Johnny Swinger talks Chris Jericho, WWE, ECW, TNA & more (Exclusive)

Johnny Swinger was a part of WCW, ECW, WWE, and TNA throughout his career in professional wrestling. Swinger is still wrestling as part of the independent scene today. Perched On The Top Rope Podcast had a chance to interview Swinger in Buffalo, New York.

SK: What was it like being in WCW, ECW, WWE, TNA, and how were they different?

Swinger: Now that you bring that up, they were all a lot different. WCW was the absolute best. I know a lot of people don't say that, and Buff Bagwell would probably agree with me.

Maybe it was because I was so young and new to being a wrestler. I had three-four years as a wrestler, and to be under contract, a full-time contract with the biggest wrestling company in the world... because at that time we had bigger ratings than WWF with Goldberg and the nWo stable.

To go to the arena every week that's sold out... you're like 'this is big time!' I was 21-22 at the time, and I'm a big-time professional wrestler, not in the nWo, but on the card.

Not a lot of people can say they were a WWE wrestler; I can. I thought it was going to be way more than what it was, and unfortunately, it wasn't. There is nobody to blame, but from my own personal experience there, I did way better in WCW, I did way better as an ECW and TNA wrestler. So, if I have to rate them, number four is WWE, but I do appreciate I got to be there as a full-time wrestler.

It helps to be on the independents some ten years later. I have an 8x10 WWE picture, not a lot of people have that. It's like, "Hey, I was in the Yankees. I wasn't a star, but I was on the Yankees," You know what I mean? That's how I kind of look at it.

SK: Speaking of WWE, how did you feel about the name change?

Swinger: It was a shock the way they sprung it on me. About an hour before TV tapings started, I was going to debut on Sunday Night Heat. They told me my match was going on 7:30-8 o'clock. I was told an hour before they had to have my match set, had a good guy to wrestle, I was going to get a big win for my TV debut, and Johnny Laurinaitis comes up to me and goes, "You can't be Johnny Swinger." I say, "What do you mean I can't be Johnny Swinger?"

He told me Vince didn't want me using that name and never gave me a reason for it. So I said, “okay.” I was waiting for him to tell me what my name is going to be, and he's just looking at me and goes (mimicking John Laurinaitis' voice), "You gotta come up with it. Here, take about fifteen minutes and think of it."

I'm like, "Really? Ten years to get here and I have to come up with a name?" All these things were going through my head as these guys hired me out of TNA. I had a starring role there. I had a starring role in ECW, and Johnny Swinger in WCW was on TV every week. I thought they hired Johnny Swinger, but an hour before my TV debut I was told to come up with a new name.

I went and grabbed Jericho, and I grabbed some of my other friends there, and I asked, "What do I come up with?" Jericho goes, "Why don't you become Johnny Good? Your catchphrase can be, 'It's all good'."

I looked at Jericho and said, "Chris, that's horrible. As good as you are, that's horrible." I didn't know what to do. Triple H came in the trainer's room as I was getting taped up. He looks over at me and goes, "You're the first match on Sunday Night Heat, right?" I said, "Yes, I am." He goes, "Aren't you, Tony Parisi's Nephew?" I said, "Yes." He goes, "I think you should be Johnny Parisi." I said, "That sounds great." He was already in line to be the boss anyway, so whatever the boss says sounds great. So that's how I became Johnny Parisi.

SK: How did you break into the business?

Swinger: That goes all the way back to being a kid. A lot of people start out watching it as a kid. I was the same way at eight, nine years old. I went to the Buffalo Auditorium in 1984, I was about nine, and I couldn't believe this arena full of people would react this way. When The Iron Sheik walked in the ring and told everyone to be quiet, and the people made noise. Man, that was the coolest thing ever. I knew that's what I wanted in life. I just stuck with that.

A few years later, I was about twelve-thirteen years old, raised by a single mother. My parents split up when I was a baby. My mother worked various jobs to support me as a kid, and she just came home one day and said she met this gentleman named Tony, he was a nice guy, and he puts the ring up for WWF.

I met him, and he turned out to be a super guy. He was a childhood friend of Tony Parisi, who was a legendary wrestler with the old WWWF. They grew up together in Italy, came over on a boat together, and are best friends. My mom’s boyfriend worked for Tony Parisi putting up the ring for all the WWF shows in the early eighties.

He started dating my mother, and I go from going to a watching a show to three years later, I'm helping set up the ring for WWF. So that's really how I got started.

I did that until I was sixteen-seventeen years old. At that time, I started looking for places to train. They didn't really have a lot of wrestling schools back then. They had camps, but there were very few. I found a camp with Sweet Daddy Siki and joined a week after graduating from high school. I met Edge and Christian there. We all trained together and broke into the business together.

SK: You were able to be part of the Atlanta, Georgia episode of WCW Monday Nitro on the same night Goldberg defeated Hogan for the title. You were on that card and wrestled Chavo Guerrero Jr. What was it like being part of that night of 40,000 people for a sold-out show?

Swinger: A lot of people bring that match up. We knew it was going to be a big crowd because Goldberg was hot. They announced that match on Thursday, three days before he was going to wrestle Hogan for the belt at the Georgia Dome. That sold 43,000 tickets in three days. Bill was just super hot.

I got called the next day Friday and was told to be at the Georgia Dome with my gear. I was like, “Wow, this is going to be pretty big.” When I got there, I was told I was going to wrestle Chavo, and have a live promo before the match. I'll always remember just walking to the ring and seeing that sea of people. It took forever, it seemed like, getting to the ring. Once I got to the ring, I jumped up on the apron and looked in the camera and thought, "Man, if there are these many people here, how many millions are watching this thing on TV?" I think to this day that was the most-watched episode of WCW ever.

To be on that card, have a live promo in the ring, have a match with a guy like Chavo, it's definitely a match I'll always remember.

SK: What was it like for you to win tag team gold in TNA?

Swinger: It was really good because it was a carryover from ECW with myself and Simon Diamond. We got put together a few months after I started working in ECW. We were on track to become the world tag team champions in ECW.

Paul Heyman told us," You guys are going to run with the titles and be a big draw for me." For whatever reason, that didn't happen. The company went bankrupt before we got that really big push and titles.

When TNA came up a couple of years later, Simon and I had the chance to go there, and I think in a meeting TNA said, "Man you guys are on fire, we're going to go all the way with you guys."

We were like, this is good, this is what worked for. We were really happy to get it. After we won those titles, we had some good money contracts, and we were in high demand with independents because we were allowed to work outside TNA at the time. It was a lucrative time in my career. We were tag team champions in TNA and allowed to work indie shows on weekends.

Fans can find Johnny Swinger on Facebook under Johnny Swinger, and his real name John Dorgan. He also has a website swingtimewrestling.com if you want to see where he booked or if you're going to book him. We'd like to thanks Buffalo Championship Wrestling for allowing us to interview Johnny Swinger. You can listen to the interview below.