Why James Storm Never Signed With WWE, Beer Money, America's Most Wanted, TNA Championship

James Storm (@JamesStormBrand) is an actor and professional wrestler best known for his time in TNA. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet at West Coast Creative Studio in Los Angeles to discuss his legendary TNA career, his partnerships with Chris Harris and Bobby Roode, becoming World Champion, being a part of the infamous blindfold steel cage match and reverse battle royal, the train track segment with Mickie James, why his time in WWE didn't turn into more, making the transition to acting, when he plans on retiring and more!

James Storm and Chris Van Vliet star in "The Worst Man", which is out in the fall

Quote I'm thinking about: “Count your age by friends, not years. Count your life by smiles, not tears.” ― John Lennon

On whether it is difficult paying his dues in another industry:

"Yeah, in a way it is, but also I had to learn to dumb it down a lot, especially in acting. Because in wrestling, you got to be loud and you got to make sure the people in the back row hear you, and that's who you're catering to. Whereas acting, you just have the camera and you have a microphone on you, so I had to be sure to reel it in a whole lot and just kind of tone it down."

On how acting differs to cutting a wrestling promo:

"The funny thing is in wrestling, I'm "The Cowboy" James Storm, so it's okay to have the southern accent and everything. Whereas in the movies, I've had to take dialect classes to kind of tone down the southern accent. But I'm learning now that a lot of these directors and movie people are going toward at least one character in their film with a southern accent, because it's so desirable now, which is good for me."

On his love of acting:

"I really wanted to find something that gives me that same adrenaline rush. Being in front of the camera, in front of five to ten thousand people to me now it's the same as when I'm in front of five or ten people in a room. As soon as that director says action, it's just something about being in front of that camera and that adrenaline rush. I think that's what hurts a lot of wrestlers when they want to get out of wrestling, is they can't find that thing that fills that desire of that adrenaline rush, because it is one of the craziest things ever. I tell people it's a drug. Once you experience it, especially at a high level, it's hard just to go to a nine-to-five job. It's almost impossible." 

Is that why you're still doing it? 

"I think it is. It doesn't matter if it's in front of 30-50 people. When the music hits, it's just something that kind of comes over you, and you just go out. To me, what I've learned and what Mr. Perfect taught me a long time ago. He goes, you're going to learn as you get older in your career that it's not about the wrestling moves, it's about the emotions that you leave people with. Because people will remember that emotion that you left them with long after you're gone. They won't remember what moves you did in the match, but they will remember, oh man, it was awesome. That's how I was as a kid when I went to the Nashville fairgrounds. My grandfather took me. I don't remember anything else that night, but I remember Jerry Lawler picking up Tojo Yamamoto and let my grandfather hit him. I was seven years old, just the expression on my grandfather's face, I'll never forget it."

So you're still wrestling now? 

"Well, yeah, I call it wrestling [laughs]. But I enjoy it because now I'm getting to help teach these young guys. I don't teach them how to wrestle. I try to teach them how to work. That's why I try to tell a lot of guys is WWE and AEW and all these other promotions, they have people that can do every move you can think of doing. What they're really focusing on now is people that really know how to work and relate to a crowd and stuff." 

On his first break in wrestling being WCW:

"There was a guy named Bert Prentice that used to run in Nashville. I always tell everybody, I think he ran the best local indie promotion that's ever been, because he had access to guys from OVW, and then also he had in with WCW as well. But also, when he was running Music City Wrestling, he had me, Chris Harris, AJ Styles would come up, David Young, Elix Skipper, and then also the Hardys would be there, Shane Helms, Shannon Moore, all these guys would come in. But then I was working, installing home security systems, and my boss came to him. He goes, 'Hey, you might want to take this one, this guy's a wrestler.' I looked at it, and it said Ronald Harris on it. I was like, Huh? So I go to it and ring the doorbell, and Ron Harris opens the door. I'm like, oh man, it's really him. So I go in and I install this alarm. But of course, after I get done, I do this dumb, rookie thing, ‘Hey, man, I'm training to be a pro wrestler too.' He's like, ‘Okay, kid. Hopefully we get to work together one day or whatever. It was three weeks later I wind up going up to WCW, and the first person I saw was Ron Harris, and he comes back, goes, ‘Alarm guy! You did it!’ So, yeah, that was kind of my big break. It was really cool. I remember going up there and I had to work Chavo, and everything was basically called in the back. I was not used to that, because in Nashville, we just call the finish, and then everything else was called out there. So you can't see it in the match, but I actually had my spots written on my hand, because I was just like, there's no way I'm gonna memorize all these lines, all these spots and stuff. But it winded up being a good match."

On whether there was a possibility of signing with WWE after WCW closed:

"I heard rumblings about it, because they were also looking at AJ, because AJ was one of the guys that went up with us too, to WCW. It was me, Chris Harris, AJ, Cassidy Riley, and Air Paris, where Air Paris and AJ got signed as Air Raid at the time. Quick, funny story. So when the whole deal with me and this guy named Cassidy Riley, we were doing a paramedic gimmick on one of the WCW pay-per-views. It just happened to be the pay-per-view where Sid breaks his leg. So we're sitting there, and we're like, oh, that's horrible. And the guys come back and start yelling at us, ‘Get out there! He broke his leg!’ We're like, ‘We're not real [paramedics]. I have no clue what I'm doing.’ They were just dog-cussing us, ‘Get the f out there! He broke his leg!’ Thank God the real paramedics finally came through. But that's one of the stories I had there. But yeah, there were ramblings about it. But then TNA was starting up, and they were doing a dry run in Nashville at Bert Prentice’s show for their announcers. So Bert wanted to kind of get the best of best talent that he had to put on the show. It just so happens me and Chris Harris were working each other that night, and we actually got signed that night because of our match that we had at the Nashville fairgrounds for TNA. They had no clue what to do with us when they signed us as well."

On an alternate timeline where he could have been working with WWE while at TNA:

"I mean, it would have been unbelievable, but that's one of those things. Don't ever ask what if? Just keep on moving."

On Joe Hendry entering the Royal Rumble as TNA World Champion:

"I actually almost shed a tear. Because I was happy for Joe, but I was really happy for TNA. People can say whatever they want to say about oh, this was not a good look. No, it was a good look. It's the biggest show of the year, and they have another company's belt in shot."

On wanting to be a tag team performer:

"I did, and it's funny, because a lot of people want to be that big single star and have all the glory and stuff. But I grew up with the Rock N' Roll Express and watching Demolition and The Road Warriors. So I always wanted to be a tag team wrestler, and there's an art to it. If you can get two really good tag teams together, I think, especially with four guys, they can put on a way better match than just a singles match. But at that time in TNA, and a lot of times in WWE now, it seems like the tag teams are just a second thought. That was really good with Beer Money, we kind of brought tag team wrestling to the front because it was us, then the Machine Guns and LAX, and then you bring in Dudley Boyz, Team 3D as well, and it was just all these teams now coming together, and now we're main eventing these pay-per -views and stuff."

On being paired with Bobby Roode:

"We were coming to the end of our contracts, and I don't think they really knew what to do with us. So Dutch, he was just like, ‘Just put them together. If anything, we fire them together.’ That's how I got the Dutch was looking at it. So they put us together, and me and Bob was like, You know what? We're gonna make the best of this. We're gonna do what we can to it. The thing with Bobby is, whereas me and Chris had to rely on each other, me and Bobby was already kind of established, so we can just go out there and have fun and just act fools. So they had us as heels, and I made up some dumb merchandise that said Beer Money on it. So they slowly kept pushing the name Beer Money, but they were coming out with a toy line, so they didn't want to put Beer Money on this toy line that was going to be in Walmart. Which I understand that."

On where the name Beer Money came from:

"So we were at the Bell House in Orlando, and I'm sitting there, and so it's like me and Eric and Bobby and somebody else. I'm sitting there, and I'm like, feeling around like, oh God. I said, Well, I'm out of beer money now. Me and Bobby go, let's try it. Then I said, we got to come up with something so stupid that people will boo us every time we do it. So that's why we came up with the Beer Money suplex. That is what actually made us over every time we set up for it and we do it, and we go 'Beer!' 'Money!' We knew we were over when we go to England and we're facing the British Invasion, and we're the babyfaces, we were supposed to be the heels, but we had this whole match set up, and when Nick and them come out, they just get booed out of the building. Nick goes, 'All right, well, I guess you guys are babyfaces now, we'll take the roles on the heel.' That's when we knew that we were over." 

On becoming TNA World Champion

"It was great. A lot of the stuff leading up to it kind of went off course or whatever. Because I beat him, and then the next week I lost it to Bobby, which is fine, because Bobby was going on this big heel run, and then I was supposed to beat him in Arizona in a hardcore match that we were having as well. So the night before he wrestles Kurt and loses, and they didn't tell him until that day, I believe. They didn't tell him that Kurt was going to keep the belt, and they didn't tell me that I was winning the belt until about an hour before we were supposed to go out. So I had this huge match planned with Kurt. It was really cool, because he believed in me enough to put a match together, which was really cool. This is awesome. Then about an hour he came to me and goes, 'Hey, man. My hamstring is messed up really bad. I can't really…’ I was like, 'Hey, man, no problem, we take it easy.' He goes, 'How about we do this instead? How about I go out there and just beat you up for a little bit? Then you kick me out of nowhere, and then you take the rest of the time to do you. You've earned this spot to go out and celebrate. You do whatever you want to do.' So when I beat him, I roll over, and I said, thank you very much. He said, 'Quit laying there, get up and celebrate.' Yes, sir. So, I mean, it was really cool. I did a lot of driving with him and stuff, and just learned stuff from him. I always say I've been very fortunate, because I've been able to learn from Dusty Rhodes, Curt Hennig and Kurt Angle."

On using the Superkick as his finisher:

"When I went to NXT the first time, they had me use a different finisher. Then my second match there, Hunter was like, 'Hey, what do you want to use?' I said, Well, my super kick. He goes, 'Well, everybody uses a Super Kick.' I looked at him, and I said, 'Hey man, that's fine. They knock people down with their Super Kick. I knock people out.' He goes, 'All right, you can use it.' I got to use it in my second match, and then I was going to use it there going forward and everything. It’s fine if people want to use it as a spot, but because that makes mine look all that more devastating, because I actually beat people with mine, especially if you do it right and make it look good."

On the blindfold steel cage match:

"Oh, man, me and Chris were in this big feud. I was supposed to have put his eye out and everything. So they're like to even the field, you should have to see like he does, and be in a blindfold match. This isn’t 80s no more. That match is so hard to pull off, especially in those times, even today. I was just like all right, well if that's what you want to do. Then I was like, Wait, this is inside of an electrified cage too? There's so many gimmicks going on in here. But thank God the cage wasn't on when we did it. But it wasn't until like 30 minutes before our match started that they realized that they didn't have the blindfolds, so they ran to somewhere and just got two black bags and just put them over our heads that didn't have draw strings or anything, so they keep falling off. There's a point in the match when I look at Chris and I said, 'No, to hell with this, we're taking it home.' He's like, really? I was like, yep. I think it was the beer bottle and for the finish or whatever. I was like, we're going home. I got to the back, and to his credit, Vince Russo, he was standing right there, he knew it too, and I just lit into him. He goes, ‘I am so sorry, blah, blah, blah. I understand if you want to punch me.’ I said, 'Oh, I'm not going to punch you. I want to.' He goes, 'To make it up, I'll let you do any match that you want to do.' And then that's when we did the Texas death match."

On getting in trouble during the Hogan/Bischoff era:

"I remember I got in trouble. I got fined. Of course, I got fined so many times, just because I did a promo where I was saying, 'The days of someone coming out here and talking for 30 minutes and taking up time for the younger generation is over. These people are paying to see the people that have brought this company to the forefront' and all this. I remember Bischoff calling me. He's like, 'Why would you say that?' Blah, blah, blah. I'm like, 'Well, you asked me to speak from the heart, this is what I believe. This is what all of us kind of built this company on, is priding ourselves going out there and working.' Then when I start seeing Hogan not really plugging TNA, when he would do these talk shows and everything, he would talk about everything else, except for TNA wrestling, it's like, that's what they're paying you all this money for? So that's when I was just like, all right, this is not good."

On why he never signed with WWE:

"Man, it was a lot. Mostly had to do with my family. Had a little bit to do with money, which is not like they didn't pay him a lot of money, so he's not coming. It wasn't like that at all. They gave me a contract, I went home and I got a call from Regal. He goes, 'Hey, we definitely want to sign you.' I was like, Oh, great. So I was going to sign the contract and all that stuff, and then he asked me, 'Can you tighten up a little bit? Lose a little weight?' I was like, Yeah. I busted my ass and I lost 20 pounds. I got in really good shape when I got back down there. Everybody's like, Oh, my God, you look totally different. Because I always tell people, you give a man motivation, he'll work his ass off if. So I did it, and then when I got down there, the contract had changed. They added 25 more dates, but the money didn't move. I even told him TNA had offered me another contract to come back because they heard about me wanting to sign with WWE. I said, 'Look, this is what TNA is offering me. I'm not trying to hold this over your head at all, because you don't have to match this at all. I'm just saying this is what I'm willing to give up to come and work for this, but it has to be right.' Because my wife, she wanted to have another child at the time, but she had to take the shots and all this stuff, so I was basically kind of giving that up as well, because I was going to be on the road a lot. We came to an agreement, and she was like, 'Well, if they can just give you this, then you have my blessing to sign.' Hunter is like, 'I just can't do it.' I was just like, 'All right, well, I'm sorry, my wife gave me permission not to sign, so I'm going home.' Three days later, Canon Ceman called me. He goes, 'Hey, man. Paul wants to know if he can call you.' I was like, 'What? Hunter?' He goes yeah. I go, 'He has my phone number. I just talked to him not too long ago.' He goes, 'Well, since you're not signed, we had to go through the proper channels, and I had to make sure, you're on a recorded line.' I was like, whatever, yeah, he can call me. So he called me and I talked and he's like, 'Look, you're not gonna be here long, because Vince loves characters and you know how to work, so you'll probably be shipped off real quick.' I was like, 'Well, can you give what I was asking?' And like I said, it was not much at all, and he's like, 'No, I just don't have the authority to do that.' I was like, 'I'm sorry, man. I'm gonna have to say no.'" 

Was that a tough decision? 

"That was the hardest phone call I think I've ever had to get off the phone with a man. Usually I just hang up the phone. I was like, oh, man. Am I making the right decision? But in hindsight, I didn't know at the time, but it was the right decision for me and my family at that time, because I was able to have my son that's eight years old now, and everything. So I can't imagine what if I would have taken that."

On the Mickie James train angle:

"The funny thing was, a lot of people don't know it, I actually had cops come to my house to make sure, they thought it was legit. My brother, who was a detective at the time, he called me. He goes, 'Hey, man, did you kill somebody on TV?' I was like, bro, it’s wrestling. He goes, 'That's what I try to tell him.' But there was this cop that had just started on the beat with him, so he was messing with him. He had that guy come to my door and ring the doorbell and ask me about all this stuff, and my brother sitting in a car just laughing his butt off. So I had to bring the cop in and put the episode on and show him it's part of a wrestling angle. I was trying to, me and Mickie and Nick, all three of us are trying to tell John this is not a good idea to murder somebody on TV. I came up with a plan of having a flash of me, this is what would happen if she wouldn't agree with me, like, I would push her off and she would die, you know, but they didn't like that idea. I was like, All right, well, I guess I'm pushing her." 

On his Elevation X match with Rhyno:

"I hate heights, and Rhyno didn't like it either, and they wanted me to take this big bump. They wanted me to take the gore and basically him hit me and me just go right off of it and land onto the mat. I said no, that's not going to happen. I said, I'll do something where I'm hanging or something, and either I can go through a table or I can just hit the ground or something, but I'm not just taking a bump and just going backwards off of it, and I think they got kind of upset with me but I told them, I'm not doing it. And so we wound up setting up a table, and I wound up going through the table and everything."

On his TNA Mount Rushmore:

"Jeff Jarrett. AJ Styles, of course. People can say, and this is just me talking. I hate to put myself on there, but as the tag team, because I always look at Mount Rushmore as like, there should be people from different parts of the company, not just like all singles wrestlers. I look at me as like, I helped carry the Tag Team division in TNA, especially during the startup years and everything. I'd put Jeff Hardy on there, because he came in very early. A lot of people say Kurt, but I'm looking at guys who helped build the company before the Kurts and Samoa Joe and all these other guys were in there."

What is James Storm grateful for?

"My wife, my kids and wrestling fans."

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