Posted on 3/11/126 by Colin Vassallo
John Morrison sat down with Chris Van Vliet at West Coast
Creative Studio in Hollywood, California to discuss losing a
hair vs. hair match at CMLL and now being bald, his wife
Taya’s reaction to the new look, replacing Chris Benoit at
Vengeance and winning the ECW World Championship in 2007,
his dive from the top of the Elimination Chamber, his
parkour Royal Rumble save, having more than 34 names
throughout his pro wrestling career, and more!
Are you getting used to seeing yourself with no hair?
“No. Imagine your whole life, every time you see your
reflection there’s a guy there with hair. I never shaved my
head. But more than that, for the last 24 years, 25 years,
I’ve had long hair. When I got my WWE contract in 2003 that
was the day I stopped getting haircuts. Basically, I just
grew it out from then till now.”
“I gotta admit, the match did feel fantastic. That hair
match, I feel like, was one of the best matches I’ve had in
years. Was the first time in a while that I felt like me
again. Kind of feeling unfulfilled, basically. Not just me,
a lot of people in wrestling. But for me right now, in AEW,
I feel underutilized. Can’t blame anyone, that’s just how
wrestling promotions work. There’s only enough TV time for a
certain amount of people. Those people at AEW, we’ve coined
the term the island. Those people are on the island, so to
speak. I don’t feel like I’m on the island with Tony or AEW
right now. So because of that, I feel like I’m doing like
10-20% of what I’m capable of, storytelling-wise, wrestling-
wise, in the ring. With CMLL, I’m on their island, and so I
got to do everything that I could, and it was cool.”
You were the first one to have a real crazy Elimination
Chamber spot. How did you dream this up?
“I wouldn’t say growing up, but high school, college, I was
watching the Chambers, always thought they were cool. When I
got signed, and I was in OVW, Louisville, I started watching
more closely. Then I saw that parkour movie, District 13,
and started doing parkour a bunch, and I hadn’t been in a
Chamber match. Then I started watching parkour and Chamber
matches, and in my head, booking all these crazy things that
I could potentially do in the Chamber and this is like two
years before I had my first Chamber match. So when I knew
that I was going to be in the Chamber match, I had like 10
ideas of different kinds of crazy things that I wanted to
do, ready to go.”
That’s high when you’re up there!
“It’s so high! The one where I crawled up to the top and
then dropped down on Sheamus. It’s funny. When you’re up
there and you’re dropping, it feels like you’re three
stories up. It doesn’t look like that on TV. It’s not that
high, but it feels that high. It’s also when you’re falling
backward, you just have to have a lot of trust in what’s
behind you. I know Sheamus. I trust the hell out of that
guy. He would always be there to catch you, pick you up, and
then just hit you in the face with his fist.”
I read that you are on your 34th name right now. Does that
sound accurate?
“It sounds accurate, if not underrated. I feel like there’s
a handful of names that I’ve had. Johnny Zero, when I
wrestled for Below Zero Wrestling in North Dakota for one
show. There’s a ton of those one-show names that I’ve had.
It’s hard to keep track of”