Pinned Down Plus: Nigel Rabid...PINNED DOWN

Pinned Down Plus: Nigel Rabid...PINNED DOWN: Come at me So just recently I managed to get a few moments of a very busy man, he runs a WHOLE EMPIRE so his time is valuable. I was v...

Nigel Rabid...PINNED DOWN

Come at me

So just recently I managed to get a few moments of a very busy man, he runs a WHOLE EMPIRE so his time is valuable. I was very curious, even if I said Nation instead of Empire, to what the person in charge had to say on various ideas and issues that surround both wrestling and his own personal goals.

As he is paid to speak I will let him do the talking. You can also check out his website here: The Website of The Empire
 

IT IS MY EMPIRE!

1. What was the toughest thing to give up or sacrifice to be part of the wrestling world?

Aside from trying to give up snack foods, I think the most difficult sacrifice has been the amount of personal time one has to give up, especially to drive one’s own brand.


2. Do you think its harder or just equally as hard to get to the big leagues of wrestling as it is say Basketball or Football?

Well, if you look at the world of Baseball and/or North American Football, there are 30 and 32 teams, respectively, with 40 players on each baseball team and 53 players on each football team. Mathematically, that means there are 1200 professional baseball players and 1696 professional football players.
How many, actively employed Professional wrestlers does WWE ,TNA or (now that they are on Destination America) ROH employ, total? I can almost guarantee that combined they don’t even reach the same numbers as baseball and football, combined or individually.
It’s simple mathematics… There’s just more available spots for a professional ball player than there is for a professional wrestler.

3. Do you feel that wrestling has more premature or just a surprising number of earlier then expected deaths compared to other sports and does this influence you in any way?

Does wrestling have more deaths? Again, it’s a matter of mathematics and facts… Let’s look at Baseball and North American Football as our baselines. Even if we add up all of the wrestlers from the Eighties that have prematurely passed on, and do the same for the other sports, you’ll find that wrestlers, on average die more often than with other sports. Whether it’s because of drug abuse or misadventure, because there are fewer professional wrestlers, the average death toll is astronomical compared to any other sport.

4. If you had the power to make any gimmick work, no matter how weird or normal it may be, what would you do?

I think I would like to live in a world where “The Genius” was a force to be reckoned with… and “Berlyn” and “Devil’s Advocate” Sean O’Haire as well. I can’t say that there’s a gimmick (beyond my own) that I’d like to force into the limelight, but there are certainly wrestling talents that I feel deserved more than they received. Lanny Poffo, Sean O’Haire and Alex Wright fit that bill, absolutely.

5. If you could change anything about the indy wrestling industry what would it be? What about TNA/WWE?

If I could change the independent industry, I think I’d increase wrestlers wages, see more cooperation between companies and (at least on a local level) see to it that every local market had an independent wrestling show available to compete with WWE/TNA/ROH.
What would I change about TNA? I believe I would wake them up from the dream that they are competition for WWE and have them focus on building a good product, instead of trying to be the “Shock Jock” equivalent to WWE. They have good talent but they seem to not use them coherently or tell stories that last and that’s unfortunate for their talent.
For WWE, what would I change? I’d make the company more accountable to it’s talent and to the wrestling community. Hire the wrestlers as employees, not contractors and provide things like insurance for them. Invest in local promotions all over the country to build indy companies that can afford to have a good product and grow good talent. I’d also let my NXT booking staff run RAW and Smackdown.

6. Do you handle crowds differently depending on size?

Lance Hoyt and Tokyo Monster Kahagas both told me the same thing in this regard. Whether you have two or two hundred thousand in attendance, you give the very best that you can every time.

7. How do you handle going from say going from a no rules wrestling show to a family first show. Do you change alot about how you handle things and what you say or do you just try and act the same no matter what the show?

I generally act the same, as far as how I cut promos or rant on the mic. But as far as my behaviour, with a “No Rules” show I will lean away from the endorsement of brutality and excessive violence, claiming that I’m better than the fans because I won’t stoop to barbarism. In a “Family Friendly” show, I will lean more towards the endorsement of act of extreme violence, to make the fans fear for their heroes safety.

8. Was there every a moment when you truly felt you had had enough, that maybe wrestling wasn't for you? Was it a crowd? Just one guy/gal? A losing streak? Too many broken bones? If so what kept you going?

I don’t know about “had enough”, but I will say that I have thought of hanging up my scarf because I thought that I had run my course and was no longer a viable commodity. I kept going because I had a booking or two that I committed to that reminded me that, regardless of what I was feeling, the fans loyalty revitalised me.

Brothers do sometimes just shake hands

9. Say you were picked up by TNA or WWE and given a over the top gimmick? How would you play it, go through the motions and hope it fails so you can move on to something better or really try to sell and play up the gimmick?

Always, always sell the gimmick. Even a ridiculous gimmick can catapult one into fame.

10. What promotions do you feel are breaking down the walls separating Men Wrestling from Women Wrestling and just making it all Wrestling? How do you feel they are doing that?

Well, I know that Inspire Pro is going that and so is NXT. TNA seemed to be doing that but everything seemed to go back to the status quo, but… I think they’re breaking down the walls by having women be wrestlers instead of eye-candy. There are a lot of tremendous women in wrestling and by letting them wrestle, you have already defied the the norms.

11. What has been your most exciting experience in the wrestling world so far?

Working for PCW in Arlington on their reunion show even though I had never worked for them during their heyday. Managing Charlie Haas, Rodney Mack and Raven have been tremendously exciting for me as well.

12. Who are your wrestling Idols?

As a manager, Bobby Heenan, General Skandor Akbar, Paul Bearer, Jim Cornette, Paul Heyman and Jimmy Hart. As a “wrestler” (not that I delude myself into thinking I’m a wrestler), Bret “The Hitman” Hart, Diamond Dallas Page, Chris Jericho, Lance Hoyt, Charlie Haas and William Regal.

13. Goals for 2015/2016?

As always, my goals are to expand the influence of The Rabid Empire and it’s members. I’d like to expand into outlying states and gain more experience as a performer and a member of the wrestling community.

14. Who do you feel are the best managers of all time and why?

Just as I stated above, Bobby Heenan, Skandor Akbar, Paul Bearer, Jim Cornette, Paul Heyman and Jimmy Hart. They all have brilliant ways to get under the skin of the crowd and really antagonise the audience, sometimes by doing the most subtle of things.

15. What indy wrestler have you not added to the Rabid Nation that you would love too?

Firstly, it’s the “Rabid Empire”, not nation. An Empire is comprised of many nations, never the reverse Secondly, I have a very long wish list, based on the raw in-ring ability of many performers. Matt Palmer, Andy Dalton, Mike Dell, Alex Reigns, Lance Hoyt, Keith Lee, Mike Foxx, Franco D’Angelo, Tim Storm, Angelus Layne, Vanessa Kraven, Paul Titan, Barrett Brown, Sammy Guevara, Gregory James, Teddy Hart, Tokyo Monster Kahagas… I could go on and on… I look for two things: Heart and Talent.

16. You seem to have had a few run-ins with Chris Trew and The New Movement at the last few Inspire Pro show, With a group of your own there now will you be returning the favor?

Chris Trew.biz has lost his way and allowed a “rotten apple” (named James Johnson) to spoil his collection of talent. I can only hope that they learn the error of their ways before more misdirected good intentions interfere with a talented manager.

17. Which wrestler is your favorite to watch?

I’m very fond of watching Mr. Hoyt, as a big man he really know how to move and his psychology (especially his psychology of fear) is breathtaking.

18. You have a unique perspective,being the leader or a whole nation, what companies do you enjoy working for the most? What company have you not been to that you would like to?

As the leader of the Rabid Empire, I’ve enjoyed working with a number of companies. I’d say the ones I enjoy the most are the ones that I am currently working for, Metroplex Wrestling, NWA Texoma, Inspire Pro, Full Throttle Wrestling. I would like the opportunity to wrestle in Houston for Booker T, I’d like to work for NWA BOW and NWA 360… But in all honesty, I want to work where I haven’t worked before.

That looks like quite the Inspired talk

19. When wrestlers join or quit the Rabid Nation I am sure they do so in various ways, anyone really stand out with what they did to either join or quit?

When Spoiler 2000 joined The Rabid Empire it was after I had mocked his long time friend and mentor, Skandor Akbar. We challenged him to a handicap match (2 on 1) and the Spoiler 2k and Kristopher Haiden turned on a petitioning member, Larry “Double L P” Ladell and the two larger men beat LLP to the ground. At that time, Spoiler 2000 announced he was joining The Rabid Empire.

Newest Member of The Empire

Bonus Questions:

What would be your finisher?
The Emerald Flowsion or Figure Four (any variation)

Chocolate or Vanilla?
Chocolate

Submission or High Flying?
Why can’t it be both?

Cats or Dogs?
I have both and I love both equally.

Beer or Liquor?
Liquor, you get a much better range of flavours with liquor.

Light Side or Dark Side?
The Dark Side has a much slicker ad campaign (Come to the Dark Side, we 
have cookies)

Favorite Opponent EVER?
I’ve had so many excellent opponents that it’s hard to pin one down, I really feel blessed in that regard.
 

He is looking to expand The Rabid Empire as well as watching Lance Hoyt move around the ring as well as taking lessons from managers like Bobby Heenan and Paul Heyman as well as many others.

He prefers the cookies of the Dark Side, as well as teaching Chris Trew what he is doing wrong, and all around a force in the business. I am curious to what the newly formed branch of The Rabid Empire will have in store for Inspire Pro Wrestling in Austin, Texas.

For more of his thoughts and insights on all things, check out his podcast Listen to the thoughts of Leader of Empires!