WWE star Joe Hendry has opened up about criticism of his in-ring ability and how his reputation as a character-driven performer can sometimes overshadow his work inside the ring.
During an interview with Chris Van Vliet, Hendry discussed the attention given to his character work and musical segments compared to his wrestling, admitting that performers known heavily for their personalities can often face greater scrutiny over their in-ring performances.
“I feel it’s because when you’re a character wrestler, you’re always going to be judged more harshly for your in-ring ability and things like that.
But to be honest with you, I take comfort in the fact that I feel really confident because how you get better at wrestling is by wrestling people who are better than you, wrestling people who you can learn something from.
I’m so fortunate that, all throughout my career, I’ve had the chance to work with people who I’ve been able to learn things from in real time. I just feel like I’ve come so far in the ring since my stuff started blowing up a couple of years ago. But I even feel like I’ve come so far in a couple of months.
And I just think, where am I going to be in January this year? Where am I going to be in two years’ time? It’s exciting to me.
I think that’s how you kind of combat all the [negativity]. It’s like The Miz says: block out all the noise. The way I’m able to block out all the noise is because if I’m criticized, it’s like you’re criticizing me for who I was yesterday, and that person is already dead.
That’s kind of how I look at it.”
Hendry explained that his confidence comes from continuing to work with wrestlers he can learn from, believing his in-ring game has already improved significantly over the past several months.
Rather than dwelling on criticism, Hendry said he tries to follow advice from The Miz by blocking out outside noise and focusing on his continued development, viewing criticism as an assessment of a previous version of himself rather than the performer he is becoming.
