WWE star Joe Hendry appeared on “Insight with Chris Van Vliet,” where he discussed various topics, including how his wrestling career took an upturn after he dyed his hair blonde.
Hendry said, “So there are two reasons, I would say. The main reason is that it was around Christmas time. You know when you’re gift shopping for people. I was kind of walking through a store, and there was a bunch of wrestling figures. I was like, I’ll take a look at this. I was looking at the action figures, and at the time, I just looked a bit generic. I just thought, if I had an action figure, it would be a bit of a boring action figure. I remember, in various wrestling video games, people would make me, and I’d go it’s a bit of a generic wrestling character. Then I thought, well, what if I dyed my hair? It was when we were in lockdown in the UK, I started watching wrestling that I hadn’t really seen before. I’d kind of missed that period of the 90s where Sycho Sid was starting to get towards the world title. I was like, he’s awesome. This guy’s wrestling. That kind of inspired me as well. So I decided I’d dye my hair blonde, and that’s why I was doing Power bombs and choke slams when I had no business to be doing them.”
On if he had moments where he felt he was near landing a bob in WWE back in 2014-2016:
“There was a time, I think, in 2016, where it was looking like I might have been a part of the UK tournament, and I’m glad that I wasn’t, because I don’t feel I was ready for it. Because I feel like, back then, I was doing my entrances, they were getting views, and I was operating on this level of my entrances. But at that point, I had my debut two or three years previous. I would have been up against guys like Pete Dunne and Trent Seven, who were seasoned in-ring professionals at that point. So I feel like it was almost good that I didn’t get that opportunity then, and kind of took a different path, and I feel like everything has happened for me when I’ve been ready for it and in the right order. I wouldn’t change a thing. I love the path that I’ve taken.”
On messing up a WWE tryout:
“So I’ll tell you now. I’ve messed up a WWE tryout worse than anyone ever has. I’ve never told this story before. So yeah, we do the tryout, and we’re getting a bunch of feedback. So William Regal is telling us, ‘You’ve done a good job, need to focus on physiques. You need to focus on your technique.’ I’m thinking, all right, cool. So I go into catering. All the other guys are talking about how good the cake is in catering. I’m like, these guys, we’ve just been told to work on our physiques, and they’re eating cake. I’m going to show them that I’m eating rice and chicken. He’s going to see that, and he’s going to go; he’s coachable. So I’m sitting there with my rice and chicken. So, William Regal comes down, sits with us all. This is the awesome thing about William Regal: he sat down with us for like two hours and just told us, this is what wrestling is. I can remember almost every word that he said, and it helps me to this day. But the main point was that you, as a wrestler is about building trust with the audience, so when the audience see you, they know that they are going to get value. They’re going to be entertained.”
He continued, “It’s not just the big wins, like we talked about, the pay-per-views and the TVs, it’s the house shows, it’s the fan interactions, it’s everything. He made me realize that about the business, but he’s given us these amazing lessons. I’m sitting there with my chicken and rice, and he’s in the middle of this very impassioned speech, and while I’m chewing, this little piece of rice just falls down the back of my throat, and I just try and clear my throat a little bit to get rid of it, and I inhale the piece of rice. So I’m in a situation where I got two choices, right? I can either just cough and interrupt this story, oh, sorry, my bad, and move on. Or you can just say, You know what? I’m going to try and clear my throat silently. So he’s telling the story, and I go, I’m going to do that. I just end up accidentally inhaling another eight grains of rice. So he’s telling this story, and I’m there, and I’m like, and the guy sitting next to me is like, What are you doing? He’s in the middle of a story. I basically spat rice all over the table where everyone’s eating, and he’s telling the story. So from his perspective, he’s telling this story, and I’ve just gone, oh yeah [coughed up rice]. So maybe that was the reason. Who knows? But no, he sold it beautifully. He just says, ‘Can’t take you anywhere, Joe.’ And then walked off. So that was a comedy gold response.”
You can check out the complete podcast in the video below.
(H/T to 411Mania.com for transcribing the above quotes)
