Stevie Richards Shoot Interview

By Chris Davies

Stevie Richards set out to make an impact in the world of professional wrestling. He had a dream ever since he was a teenager to be a star in the world of wrestling. He reached his goals by competing in the WWE, WCW, ECW and TNA. If you have never seen or read a wrestling shoot interview, but you are a wrestling fan or maybe just wondering what happens off camera, then this is the book for you.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Chris Davies
• Release date: Oct 8, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301963485

Chris Davies

Chris Davies has worked all his life as a teacher, first in comprehensive schools and then at Oxford University. He has written books about literacy, advertising and the impact of the internet on young people. He divides his time now between Oxford and Manchester.

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

Stevie Richards was born Michael Stephen Manna on October 9th 1971 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He has wrestled for Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), World Championship Wrestling (WCW), World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), Total Non Stop Action (TNA) and many more companies. He is a former WWE Hardcore Champion and ECW Tag Team Champion and has over 20 years of stories from each company he worked for.

Read about his struggles and insecurities within ECW and himself. Stevie doesn’t hold back about his time in ECW and has many feelings towards his fellow wrestlers, the Blue World Order and dealings with Raven. From his time in ECW, we find out what led to Stevie jumping to WCW in the summer of 1997 and why he returned to ECW just three months later. Stevie in the three month stint with WCW has many stories, what happened when Big Daddy Cool met Big Stevie Cool, his match with Macho Man Randy Savage on Nitro and dealings with Raven.

In 1999 Stevie Richards found his way into the WWE where he would spend the next nine years of his career. Stevie has many stories about his fellow wrestlers, wrestling some of the biggest names in the business, and his dealings with The McMahon family. Again Stevie does not hold back, he expresses his feelings about his time in WWE, his battles and triumphs and recalls stories from his time as leader of Right to Censor, the ECW reunion, and Sunday Night Heat.

After his run with the WWE, Stevie found his way into TNA and discusses the state of the company when he was there. Stevie discusses dealings with Vince Russo and Dixie Carter, his feelings on EV2, and why he quit TNA in 2011.

Also read and learn about Michael Manna, the man behind Stevie Richards. He talks about his loves away from wrestling. This is a must read interview from one of the most underrated wrestlers of all time.

THE INTERVIEW

Were you a wrestling fan growing up and at what age did you first start watching it?

It’s funny because my oldest brother was a huge wrestling fan and he would always have wrestling on TV and all I really wanted to watch was the amazing spider man and friends. Every Saturday morning at 11am they would turn over to the WWF TV show. In those days most families only had one TV in the house, I always used to cry when wrestling came on, I would scream 'I Don’t want to watch this, turn it off' I wanted spider man or X-men back on. Then one day I caught an episode of NWA Wrestling on channel 17 in Philly and it immediately caught my eye. I was either 10 or 11 years old and the first thing I remember seeing was Jimmy Valiant running in and attacking Paul Jones and I didn’t know who these guys were but I think it was the gritty and different setting other than what I was use to with the WWF TV Show. It attracted me to the product kind of like what attracted people to ECW. People would see ECW for the first time and be hooked because it was different from what they were used to with WWF and WCW. It gives me chills just thinking about it. So for me the gritty TV, the atmosphere and it looked like they were really fighting, and I was thinking 'Wow this is cool' I was hooked.

Did you ever go to the old Civic Centre wrestling shows?

I never really went to many shows at the Civic Center because I didn’t have much money growing up so I would just watch it on TV. However I saved up all my money and managed to get to go and watch one show there. It was September 10th 1988; I went to see the NWA United States Tag Team Champions The Midnight Express beat the NWA Tag Team Champions 'The Four Horsemen' Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard. For the first time ever that I knew about a title switched hands on a live event, plus the result meant that the Midnight Express was now double tag team champions which was unheard of back then. I remember leaving the Civic Centre and I still don’t know why I did this but I walked home from the arena all the way to Port Richmond because I couldn’t get over what just happened in front of my eyes. I knew that night on that walk home that this is what I want to do for the rest of my life. I want to become a wrestler.

That’s the night I think Tully and Arn were leaving for the WWF.

Yes it was but I wasn’t smart to that part of the wrestling business at the time. I just remember thinking there is no way that the Midnight Express was going to win. I was smart enough as a fan to know that they don’t change titles on house shows and they keep them for TV or Pay Per View but to witness a title change of that magnitude at a live event and to see Midnight Express with all the titles, was really cool.

Did you go to spectrum shows for the WWF when they came to town?

No I didn’t, the only way I could watch the WWF was on the MSG Network which we had on our local cable station. It was pretty cool because we had all this wrestling beamed into us and I didn’t have to spend that much money to see it. I think there was a two week period between the event happening and us being able to see it on TV.

So at what point did you get hooked into the wrestling business? You were a fan first and then you got trained, how did that come about?

It wasn’t easy breaking into the business back then, I wasn’t a second or third generation superstar and I had no friends or family in the business so I had no way of knowing how to get started. Actually my first real job was in a shop called the record spot and my boss Dominic had pictures of all these wrestlers up on the wall. I would just stare at these pictures all day and I remember asking Dominic how do you go about doing this and how do you meet all these wrestlers. Dominic told me that I didn’t want to get myself involved in wrestling he told me it was brutal. Dominic was friends with a guy named Dennis Carzola who was running a wrestling school, so I decided to go and meet Dennis to get advice. You know most of the time if a skinny fifteen year old kid comes up to you and asks you advice everyone is just going to brush it off and say no way kid, I think everyone goes through experiences like that when they're young. So I just decided to take matters into my own hands and I knew that Joel Goodhart, who owned the Tri-State Wrestling Alliance School was in town, so I just walked right up to Joel and told him that this is what I want to do when I’m older and how do I make it happen?. Next thing I knew I joined the school and started to train three hours a night. Remember I was just this skinny fifteen year old kid so I knew that I hard to work twice as hard in training.

So who were some of the guys who were the head trainers?

You had Jimmy Jannetty, JT Smith, Larry Winters who actually broke his leg a week after I got there and Johnny Hotbody. Actually Hotbody wasn’t very good to me and he wasn’t being like that just to test me like people do in this business, he was just a jerk. You know JT Smith and Jimmy Jannetty and all the other guys would go out of their way to help me break in and they taught me the hard way about wrestling, but Hotbody was just a jerk. The last name who was down there was The Sandman. Nobody can get over the fact that The Sandman at one time was such an amazing wrestler. Then he had to change his style to become hardcore, which ended up getting himself super over with the fans. More over than I could ever imagine.

Did you ever go to Joel’s shows early on in the Civic Centre venues?

I went to one show and I remember Abdullah the Butcher going crazy and chasing people around and he made a run for me. So I just ran and like a pussy and I hid behind some girl, who the fuck does that (Laughs). It was like I was going to sacrifice this young girl to Abdullah the Butcher to save myself.

Now did Joel or any of the boys smarten you up to the wrestling business around this period of time?

No they didn’t. I was getting to have rookie matches with Derek Domino which was a very cool concept for guys just coming out of the wrestling school looking to gain experience. Then one day I was just listening to the old wrestling radio show here in Philly and out of the blue they announced that the school was closing. I was devastated.

Was Chuck Williams in the school as well?

Yes Chuck would come by to work out and to be honest I can’t really remember him there much because we were all so busy learning. What I do remember was that Chuck was one of the more boisterous characters on the Indy scene.

Were you cool with Chuck or Rocking Rebel for those of you who don’t know his wrestling name?

You got to get to know him. It’s like that with a lot of people in the business.

He had a big personality.

Exactly, he had a personality that made him want to be the alpha male out of all the boys. My personality was very different I’m very quiet and just listen, but with my friends I am a little more open. I knew that with Chuck I just had to be respectful and keep my mouth shut, let Chuck do all the talking which made our relationship work out fine (Laughs)

So you got trained in the TWA wrestling school, could you tell us about some of your early matches around the Tri-State area?

I guess we have to talk about my early matches (Laughs) just like everyone else I look back and cringe. I actually thought I was good back then but in truth I was awful. My first ever match was actually the first ever match in Eastern Championship Wrestling history. It was me against Jimmy Jannetty and we went to a fifteen minute draw, it wasn’t like a five star match or anything it was just two guys going at it who didn’t know anything at the time. It was pain full to watch I’m sure, he just basically beat me up for Fifteen minutes. Remember Jeff Oil?

Not Sure

Well Jeff was the guy who used to come out and he looked kind of like IRS from the WWF with the briefcase. Anyway after the match we shook hands and we were both taken out by Jeff Oil and the briefcase. I remember thinking I would probably never get hit as hard as that in my career at the time, but ended up getting hit that hard a million times through my career. I actually got a huge lump