TNA Wrestling Press Pass With Joe Hendry – Report

Working 2 promotions at the same time

“It’s extremely difficult, but it’s the spot we ask for, and you must embrace everything that comes with that. You’ve really got two choices. If things are hard when you’re on the road, you can either go “wow wow wow” or you can go, “I’m getting the greatest opportunity, I’m going to take all that energy where I go.” I’m not going to think any negative thoughts about it, I’m just going to execute this to the absolute best of my ability, because you never know how long these things last. You never know when these opportunities come back, and you owe it not just to yourself but to everybody who would crawl over broken glass to be in that spot to give it your absolute best. If you can’t handle this, you shouldn’t be in the spot.”

His Thoughts on His Match Against Ethan Page and Frankie Kazarian at Rebellion

“The stakes are extremely high with this matchup. Frankie and Ethan are my two arch rivals in recent years in professional wrestling. So, to have to contend with both of them at the same time, for me, it’s not ideal. Obviously, I’ve had this recurring rotator issue. I’ll be honest, landing from the RKO does not help that situation.

We’re going to see how I feel on Sunday, but I will be there defending the Championship, and it is going to be a huge challenge to overcome these two opponents. Again, from the fans’ perspective, it’s great to watch because from their eyes, like absolutely anything can happen, and like I say, I think that is when professional wrestling is at its very best.”

His Dream Matches

“With regards to dream matches, I’ve said this many times. People know that the match that I’m shooting for is against John Cena. That is my dream match. The Rock is the reason I got into the business. There’s a promo that I did for WhatCulture in 2017 that I haven’t brought up in a long time, but I actually called out The Rock. So if you want to go and see that, that’s pretty interesting. That’s two. Chris Jericho is another name that I’d like to add to that list.

“I’ve had some of my dream matches. I’ve wrestled Kurt Angle, I’ve wrestled Randy Orton, I’ve wrestled Roman Reigns. I’m very fortunate to have wrestled some of the absolute best that have ever laced up a pair of boots. And not only that, we have some of the best wrestlers in the world in our TNA locker room that I’ve had the chance to share the ring with as well. So, I’m very fortunate right now. I’m getting to not only live my dream, but wrestle the absolute best in the world as well.”

“I’m going to give you another dream match, one I’ve already had, but one that I want to have again, and that is Leon Slater. And the reason that’s a dream match for me is because I think he is going to be the next AJ Styles. I think he is going to be the next guy. I think he’s going to win this one day and hold it for a long time. So I faced him once before. I’d like to face him at least a couple more times. Very excited to see what happens with the trajectory of his career. Huge signing for TNA Wrestling.”

The Nygma one: Not Believing in Joe Hendry

“I would say it’s okay to be wrong. I think that’s the wonderful thing about wrestling is if you don’t like Joe Hendry, who do you like? Here’s my thing: if every single person likes what you do, then you’re not really doing anything different. If you’re really smart, you realize that if you divide opinion, it gives this exponential growth to all of your social media posts. So, the more people are talking about you, good or bad, that actually helps promote yourself and what you’re doing? I’m happy to say I feel that the support for me is overwhelmingly positive. Of course, some people don’t like it. That’s the wonderful thing about TNA Wrestling: you come along, you support who you want, and it’s okay to be wrong.”

Securing Memorable Moments

“As you progress through professional wrestling, there’s more pressure on your shoulders. There’s more praise, there’s more criticism. There are a lot of voices. It takes a while to be okay with thousands of people saying one thing and thousands of people saying a different thing. It takes a long time to be okay with that. My advice to anybody would be just to move forward with the best of intentions and to do the absolute best job that you can. Whatever spot that you’re given, if you genuinely are within yourself, give the best that you can give to go to the best of your ability.

“In the spot I was in WrestleMania, what’s the best moment that we can do? That’s going to get the most eyeballs, that’s going to not only be a great moment for the live fans and people watching the show, but also this is going to translate into great business for TNA that I personally felt the moment that we had delivered that. Everything that you have, just one by one, tackle it day by day, and give your best. That way, no matter what people say, if you give your best and you are authentically yourself, that’s really all you can do, and that’s how you move forward.”

The TNA Locker Room Experts

“Leon (Slater) is actually an interesting example because if anybody who knows Leon say what an unbelievable talent at 20 years old, but also unbelievably mature as well. That’s somebody who has their head on their shoulders and who is wise, well beyond his years. I’m not worried about Leon. I know Leon is going to be hugely successful and he’s going to do everything the right way because he has a ton of people in the locker room, myself included, looking out for him at all times. That’s what we have at TNA Wrestling. It is a family. People can go to anyone at any time for advice. It was Eric Young who helped me kind of develop a move set that people could get more involved with and would get me more over in matches. I worked a lot with Ace Steel, and Sami Callihan came up with the “stomp stomp clap” that I do in the matches. Moose taught me how to have pay-per-view matches. Eddie Edwards taught me how to get myself over at the start of matches. We have such a supportive locker room environment that there’s someone to go to for anything, really. That’s what I’m super proud of with TNA Wrestling, there’s an expert for everything where we are.”

TNA Wrestling “Rebellion” is airing live this Sunday night, live on PPV from The Galen Center in Los Angeles, CA, at 8 PM ET on TNA Plus and Triller TV. A Countdown to Rebellion will be airing live at 7 PM EST on the TNA YouTube Channel and TNA Plus.