-hard fan at heart. He just loves it. He's never going to give up on his dream of that and I think he's going to flourish, I really do think is going to do some great things.
Next: Christian discusses Edge's return
So, it's funny you mentioned Zack Ryder, he and you have very strong links to one man in particular. Edge recently returned to the ring after nine years out at the Royal Rumble, and just had his first singles match in almost a decade at WrestleMania vs Orton. What were your thoughts on the match and, well, what were your thoughts when you found out Edge wanted to return?
Yeah, I was surprised when he told me that he was going to see a doctor and try to get... See if there would maybe be a possibility of being cleared. When he told me the doctor... He called me basically on the drive home from the doctor and said, "Yeah, they said I can do this." I was like, "Wow."
He had a second surgery on his neck and obviously the surgery has advanced a lot since when he originally had it done years ago. Also, he's got kids so he's not going to put himself in any danger. He'd put his kids before anything else so obviously if he was comfortable with it and his family is comfortable with that, then that's all I needed to hear to be okay with it.
But it's exciting. It's unheard of for somebody to come back after being retired for nine years and I know, with his first WrestleMania match, he had visions of it being in a different setting than it was but, at the end of the day, I think it's good for people to have entertainment. Much like with Cagefighter, what we're doing here with Fite TV being able to stream it, it's kind of unheard of for this to happen but the world needs entertainment.
They really do. They need a good distraction at this point in time and I've said this before, whether Edge came out in front of 70,000+ fans or walked out at the Performance Center at WrestleMania, the fact that he walked down that ramp with his music to me is one of the greatest moments in WrestleMania history.
So, in an age where no-one ever really retires and Edge came back... Did that spark anything for you? Would you ever be tempted to return?
No, no, I'm done.
Even if I was, I wouldn't tell you but it's not, trust me. [Jay laughs]
One thing that recently came to an end was your podcast with Edge. Will we ever see Edge and Christian's Pod of Awesomeness return?
Well, I mean, never say never to anything but obviously with Beth going back on the road doing commentary and then... Which was really kind of the reason why we had to stop it. It was way before Edge was even considering getting cleared to go back. It was just hard for him to kind of... As hard as it sounds, doing a once-a-week podcast, it takes a lot of work to get the content and put it out there.
It was just one of those things where he felt that he needed to kind of be more present. You never know what will happen down the line in the future but I have another couple other things I'm working on in that respect so we'll see what happens.
I put out a tweet teasing this interview and one thing that a lot of people wanted to know was about your run in TNA! There are a lot of big fans of your run in TNA out there, but how do you look back on it?
I had a great time in TNA. I really enjoyed my few years I had there. They gave me a huge opportunity. That's what I was looking for. When I stepped away from WWE, it was to basically bet on myself that I could go further and I could do more than what I was doing, and obviously the schedule was very good for me. I could drive to Orlando every week so I didn't have to get on a plane, so that was nice.
And more than anything, they gave me an opportunity to work at the top of the card and give myself the confidence that I could do that.
Next: Why isn't Christian in the Hall of Fame?
One thing that really stands out to me about your career... You were in The Brood, you had all the tag team championships, the ladder matches, your singles run... But it's the "Captain Charisma" name! Where did that come from?
I was trying to think of a ridiculous name when I was off with an injury for a few months and, you know, who isn't a fan of Shawn Michaels? He called himself the Heartbreak Kid and just that this kind of catchy little nickname so I was like, "What can I give myself that could be kind of annoying name that I would think is cool but people generally don't think is cool?"
I came up with that, I threw it out and a couple of people were like, "That's terrible, you shouldn't use it." As soon as I heard that, I was like, "Yeah, I'm using it."
Back to Cagefighter. My favorite thing about the movie is how it plays off of the question everyone asks of how a wrestler would do in the world of MMA. We've seen many different instances of that story play out in real life. What excites you most about the movie?
I think the story is very relevant to what we've seen over the last few years with wrestlers crossing over into MMA. You know, with Bobby Lashley and Brock Lesnar doing it, with CM Punk doing it, with Jake Hager doing it recently. And we see it on the other side too, we see MMA stars coming over to wrestling.
I've always said that MMA and wrestling, to me, are the same tree but different branches. At the end of the day, it's entertainment. For me, what I liked about it was, without giving away too much, the wrestler is not the butt of the joke or being made to look like a fool and I appreciated that.
As a wrestler, you're always protecting what you do and you care about what you do so, to me, the fact that the wrestler was taken seriously was pretty appealing for me.
So, the movie isn't being released in the traditional way and obviously, the world is a very different place to what we're used to right now. What would you view as being "success" for Cagefighter?
Yeah, I just think that as long as people are entertained by it. At the end of the day, as I said, the world needs entertainment right now and I think Fite TV is the perfect vehicle for this because there's not a lot of live events going on right now, so this can kind of give MMA fans and wrestling fans a little bit of a fix and a little bit of escape, and I think it holds true.
Obviously when you have other names like Chuck Liddell and Luke Rockhold attached to it as well... Chuck's a legend and Luke is a former World Champion in UFC and in Strikeforce. To me, those guys wouldn't want to be a part of it either if they didn't believe in the way that it was done and portrayed.
I left this for last so, if I deeply upset you by asking, at least I got the full interview in first. It's the question everyone asks so I'm putting it to the man himself.
Why isn't Christian in the Hall of Fame?
If I had a dime for every time somebody asked me that then, you know, I'd be pretty well off. I mean, it's not up to me. I appreciate the fact that the people want me to be in there that badly. I don't think about it. It really doesn't bother me. For me, it's like, it's not going away this year, this isn't going to be the last year of it. It's going to be there next year, the year after, the year after and the year after that. It's not something I lose sleep over or even think about but I appreciate that the people want to see me in there. That's nice.
Thank you to Christian for chatting with me and FITE TV for setting up the interview!
Cagefighter: Worlds Collide will be available for streaming purchase on Saturday, May 16 outside of the US exclusively via FITE TV at this link.
