British man pins down pro wrestlers for interviews
James Romero sits in the studio where he interviews pro wrestlers on YouTube. • Photos submitted
By Tom Victoria
James Romero didn’t have to grapple long with deciding whether to interview pro wrestlers and write books about them. He realized there was nothing stopping him from doing either.
James, 34, of South Manchester in England started a YouTube channel, Wrestling Shoot Interviews, earlier this year.
“I want to be the king of this,” he said.
James is off to a good start, scoring interviews with such past stars as Larry “Living Legend” Zbyszko, Leaping Lanny Poffo, who later became the “Genius,” Marc Mero and Don Muraco, who was called “Magnificent” and the “Rock” long before Duane Johnson was old enough to lace on boots.
The host said he does not like being on camera, but has no choice if he wants his own show.
“No one’s going to do it for me,” James said.
Unlike many other shows interviewing wrestlers, he asks salient questions in a professional manner while remaining interesting. James said the key to a good interview is developing a rapport with the wrestlers.
“Anyone can do it. Put the work in and just have a go.”
“You just need to be nice, friendly,” he said.
Although James does not skip the tough questions, he gives the interview subject the option of keeping the answer in the posted interview segment.
James carefully crafts his questions so they’re not too restrictive, resulting in yes and no answers, and not too vague, which could lead to responses wandering off topic.
“I’ve got a pretty strict set of questions,” he said.
James started lining up guests by asking Poffo, the brother of late wrestler “Macho Man” Randy Savage.
“I just wrote him a nice email,” James said.
Poffo responded by saying he normally declines such requests, but was impressed with how well-written and polite James’ message was.
Zbyszko was a popular good guy in the then WWWF during the 1970s. He rose to greater prominence after turning against his mentor, the original “Living Legend” Bruno Sammartino.
James holds copies of the wrestler biographies he wrote.
The resilient Muraco had a popular feud with Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka in the early 1980s.
The energetic Mero first appeared on national television in WCW as the Little Richard-like Johnny B. Badd before joining WWF, now WWE, under his own name.
James also interviewed Savio Vega, Justin Credible and Nick “Eugene” Dinsmore, among others.
“I was most surprised by how nice a few of the wrestler have been, particularly Larry Zbyszko and Lanny Poffo, as well as Marc Mero,” James said. “When I told Larry I was having slight audio issues, he said he’d be happy to record the entire interview again if the finished product wasn’t up to scratch.”
Despite never having been exposed to a constant flow of wrestling programming like there was in America, James still became a fan of the genre. He first saw pictures of wrestlers, including Irwin R. Shyster, or IRS for short, and Hulk Hogan, on a board game’s stickers in 1993 when he was 7.
James later watched videos of wrestling shows, including WWE’s SummerSlam in 1998. He was awed by the spectacle.
“Kane was shooting lightning out of his fingertips,” he said, referring to wrestler Glenn Jacobs, now an American mayor in Tennessee.
All of James’ pocket money then went to PlayStation games and wrestling videotapes.
Years later in 2013, he started a YouTube channel, Jim Cornette’s Talking Sense, playing clips from former wrestling manager Cornette’s podcast. The videos were a hit. The channel eventually boasted 4.5 million views one month and earned James a silver YouTube plaque for garnering 100,000 subscribers.
Cornette, now known for making inflammatory remarks as a public figure, later opted to be the one airing his own clips. Consequently, James sought a new focus for his efforts.
After watching others interview wrestlers, often with a less than interesting product, James decided he could do his own show.
“I never researched anyone on how to present myself, so I can’t say I’ve stolen anybody’s style directly,” he said. “I am just myself for better or worse.”
After lining up a guest, James taps into a variety of sources for references, including his own collection of podcast/DVD clips, cagematch.net to check out a list of matches for the wrestler and other interviews the person has done.
James received a silver YouTube plaque for his former YouTube show.
Like any new show, James’ challenge is pinning down new guests and the time needed to research and produce the set of clips for each interview. At this point, James is sticking with multiple clips per each interview.
“The full length episodes are an issue at the moment,” he said. “They don’t get as many views as compared to the clips. A full episode might get a few hundred, whereas eight to 10 clips from the same interview will get anywhere between 15,000 to 80,000.”
James said he spends much of the time choosing a thumbnail for each video.
“I agonize over them every week,” he said.
James also was inspired to write books about two former wrestlers: the late Owen Hart in 2019 and Johnson, now a top-drawing movie star, in 2020.
He recalled watching a clip where a wrestler said someone should write a book about all of the pranks Hart played on his colleagues. After beginning to research Hart, who died performing a stunt for a WWE show, James soon had enough material to broaden the scope.
He spoke to former mixed martial arts fighter Dan Severn, who had a stint as a pro wrestler in WWE during Hart’s tenure.
“Dan was really nice,” James recalled.
Severn recounted the time Hart dropped him on his head, leading to brief paralysis.
Following the Hart’s biography, James focused on the modern “Rock.” The author was surprised to learn how many breaks Johnson, the son of late wrestler Rocky Johnson and grandson of the late wrestler “High Chief” Peter Maivia, received during his wrestling career.
“He really had it easy,” James said.
What was not a surprise was Johnson’s workout regimen when younger, working three hours a day to get a massive physique.
James encouraged others to pursue such endeavors as writing books and hosting shows.
“Anyone can do it,” he said. “Put the work in and just have a go.”
The link to James' YouTube channel is: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwnY1dm-KAaCIZOuHo-Z_Vg