James Harrison knows all about taking and delivering hard hits, sometimes illegal, on the football field.
In his new venture since his NFL retirement, Harrison has landed a role on the STARZ pro wrestling series "Heels" as Apocalypse.
Speaking to Patriots Wire, Harrison discussed the differences between football and wrestling.
“It’s still way harder to be a professional football player than it is to be a professional wrestler, because the person that I’m wrestling with is helping me do the things that I’m trying to do against them,” Harrison said. “They’re actually helping me to do that and we’re trying to do that as safe as possible and as (painless) as possible. Whereas, when I’m playing NFL football, this guy is not trying to help me with nothing. He’s fighting with every ounce of his being to not let me get my job done, just like I’m fighting with him so he can’t get his job done. Yeah, we’re the opposite. (In wrestling), we’re trying to make it look like it hurt, even though it doesn’t."
While many outside of wrestling will often refer to the sport as "fake," Harrison knows that the bumps and bruises everyone takes are very real.
“The only thing that’s fake about wrestling is that you know the outcome of that match. You still have to hit that mat,” he said. “You get those bumps and bruises before you get to that predetermined outcome. And that mat is not soft. It’s not forgiving. We had one of our co-stars — our lead Stephen Amell — he had a compound fracture of his spine in a stunt. He was out for six weeks.”
Amell hurt himself performing a coast-to-coast while filming. The show also stars AEW star CM Punk.
"Heels" airs on Sundays at 9 p.m. ET.
