JD HALL's NEWS PAGE
In this, the third and final installment of the J.D. Hall up close interview, we will dive into J.D.'s career, his thoughts on some of his fellow wrestlers, and his thoughts on the future of his career, and the future of wrestling. When we last left you J.D. fans, J.D. had just told us about meeting Marcus Mansfield and getting his break into wrestling. So I hope you all enjoy the last of the the Teen Icon's interview,
The Webmaster
WebMaster: So you pulled the ring down to Union Missouri for Marcus, what happened when you got there.
JD: Well, the day started early (8:00 a.m.) with Marcus and myself loading the ring, all by ourselves, onto a rental trailer. It took us about an hour to do so. I got to talk to Marcus in depth about wrestling, and he would answer any question I had to ask. Then we went and picked up "Bubby" (Bobby Mansfield), Marcus' brother who used to wrestle with us, but is now out of wrestling. We went and ate lunch, and headed to Union. We got there around 4:00 and unloaded the ring, set it up, and I got into the ring for the first time on March 31st 1995. Marcus, Bubby, and "Mean" Mark Stone, another indy wrestler, began to show me the in's and out's of wrestling.
WM: What was it like the first time being in the ring and taking "falls".
JD: It hurt!! I'd like to say that I caught on quick, but I didn't. Marcus and Mark would try to show me the basics, running the ropes, taking a "bump" (a fall), and tying up. While Bobby was trying to show me moonsaults, leg drops, and all these advanced moves!! Bobby was crazy. So I took my first bump. I knocked the wind out of me, and I thought I was going to die. They went on to work with me for an hour, then they had to get ready for the show. I did security for the show, and helped take down the ring and clean the arena up. Marcus and I arived back at the barn he kept the ring in around 3:00 a.m. in the morning. It was raining, not just any rain, but a late March cold rain. And we were the only two unloading it. We got everything done and my first day of wrestling ended with a 21 hour day.
WM: So where did it go from there?
JD: Marcus and me would hook up a couple times a week for him to show me tie ups, moves out of tie ups, and chain wrestling. The next show was in May in a neighboring town to Louisiana named Bowling Green. Marcus said I could manage Bobby, and take place in the end of the night battle royal. But I had to come up with a name and gimmack for myself so he could print my name on the promotional posters. I was going to go with a gimmack named the "Ghost Rider", a charecter like the Crow, a gimmack later done by Sting. But one day when I was talking to my mom about it, she said sarcastically "you should call yourself J.D. Hall, because that's where you belong, in "J"uvenile "D"eliquent Hall". Now to this day my mom deny's this, and if you were to ask her about it she will tell you "I did not do that, that was a very embarassing situation (me always being in trouble with the law) and I would never say anything like that." But she did!
WM: So tell me about the Bowling Green Show.
JD: Getting to hang out in the locker room, being in the ring, and actually being involved with the show was a major rush. I was hooked from that night on. I remember reading an article by Bret Hart after Brian Pillman died about how wrestling is like a drug that you just get addicted to. I would have to totally agree, it just got into my head, my blood, but mostly, it got into my heart.
WM: So we know about what was going on in the ring, what was going on out of the ring in you life.
JD: Well, I went and took and passed my GED test in 1996, and the wrestling had gotten me off the streets and away from all the negative people. I got off probation in 1996 as well. Life was going good. I started college in 1998, and went 3 semesters, and only have 40 credits lleft to obtain my physical education degree.
WM: Why did you go to college...
JD: I wanted become a football coach. I had a falling out with the new promoter, and had always loved football. But I got back into the wrestling full time again when I made a pact to myself to lose weight and get back into the gym. I lost 40 pounds in 7 weeks. I started going to the gym alot, eating the right foods. When I did this, I looked like a wrestler should, and I fell back into love with the "business".
WM: The new promoter, what did he do to...
JD: He really wasn't new. He was always around, even when Marcus ran things. But he was not like Marcus. He screwed people over left and right, lied, cheated, and stole from everyone, including us wrestlers. I never really talked with him, Marcus got me all my bookings, as Marcus knew we did not get along. Frank (Reed, the promoter) was jealous, not just of me, but anyone that was close with Marcus. Plus, he would only push his beer drinking, non talent friends. So finally, Marcus split up with him. When Marcus left, the Searcher, Blade the Destroyer (www.bladethedestroyer.com), the Missouri Giant, and myself left as well.
WM: Tell us about the birth of Missouri Powerhouse Wrestling
JD: We all left (Frank) in December of 1999. We all decided to meet up in January and dicuss where we were going to go with our careers. Marcus had talked about starting a new fed before we left the "other" place. So Chris Powell, a friend of Marcus and mine, and Marcus pulled their money together to start MPW. And that's where we are today.
WM: I want to play a word association game with you using fellow MPW wrestlers names, and names from your past ,and I want you to say the first word that pop's in your head. the first name I will go with is Marcus Mansfield.
JD: Angel.
WM: Chris Powell
JD: Obsessed.
WM: The Searcher
JD: Passionate.
WM: Frank Reed.
JD: paranoid-scitzophrynia
WM: Osiris
JD: Focused
WM: Vince McMahon
JD: Genius.
WM: Shawn Michaels
JD: The greatest of all time.
WM: J.D. Hall
JD: The Future
WM: So, J.D., what can your fans expect to see from you in the future?
JD: The #1 Teen Icon will continue to come to your towns and be unappriciated from a all the moronic fans. J.D. will keep awing fans with his great looks, and his awesome wrestling skills. Hopefully one day He will make the big time, but until then, he will keep working harder than anyone else, he will become the most determined person in the business, but one thing above and beyond all this, J.D. will be the #1 Teen Dream in the world. Now this interview is over. In the famous words of N*Sync "Bye Bye Bye".
About 5 minutes after J.D. left, an announcement came over the building announcement speaker "Ladies and Gentlemen, your teen dream J.D. Hall has left the building!!".