Interview with a Vampire: Gangrel explains why he'll never be in the WWE Hall Of Fame and talks about his nixed ECW run

He's still
Gangrel's still going strong

Gangrel was the vampire legitimizing the gothic ambiance of The Brood, one of the Attitude Era's most iconic factions. During my time with Gangrel, two things were apparent to me: he is an unbelievably nice person and he loves pro wrestling. His fangs are also very real as well.

I met up with Gangrel in Ironton, Ohio while he was in town to perform at FTC: Omega Wars and he was excited to speak to me about what he's doing, his soon-to-be-opening wrestling school, and give some insight into the nature of pro wrestling in general.

With 30 years of experience under his belt, The Vampire Warrior Gangrel has been through many battles and he's destined to see even more as he presses on.

We began by discussing Gangrel's Wrestling Asylum located in Dania Beach, Florida which is opening on October 31st but "by mid-November, we'll be running full steam" he told me.

Here are some of the highlights from our conversation:


If he keeps up with the wrestling rumour mill: I don't keep track of any of that stuff. I'm honestly so busy working every weekend Friday, Saturday, Sunday; and now -- usually I was helping with someone else's school; now I'm opening my own school; I've been so busy that I haven't really kept track of anything like that.

If The Brood will make it into the WWE Hall Of Fame: The Brood will make it into the Hall of Fame before I ever do; The Brood's a possibility. My name issues... I own the name, so. [WWE] won't do anything with the Gangrel name, period. Nothing.

If he'll be excluded as part of The Brood in the WWE Hall Of Fame: [Edge and Christian] deserve it; they put their time in, and they worked hard. It's alright. What people don't realize is that I'm blessed. I'm still wrestling. I've been wrestling for 30 years this past September; it's been 30 years, and I wrestle every week up to three times a week.

I'm in a wrestling ring 5 to 6 times a week -- so I'm doing what I love; the world could be passing me by [...] I don't even know. As long as I'm putting my boots on and going out there doing what I love -- the whole rest of the world I don't know what's going on. I'm very, very blessed.

About his nixed run with WWE's incarnation of ECW in 2006 alongside Kevin Thorn and Ariel in a Vampire Stable: I have no idea [what happened] they hired me, said you're gonna start on TV in a week and they called me months later and let me go; I don't know. I think somebody decided to go the other route, thought bringing [Thorn] in first and people didn't buy it — the whole vampire thing.

It's hard to buy a character that's edgy for wrestling anyway, right? Man you try to do something the same or similar and people get weird and funky about it, so I think it maybe backfired a little bit.


Send us news tips at [email protected]