Rest of Hero shoot. Some taken from another forum as it would of been what I said anyways.
- Super Dragon is legit and is how you think he is in real life. Doesn't take shit from anyone and tells it how it is. Hero thought he was a dick at first but came to like him over time.
- He tried to get into DG through Horiguchi when he wrestled him at the 2006 BOLA but nothing came of it.
- Lots of good words about Human Tornado. He said the hardest thing about their fued was trying to get Tornado real heat because he was still getting cheered while beating up on Candice because he was so popular. Tornado also blew his knee about before their cage match and still gutted it out.
- Him and Necro have been friends for years but had a falling out of sorts in 2007 when, long story short, Necro thought there was something going between Chris and the girl he was seeing. Necro tried fighting him at a show, then just avoided him for months after. Necro then started suffering from a staph infection and it was Hero who convinced him to go to the hospital for it, and they were fine ever since.
- Ki was pissed at him a couple times over dumb shit. One time Ki's ribs were injured and they worked a match where Hero worked them over and Ki thought he was legit trying to hurt or injure him. Another time they worked a show and Ki got mad because Hero did a double stomp in his match.
- The ASW show where he wrestled Ki, Kingston and Necro in a fourway made for a good story. At this point in time fans were begining to turn on him for his title reign and all three dudes kinda disliked him at this point (the Kingston heat is 100% legit or they are the biggest bullshitters in the business). Hero won in underwhelming fashion then tried to cut a promo after to get the fans back on side, but Kingston was sitting in the corner of the ring mocking him. They exchanged words and then had a brawl which I'm pretty sure is on the DVD, which was totally legit. After the show Hero went to the merch table instead of the lockerroom so that he could sell some DVDs and give Kingston time to cool off. he then got told that Low Ki had "requested his presence". He went to the lockerroom and Ki had pretty much held everyone there waiting for him so Ki could yell at him and give him a dressing down in front of everyone. Ki then had words with him after and basically said Heo was disrespectfl and unprofessional blah blah blah. Ki quote "I've been around the world, motherfucker".
- 2008 BOLA finals vs Ki: Ki was an asshole and him punting Hero's nose open was not cool, and he never bothered to ask Hero if he was ok. But overall he sucked it up and he thought the match was great. Good words about Ki as a worker, but he's a "weird dude". Takes himself too serious and is a bit of a mark. We all knew that though.
- PAC: awesome worker and guy, but way too hard on himself and pushes himself too hard.
- Joey Ryan: fun to wrestle, but can never get the right heat - always cheered as a heel, always booed as a face.
- The title switch with Danielson before Danielson went to WWE: Danielson's one of his favourite guys to work and the match was great. Didn't give a shit about the booking, was just happy to be a part of a great moment.
- Tozawa's breakout match: Hadn't seen much of Tozawa before he came to PWG. Generico legit KO'd him the night before so Tozawa was nervous, but the match was great and the crowd helped a lot.
- He really likes PWG because it has a fun atmosphere. Shows could be shorter but that's his only complaint.
- WrestleReunion was a great experience for him. Apart from him and Steen seeing Mean Gene naked.
Him and Ki don't have each other at all (he said they are civil), and they only had a handful of matches together.
ROH section of the Hero shoot:
- He wrestled Danielson at TPI 2005(?) while Danielson was ROH champ. Gabe didn't want Danielson to lose and put up a huff about it, but Ian wanted Hero vs Cannon in the second round, and Danielson had no problem putting Hero over.
- ROH wasn't doing great business in 2005, even with the Kobashi shows. Gabe brought in Hero for a one shot match with Danielson as he had a win over him and they were trying to bring in outside guys for Danielson to defend against in an attempt to draw more. Never planned on it being anything more than one match. He never wanted to go to ROH and be lost in scramble in an undercard scramble match or whatever, so he took the match with Danielson.
- Sadly the story about Zandig throwing Mike Burns down a flight of stairs it not true. Zandig did however get pissy over working with ROH after he had already agreed to the doubleshot with them.
- Hero vs Danielson drew more than the Kobashi shows. Believe it. Adam Flash, Nate Webb and Necro escorted Hero to the match on their own back. Match had a great atmosphere and generated a good enough response Gabe wanted to bring Hero back for more, which lead to the CZW fued.
- They hadn't planned Kingston as the mystery man for Cage of Death until that week. Gabe initially thought about Justice Pain and Nick Gage but Hero didn't think that'd be good and suggested Kingston instead.
- The angle with the Kings stealing Aries & Strong's tag belts happened because either Aries or Strong legit left their belt at home by accident.
- Him and Claudio were tag champs in ROH, CZW and Chikara all at the same time and almost became PWG tag champs too. But then there was the deal with Claudio and WWE and they had to drop them all. The reason Claudio didn't get signed at that time was not because of VISA issues like most thought but because one of the doctor's who ran the tests fucked up with the paperwork. Hero feels that Claudio became better for it, though.
- He was nervous about working the Briscoes due to their rep despite knowing them for years, but turned out they were great to work with.
- Sweet N Sour was some of the most fun he had in wrestling. Wishes they had TV for it. They were never able to blow off the Dempsey angle the way they wanted, though.
- The Young Knock-Out Kid gimmick was inspired by Mike Tyson, he wanted to start using a moveset where fans could buy it ending at any moment from a big shot, rather than relying on a formula of finishes and fals finishes. The gimmick didn't really get over at first with the Strong matches, but he was committed to it.
- Gabe was fired from ROH at the Homicide returns weekend with the fourway tag ironman clusterfuck. The talent were never told about it by management, but they put it up on the messageboard. Apparently ROH were losing money and Gabe had been threatened several times to change his booking or it'd happen, but he never did. Hero called Cary about it and questioned why he never told the talent and Cary got mad at him.
- Hero and Pearce get along well and Pearce was always cool with Hero voicing his grievences to him. Those grievences were bookings getting cancelled on short notice and eventually him and the rest of the East Coast guys (Claudio, Sweeney, Del Rey & Jig) cutting cut from the roster despite them always driving to shows instead of flying to save the company money. Hero's only problem with Pearce was that his attitude whenever they had a bad crowd was "fuck the crowd, you guys worked hard and were great". Hero talked to him about it but Pearce blew him off and seemingly soured on him after that.
- Cary was watching his Lights Out match with Strong and, because Roddy spent most of the match selling, thought Hero was being an asshole, trying to take advantage, only concerned with getting himself over, etc. Hero then got taken off more shows and the combination of Perce and Cary not liking him eventually lead to him going altogether.
- Albright was an asshole who tried to get Stevens to no-sell and take advantage of Hero when they had a singles match.
- He hates working out and going to the gym, always tried to have a Barry Windham-esque physique, which is why he wore the shitty ring gear for so long. Then he had the big NOAH tour where he started working out more so that he could wear trunks instead and he hasn't looked back since
- Quack has OCD and that comes out in his wrestling and booking with how meticulous and perfectionist he is.
- He met Quack at an IWA:MS show and they quickly bonded over their love of Toryumon and Johnny Saint. Quack actually tried to bring Saint in to the States in 2004 but it didn't happen. Soon after he started working Chikara, Quack asked him to be the second trainer at the school in 2004. He says being a trainer also helped him get better as a worker because he had to adapt to other guys. His first student was Hydra.
- The CZW Chikara school came about as CZW's school became non-existant and Chikara started using the Arena for their school. It ended eventually though because the CZW guys felt they were "losing their identity" and didn't need to learn lucha or whatever. No funny Quack-Zandig stories unfortunately.
- Lots of good words about Milano Collection AT. Great to work with and a really cool, respectful guy. When he came to the States he wanted to learn and work the US style, so he attended the Chikara school for a while. Milano would get involved and do all the basic shit with the other students and Hero said it was surreal being the one teaching him stuff.
- He thinks Hallowickid is the most underated guy in the business. Calls him a "wrestler's wrestler" and says he's so easy to work with. "If he didn't have the gimmick he'd be massive".
- He says Chikara somewhat handicaps a lot of the guys who work there. Quack doesn't like his guys working for other promotions. Lots of guys join up wanting to be pro wrestlers and end up just being "pro wrestlers for Chikara". Quack wants what's best for him and Chikara over what's best for some of the guys in his company. Lots of guys (like Hallo) kind of get held back by not being able to adopt other gimmicks or work elsewhere. If guys tried to break out elsewhere Quack would stop booking them or just make them feel bad for it. Only guys who were able to do it were Kingston and Sweeney because they were big enough personalities and not afraid to stand up to Quack, guys like Jigsaw or Hallo not so much.
- There's a notable difference between guys who learn lucha in Mexico and "white boy lucha"
- The Equinox gimmick bombed hard but because Gerard worked so hard and was so dedicated, Chris took it upon himself to come up with the "fake luchador" angle where he de-masked. Quack didn't like the idea but Hero talked him round.
- Jigsaw could have trained more and attended more classes, but he had a job and long drive, etc. But still think he has a lot of potential to be a star.
- UMB: Also bonded with him over Johnny Saint fandom. Very charismatic guy who was a great moutpiece that helped get the most out of the guys he worked with
- Blackjack Marciano: could have been big if he'd stuck around, but became a victim of Chikara. Quack pretty much forced him into working one of their touring matches even though he didn't want to go, he blew out his knee in the match, and never returned.
- Frightmare was his last student, started when he was 16. Another guy who could blow up if he went elsewhere as something else, though.
- He admires Quack for building Chikara to what it is, but doesn't like nor dislike him.
- To add to what FM said, by the time he was working ROH, ROH would pay him 4 times what Chikara would for one show. After Hero asked Quack for a raise, Quack sent him an angry e-mail and agreed to give him a raise if he got more students, promoted Chikara more, got them into ROH, signed up on message boards to promote them, etc.
- Quack would review every show they ran and email his review to those on the show as a way of giving feedback. Often he would bury the living shit out of guys not on the mailing list (mostly guys who weren't active roster members).
- He had to cancel the '07 KoT because he got booked for his first NOAH tour. Quack was very upset when he told him because he felt it really fucked up his whole plan for the shows. Basically he didn't care about Chris's big moment or whatever.
Hero does a good Mad Man Pondo impression. He talked about how he got his number and Pondo said say it back and Hero went "567 5309" then Pondo went now sing it. Just a quick fun story. Was also ammused at how he said he didnt want to quit wrestling but quit life in the Kenta HD net match do to his kicks
Hero on CZW:
- His first couple of matches against Ruckus sucked as they blew up or whatever
- He got brought back for Cage Of Death and was really up for redeeming himself after the Ruckus match, but ended up just getting the shit beat out of him all match by the H8 Club and B-Boy. This included Nate Hatred legit KO'ing him with a clothesline.
- Ian gave him shit for working CZW and jobbing there, but then went and worked CZW himself anyway.
- The second stint there he became a regular, won the belt, etc and it became his second home after Chikara at the time
- Alex Shelley: fun to work with and puts in a lot of time
- Sabian/Blk Jeez: Cool guy, but not when talking about wrestling because he's hot heated and gets upset easily over it
- CZW became a mess once Mike Burns left, no real authority figure. Zandig was pretty absent when in charge. Hero became miserable working there during this change.
- Justice Pain: could be cool, but thought he was above everyone. One of the "CZW original" dicks who buried everyone and thought who came into CZW after him sucked. Terrible wrestler, didn't know shit about putting moves together and building a match. Pretty much a glorified backyarder who could be unsafe to work with. The combination of his attitude and him sucking made him the worst guy Hero's ever worked in his opinion. Funny story - he had a three way title match main even with Pain and Kingston. A few minutes in Kingston legit breaks his ankle and has to be eliminated, but instead of just pinning him or putting him in a safe submission, Pain grabs the broken ankle and Kingston tapped before he could even apply a hold because he was worried about what Pain would do. Pain then shit a brick and told Hero they needed to "take it home" despite it being only a few minutes into the main event. Hero then tried to do an up-and-over spot in the corner and Pain actually ended up flipping over the rope to the floor by accident. After the match Pain asked Kingston if he was Ok but walked away before Kingston even finished answering.
- The show after that threeway, Hero worked Gage and Hero pinched a nerve which messed up his arm after Gage gave him a stiff elbow which jerked his neck. Didn't ask Hero if he was ok and moments later threw him through the ropes without Hero being able to grab the ropes or land properly, so Hero took a hard, unsafe bump onto his back. Basically the H8 Club guys are morons and clueless in the ring. This lead to Hero challenging Kingston to the LLT match totally improptu one show because Hero was so fed and wanted to leave.
- There was one show which was mained by a Gage vs Pain match which Hero decided to watch from the balcony. Basically the wrestled for like 5 minutes with the crowd not giving a shit and Pain decided to end it. He did this by wrecklessly dropping Gage from the ring through a table on the floor with the Painthriller that had Gage land on his head and neck. Even though Hero didn't like Gage he thought it was really shitty of Pain to be so wreckless and unprofessional to a guy he was supposed to be best friends with. The crowd shat on it hard and were chanting for refunds, so Younger (who was the most over guy on the roster at the time and the nicest guy who'd do anything for anyone), decided to go out and have an improptu match with Pain in attempt to send the fans home happy. This despite Younger being scared shitless of what Pain might to do him. Pain gave Younger nothing and didn't sell for him. This inculded throwing a bucket of thumbtacks straight into Drake's face and then botching an Awesome Bomb out the ring through a table that could have broke Drake's neck.
- Just before the Kingston LLT match, which they both put all the work into, Zandig pulled Kingston aside and told him they were going to do an angle afterwards with Zandig laying Kingston out. This was because of rumours that Kingston was going to leave anyway and Zandig was insecure about it. Hero and Kingston then talked and said fuck that. After the match Zandig came out for it but Kingston just left the ring. Zandig thought this was Kingston leaving and just fired him on the mic like an idiot
Hero talking about the Misawa death was bad. Not in the way he told it but if yoyu just picture it being a gaijin over there. He said they took all of them into a room and told them what happend and Hero and the rest of the gaijin coulds tell what was going on because they couldnt speak the language.
The Necro story about him tackling Hero out his chair in full Necro mode yelling 30 paces away this was coming was funny.
Justice Pain is a backyard wrestler
My favorite story has to be the one where Hero, Cabana, and Danielson were main eventing a one off show in Detroit and Hero did his moonsault into the ring but the anouncer (wore a black leather vest, had a handle bar stache, and was 50-60 years old) bends down to pick up a peice of broker table so Hero doesnt land on it and in the process as the anouncer is coming back up Hero moonsault curbstomps on the top of the head. The anouncer left a perfect chalk out line and Hero legit pissed his pants laughing. After the match he went to the back and asked the anouncer if he was ok and the anouncer went "Yeah, brother. Did you like that sell? We got em" Hero "That wasnt part of the show" Anouncer "We still got em, brother"