Jimmy Havoc recently spoke with Wrestlezone.com’s Harry Kettle while promoting this week’s MLW TV tapings at the Melrose Ballroom in New York. You can read a few transcribed highlights below:
On telling himself 10 years ago what he’s achieved:
No, I thought I’d of been dead to be honest! The way my career was going, at that point, it was just death matches constantly and pushing it to see how far I could go.
On competing for MLW and their resurgence:
It’s really cool. MLW is one of the promotions I watched when I was a teenager and stuff, and the fact that they’re back is amazing. Getting to wrestle for them is really cool. I think Court has a good vision of what they want from their product, their TV deal was a big deal, and the YouTube views are getting really good. They’ve got quite a varied roster of very different people. Everyone is pulling their weight to make the product a success.
On his journey through British wrestling:
When the Progress title thing happened for me, that was when things started to get real good. That lasted about two or three years then you had Zack, Marty and Ospreay going off to Japan. ICW started to get real big, Rev Pro started to get big, and that on the backs of a few of us. I think the world started to pay notice to us. It used to be ‘what American imports can we fly over here to sell tickets’, and the last few years we haven’t had to have imports.
On his injury:
Then I got injured, and I was off for about a year. I don’t think I’m performing at the level I used to before I got injured, but I think I’m still doing okay. I’m enjoying it, that’s the main thing and that’s all I care about.
On his style transitioning over to America:
It’s not CZW, so we’re not going that far with it like with glass and stuff. The thing with MLW is that it’s more about characters. With the TV format we’ve got the promos, backstage skits – so there’s a lot more investment in that. People want to see the characters face off as opposed to how are they going to murder themselves.
On giving wrestlers paper cuts & using staplers:
I don’t know if America has ever watched Bottom, but it’s a TV show from the 90s over here where it’s just two losers living in a basement together who smack each other in the head with cricket bats and frying pans. The thing that gets the biggest reactions is stuff that people can relate to. I’m fairly sure not many people at home have ever been thrown through a table, but you know what a paper cut feels like, and you know what thumb tacks feel like, or plugs or Lego.
On Progress Wrestling’s Hello Wembley show:
*Note: This interview was conducted before last night’s PROGRESS event at Wembley
I’m not too nervous at the moment, but talk to me at 9am on Sunday morning and I’ll probably be s******g my pants. I’m really excited, it’s cool. I did it once before with Impact when they came over a couple years ago, but this feels like a much bigger deal. Me and Progress have been together from the start, and the fact that me and a bunch of mates are doing Wembley Arena in front of god knows how many thousands of people, it’s really cool. It’s almost like a sort of reward for all of the work we’ve done in the last few years, kind of like ICW with The Hydro. It’s the stamp on it, like, we are doing a really good job. I’m not sure what I’m gonna do, but we’ll see!
On the future:
As long as I’m enjoying it, that’s all I care about. If it all ended tomorrow I can look back and thing you know what, I have no regrets. I’ve managed to travel the world, I’ve made money literally all over the world, I’m entertaining people and I’m doing what I enjoy.
MLW will be at the Melrose Ballroom in New York on Thursday, October 4th. Jimmy Havoc faces off with Sami Callihan in a ‘Spin The Wheel, Make The Deal’ match at this week’s tapings.
