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OO INTERVIEW
Indie Beat: Interview with NMCW's
Jimmy Wood
December 7, 2001

by The Narc
Exclusive to OnlineOnslaught.com

Jimmy Wood and some of his buddies in Charlottesville, VA had a dream. No Mercy Championship Wrestling was it. Jimmy not only had a large part in the creation of NMCW, he usually worked two or three matches a show. Here is his story, as told to me over the telephone Thursday night after Survivor. Not that I watch Survivor. Anyone else think Undertaker’s hair jumped the shark?

TN = The Narc
JW = Jimmy Wood

TN: What made you decide to start up No Mercy Championship Wrestling?

JW: We all worked together at the same nightclub, Trax. We were watching a recorded episode of Raw and we were talking about how we needed to put one of the other guys through a table. So we ended up suplexing one of the guys, who’s now known as “The King”, through a table, and that started it all.

TN: How did you talk him into doing that?

JW: There was no talking him into it. He was talking us into hurrying up. We couldn’t get the table out fast enough.

TN: Tell me how you got your roster together.

JW: Just slowly, a little bit at a time. When the word got out that we were looking for someone to wrestle with, people came to us. We didn’t really have to go looking for anybody. One thing that helped was when we, uh, actually found a ring. When we bought the ring we met a guy who had been doing independent promotions and shows and stuff. What was Vince’s name?

TN: The Snake or something, right?

JW: The Steel Serpent. He used to do some of the old NWA stuff, and some of the older wrestling leagues—Smoky Mountain, AWA stuff. Basically he just taught us some stuff, worked with us at practice, started training us, and the next thing we know we had a roster full of people.

TN: How does the process work insofar as creating characters for all these people? For example, your persona is Buck Killbilly, how did you come up with that?

JW: It was just one of nights we sat around and put our heads together like a creative team would with the big alliances. We’re not that big, we do it more for fun.

TN: Were there any notable ideas that were shot down?

JW: There were characters that never really made it.

TN: Like who?

JW: Um (laughs)…we had G.I. Jay, he didn’t really make it. He came back as another character later on. The first couple of ho’s didn’t make it—those are our female wrestlers.

TN: Right.

JW: Yeah, we had to interchange some of those. That’s really been one of the bigger draws, besides the hardcore stuff, is our female wrestlers.

TN: Talk to me about the very first show. What were your expectations in terms of the crowd, that kind of thing.

JW: Well what we did was send out invitations to a lot of friends, a lot of wrestling enthusiasts, people we knew would probably be our worst critics. We had about 75-100 people at out first show. And we sent out probably about 125 invitations, so we had very few who didn’t come in. We had a makeshift ring with ropes strung up between I-beams. We did it on a concrete floor. We (laughs) did all the moves full speed, we didn’t pull a whole lot.

TN: From time to time there would be a good bit of nudity at these shows (JW laughs). Now how do you get these volunteer chicks to drop trou and bare it all like that?

JW: You’d be surprised who wants to be a wrestling superstar. It’s really not hard at all. It’s just another one of those things, you know. I have girls that have seen it and talk about much fun it looks like, and they want to do it. I have girls asking us to do it.

TN: So you didn’t have to badger…

JW: No, the first couple ones pretty much set the standard.

TN: Wow.

JW: The first couple of girls we got, we just told them we want something, so go at it—have a good time. Tear it up. But we gotta have a winner. No predetermined winner, none of that set up stuff in the girl matches, it’s just winner take all. Or sometimes winner take off, you never know.

TN: So how did the training process work for you guys?

JW: We were lucky enough to have a facility big enough where we could put the ring, the nightclub. And after we met Vince, who came in and trained us, we met another guy who had been to Killer Kowalski’s school. He came in a couple of times and worked with us. Just defining moves, you know, just showing us a different way of doing things.

TN: What are the hardest moves to learn?

JW: A lot of the aerial moves. People expect a big show. That’s one of the things that No Mercy works on. Everybody knows that No Mercy is not afraid to jump from any height, or any depth. We’re not afraid to sling anything. No cage too tall, no barbed wire too sharp. The state’s shut us down before because we’re too hardcore (laughs).

TN: So in that spirit, what was the injury situation like?

JW: The worst accident that we’ve had has either been when we were just goofing off, or outside the ring, never inside. Little Cousin Cletus Killbilly does the high swanton bomb, and he’s not afraid to jump from any height, at any distance, onto any object.

TN: Well, he looked a little afraid.

JW: Nah, that boy’s fearless. But then he goes out and goes snowboarding and tears all the ligaments out of his knee and was out for six months, you know? The training that we got from Vince and others stressed safety first.

TN: This is a little off topic, but I thought you’d have an interesting opinion on this. Haystacks Calhoun versus Dusty Rhodes—who do you think hitched their pants up more?

JW: Gosh, I hate to say it, but it’s gonna be Dusty! (laughs)

TN: So with all these crazy bumps…you said that Cletus was fearless, but seeing as you were one of the main forces behind this group, were you ever worried about someone’s health going into a show?

JW: Going into it? No. Coming out of it? Sometimes. Huck Killbilly did that header off the top of that 14 foot ladder that was on top of the stage down to the table on the dance floor, with two broken ribs he suffered the match prior.

TN: Did you know that he was going to do that ahead of time?

JW: He knew that he had it in him to come off the top of that ladder, but everyone in the back was trying to tell him not to.

TN: Was there ever a time when you had to talk to someone before the show or after the show you know—“Don’t do something crazy like that or…”

JW: I know there’s been a time or two that I’ve said “give me a little warning before you do that next time.” Usually it’s too late, it’s already happened. I took an Outsiders Edge one night that nearly made me three inches shorter.

TN: What does an Outsiders Edge feel like?

JW: Correctly? It’ll jar the shit out of you. Incorrectly, it’ll break you in half.

TN: How close to correct was the one you had to take?

JW: On a scale of one to ten, ten being very incorrect, probably about a seven, seven and a half.

TN: That’s not bad.

JW: Yeah, I still landed face up. I didn’t double my neck up, so that’s cool.

TN: So how do you get a cage?

JW: Um, go to Lowe’s (laughs). Buy some chain link, have a little ingenuity.

TN: What’s it like to go out shopping for stuff for a show?

JW: That’s fun. It’s like a kid at Christmastime.

TN: What’s your favorite foreign object?

JW: Um…I like the stop sign. The trash cans are pretty cool too, though. Trash cans get a good ring but you get more of an effect with a stop sign.

TN: What’s your least favorite to take a shot from?

JW: The only item that’s been banned from No Mercy probably, and that’s a hockey stick.

TN: Pussies.

JW: Yeah, Huck Killbilly took a hockey stick to the forehead and got a concussion, but it never took him off his feet.

TN: What sort of things distinguish a great show from a lousy one?

JW: How sore you are the next morning. Naw…the crowd. If you can’t make the crowd go home, you’ve done a good job.

TN: Why did No Mercy stop putting on shows for the public?

JW: A local promoter, rather than seeing something that was outdrawing him, goes to the state and complains. To be honest, we were so naïve at it we didn’t know we needed a license in the state. Well, now we do, and we’re getting a license, and everything’s getting all legal. No Mercy isn’t gone. No Mercy hasn’t faded away. In fact, everything’s coming back strong.

TN: How do you get a license?

JW: In the state of Virginia it’s real easy. Go get a physical and pay the state 25 dollars and you too can be a professional wrestler. It’s just that easy. You have to fill out some paperwork, but other than that it’s really pretty simple.

TN: A lot of these wrestling websites at the end of interviews will do word association, so you feel like trying it?

JW: Hey, I’m up for anything.

TN: Dayton, Ohio

JW: Wright brothers? I don’t know.

TN: Christopher Robin Zimmerman

JW: Too many syllables.

TN: Tony Danza

JW: (positively guffaws) You can quote me on that.

TN: Howard Finkel

JW: Rough childhood with a name like that.

TN: Jimmy “The Boogie Woogie Man” Valiant

JW: A legend!