Next month will be the 24th year that Chris Hero has been in the pro wrestling industry. Present day, Hero is hosting seminars and doing a bit of producing for a few groups.
I was able to catch up with him to follow up on the conversation we had in the summer of 2021. Hero started his ‘Shoot Conversations w/ Chris Hero’ interview series around that time and it airs on Highspots Wrestling Network. Thus far, he has spoken with the likes of Bandido, ‘Speedball’ Mike Bailey, JONAH and others.
He opened up about what it has been like for him to be in the interviewer seat and mentioned that fellow interviewer Nardwuar is an inspiration of his.
I love it. I love it [Hero said about interviewing], but it’s also a curse because I put so much research into these that I know, I’m like man, I gotta spend a couple days just really nailing this down and then I’m a little bit of a procrastinator sometimes so I’m not getting a lot of sleep but, it’s been so much fun… I love when I can ask a question and I can see the look on their eyes is, who told you that? Where’d you get that? Or why are you asking me that? One of my inspirations, I’m not sure if you’re familiar, have you ever seen interviews by a gentleman named Nardwuar? He is a huge inspiration of mine and he has a TED Talk that explains his interview style because he is really quirky. But he would just always do outlandish things and catch — because people come up to you all the time, ‘Hey, can I do an interview? Can I do this? Can you do my podcast?’ Can you whatever. But it’s like, how do you get through the noise? How do you find someone that is gonna be quality because it’s okay to be nice and cool and agreeable but you end up doing a lot of bad interviews or a lot of the same interviews or a lot of whatever.
Last year, AEW presented the ‘Five Labours of Jericho’ which was a series of tasks that Chris Jericho had to overcome in order to get to MJF. A few of Jericho’s ‘labours’ consisted of Nick Gage and Juventud Guerrera.
In the months following, Jericho revealed that one of the names considered for the ‘five labours’ was Chris Hero. Hero reacted to that:
I think we need some ‘Labours of Chris Hero’ [he laughed]. But I will say you’re welcome for getting Juventud [Guerrera] in the mix because whatever was speculated, I believe that-that was what ended up happening.
Circling back around to what he’s doing present day, Hero stated that he is doing some producing here and there and is in discussions with a “few groups”. He brought up what he said in our previous conversation about waiting for the right time to jump back into the mix in-ring wise and said he’s still waiting for that right time.
Hero added that he has active wrestlers who he assists and gives advice to. He enjoys those relationships and there’s satisfaction there for him to know that he’s helping others improve.
I feel like last year, I’m like, ‘Hey, I’m just waiting for the right thing to hop back in’ and here we are a year later, I’m still waiting for that right thing. I feel like — I’ve said this a little bit on my Twitch, ChrisHeroTwitch if you mess around with that. I do these killer watchalongs. I’ve really been enjoying it but I’m really candid there with my — I call it my ‘territory’, that’s all my people… Okay, I love wrestling and there’s so much good stuff going on, but it’s almost too much good stuff going on that it’s just a lot of noise and I don’t wanna interject myself right in the middle of a whole noisy situation and that’s not that I don’t believe in myself or have faith that whatever I do is gonna kick ass, I know it will. But I want to set myself up for success and the example that I’ve used a lot in personal conversations is like Mania weekend last year. How many graphics did you see for matches that are just like unreal, a dream match, like holy sh*t, like whatever, right? And how many of those matches did you watch in full? How many of them have you seen GIFS of? And how many of ‘em did you even forget happened? And these are very talented wrestlers from all over the world so, I am just being very thoughtful about what I do. I’ve got a couple things in mind. Not to get into it, I also have some personal stuff going on familywise that has made it difficult to concentrate. But, we’re going in the right direction. I’m excited. I’ve got these interviews that I do, I got some appearances, I do a little bit of producing. I help out with a couple shows here and there. I’m in discussions with a couple groups about also helping out. I love looking at wrestling from the other side and building relationships with people. I’ve got some step-children, some step-nephews and nieces on the independents that I watch and kind of [give advice to], because the time that I spent with Ring of Honor, I think I built relationships with a lot of good people and I just want them to succeed man and you can tell when you talk to people, how much they love it and you know they’re gonna make it. You just don’t know what it is, so I’m just kind of along for the ride and if I can toss ‘em a bone here and there and they’re like — ten years down the road, they’re like, yeah man, he really helped me. I’m like, yeah, that’s good for me, you know?
When asked if he is happy with what he’s been able to accomplish in wrestling, Hero immediately responded yes. He said it’s mind-blowing for him to have been able to do what he’s done, travel to the places he’s been to and meet the people he’s met.
He concluded by saying he’s content with it, but not satisfied and still feels he has plenty more to do in wrestling.
Yeah, absolutely [I’m happy with what I’ve accomplished]. It is mind-blowing to go back and just — because what are we?… September will be my 24th year. I realize I’ve been inactive for two years. I’m still gonna count those two years. If Terry Funk can count, you know [Hero laughed]. No, I am just overwhelmed with a lot of the things that I’ve been able to do, places I’ve been able to travel, the time that I’ve spent, the people I’ve been in cars with, the blood, sweat and tears I’ve shared with some people. It’s really cool. I will say that I am content, but I’m not satisfied. I got plenty more to do and I think I have something. My body of work speaks for itself but I think I have something in here that can really change things and I’m gonna keep working toward it man.
To close out our discussion, Hero shared his current view of the wrestling business. He said he wants to push things forward and for it to be as good as possible. He feels like there’s one side that dislikes a lot and the other side thinks everything is great, adding that he’s right in the middle.
He said whether it’s physically or verbally, he wants to give back in a positive manner.
I had my podcast named ‘Can Chris Hero Save Wrestling?’ That was the thought process and that’s what I feel man and it’s not that wrestling needs to be saved but like, I want to push things forward. I want everything to be as good as possible, right? When something is good, to me, it can be a disappointment if I think it should be great, right? And if something is just OK, it can be an overwhelming success based on what it could have been so I look at things, not just what they are but what they could be, good and bad so I just, man, I wanna be a positive force. I feel like the wrestling world, critically, is like you got right and you got left and it’s like, ‘Nobody knows how to work, nobody knows how to sell, nobody –’ da, da, da, da, right? And then you have the, ‘Everything is awesome, everything’s great, everybody’s killing it,’ right? And it’s like, some of this is true and some of this is true and I am right in the Goddamn middle, so I feel like in a positive, encouraging way, I got something to give and you know, whether it’s physically, whether it’s mentally, whether it’s kind of just chatting with you right now and putting some media out there for people to look at and make their brain change a little bit or fluctuate, I’m all about that.
On top of his interviews on Highspots, Chris streams on Twitch and the link to that can be found here. His Twitter and Instagram pages are @ChrisHero.
To watch our chat, click the player at the top of the article or head over to the Andrew Thompson Interviews YouTube channel.
