Biff Busick Talks About Signing With WWE, His Tryout, Influences In Wrestling, More

– As PWMania.com reported, WWE announced top indie star Biff Busick (Christopher Girard) along with 18 other new WWE Performance Center recruits this week. WWE’s website recently spoke with Busick about his career and signing with WWE. The full interview is at this link. Below are highlights:

WWE.COM: You’ve been wrestling since 2008, but it seems like the buzz surrounding the name Biff Busick picked up in a big way in the past year or two. When did you realize WWE was interested in you, and what do you think put you on their radar?

GIRARD: It’s funny — I had quite a long history with WWE. About three months into my training was the first time I was booked as an extra [in WWE], and I had no idea about anything. I had a couple more runs with WWE, every couple months when they were in town. The one time I lucked out, about nine months into my training, I was chosen to wrestle The Great Khali on SmackDown, and I had no business being in the ring with Khali whatsoever. It was about an 11-second match – which I lost, unfortunately – but it was just a surreal experience. After that moment, I realized I had to get out there and get more experience to be ready for the next time WWE called upon me.

From there, I traveled the country to learn from as many people as possible. I went to Lance Storm’s school in Calgary, which was an unbelievable experience. That was three months in the ring with him pretty much every day. Then I moved down to Texas, and I trained with Sho Funaki, who is another guy that has a wealth of knowledge. Training with those two guys really gave me the confidence and experience I needed to do much better. I think WWE started to catch on with me working more high-profile matches in more high-profile promotions, and it just took off from there.

WWE.COM: How would you describe yourself to someone who has never seen you wrestle? Who were your influences?

GIRARD: I’m such a fan of all wrestling. I go through phases. When I first got into wrestling, my favorite wrestler was “Ravishing” Rick Rude. I just thought he was the quintessential bad guy wrestler and I wanted to be just like him. I spent $800 on exact replica boots of what Rick Rude wore at SummerSlam [1990] against The Ultimate Warrior. I still wear them to this day. Going from there, I saw a DVD of Lance Storm against Daniel Bryan. I had never heard of Bryan, but when I saw him, it opened my eyes to an amazing style of wrestling that not a lot of guys were doing.

I would say my style is a blend of everything. I created my own. But I’m a huge fan of Daniel Bryan, a huge fan of Mr. William Regal — he’s a guy who has influenced me a lot — but also guys like Ultimate Warrior, Rick Rude. I’m just a huge fan of wrestling, and I think you might see different aspects of every style in my style.

WWE.COM: How did the tryout with WWE come about earlier this year?

GIRARD: I did a tryout in the first week of June. I was booked as an extra. I was able to have at tryout match at one of the live events. I’ll never forget: I was in California for PWG and I got a call from WWE before the show offering me a deal. It was surreal. I can’t put it into words. It’s something you work your whole life for and then it finally happened. I can’t do it justice by telling you how it felt.

WWE.COM: You’ve crossed paths with some NXT Superstars previously. Taking a look at the NXT roster, who are you excited to wrestle for the first time?

GIRARD: There are a lot of them. Right now, the No. 1 guy is Finn Bálor, since he has the NXT Title. I’ve been watching him for years. Other than him, you’ve got Hideo Itami, who I’m also a massive fan of. One of my favorite wrestlers of all time is Kenta Kobashi, and Itami was under the Kenta Kobashi learning tree, so to be in the ring with a guy like that just gives me chills right now thinking about it. I definitely want to get in the ring with Itami and, of course, Sami Zayn, who I never got a chance to cross paths with on the independents. There are so many guys — Solomon Crowe, “Prince Pretty” Tyler Breeze — the list is very long.

WWE.COM: Do you have any words for the fans who have followed you up to this point, or to fans who will see you for the first time when you debut in NXT?

GIRARD: For the fans who have been with me, I just want to say thank you so much for your support. Without you guys, there’s no possible way I’d be here. And for the NXT fans and the people that haven’t seen me yet, I look forward to showing you what I can do.