Interview With Michael Strider

Rick: Mr. Strider I appreciate you taking out the time from your busy schedule to have a little interview here. I was curious how old you were when you first took a liking to wrestling?

Strider: Well, I pretty much always remember watching professional wrestling. I grew up in a household where my dad was a real big wrestling fan and I watched Harley Race and Bulldog Bob Brown with him as long as I can remember, always watching wrestling. I have three brothers and we grew up watching wrestling and playing wrestling and stuff like that and it was just one of those things that we never outgrew where other kids did. I've always wanted to be a wrestler and I've always loved watching wrestling even in the dark days of the early '90s WWF and WCW I was still a fan. So, that's my memories of it.

Rick: You definitely have a passion for the sport that shows. Who would you say are your early influences and idols?

Strider: My early influences are Harley Race, Ric Flair, Bruiser Brody...definitely I like the rough and tumble guys and I like Ric Flair for his ability to wrestle. Terry Funk was huge. Dusty Rhodes I was really into. I was never super big into Hulk Hogan or the WWF product at the time I liked my more traditional wrestling like the NWA was presenting in my childhood with the Horsemen and all that stuff. You know, I was a Hulkamaniac for about two years when there was the cartoon and everything when I was a little kid. But other than that, I was never really big into that product. So those are my early influences and then it went to...I remember the first time I ever saw Cactus Jack wrestle. Just blew me away. He did the elbow drop off of the...it was a TBS Saturday Night Live or Saturday Night Main Event I think is what they called it when they had the two hour show they did every Saturday at 5:00. He had a match on there and I saw that and I was like "This guy is the most unique, crazy thing I've ever seen" and have been a Mick Foley fan ever since then and he was always a big one.

Rick: Yeah, it seems like he's definitely influenced some of your handywork in the ring. We heard that you were trained with Terry Funk. How would you describe not only the training but Terry Funk as a mentor?

Strider: Actually I was trained by Dory. Dory Funk. I can't talk enough about Dory and Marty Funk about how much I learned. I had trained...I had been in the business for about a year before I went and trained with them and I was at a point in my career where I felt like I had learned all I could learn and I just didn't feel like I was going anywhere and I wasn't getting the bookings that I wanted to have. I had talked to a guy who had gone down there and really putting them over big and was reading where a lot of his students were getting some exposure. So me and Big Daddy Fullz, another wrestler here, went down for the week long training camp there and it was a...it was a brutal week. You trained from seven in the morning til seven at night, seven days a week and then you had matches after that. It was a tough week but I learned more in that one week than I had in my whole entire year before. It was just a great experience.

Rick: Definitely some learning and toughened you up probably a little bit, too. You describe your style as "technically hardcore". Could you define what you mean by that exactly?

Strider: Absolutely. Technically hardcore... Chris Benoit is another one of my huge, huge influences and so... I love... It's weird because I love to watch the brawling hardcore blood and guts stuff but I also love to sit and watch an All-Japan Masawa aganst Kobashi match or a Ric Flair-Steam... [background shouts and hooting]... Yeah, just some of my fans there. You know a Steamboat-Flair classic that they had. So, I really like both aspects of it. I like the really technical, crisp, clean wrestling and I like the get down dirty and brawl, too. So, you know, I found the name "technically hardcore" because I guess I am TECHNICALY hardcore and then it was also one of those things where, you know, "technically hadcore" I thought it was a fun little pun and that's the style I wrestle.

Rick: And since we're referring to both styles, who would you think are the most technically sound wrestlers in the business right now and also some of the most hardcore wrestlers?

Strider: Without a doubt...and as we're talking right now it's just a couple weeks removed from Royal Rumble and you look at the match that Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit put on and there's no two better in the business than those two right now. They just blow me away every time they work. I think Eddie Guerrero is fabulous, too. I'd place him up there. The brawlers... the business is kind of short on brawlers right now at least the really good ones. I would say... and especially that hardcore is kind of on the outs, per se, you know the hardcore divisions are all done. ECW's dead. Tommy Dreamer is a good brawler and he's one of those guys that can do a lot of that stuff. I would put him up there. You got some of the guys in Japan, from Big Japan that can go. Pondo's a really good brawler. He's probably one of the more famous hardcore guys right now. I'd probably place Ian Rotten out of Mid-South is good and those guys in ECW were doing some good stuff, too. So that's who I'd pick.

Rick: Do you aspire to eventually be in NWA-TNA or WWE and if so would you have a preference and why?

Strider: My preference and my goal is I would love to do professional wrestling full-time, make that my only job I have to do, and make a comfortable living at doing it and if that's in Japan, if that's in Puerto Rico, Mexico, with the WWE or TNA or any other thing that pops up. That's my goal, really, is just to be able to do it full-time and do my thing.

Rick: Excellent goals. Now I've got nothing against you but why is Warden such a punk? Why did he feel the need to stike me, a non-wrestler, when I was trying to perform a song out there tonight?

Strider: Well, I think Warden got a little excited and... It's the Warden Show. CSW is Steve Ward. It always has been and always will be and he probably felt that you were trying to steal some of his limelight... And you steal Steve Ward's limelight, man, it's something you don't want to do. Steve Ward's "the man". We shocked the world last March when we joined forces after feuding for three years and ever since then it's been an unstoppable force and I'm sorry you got in the way but, you know, you "C"an't "S"top The "W"arden...CSW.

Rick: Well, I definitely have nothing against you but, I don't know, I might have to come up with some surprises for him if I can. I guess I have to ask now, too... How does it feel to be the new CSW Champ?

Strider: Well, this is my third run as the CSW Champ and I've been down in Texas wrestling there. I've carried the... Texas All-Star Wrestling a very good, credible organization down there. I wrestled Hacksaw Jim Duggan down there. I wrestled in front of 750 PAYING people a couple of weeks ago... #1 Bret Young came down and wrestled that show, too. Great organization but my heart's with CSW. I'm going for the double take right now. I won the Central States Wrestling Championship today which is... to me is... Central States Wrestling is one of the premier organizations in the country. It may not get the press but our boys can go and to be the top of that ladder with the crew that we have here is amazing and then next week I wrestle Bobby 2 Badd in Texas for the Heavyweight Belt there, too. So if I can make it I can make it two belts, I think it's an incredible feat.

Rick: And you mentioned wrestling Hacksaw Jim Duggan. What was it like being able to wrestle a legend like that?

Strider: On a shoot it was awesome! It was a fantastic match. It was a lot of fun... easy to get over as a heel working Hacksaw in Texas where he was really big during his hayday. The place we wrestled sold out, standing room only again and it was an EASY match. I took five bumps he took one bump which for me, if anybody's ever seen my matches knows that if I only have to take five bumps, that's an easy night for Michael Strider. So, he was a great guy, very professional, very respectful of me who he's never heard of... gave me my spots and we had a hell of a match.

Rick: And finally anything else that you would like to add for any of your fans that might be reading out there?

Strider: Yes, I would. You know, it's not too big of a secret that I've had a tough couple six months personally and one of the main things that's gotten me through it is the support I've gotten from the nation... from fans in Texas, from fans in the Central States area, from Saint Louis... you know... telling me to keep my chin up and to just stay in there... especially fans like Heidi "The Handful" Burns who runs my website. Any time I can say anything nice about her I do. Guys like you who come out to the shows and support us and post on message boards and everything like that. That got me through these six months and I'd just like to thank everybody who's been a Strider fan out there very much for believing in me.

Rick: Well, I much appreciate you taking out the time to do this interview...

Strider: Thank you, Rick.

Rick: ...and hopefully we'll see you again in a ring nearby.

Strider: Alright, you take care.