Lance Storm's Latest Commentary

[Yuna_Firerose 0]

This being my last commentary of the year 2002, I thought I would take a look back at what I feel were important and interesting things of the past year. These won’t be in any particular order. I will deal with wrestling first and then some personal stuff.

 

I worked the two largest crowds of my career in 2002. I wrestled in front of some 56,000 people in Melbourne Australia as part of the “Global Warning Tour”, and I hit Sky Dome in Toronto and it’s 76,000 fans for WrestleMania X8. Unfortunately I missed out on my first chance at being on the WrestleMania card, but my Sunday Night Heat 6-Man match did get me in front of that awesome crowd in Toronto. I also finally beat my Saddle Dome curse, in Calgary, by finally getting a match in my hometown after 2 consecutive failed attempts with WWE.

 

WWE had an eventful year, which kept me, as well as you fans, on our toes. We did “THE SPLIT” or brand extension, if you will, changed to WWE from WWF, and I then got traded from SmackDown to RAW. The split was a real stressful time for me. The office went to great lengths to keep the split roster line ups quite. In order to keep the end results off the net they told no one where they would end up. Believe it or not the night of the big “Draft” I left the building after the show and had to phone a buddy of mine and ask him to go on-line and check the WWF web site to tell me which show I was on. Thankfully I was on SmackDown with most of my closer friends.

 

The split did lead to more TV time for me as we soon formed the Un-Americans, which turned out to be a very good, if somewhat of a short run. Christian and I won the WWF Tag Team titles, which led to a few more PPV appearances. Match highlights for me were a house show in Pittsburgh where I finally got to wrestle Ric Flair. Christian and I defended the Tag Titles against Flair and Taker, which was a lot of fun. I took the Flair slam of the top (Yes I got him to bump me for a change. He was after all the baby face) and got chopped by the Nature Boy. Dreamer even mentioned that night that he thought he saw a little something in our chemistry together and figured that there could be money in a Storm-Flair feud. Unfortunately that doesn’t appear to be in the cards.

 

In addition to Flair I got to wrestle Hulk Hogan. If being in the ring with one of, if not the biggest name in the business wasn’t memorable enough, this was just plain fun. We (Christian and I) worked with Edge and Hulk Hogan several times and had the time of our lives. Working with Edge is always great and the Hulkster was at a point in his life where he was just having fun. He developed a trust in us quickly and was willing to do anything we suggested. The energy level Hogan brings out of a crowd cannot be explained and if I had never been in there to experience it, I would never have believed it. Hard Core fans can bury him all they want for his work rate but take it from me (a long time Hogan critic) he’s the man. No one hates working with shitty workers more than me, and I’d wrestle Hogan any day!

 

After our Hogan & Edge run we got traded to RAW. This had both its ups and downs and eventually led to the disbanding of the Un-Americans and the forming of my current tag team with William Regal. Along with my new team came my new out fit. This was a topic of great debate here for a while, but I think everyone, myself included has gotten used to me in trunks.

 

Those are my career highlights for 2002 as I can remember them, but I had a few non-wrestling happenings this past year as well. 2002 marked my 10th anniversary of being with my wife (only our 8th wedding anniversary but 10 years together), the 20th anniversary of being in the gym, and the first anniversary of Book Marks. Book Marks has turned into a real passion for me and it has grown into a real rewarding hobby. I’m working on contacting new authors all the time and constantly trying to encourage more people to take part in my club. The club has revitalized my interest in reading and belief it or not I’ve actually read 55 novels this year alone. I’ve managed to connect with a High School in Timmins Ontario, which has taken part in Book Marks, and I will continue with that relationship while hopefully reaching out to more school to encourage reading and literacy.

 

If all that doesn’t keep me busy enough I developed a new hobby this year as well. My wife, my brother and I took a rock climbing class at our local YMCA and have all fallen in love with it. It is a great challenge and an amazing stress releaser. I don’t get to do it often enough but I’m make the effort as often as possible. If you’ve never tried it give it a try, you won’t believe how much fun it can be.

 

That’s it for this year, Happy New Year everyone!

 

Lance

 

Credit:

http://www.stormwrestling.com/

[Guest Jobber of the Week]

Yeah, he went on about Hogan in July over here

[Guest AM The Kid]

Good ole Storm.

[Guest the 1inch punch]

Methinks Regal's teaching how to be a company boy