411 Interviews: NWA World Heavyweight Champion Adam Pearce Pt.2

Welcome back to part two of 411wrestling.com’s interview with NWA World Heavyweight Champion “Scrap Iron” Adam Pearce. For anyone that missed the first part of the interview, you can check it out here to get all caught up. In this second and final portion of my sit-down with Adam, we look at his time booking Ring of Honor, the legacy that he will leave as NWA Champion once his career is done as well as the work he’s doing with his current show, NWA Championship Wrestling From Hollywood. When we left off, we were discussing Pearce’s first reign as NWA titleholder which took place during his stint as an in-ring performer in Ring of Honor.

411wrestling.com: A big moment for you in both your run in Ring of Honor and your run as NWA World Heavyweight Champion came when you revealed the title belt as the item you had been carrying in a briefcase for some time previously, leading to a title vs. title match against ROH Champion Nigel McGuinness at Battle for Supremacy. Going into that match did you feel the history of the previous champion vs. champion matches that involved great stars like Bob Backlund and Harley Race and were you feeling any pressure to try to reach that standard?

Adam Pearce: Personally not really, but I think that that’s the reason why Gabe Sapolsky booked the match. Quite frankly, I don’t want to piss anybody off, but I didn’t really see a reason for it. There wasn’t really any build between myself and Nigel at all. In fact, the angle that I was working at that point was practically a tie-in with what I was doing in the NWA circuit and was all about myself and Brent Albright. I kind of felt like that match between myself and Nigel was just kind of thrown together for no real reason other than to try to create some buzz and try to create a main event for Dayton, OH. I know Nigel, I don’t want to go putting words in his mouth, but he was involved in other angles in Ring of Honor and the position that I had in Ring of Honor to that point wasn’t….there was no reason from a creative standpoint for me to be in the ring with the Ring of Honor Champion because up to that point, before unveiling the NWA title belt, my character wasn’t used on that level.

I wasn’t used as a main event talent and that was fine, I’m not complaining about my spot whatsoever and I loved my time in Ring of Honor, but from a creative standpoint, to me, it didn’t make a whole lot of sense for me to be in there with Nigel in a cold match without anything. There was no angle tying it together, it was just kind of “this might be cool, let’s put the NWA title against the ROH title”. It was okay for what it was. We didn’t have any heat for that match going into it outside of a couple of interviews that had been done leading into it, but there wasn’t a whole lot put behind it to get people excited about it. On top of that, the character and spot that I had in Ring of Honor didn’t blend to get anyone up in arms or really excited about the match. I had a good time with Nigel. He paid me an extreme compliment and I’ll always be grateful for it. I remember we were in the building and getting ready for things and what our finish was going to be and all of that and Nigel came up to me and he said “Pearce, you have the honors, if you would call the match”. So we did, called it in the ring. We had a lot of fun with it. Was it what Ring of Honor fans were accustomed to seeing with Ring of Honor championship matches? No, not in the least, but again I’ve never really wrestled that style. It was fun for what it was.

411: You were involved in another nod to history when Albright finally beat you for the title in August of 2008 shortly after NWA Officials presented you with an NWA “Red” title belt, the same way that Jack Brisco defeated Harley Race for the NWA Red Belt after Race was presented with it by Sam Muchnick in 1973. Was that something that was conscious on your part or the NWA’s part and how did that all come about?

AP: It was the sixtieth anniversary of the NWA that was going on at that time and David Marquez was instrumental in trying to bring as much notoriety and publicity to that as we could. I’m pretty sure that it was him that came up with the idea of having that belt put on red leather and doing it essentially the same way that Jack Brisco and Harley Race had. They introduced the red belt and that night it changed and we knew that there was going to be a real big house in New York that night and we knew we were going to be switching the belt at that time. It was one of the things that Gabe Sapolsky really wanted to do if we were going to bring the NWA belt there.

That was one of the things that I really pushed for since I had it, not only selfishly because I knew that I would be used in a different capacity, but at the same time I had been the champion for quite some time and quite frankly, I wanted to showcase that and pay respect to the NWA while getting the belt some exposure. Thankfully, that all came together and the red belt was the icing on the cake. It was the first NWA title change in New York City and it was a big deal and it was kind of one of those nights where, I won’t call it perfect because nothing is ever perfect, but it was about as close to perfect a match and as perfect a night as I’ve ever had. Easily my favorite match in my fifteen years of wrestling. Easily.

411: You feuded with Albright off and on seemingly since that match in Puerto Rico. What was it about Albright that lended to such a natural feud between the two of you?

AP: I think Brent and I complimented each other physically. Similar size, similar stature, similar styles, a kind of in-your-face, smash-mouth style. We hit it off in and out of the ring and just had a natural chemistry. As the wrestling business has kind of evolved here and we’re getting away from the way I was trained, where the heel would call the match in the ring and you did the majority of things on the fly, to now where the predominant way of doing things is to go out there and perform a paint by numbers and figure everything out ahead of time to where you basically just have to go out there and regurgitate from memory what you have planned. Brent was one of those guys that I could go out there with knowing a time and a finish and nothing else and just paint that picture once we got in the ring. I think that we naturally fed off of each other and we had a direct sense of competition and camraderie at the same time.

That match in New York was one of maybe thirty matches that we had had in that year and a half previously. I mean, we must have wrestled everywhere and that one is the one that gets the majority of the notoriety because obviously it was in New York and it was a Ring of Honor card and there were a lot more internet reports on that card than there were in other shows that we had had better matches on. We had a bullrope match in Texas that I don’t think anyone ever saw except the people in the building and we had a great match in Charlotte that might have been better than the New York match that only those 500 people there got to see. I’m thankful that that one came off the way that it did and propelled us to get our just due. We were both kind of floundering at that point in Ring of Honor and it breathed life into our run there and cemented our legacies in the NWA at that time. It gave Brent a nice little run with the belt and it did wonders for us both.

411: You spoke of the bullrope match in Texas and the match in Charlotte and how those were only seen by the people in the building. Do you feel like you’re kind of a throwback to that territorial era of a time where great matches would happen all the time like that with only the people in the building getting to see them because of the lack of coverage?

AP: It’s kind of apples and oranges in terms of what kind of schedule guys kept in those territorial days against what kind of schedule we have now, but I’ve always felt like I was born fifteen years too late, for sure. People have always, not just in wrestling but generally speaking, have always kind of referred to me as an old soul. I don’t want to refer to myself as a father figure because I think that that’s overstated, but I’ve always been that type of big brother and a lot of guys in locker rooms in places that I’ve been have referred to me as “Uncle Pearce”. I’m just that guy. I mean, I guess I could agree with what you’re saying, even though they’re different eras.

411: Around the time that you regained the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, you were named head booker in Ring of Honor after Gabe Sapolsky left the company. How much booking had you been doing previously before that in the company, if any, and what was the feeling of trying to fill the shoes of the only booker the promotion had ever known?

AP: First part of that question, I had had no booking with Ring of Honor. The only thing that I was involved with from a creative standpoint was kind of putting my stamp on the things that I was involved in. Like I said earlier, if guys had questions or ideas on finishes or what not, locker rooms will do that and Gabe wasn’t the sort of booker that would tell you exactly 100% what every detail of the story was. He left latitude for guys to come up with stuff on their own, which I think we were all grateful for. In that regard, I think it kind of kept us all on the same page and we all were involved in trying to make sure that everyone was putting on the best show that they could. If I had an idea for a finish that might not necessarily work for what I was involved in at the time, but would have been perfect for someone else, we weren’t shy in sharing that type of thing. We all worked together on that type of stuff.

As far as actually booking and storylines and writing stuff down, I hadn’t done any of that for Ring of Honor, in fact when I got offered the position, and I’ve said this on record before, when I was offered the job I felt like I was vastly under-experienced and really not qualified for it just because of the volume of talent and the volume of events being so much more than I was used to working with. For whatever reason, Cary Silkin decided he wanted to take a shot with me and I was up to the challenge, even though I informed him of what I thought might happen. It was bad enough that Gabe Sapolsky had made such a name for himself with that fanbase and had a wonderful knack for getting people behind everything that he was doing, regardless of if the guys thought it was good or not. He had such a way of getting positive feedback and getting people on the bandwagon and I didn’t have that type of reputation or relationship with the fanbase. I wasn’t as open, and I still am not. I’m not anywhere near as open with the fanbase as Gabe was, so I don’t think it mattered who was his successor and that they were going to have a tough time. It was just compounded for me, being a heel in the company and not necessarily featured.

On top of that, I didn’t have the reputation for being as “fan-friendly” as some of the other guys so it compounded that heat, but it allowed me to go in there and build things from the ground up and put some wrestling on that I was a fan of. The biggest thing that I’m the proudest of in my time there was solidifying the locker room during a time that they were all on pretty shaky ground. I know that I did that.

411: During that time you began to focus on being an in-ring talent almost exclusively in the NWA while booking behind the scenes for Ring of Honor. Was that something that you chose to do to keep the two separate or was it something that was necessary for you to continue on in both roles successfully?

AP: The reason why I pulled myself out of the ring in Ring of Honor was strictly as a way to prove to that locker room that I wasn’t going to be one of these wrestler/bookers that got the job and then used it to propel themselves personally. I didn’t want to be that guy, I thought it was the easiest way to stay away from a conflict of interest and to show those guys that I was 100% behind them and behind the Ring of Honor product. Effectively removing myself as an active talent at a time when, let’s face it, I could have made myself Ring of Honor Champion if I wanted to. (laughs)

I didn’t think that that was what would be right for the promotion and I absolutely didn’t think that that was what would be right for the locker room and I thought it was the biggest thing that I could do to prove to those guys that it was absolutely 100% about them and I don’t regret it at all. Not one bit. Frankly, the NWA was keeping me very busy at that point as well, so I was out there doing my thing for various NWA affiliates and other regional promotions and working just as much as I would have if I had just been doing Ring of Honor. I didn’t miss any ring time because of it and it was definitely the right thing for me to do on many levels.

411: You spoke previously about one of your proudest accomplishments was unifying the Ring of Honor locker room. Do you think that that move was one of the big things that led to everyone coming together behind you and your leadership or was there a group of things that brought the guys closer?

AP: Thankfully for me, I had a relationship with those guys for three years and the one thing that I had that Gabe was never able to do was to be one of the boys. From that standpoint, I knew that I had the respect of the locker room just because I had ridden the roads and taken the bumps and bled and partied and slept and drove and I had spent so much time with those guys that I wasn’t worried about being able to be the administrator in the locker room, but I wanted to be the leader in that locker room. I think that the locker room needed that leadership at that time.

When I first came in, there was still Samoa Joe, CM Punk, Bryan Danielson and guys like that in the locker room and it was still Gabe Sapolsky’s locker room as well. Those guys kind of went away and it became a situation where maybe it was a little bit of Bryan and maybe Nigel McGuinness and we needed somebody or a personality to kind of bring everyone together. Some of the things that had gone on in Ring of Honor, without opening up too much, everything is not always as it seems. When the economy tanked in 2008, Ring of Honor was hit hard by that, as were all small businesses, and it was a really uncertain time. With Gabe being let go, I think a lot of people, myself included, thought that it was the death knell for the promotion.

I still have a hard time thinking about Ring of Honor without Gabe Sapolsky involved and that’s even after two years of it being my show. It’s still odd to think of that and when I talk to Gabe, there’s still some other things that we share in common, I mean we both got canned. (laughs) We both have similar ideas and ideals about the company and bottom line is, I’m grateful for that time and grateful for Cary Silkin and it allowed me the chance to do something I never thought I would be able to do in wrestling. I’ll always be grateful for that.

411: Talk to me about your relationship with Dave Lagana that continues on to this day in NWA Championship Wrestling From Hollywood and how it ultimately led to you bringing him into Ring of Honor to help you with television while you were booking the promotion.

AP: Bottom line is that Dave Lagana taught me how to book TV in the sense that when I say that, I mean it in the sense of television formatting and putting things down on paper and not just…anybody can have an idea, but to translate that idea from your brain to paper and making sure that it’s episodic and all of that, there’s a skill there. He’s as qualified as anybody and more qualified than most to do that after spending six years with the WWE and writing ECW and Smackdown and being extremely creative and competent in what he’s doing. I met Dave initially in what I guess you could call the first set of NWA Championship Wrestling From Hollywood tapings, which was a pilot that they were shopping, trying to get it picked up on a cable network.

Dave was brought in by David Marquez and Kevin Kleinrock, who was involved in the promotion at that time at the outset to kind of oversee the television formatting and making sure everything was running like it should and we just kind of hit it off. We have a lot of similar ideas as far as wrestling and in a lot of ways, we think a lot alike and see things in a similar way and so it made sense to me when I got the job in Ring of Honor, knowing that television was imminent there, that I needed someone there who knew what they were doing. I had enough self-awareness that I had no idea what I was doing and hadn’t written a television show and didn’t have the first idea in how to do it.

I had ideas, but again translating ideas to reality is two different things. It took some time and I was very grateful and still am that HDNet was able to step up and take Dave on and allowed me, through them, to not only get him on the job but allowed us to work together and grow that relationship. I’m extremely grateful for him and I owe a lot to him, I mean even more than he’s been able to provide for me in terms of writing television and what not. I mean our friendship and the experiences that we’ve had in both the NWA and Ring of Honor and even outside of both, I think that he’s a great guy.

411: During 2008 and 2009, you were heavily involved in the “first” run of the NWA Hollywood promotion as well as the NWA Wrestling Showcase program that ran on Dish Network. How was that process for you and how involved were you in terms of booking for the NWA in that time period?

AP: I had my straw in the drink, without question. I was on equal footing with guys like Marquez and Lagana and Kleinrock and all of the creative brain trust of those shows. As we went on further with the NWA Showcase, I was more heavily involved with that when it was being broadcast on Colors on Dish Network and when that all went away it was ultimately pretty sad. Like anything man, it takes money to sustain that type of thing and for whatever reason, the NWA since Crockett hasn’t been able to find that type of leverage and we’re hoping to change that.

411: How important were those programs in laying the groundwork for what you’re doing now with NWA Hollywood?

AP: For me personally, it was huge. It was kind of like the test run. I look at the first run of NWA Championship Wrestling From Hollywood and then the Showcase show and Ring of Honor on HDNet as kind of a natural progression to get me to where I am today. I think now, a few years removed, that I can say that I know what I’m doing and that I think that it shows. Unfortunately, where we are now with NWA Hollywood is very similar to where we’ve always been. It’s always kind of been a Mom and Pop shop, but at the same time we’re more prepared for things on the creative end as well as with our television partners than we ever have been before. At least I know that I can say that about myself tenfold having dealt with television people and having put on over a hundred shows on the air, I’m in a much more advantageous position than I ever have been in before.

411: How did the current program come about and walk me through the process of not only starting up the current incarnation of NWA Hollywood but how you managed to get your current television deal with KDOC out of Los Angeles.

AP: That’s absolutely 100% David Marquez. Since World Legion Wrestling in Missouri with Harley Race, he’s been looking for a legitimate broadcast partner and it’s taken some time, nearly ten years, for him to finally get on board with a TV station that was willing to take a chance on a local, regional wrestling program. In effect, it’s the exact model that was used in the 70’s and 80’s up until the territories basically ceased to exist. It’s exactly that model. I had virtually nothing to do with that groundwork being laid because I was working full-time for Ring of Honor at that point. I mean, I knew I was going to be a part of the television show from a talent standpoing, but obviously I didn’t think that I was going to have the time to be able to invest creatively in both the ROH and NWA TV shows. I was basically counting on showing up and being a wrestler and just doing what I was told, which was fine and a welcome escape from having to dot every I, cross every T and babysit everything for Ring of Honor. Then in August when I was let go from Ring of Honor, it changed, seemingly within a week. (laughs) It changed to where I was just going to be one of the guys on the show to being one of the guys that was writing the show and then here we are now.

411: You actually touched on it, so we’ll cover it before we go back to the NWA Hollywood promotion. In news that came as a bit of a shock and was seemingly out of nowhere, you were replaced as head booker of Ring of Honor just days before the official debut of the NWA Hollywood promotion on KDOC. You’ve spoken previously about a difference in idealogies leading to you leaving. Elaborate a little on that time if you could and whether your role in the current promotion led to the change inadvertantly or otherwise.

AP: My interaction with the NWA had absolutely nothing to do with what happened with me and Ring of Honor. People are always kind of looking into it and people obviously always want to know the whole story, but I’m not in a position to spill all the beans. What I will say is what I have said and that’s that anytime you are in an office setting, I don’t think it really matter what business you’re in, where two strong people in the office with power in different areas have such differing opinions on things, that creates a natural rift. In my case, personally, it really led to a separation and a definite divide in the office.

Unfortunately for me, it came down to a point where somebody had to go and it was obvious who it was. Cary Silkin then made the decision that would be easiest for him to carry out and while I don’t like the decision he made, I completely understand it. I have no hard feelings or ill will towards Cary at all and in fact he just called me this morning and asked me if I wanted to go see Pink Floyd at the Staples Center, so we’re fine. Cary and I will always be fine. It’s just a situation where he has people running his business that see things one way and I saw things another way and ultimately those differing opinions led to some bad blood and I don’t think that that’s uncommon in the business. It just so happens that when the chips fell, they fell on his side of the table so more power to him.

411: What kind of talent were you looking for when you started this current NWA Hollywood show and were you trying to draw on names that you not only felt like would be stars in the ring but that you could rely on based on your time spent here in Southern California in the past?

AP: Initially, I had nothing to do with any of that. I was legitimately just a guy that would be focused on and featured as a performer on the show. Once everything happened at Ring of Honor and my schedule opened up a little bit, I had some latitude to take on different roles and in essence, do what I’ve always done on the NWA side of things and that’s stick my nose into things. At least in this case, I had more experience now doing that and was a lot more qualified to do that. To answer your question about the talent, at that first taping I had nothing to do with how the talent was selected. Quite frankly, I wasn’t very familiar with all of the talent. Having spent in effect the last five years focusing on Ring of Honor as a talent for the first three years and booking the product and running wrestling operations for the two years after that, I had gotten away from the talent in Southern California to the point where I knew less than half of the guys on any real level. That first taping in particular was a period for me to kind of get to know who the guys were outside of the guys I felt comfortable with and you know who those guys are, the guys that have been on virtually every NWA show that has come out of Los Angeles. The Joey Ryan’s, the Los Luchas’ of the world and people like that.

Of course I knew them and understood them and understood what they could do, but it was the younger guys that have come up in the last couple of years that I didn’t really have any exposure to because I wasn’t around as much. I had to get to know those guys and learn what their strengths and weaknesses are and how we could best utilize them on a television product. This is a big deal for those guys more than it is for me because this is their first taste of television and the people who are going to move on and make something of themselves in the wrestling business are getting a chance very early in the game to have exposure at something that is really the bread and butter of how you make a career out of this. So from that standpoint, it’s really exciting to be a part of something like this in the formative years of those guys’ careers and being instrumental in them taking the skills that they’ve got and expanding upon them and putting them to use in the only way you make money in the ring, which is via camera and television.

411: Who are some of the guys that people may not know a lot about nationally that you’re hoping will get some exposure through NWA Hollywood and get some of the recognition that they richly deserve?

AP: Anybody that you see on the television show is someone worth investing in. Of course, we have varying degrees of experience and experience in paramount to anything. We’re lucky enough now to get to have guys like Austin Aries and Colt Cabana coming in and Claudio Castagnoli for the short time that he was with us, Navajo Warrior, people that are just experienced throughout different companies and eras of the business. Young guys like Willie Mack, who I think is just picking up some steam and Nick Madrid, who I think the world of. I mean it’s just a chance to take that old territorial model to expose the talent that is here and to give these guys the opportunity to make something of themselves on this level and let the world take a look at it. Eyes are available all over the world thanks to the internet and thankfully because NWA Hollywood owns the footage, we can take the show right off of KDOC and put it on the website and let people become stars in that way as well. That’s something that I think is invaluable and I’m very thankful to the NWA and David Marquez for making that available. I have to believe that the guys, especially the guys who haven’t been around as long would agree.

411: Just as a quick aside, I’ve had the chance to talk to Nick Madird a few times exchanging e-mails and I think that he’s got a ton of potential and I’m excited to get to see what he does in the next year, two years, five years.

AP: Absolutely. You know, kind of piggybacking on that, I didn’t know Nick from “Adam” at all until I was able to see the first pilot that Marquez put together for KDOC that was a look at the NWA then and now. What struck me about Nick was that I had no clue that he could articulate himself the way that he does and the way that he talked stood out with me because that is a skill that I don’t think you can really teach. You can either do it or you can’t and he immediately showed a propensity for being able to communicate in a way that I think translates well to camera and to a TV show. In that way, without even being able to see him wrestle, I was intrigued to see what he could do and I think we’re not far off from seeing Nick really take some strides.

411: If you could use one word to describe the NWA Hollywood show to someone who hasn’t seen it yet, what would that word be and why would you choose it?

AP: I guess I’d use the word fun. Coming from my Ring of Honor background and that fanbase where everything is so serious, the one thing that David Marquez and I have always wanted to expose to people is that pro wrestling is supposed to be fun. There’s supposed to be a variety of things for you to get wrapped up in outside of the athletic competition side of things and good vs. evil. I mean we want big personalities and we want outlandish gimmicks. We wanted people to be able to lose themselves for an hour every week and be able to just sit back and look at this wonderful cast of characters and we have a legitimate cast of characters on this show, with guys from different backgrounds and varying appearances and I like to think that we have a little bit of everything on this show with something for everyone to latch on to and like I said, get lost in the experience. You can have great wrestling and at times have the girls involved in that and have almost a variety show to where at the end of the day, people can sit down for an hour and say that it was fun. That’s what we’re really going for here with NWA Hollywood.

411: You mentioned the ladies earlier, so that leads well into my next question about whether there’s going to be some kind of official ladies division or if it’s just going to remain a bit of a special attraction that it has been during the first few months of shows.

AP: I think just because of the real lack of viable girls out here in California, I mean I’d love for nothing more than for the fans to fall in love with all of the girls that they see on NWA Hollywood and have it be a featured part of the program, but I just don’t think that there’s enough girls out here to make that happen. I think just because of that, we don’t really have much of a choice to do the special attraction thing that we are doing now. Fortunately, we’re making contacts and as we’re on TV more, more people are exposed to the product and we’re getting inquiries all the time from outside of California from people that want to come out. The thing about this that is different than what the NWA Wrestling Showcase show was designed to be is that this is very much going to remain a regional product. We want to showcase talent from California in particular since that’s our home base, the West Coast, and unfortunately we’re limited in how many girls that we have access to out here.

411: You have a long history with Colt Cabana from your time at the Steel Domain and just through the connections you made there. Are you enjoying the chance to get to work with him again in this promotion, not only as colleagues but to actually get to be involved in one of the main angles of the promotion with him as well?

AP: Absolutely. Any opportunity that I have to work with Cabana, I relish. Before he signed with WWE a few years back, we were set to start an angle in Ring of Honor that ultimately never happened. I ended up wrestling him in his farewell match in Ring of Honor in what I guess would have been the kick-off to whatever was going to end up going on with us that didn’t end up happening. I’ve always wanted to work with Colt and I think that we compliment each other again, though I think that it’s a different feel than what we spoke about earlier that I had with Albright and obviously it’s different than what me and Blue Demon was. I think that Cabana has just such a rounded personality and is such a well-rounded performer that it’s a a challenge to me to get out of just one mold of my performance. At the same time, I can bring out a more serious side to him as well and get more eyes on what he can do in a more serious sense. I’m really looking forward to it and honestly, we’re just getting started.

411: I’m glad to hear that. The sit-down interviews that you two did the week before your big title match were just fantastic.

AP: I thought his was brilliant actually, I thought his was a lot better than mine was, but it was great.

411: Yeah, they were just one of those things where it feels like that type of thing is missing from the business these days where it’s more about the angle than it is about the people involved in the angle. Those interviews brought it back to that personal level where people can get invested in the characters emotionally and I really appreciated that.

AP: Yeah, it’s one of those things that I honestly give a lot of credit to Dave Lagana for. I’m a big fan of what I call, the old time boxing build that you see happening more and more in MMA, which is humanizing your characters and giving people something to chew on outside of just their schtick. You want people to be able to relate and identify with these guys and that’s something we started doing once Ring of Honor got television going and that was one of the things that Dave Lagana jumped onto and really started doing well and I can’t agree with you more that it works. It absolutely works.

411: You spoke earlier about wanting to keep NWA Hollywood on the regional level, so what kinds of short-term goals had been set for the first three months, the first six months, so on and do you feel like things are heading in the direction of reaching those goals?

AP: The great thing about NWA Hollywood is that it’s a genuine partnership between the wrestling promotion and KDOC in Los Angeles. From that standpoint, we have done everything from a content and a broadcast side that we have been asked to do and have definitely taken the steps that we feel we need to in order to progress the relationship. Very much in the first three months or so, this has been a feeling out process for the promotion and for the television station. You know, prime-time Los Angeles television on Friday nights at 8 o’clock isn’t easy to come by and for a television station to take a chance on an unknown program, I mean wrestling is wrestling but let’s say for the last twenty years when you say wrestling to the consumer that automatically generates a response of WWE. This is obviously not that, it’s never going to be that, it’s not designed to be that and quite frankly, we don’t want to be that.

We want to be that regional studio-type wrestling show that was able to draw fans and advertising dollars for years until that was all bought up and went away. It took David Marquez a very long time to find a television partner that understood that, thankfully Bert Ellis, who owns the station, also worked at WMC-5 in Memphis and also worked at TBS in the 80’s and has a direct knowledge and understanding of what wrestling on a regional level can do for a regional television station, so we’re all about building that relationship. We’ve got a great group of advertising salesmen and women at KDOC who are working hard to take this product that’s delivering ratings that people didn’t expect and go to the market and find the advertisers and tell them “We took a shot on this and it’s paying dividends and we think that you should do the same”. Once that all starts happening, then I think we’ve really got something.

We’re 100% on the right track and I think we’re better off today than I think anyone on either the wrestling side or the television side thought that we would be and that’s very encouraging.

411: Not only as a guy watching the show, but just as a fan of all types of wrestling, I’m excited to hear that because there are a lot of times that in independent wrestling you become a fan of a promotion and before you know it they’re gone. I’m happy to see where things are going in the future with NWA Hollwyood and I’m glad to hear that things are going as well as they are so far.

AP: Absolutely, so are we. Having been with Ring of Honor and all of that, I don’t know how much longer I have as a performer in wrestling and what will happen with all of that, you never know. Obviously, I’m not ashamed to say that I’ve tested some waters here recently because of necessity and I have to make a living too. I would love nothing more than for these sales meetings and things that we’ve had lately to essentially create a living, breathing regional wrestling territory for 2010 and beyond. I think for the first time, certainly for the first time in my career and in my experience with the NWA and David Marquez, we’ve got a real opportunity to do something here. Like I said, we’re going to need some help on the other sides of the business and like I mentioned earlier with KDOC, I think we’ve got a great crew and the right people with the right mindset and the right amount of patience and it’s exciting.

Marquez is in Las Vegas right now at the annual convention where state and county fairs go to buy their shows for the next fair season, your concerts and what-not that you see at the county fairs and state fairs and hopefully we’ll have some purchases for NWA Hollywood live events that will carry us through next summer and some good advertisers and off we go in a perfect world. Obviously with the economy the way that it is and people keep telling me it’s moving up but I’m not seeing that. (laughs) It’s harder and harder to get someone to write a check these days.

411: Touching a little bit on what you just talked about a second ago, is there any plan to have your roster begin house shows through Southern California at all or is NWA Hollywood planning on being exclusively a TV promotion for now?

AP: Well, for the time being we’re doing what we can with our dollars stretched as thin as we can so I guess for all intents and purposes, we’re a TV-only promotion. The whole goal behind that and the whole intent behind this thing was to, in a perfect world, get on the air, draw a decent rating, sell some ad time, take that money and invest it back into the product and once we’ve been on for a while, it’s only natural to want to open up a house show loop and then let everyone share in those revenues too. That’s how it worked for years and we still think that it can work that way today, albeit on smaller budgets due to the economy. That’s the plan and who’s to say that if everything comes off the way you want. I mean, we’re taking baby steps with this thing and we want to make sure we take the right steps and we don’t want to get ahead of ourselves and blow money on house shows or live events that we really don’t have, especially if we know that they’re not going to pay dividends. I think that all of the boys would love it because it would give them the opportunity to make some more money, but at the same time they’d get that live event experience and it only makes sense that you’ve got the television and the television should be selling something.

411: Is that something that you’d be looking at working with the Southern California sister promotions like Mach-1 Wrestling or So Cal Pro or would it just be strictly NWA Hollywood, or is that way too far into the future?

AP: No, I think that it makes the most sense to work with your NWA promotions. They’re paying their dues every year to be included in that and to benefit from those three letters, N-W-A, and I think that to me, that’s the way that you do it. Obviously, we start getting the ball rolling the right way and I mean, we’re already working with all of those sister NWA affilates already. I mean we’re already working together on some levels already so it’s just a matter of getting television into all of the areas and there are plans to do that in 2011 and once that happens, we move towards that territorial system. There are a lot of dominoes that have to fall into place for that to happen and I don’t think there’s any timeframe put on it. The first step is to get the ad sales going and then you can buy yourself some time.

411: So far, every episode of the NWA Hollywood show has had the vibe of being very much like a show that you could find in any region of the country during the height of the territories, but with splashes of “new-school” booking and innovative in-ring action. Have things gone how you had hoped they would go so far in terms of the feel of the shows and the quality of the product?

AP: For the most part. I mean nothing is ever perfect, but at the same time knowing the crew that we’re working with on the wrestling side and on the production side, there’s really only one or two guys making this television show every week. I said this to David Marquez that I would kill for the editors that we had at HDNet. We had dedicated editors working on the Ring of Honor show every week from HDNEt and it was always at least one full-time guy and sometimes more than one and that’s what they did, they put together our show and we don’t have that latitude with the NWA Hollywood show. It’s very much a case of several guys wearing several hats to get this thing on the air and sometimes things fall through. Sometimes there’s elements that are written into the format that for whatever reason don’t make it into the actual broadcast whether there’s time constraints or technology issues. This is a real….there are things that happen that are out of your control sometimes and I’d say for the most part that for a Hall of Fame baseball player, you’re hitting .350. I think we could make the All Star Game right now, we’re getting the majority of what we want on this television show into each show and we’re getting better from week to week.

411: Getting back to you personally, as NWA World Heavyweight Champion, you’re one of the last true touring champions left in professional wrestling today. How do you feel about holding that honor and having to live up to the legacy left by the likes of the Flairs, the Races, the Funks, etc.?

AP: I love it. I wish I could do it more than I am. It’s flattering to hear someone like you say that and when other fans say that. When you think of that throwback champion, it’s extremely gratifying that my name would even come up. I’ve worked really hard to take this NWA title in 2010 and even 2007 when I got it the first time, to recreate what it was meant for and treat it the way that it was treated. People talk to me about remembering when the NWA title was the crown and I always say to them that it still is, it’s all about how you treat it. Unfortunately for that ten pounds of gold, Jim Crockett went away and things happened and it wasn’t treated the way that it should have been. I mean TNA did us a favor and now we’ve got it back and now personally I have an opportunity to take that belt and treat it the way that it’s been treated. It really means something to me.

The people that I’ve been able to work with and talk to and the past NWA champions that I’ve had a chance to sit down with, it very much means something to those people and to the promoters and to the people who are involved in wrestling right now my age and a little bit older. That championship still resonates with those people and I think now it’s about being a re-education process. Anyone under the age of 25 is very limited in their knowledge of what the NWA is and what that title is and thankfully with Vince McMahon putting out the Ricky Steamboat DVDs and the Ric Flair DVDs and the Four Horsemen DVDs, he’s really doing the National Wrestling Alliance a favor in marketing all of that old footage again so that today’s WWE fans and those kids watching wrestling now get an opportunity to look at where it all came from. It’s our job now in the NWA to take that and piggyback on that and say that we’re still here and we never went anywhere.

411: You spoke of the re-education process, with the first two weeks of the NWA Championship Wrestling From Hollywood show, was that a conscious effort on the promotion’s part to air the shows with the history of the NWA and the history of your reign as the promotion’s standard bearer to try to give people that crash course so to speak?

AP: No. Actually, it was the TV station’s call. They wanted to take that first couple of weeks and kind of test run and get a feel for what the audience might be without giving away those first two weeks of television that had been taped and produced. It was the TV station’s idea and I think that it was the right call in hindsight. I mean David Marquez was really happy to put those shows together and I had a lot of fun doing it too. That was more of the TV side of things than it was us.

411: I guess that proves the point you were speaking on earlier about being with a partner that understands the television wrestling business.

AP: Absolutely.

411: Right now you’re currently number 11 in terms of the number of days you’ve been NWA World Heavyweight Champion and you’re closing in rather quickly on both the top ten and on names like Jack Brisco and Pat O’Connor. What does that accomplishment mean to you and how important is it for you to establish the same type of legacy as those legendary figures in the business?

AP: It’s really humbling to be honest. I think it says volumes for what the National Wrestling Alliance and its members think of me as a perfomer and at the same time it says a lot about the way that I’ve conducted myself, both in and out of the ring, the way I do business and how I perform. We’re in an entertainment business and anytime that you’ve got a group of people and money behind you, you want to work as hard as you can and it’s humbling to think that these people have the kind of faith in me that they do to kind of give me the ball and let me run with it.

Personally, it’s extremely gratifying that I’ve carved out a nice little niche for myself in the history of professional wrestling and that when I’m done, I mean we all have to walk away sometime, when I can’t do this any longer, they won’t be able to take that away from me. I’ll always have that and it means something. I don’t think the gravity of it will hit me until I’m much older, but to be listed in the same company as those guys and to have met and worked with some of those guys, it’s unbelievable. When I started doing this stuff when I was seventeen years old, I never thought that I would do half the things that I would be able to do and go to half the places and meet half the people and I think just judging how things are going for me now and my involvement in the NWA and being NWA Champion three times for the amount of time I’ve put in, I think that that’s what I’ll end up being most remembered for. I don’t think I’ll ever be a household name and I don’t think that I ever really set out to do that, but I’ve certainly accomplished a lot more than I thought.

411: Talking about possibly walking away, is there part of you that’s always going to want to have a hand in the wrestling business either through booking or promoting even after your in-ring career is done, or would want to look at more of a clean break from the business?

AP: That’s hard to say. I mean I think that it all depends on what’s happening when my body finally says that it’s had enough. I’m an emotional guy and I wear my heart on my sleeve. While I don’t anticipate that it will be like when I had my issues and walked away from WCW and kind of wanted a clean break for a while and was gone for eight months, when it’s really time and physically I can’t perform anymore it will depend on what’s going on around me. Ultimately, I’m always going to be a fan of professional wrestling and I’m always going to want to be involved in professional wrestling, but you never know. I’d love to be able to nuture NWA Hollywood the way that we are now and take this thing on a ride and make it fruitful and lucrative for everyone involved and let that be my out, but you just never know.

411: The NWA Hollywood promotion recently moved from the Galaxy Theatre in Santa Ana, CA to the Regent Showcase Theatre in the heart of Hollywood. Tell me a little bit about that move and are you excited to be in the mix of everything in the entertainment mecca of the world?

AP: It came about and it’s something that I’m happy about. The Galaxy was Rick Bassman’s building when he was a WWF developmental territory so wrestling fans in that area know the building and it’s always been a venue for underground bands or underground wrestling or what have you. At the same time, it’s not in Hollywood and it’s not even really in LA with Santa Ana being south and kind of partway between Los Angeles and San Diego and I think that it’s a good opportunity to move our live events and our tapings into the market that we are supposed to be in. The television is Los Angeles TV and just from a sheer numbers aspect, you stand the chance to draw a much better crowd in Los Angeles than you can in Santa Ana. All of our advertising partners and who we’re working with and who we’re wanting to work with are moreso in LA, so it makes sense on a variety of levels. Although it came up a lot faster than we thought it would, I think that the plans were always to find a place to do this in LA proper and build upon it and it happened a lot faster than we thought it would.

411: It’s plug time, for fans that may not be aware, how can they get information on Adam Pearce, NWA Hollywood, where can they see episodes of the show and how can they come out to see tapings. Give me the hard sell.

AP: I’m not real big on social networking, I’m not a Facebook guy, I was never a MySpace guy, the only thing I have is a Twitter account, which is all thanks to Dave Lagana who said that I needed to be more current. (laughs) I play around a bit on that and that’s scrapdaddyAP at Twitter. I had a website that hasn’t been updated in years, but that thing. If I could delete that thing and I could figure out how to I would because it’s not really serving any purpose, it’s just kind of there. Then there’s the NWA Hollywood.com site, the NWA Wrestling.com site, NWAHollywood on Twitter where you can get updates on the tapings and you can watch the weekly shows on the website for NWA Hollywood when we get the hard drives back from KDOC and we’re able to upload that on our servers. That’s pretty much it for me though. I’m out there pounding the pavement but I’m not necessarily socially visible if you know what I mean and I’m not sure if that’s good or bad. I don’t have a publicist but I’m pretty sure that I need one.

411: Just another one of the ways you keep old school alive Adam.

AP: Yeah, I guess, whatever old-school means these days. (laughs)

411: Thank you so much for taking the time. I really appreciate it and I’ve enjoyed the time talking with you now and I’m looking forward to seeing more of you through the upcoming TV tapings and professionally from week to week on KDOC.

AP: Yeah, we should have a lot of fun. If everything comes off the way that we hope on the 8th, it should make for a memorable night.

For more information on Adam Pearce, check out the NWA Hollywood website and to see Adam perform live and in person in Southern California, visit SaveFans.com for tickets to the next TV Taping for NWA Championship Wrestling from Hollywood at the Regent Showcase Theatre in Hollywood, CA on January 8th, 2011.