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This week's Impact Wrestling teleconference featured one of their newest and hottest stars 'Local Hero' Joe Hendry. I had the opportunity to ask him a question during the teleconference.
Since starting in Impact Wrestling, Joe Hendry has created quite an impact with his singing gimmick, firing up the crowd with each entrance, and even humiliating his opponents with music videos.
Your singing gimmick is one of the best things in the wrestling world right now. Did any previous wrestler inspire you to adopt this gimmick?
Joe Hendry:
"That's a good point. I think it's one of those things where everyone has their influences for sure. I think my biggest influences I'd say, Kurt Angle is a huge inspiration for me, and again had the chance to wrestle (him), which was a phenomenal experience. The Rock was the reason I got into the business. The thing about the Rock is, people would not necessarily know why I liked wrestling, I would show them one of their promos and then they would understand. So I wanted to create content that would do the same. I wanted to create videos that non-wrestling fans would find appealing.
That was one of the things that was brought up to me when it was discussed I would be brought on board for Impact Wrestling is that the executives told me that someone they knew who didn't often go to Indie shows had gone to one to see my entrances, and they were like 'Wait a second, if he was enough to drag you to Indie shows, we have to see what this is.'
They who didn't attend a whole lot of Indie shows outside of their own work had come to see me and had passed on that information to Impact Wrestling manager which made them check out my videos. So that philosophy has carried me to this point. From a charisma point of view, Kurt Angle from an in-ring point of view, intensity point of view, and he was one of those who inspired me to get into freestyle wrestling, because I got into that when I was 26, because I knew I needed to add that intensity level to my game to step into those main event slots.
But also, again, Jericho is a huge influence again, really showed that wrestlers can be multi-faceted entertainers. There's obviously, Ric Flair, (who) is a huge influence as well. Ric Flair was probably my main inspiration when I started doing the Prestigious One when I was charging people a hundred dollars to take a picture with me, that was a definite Ric Flair influence."
Since his debut on Impact Wrestling, Joe Hendry has teamed up with his best friend, Grado, and has taken on Eli Drake. Having beaten Drake on one occasion, the last time he faced him, Hendry found himself on the wrong side of the result after an accidental distraction from Grado. With one win for either side, Hendry will be looking to win their eventual confrontation which is sure to come.
