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Davis Storm, firstly, thanks for joining me.
My pleasure.
First question, how are you?
I feel great. I’m in a fantastic state of mind at the moment & I
can’t wait to get in the ring at Road to Glory.
2008 has been your most successful year in almost 3 years.
What do you attribute this to?
Last year I took a look around at the changing landscape in EPW.
Mikey Nicholls & Jamie Jurah were gone. Jag was rarely in town.
Guys like FN Carnage & I had taken a step back from the main
event matches & a new breed of EPW wrestler was coming through.
Guys like Shane Haste, Devlin Reeves & Bobby Marshall were
getting the chance to stand in the spotlight & they were doing
an amazing job. At Evolution last year, I lost the tag team
titles & I realised that I had been cheating myself by not
continuing to improve. After the Ironman match in 2005, I had
achieved everything that I wanted from wrestling up until that
point. Seeing these younger wrestlers rise to the top had me
asking the question, if I was on top of my game, could I hang
with these guys? I’ve been trying to answer that question ever
since.
While you have been a part of some fantastic matches over the
past 12 months, it has been documented that you have paid for it
with your body. How is the body feeling?
No better or no worse than it’s felt for the past 7 years. I’ve
suffered through three fairly serious injuries over the past
nine months that have slowed my progress at times but it’s
something I’m trying to work through all the time. Am I 100%?
No. But am I fit enough to look at myself in the mirror & admit
that I will fail or succeed in that ring without using that as
an excuse? Absolutely.
Hell or Highwater was obviously a special event for you with
the retirement of Nate Dooley & Jimmy Payne. What are your
feelings regarding this night?
It’s a very bittersweet feeling to step into the ring for a
match like that. To see an ocean of people standing to pay
tribute to two of your best friends is just chilling. I promised
them before that night that they would get my absolute best & I
hope I did that. These two guys are simply irreplaceable and not
just to the organization but to me personally. Noone has ever
pushed me to improve myself more than these two & I owe them for
helping me get to where I have.
They are certainly missed by all in EPW, on both sides of the
guardrail. What are your thoughts on the current state of
Explosive Pro Wrestling?
I think the place is definitely in a state of upheaval at the
moment. We got a power hungry piece of crap trying to push his
weight around & intimidate the men who give their lives & bodies
to help make this THE place to wrestle in Australia. I was there
in 2003 when the Uprising ran the joint & I think there would be
plenty of guys ready to fight if we thought the situation was
getting out of hand.
We got a locker room full of young, hungry wrestlers who are
always working hard to improve. EPW is a vacuum right now.
Whoever steps into the void first could shoot right to the top
of the heap. I think it’s an exciting time to be a wrestler in
EPW.
And finally, what are your thoughts regarding your upcoming
match with Bobby Marshall?
Before I can comment on this match, I got a few things to say
about Bobby Marshall. No one man has owned the competition the
way Bob has this year. Ever. I can’t recall a time in history
when anyone around here could say that they had beaten Claudio
Castagnoli, Devlin Reeves, Mikey Nicholls, Tyler Jacobs, Shane
Haste & Davis Storm in a 12 month span. He is probably the
greatest wrestler we’ve ever seen around here.
But he is not the greatest champion. He’s not even close. Bobby
has taken great pleasure in trying to ruin the legacies of the
past. He’s tried to tear down all the great wrestlers who came
before him & destroy the memory of the great moments that he was
not a part of. A champion is a person who tries to rise above
all others not a person who tries to tear others down. A
champion is a person who forces others to lift their game to a
greater level, not a person who feigns greatness by holding
others down.
Like I said earlier, 2008 has seen the resurgence of Davis Storm
& as good a year as I’ve had, I still have one question left to
answer. Can I hang with the very best anymore? Can I hang with
Bobby Marshall?
Let me makes this as clear as I can Bobby. I don’t want the ‘non
title match’ Bobby Marshall to show up at Road to Glory. The
unmotivated & unfocussed Bobby Marshall. I want the ‘A Game-EPW
championship match’ Bobby Marshall. The man who can beat Mikey
Nicholls one on one. The man who would hit Shane Haste with a
chair until he could barely walk. And there’s only one way to
make that man appear. At Road to Glory, let’s make it Davis
Storm versus Bobby Marshall for the EPW championship.
Davis Storm thank you for your time & good luck at Road to
Glory.
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