James Storm is over two decades into his wrestling career, and he's still going strong in the NWA.
With NWA's new Powerrr show set to debut on Tuesdays at 6:05, Storm finally gets to take in a studio setting for a wrestling show. The former TNA Champion shared with Fightful a story about how he originally was supposed to experience that in the 90s, before it all went awry.
"It's kind of cool. When I started training, I was about to have a match in USWA. I broke my shoulder and I wasn't able to have my match. For all those who didn't know, USWA did the studio wrestling. I felt like I lost out when I wasn't able to wrestle there, but now with Billy Corgan bringing back studio wrestling, it's cool with all the experience and big arenas and all that, coming back to a studio -- you gotta know what you're doing or they'll let you know. I grew up in the middle Tennessee area where USWA was. Me and my grandfather would always catch them when they came to Nashville," said Storm.
Storm wasn't exactly all in on the National Wrestling Alliance, and the company as a whole was met with much skepticism upon the news in 2017 that Billy Corgan acquired it.
"As soon as I hear something like that I'm like 'how is this guy going to be able to explain to me certain things when he's never been in the wrestling ring?' Same for Dave Lagana. With all the packages Dave Lagana put together for Ten Pounds of Gold, and once I sat down and talk to Billy -- he's really smart to the wrestling business and the history of wrestling. It's really great to be able to get that aspect of him and learn from him. He can give you ideas you wouldn't think of on your own," said Storm.
The skepticism changed, as did the landscape of pro wrestling. NWA is one of many promotions taping television, including IMPACT, WWE Raw, Smackdown, NXT, NXT UK, ROH, NJPW, WOW and AEW. Storm saw a change coming, but not to this extent.
"I didn't know about every single day, I just tweeted out, 'This just in from the Heavenly Press: Due to all of the wrestling, church is moved to Thursday night, sincerely God.' Wrestling is everywhere now! For so long when I was on planes, I'd meet closet wrestling fans. Now it's back at the forefront, it's cool to be a wrestling fan. You don't have to hide that you're a wrestling fan," he said.
Storm has underwent a transformation to his career, his physique and even his theme music in recent years. Once played to the ring by Montgomery Gentry's "Longnecks and Rednecks" song, unfortunately the band lost Troy Gentry to a helicopter crash in 2017. When prompted to recall memories of the duo and their track that helped define him, Storm says that Montgomery Gentry moved mountains, and a major performance to accommodate their good time.
"We had a lot of fun making the video for it. A funny back story. I've known those guys for a while. They had to play the Grand Ole Opry that night, and we got so drunk that they had to postpone the Opry show for about 45 minutes to an hour just to sober up on the bus," Storm laughed.
You can see James Storm weekly on NWA Powerrr at 6:05 PM EST on NWA's Youtube channel.
