In the first installment of “The Pink Rope Podcast: The Double Fixture”, we got none other than one of the best wrestlers in the last 20 years, a great guy, a British cool guy, Zack Sabre Jr! @youngpunksabre and I talk wrestling, personal life and even bad matches. Even the best have bad days! The Pod is available everywhere and go check it out. Here’s a sneak peek:
LW: Let’s start the pod with a bang and potentially a controversial topic. You’re widely regarded as one of the greatest technical wrestlers of all time. Do you feel like that’s a hard title to obtain? Flashy styles or call it even “sport entertainment” type of wrestling are seen more often but do you feel like what you do is harder to do in a way?
ZSJ: First of all thank you so much for having me. I do think the title of greatest technical wrestler is hard to earn. It's hard when you're predated by guys like Bryan Danielson and Nigel McGuiness. I think being "flashy" is impressive, being flippy and showy. I respect all styles of wrestling. But technical wrestling feels more like an art than anything else to me. I do think there's a lot of trust put into me by my opponents to not overdo it too. In that way with a lot of technical moves and holds, the pressure is mostly on me to sell it more than my opponent, and that is tricky.
LW: I’m going to flip the script and ask you what’s your worst match of all time?
ZSJ: My worst match! I like that! I have a lot of matches. I've been wrestling for almost two decades now. In a G1, I wrestled and defeated Bad Luck Fale. He's all Don Fale now but back then...anyway, big guys like him are hard to wrestle for a technical wrestler like me. He's stiff as a board too! So I'll say that's my worst match because of how awkward it was to wrestle him.
LW: Is there any moment of your career you wish you could of changed? It could be on a personal level, wrestling. It could be whatever you want.
ZSJ: I don't know if I'd change anything...maybe go blonde earlier? [laughs]. I think from my time on the indies, in the UK and in the states and around the world, to being in NJPW, and being apart of Suzuki-Gun and now leading TMDK... I don't have anything I'd change. I enjoy what I do. I've been IWGP World Heavyweight Champion, the highest goal in NJPW. I will be again, too, don't worry about that. Maybe on a personal level...I did let my gimmick swallow me up and that got in the way of a very important relationship to me. And I wish that it didn't happen. I wish I understood the delicate balance between wrestling and reality a bit better then. I do now, at least. I'm glad I do now.
