Grado discusses ICW, his relationship with Jeff Jarrett, and why Drew McIntyre is the next big thing (Exclusive)

Modified Sep 01, 2019 11:34 GMT

The Drew match was tremendous.

You heard The Rock say in the papers the other week that he is the next big thing, and he definitely is. Big, handsome guy, promo skills, that f***ing stupid accent. But other than that, he's an absolute monster and he's a star.

You say you're not the most technically gifted, the hurricanerana proved you are, but technically gifted aside, you've got the thing you said a lot of people are missing - charisma...

But you need charisma, man. You need to make an impression as soon as you walk through that curtain, and too many people these days walk down to the ring to their generic music, they don't have much of a character. You need to buy into somebody straight away. Someone like Sha Samuels, you need Sha. He can just come out...

[HE BELLOWS]

He's got his character, he's nailing it right now. He's so over. I'm saying that 'cause I'm his best mate, but still. He is... You just look at him, he is a character, he is a movie star, he could be Danny Dyer. He could be on EastEnders, know what I mean?

Characters like him is what we need more of, and ICW's got it. There's plenty of other wee guys as well. Leyton Buzzard is brilliant. He's excellent. Wee Keiran Kelly is tremendous. Kez Evans, he's coming onto a game as well.

There's a lot of promising, young guys in ICW so it's looking good for the future. The guys at the Asylum are doing a great job - [Jack] Jester, Wolfie [Wolfgang], BT [Gunn], and now Andy Wild. There's no better place to train than to go to the Asylum.

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I don't want to keep putting you over here, but my favourite thing about you, you went to America, you did not change. You were the same Grado from ICW. Was that a conscious decision you made or did you know, "I've got to be myself."

I had to be myself. Don't get me wrong, there was a couple of backstage segments that they got me to do and I thought, "What the f*** is this?" because they were getting me to quote phrases from a '70s American game show, and I thought, "How the f*** are punters are going to believe that believe that I would know phrases from a game show?"

Obviously I had to rein it in a wee bit, but the stuff I enjoyed most when I was in America near the tail end of it was working with Joe Hendry, I loved working with Joe. Joe is the man. He's gone to Ring of Honor now.

Working with Abyss... Abyss is the most gentle giant! Love him. And do you know what? I got an opportunity. We were doing TV tapings at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. We had six days and Abyss was meant to wrestle, the next night, in a match, in a Monster's Ball, and the wrestler had to pull out of it. They always say in wrestling, "Business is done at the bar." Right? I'm standing with JB [Jeremy Borash], Billy Corgan, Hurricane Helms and they're thinking, they're trying to book, "Who can we have in the Monster's Ball?"

"I'll do it. I'll f***ing do it. I'll do it no bother." They're all laughing and going, "Whatever." The next day, we turn up at TV tapings and get handed out our creative, and I'm like...

[HE STARES BLANKLY]

Hurricane Helms goes, "Monster's Ball, kid, you got it tonight." I go, "You're kidding me on, man," so we did it live on pay-per-view, it was January 2016, and I loved it. Monster's Ball match, came out and the rib on that was funny because Abyss is known for wearing a bumbag, right? He wears a fannypack all day, every day. I mean, I wear one quite a lot.

But the rib on that was funny because I come out dancing, opened a challenge, and he comes out and goes, "What kind of man wears a fannypack?" And I'm like, "You wear one every f***ing day!"

I always remember, he goes, "You like dancing? You wanna go to the ball? Let's go to the Monster's Ball!"

I've got goosebumps just thinking about it.

See when I was young, I believe I was the first ever guy to see a TNA show in Scotland. June 19th, 2002, they done Wednesday night pay-per-views and someone recorded the show for me on a Wednesday. This was before torrents and downloads, and I believe I'm the very first Scottish person that seen a TNA show - so for me to be involved in a Monster's Ball, a live show, was something else, man, I loved it.

Don't get me wrong, the Bound For Glory match I had was a f***ing nightmare but that's a totally different story.