Welcome to the second part of our amazing interview with former ECW, WWE, WCW and TNA star Crowbar. In this part, Crowbar discusses his time working with WCW, TNA and more. You can read part one HERE if you haven’t already.
Question: After leaving WWF, you joined WCW and were part of the David Flair and
Vince Russo feud. Was it enjoyable working alongside David and Daffney during this time?
Crowbar:
Prior to getting the break as “Crowbar”, I had wrestled on the WCW Saturday Night show for several months. I was going under the Devon Storm name, only now with black hair and a darker, more evil and aggressive persona. I was being groomed to eventually be brought up as a new dark and aggressive cruiserweight on the main shows, Nitro and Thunder, when the decision was made to put David Flair in a tag team.
David was drawing a rating, people were into his odd and erratic behavior, and he was eventually paired with Daffney. The major issue was David was not a strong in ring performer. As the story goes, the decision was made to find David a tag-team partner who would do the majority of the in-ring work. I was in Vail, Colorado for the Saturday night show, where I would work with both Chris Benoit and Booker T in the same night, and I was told (the story goes…) that I walked into the hotel restaurant, and Vince Russo liked my “look” and inquired about me. Shortly thereafter I filmed the gas station scene where I saved David and Daffney from Vampiro and the Misfits wielding a metal pipe. The following week, I teamed up with David and won the Tag Titles against Kevin Nash and Scott Steiner (with some help from Arn Anderson).
It was pretty surreal showing up at Nitro for the first time as this new character. As I walked in the building, I was met by Mike Tenay and Scott Hudson (who had commentated many of my WCW Saturday Night matches) and who I liked very much personally and professionally (great guys!) – and they told me that they had just left the production meeting and that I was going to win the tag titles that night. I was wearing a champion tee shirt (is that even a brand still?) that had the word “champion” across the chest – and they said “How’d you know ?” – I said “How’d I know what?”, “You and David Flair are winning the tag-team titles tonight”. I was totally blown away. It was awesome just being part of the company, but to then be called up to the main show and be given the opportunity to run with the Tag-team belts my first show on the main roster was beyond comprehension. I was honored and thrilled at the same time.
Once we were paired up, I loved working with both of them. No egos, just three young adults having a great time and enjoying the experience of making a living doing something we enjoyed doing. We did several vignettes in NYC with Vince Russo during the time Vince was trying to manipulate David and turn him against his father Ric, which I still watch and laugh at. The peep show vignette was my favorite. I loved working with and helping out Daffney so that she was able to run in and do some high spots like her “Franken-Screamer” and I even worked out with David – which we saw the fruits of when we were booked to wrestle each other once they broke us up and we were feuding with each other. All in all, a great and really fun time in my career – whether it was in a tag with David or as a singles with Daffney managing me. Very grateful.
Question: During your time in WCW, you won the Cruiserweight, Hardcore, and tag
team titles- which title win meant the most to you?
Crowbar:
The tag titles for all of the reasons I discussed previously.
Question: You left WCW in 2001 just before the company was purchased by WWF. Do
you recall what the atmosphere and morale at the time was like backstage?
Were people aware that a sale of the company was on the horizon?
Crowbar:
At the time, Eric Bischoff was supposedly going to purchase the company with a group called Fusient Media (I believe) – however, when TNT and TBS decided that they were not going to air wrestling anymore, that deal fell through. Nobody saw the WWE thing coming (at least not anyone on the rung of the ladder that I was on) and many were shocked by it.
Question: After WCW, you then wrestled on the independent scene. How was your time
there?
Crowbar:
Well, I met my future wife and mother of my children on the Independents first off – so that’s pretty great! Dina was working independents and also training with Simon Diamond and
Dawn Marie (who were a real life couple back then). I knew Simon and Dawn pretty well, they kind of helped fan the flames of romance after Dina and I met in the locker room at Jim Kettner’s ECWA in Delaware. It’s 2021 and we’re still going strong! Had I been picked up by the WWE after WCW, I never would have met her – again, God has a plan.Prior to WCW, after WCW, and now I’ve always had a great time on the independents. Independents provide a certain level of artistic freedom that sometimes get lost or reduced in the bigger companies. I never take a night off – I enjoy performing too much (ask anyone on the indies) so I’ve always liked working with the newer guys who want to work hard – and I still do to this day. I’m often asked “why the hell do you still work so hard?”, it’s pretty funny.
After WCW there was a new guy out there LoKi, whose work I enjoyed watching quite a bit. I made the request to several promoters to work with him and we had some very memorable matches at the time. I still do this today if I see a younger talent that I’d like to work hard with, help teach and elevate. Years later in 2014, after I was off for 13-14 months, I did the same thing when
I saw videos of Joey Janela and asked the GCW promoter at that time, Ricky O, to book me with him. We had 2 pretty crazy matches that were very well received at the time. Socially, it’s always great going back and seeing familiar faces that you may not have seen in a while, you pick up right where you left off most of the time, like you never left.
Question: Which companies stood out to you as the best and who did you enjoy
working with the most?
Crowbar:
If you count the WWWA World Wide Wrestling All Stars as an independent company – at the time I’d say the WWWA. It held events in Vegas, the UK and Australia that aired on PPV. It had a big company feel, big company set up, big arenas – but it gave the talent lots of freedom to be creative. I had a great time here working with Sabu, Norman Smiley, Konnan and Gangrel. Ricky’s GCW was always a great time to work for as well.
Question: In 2002, you had a short run in TNA when you were a part of James
Mitchell’s New Church faction. How did a young company like TNA differ from
your time in WWE/WCW?
Crowbar:
I loved that faction, although it was very short-lived (for me at least). At the beginning, The New Church was comprised of me, Malice (formally the WALL from WCW) and Slash (Wolfie D).
I thought collectively we had a very marketable and bad ass look. James Mitchell has always been one of my favorite managers and just an incredible talent.TNA at the time was a new company, they were flying talent in – I was told that I needed to relocate to Nashville if I wanted to continue to be part of the company. Again, they were flying other talent in, and I was basically given this ultimatum which told me that my involvement was not critical and that I was an expendable talent in the grand scheme of things.
On top of that, I had just purchased a home in NJ, landed a great job with a major physical therapy company as a site administrator, and I had just gotten engaged. As I said above – I LOVED this faction and the potential that I thought it had, and the potential I thought I could have IN IT. I had to make a very adult, real world decision and for the first time in my life, choose my current, stable life situation at the time over upending my entire life for wrestling when I knew that I was an expendable talent to TNA after the travel ultimatum. And let me be clear, being a business owner myself- I totally get that, they (TNA) had to make tough business decisions to survive in their infancy just as I had to make tough decisions for my own well-being.
It all worked out better than I could have ever imagined for me so it’s all good. Again – God has a plan.
Question: After your run in TNA, you have consistently wrestled on the independent
scene, most notably appearing on several GCW shows. Is this something that
fans can expect in the future again at some point?
Crowbar:
At the time GCW was a very local group that ran in the surrounding towns where I lived – very much different from what it has evolved into today.
I worked for a lot of groups on and off from then until now – most of them in northern New Jersey within a half hour or hour from my home. If you weren’t going to northern NJ independents over the past 20 years or so, you probably assumed I retired from the business all together.
As I said earlier in the interview – it’s important to be able to read the landscape and survey the situation and make your decisions based on the circumstances in front of you, whether you like them or not. WCW was gone, ECW was gone, it was made clear to me that I was expendable to TNA and I had a few dark matches with the WWE which didn’t turn into anything. At that time, no matter how hard I pushed, no matter how many independent matches I took, it was highly unlikely I was going to be able to push myself through the log jam of talent trying to get into the WWE’s door at the time.
For 3-4 years I was a full time professional wrestler who worked in physical therapy on a part-time / per diem basis when I was home from the road – and it then became time to transition into a full time physical therapist / part time professional wrestler. I had a degree that would allow me to work virtually anywhere and make a
good living in a profession that I was also extremely passionate about and interested in – so thankfully the transition was easy.
I purchased a home, got engaged, got married, had 2 kids and eventually opened my own Physical Therapy facility – while my wife was finishing up her own healthcare degree to become a registered dietitian. I wrestled 1-2 times a month, but life was busy and sometimes, I’d get so wrapped up in my family and my business I’d go 4, 6, sometimes 12 months without wrestling.Many ask how I am able to do all the crazy stuff I still do after 30 years in this business. The answer is simple. I’m like a classic sports car with very low mileage.
While other wrestlers worked 2,3 nights a week pursuing this, trying to force their way through the log jam of wrestlers trying to enter the WWE, I took several steps back. I enjoyed this great sport when I could and when life would allow me to, usually very locally and on a close to home basis, as I cultivated and built other aspects of my personal and professional life that NOW allows me to enjoy this great sport with no pressure.
Fast forward to now: my children are now older, my business is established, stable and growing with a large staff of physical therapists, which gives me more flexibility, and I have been venturing out more into the independent scene with this gimmick / persona that I have been working on – for probably the past 12-15 years.
In part 3 of the interview, Crowbar discusses his time with Ring Of Honor, his all time favorite matches, and what the rest of 2021 holds for him in wrestling. Make sure you subscribe so you don’t miss out!
You can follow Crowbar on twitter: @wcwcrowbar
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