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#Post#: 32319--------------------------------------------------
Chat with Former TNA Star Gunner. Talks Faith, TNA & More
DIR By: ChrissiCalvert
Date: August 2, 2015, 3:38 pm
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Who would you say we're your influences either in the ring or
out that have helped to shape you as a person and your
character?
The person that would be outside of the ring would be totally
outside of the wrestling world would be my father. My father is
the one that supported me since day one when I was 11 years old
and out playing backyard wrestling with my friends stuff and he
was the one that always taught me to follow my dreams and never
called them stupid. He said you can do whatever you want as long
as you set your mind to it. He always instilled that in me.
As far as in ring, in the wrestling world my number one
supporter and someone that has helped me a lot has been Ken
Anderson. Ken has been another guy that since 2006/2007 where I
did a WWE extra spot. I was with Ken doing a little spoof of
Shawn Michaels blast from the past and he did a great job. When
he got to TNA and he took me under his wing, he really believed
in me and always told me I could do bigger and better things. He
really gave feedback and said I could do better. The character
stuff was something I really appreciated and looked up to and
he’s one of my best friends in the business.
Anyone that follows you on twitter, can see a strong connection
to your faith. How does help to guide you as it applies to
wrestling?
I think that my faith is something that is important to me. I
was brought up and it was never something that was forced on me
but something I did on my own and it’s my choice. It’s really
just one of those things that whether you believe in God or a
higher power or even just being a spiritual person to me all
things happen for a reason. Whatever life brings me I realise
it’s not the end of the world, it’s not my last day here on
earth. There are bigger and better plans for me and the thing is
you can’t sit home and expect people to come knock at your door.
My faith really helps me realise that you better go on out there
and get it. Just keep a positive attitude about life and say
that one of the people I look up to most is Christ. He was a
role model to me. He was and is a positive influence in my life.
The things he taught, the way he walked and I just tried to
model myself after that, just being a good person and to work
hard to get things.
I don’t really get offended by religious angles. When Vince
McMahon said he challenged God to wrestling match, some people
might have been offended by it doesn’t offend me at all. I think
bringing religion into wrestling is a really touchy situation.
It doesn’t mean a lot of people have to believe in it and it may
turn a lot of people off of it and offend a lot of people but to
me everyone’s got their own beliefs and respect and their own
way of life. I personally believe you have to keep religion out
of the wrestling business. Now me posting stuff on Facebook or
Twitter, that’s different. Those are my views and if someone
doesn’t like I don’t force it on anyone. And if they don’t like
it they can unfollow me. There are things that you have to keep
out of the entertainment business. That religion and other
things are really really touchy to kind of hit on.
Formerly serving in the U.S Marine Corps & defending your
country. What has the experience taught you about putting life
in perspective?
That was the toughest moment thus far in my life is going
through Marine Corp Bootcamp and going through combat and being
overseas and being away from my family and friends for 7 months
not knowing if I was going to make it home alive. Its one of
those things where it really taught me that you have to work
hard to achieve anything.
When I was in the Marine Corp, I had goals and I set out to
obtain them and I reached many of them. It also made me cherish
life a little bit more and like I said before when one door
closes for instance leaving Impact Wrestling it wasn’t the end
of my world. I wasn’t in Iraq. I knew that the next day was
going to continue. I think the Marine Corp just being able to
have respect for being able to wake up another day and being
able to live my dream regardless of whether it was with Impact
Wrestling or WWE, Ring of Honor or any wrestling promotion that
wants to bring me on. Life goes on.
Describe your training under Abel Adams and what you've walked
away from that experience?
I met Abel Adams in 2001 and he’s the one that gave me a chance
to step in the ring and really and I actually spoke with him the
other day and always talking about the next step in life and he
was one of those guys that was hard on me. He taught me respect
for the business, respect for those that came before me and
etiquette which I think is lost in some of today’s professional
wrestling and the independent stuff.
Abel was another one of those father figures. One of the best
friends in my life that believed in me and still believes in me.
It was one of those that were instilled in me and was just
another person who said you’ve got the goods, you’ve got the
look and what it takes and I think you can go far. I was 18
years old when he started training me in 2001. He took me on the
road and that’s one guy that I owe a lot to because he drove a
lot of the times and I was pretty fortunate because I didn’t
have a lot of money and one of those guys that I respect
thoroughly.
After competing on the independents for almost 10 years, you
signed with TNA. How did the experience come about?
I started in 2001. September 2002 I went to Bootcamp. So for a
whole year I didn’t wrestle at all until right about the Summer
of 2003. For the most part when I was in the Marine Corp, I was
stationed at Camp in North Carolina and I would travel home
every weekend unless I was deployed to work shows. I would drive
5 hours to my home town, get into a car with Abel and wherever
the show was in Florida or Georgia, Alabama we were looking at
sometimes 25 hour round trips just from one show to have me get
into the ring. In 2006, when I got out (of the Marine Corp) I
really picked up what I call full time working with the NWA and
doing stuff all over the states. It was worldwide. I did some
South America. That’s the truth, I joined Impact in 2010. We’re
looking at 8 years.
I think my time in the Marine Corp slowed down my progress.
Luckily for the most part, being in the Marine Corp I saw some
good shows working with some good guys but obviously there is
talent out there. You have to work with people that are better
than you in order to get better. When I got out in 2006, that’s
really when I started with NWA Anarchy and really started to
work with those guys down there. I really came into my own. I
learned TV product, art cam and was working with guys that were
way better than me. I learned psychology and how to tell a
story. So the Marine Corp time hindered me a little bit but the
thing was I was still able to make shows and not miss a whole 4
years of slowing my dream even more.
You've worked in programs with Jeff Jarrett, Samoa Joe, James
Storm & Samuel Shaw. Describe each program and how it helped you
progress as a wrestler & character.
I think the Jeff Jarrett stuff was really when Murphy and I were
in his corner was during the big MMA deal with Kurt Angle. I
would take a couple of German Suplex’s from Kurt but working
security was more just standing and watching Jeff while he was
cutting promos. When it came to working with promos and
listening and how he talked to the people and how he built his
opponent up that was a learning experience.
Unfortunately, Joe and I we worked some house shows together but
we didn’t really have any big feuds, I was always upset about
that. Crimson had to have a pretty lengthy feud with Joe. Any
time I stepped in the ring with Joe that’s the guy that you know
he’s an amazing talent in the ring. He knows his was in and out
of the ring. He knows all about character facials and people
love him obviously from his Ring of Honor days to now and in NXT
which I am so happy to see him in I think that’s where he
belongs. The guy is a machine. He was always very helpful when
it came to having a young guy like me and building that
character and getting your moves set and just placing the moves
where they belong and not doing 30 different moves but less is
more kind of thing.
Working with James was awesome. You know tag team wise, I’m a
huge tag team fan. So we always wanted to take a tag team and
make it two guys like when you look at some of the true tag
teams back in the day like Brain Busters and Rock n Roll
Express. Two guys that weren’t individuals but were a team and
they worked as a team and that’s what James and I wanted to do.
He was a beer drinker and I was a modern day Viking and I would
beat my head on a turnbuckle but I think we fed well off of each
other. Then we finally got the deal to do the feud. The feud was
done right. I think that was one of those feuds that I needed to
catapult me as a singles star and have people say ah this guy is
actually competitive, he can actually make a run for the
heavyweight title. Some things weren’t done right after that, it
wasn’t my fault, it wasn’t James’ fault. For the most part
working with James was a really good learning experience. He has
been there since day one. He knew what the fans wanted to see
and he taught me that. He was very open for ideas. I think we
taught each other. We taught each other certain things and I
think always good when two guys can get in there and put their
differences aside and can tell a good story.
And the Samuel Shaw feud, other than the James Storm one was one
of the favorites of mine. I talked to another interview the
other day about this about how we had these two young guys, we
had this creepy guy gimmick that Sam took, molded into his own,
you had Gunner who for the most part never really talked
unfortunately never given the microphones so people don’t know
about my promo skills whatsoever, it’s not my fault but that’s
another story. (chuckles)
The good thing is we took this and I’ve done some acting as
well. So we did this six weeks’ worth of vignettes where he was
in a padded cell and all this other stuff and I loved it. It was
character development and I think the fans really got to see
another side of the Gunner character. Somebody who actually
cared, you know a little bit different. You can’t just have a
guy that goes out and bashes his head and wants to kill
everybody all the time there is no dimension to that to me.
Triple H back in the day, the man, he’s still one of the
greatest but he’s still had a different side to him.
The Shaw feud was one of my favorites. They gave us ideas and we
went with the writers about really hoping that doesn’t do all
the whole thing and once we did the little turn we had two guys
that wanted to go out there and show that they could like we did
in Bethlehem, PA in December of last year unfortunately it was
the only match we ever did. I thought there was so much more
opportunity with the Sam Shaw and Gunner character even though
the girl (Brittany) left Impact Wrestling and I guess that
affected the storyline. Don’t understand why we still couldn’t
have gone on with it but Sam’s one of my favorite people to work
with because he’s young and he wants to get it. Unfortunately
he’s not with Impact anymore but you can see that he’s one of
those guys that he’ll be around somewhere.
Being married to someone in the business has its challenges, I'm
sure. How does help you both to deal with the challenges of the
business?
I’m not married anymore. But being formally married to someone
who was part of the business we would have clashes here or there
when it came to wrestling and everyone’s got different views in
wrestling. I was brought up loving this and everyone has their
different views and ways on how they want to get into wrestling
we’d always clash.
She’d get mad at me and want to kill me sometimes, I swear.
(chuckles) She definitely understood being a wrestler and being
an actor my schedule would like I could get a call tomorrow and
they would say, hey, I need you in LA or I need you on a movie
set or hey I need to book you on a show, she understood that’s
what paid the bills. There were arguments at times but you could
take away from the family but the bills still had to get paid.
So it takes a strong women for that.
After leaving a promotion can lend itself to more freedom. What
has departure from TNA meant for you personally &
professionally?
I really enjoyed working for the company. I’ve been with them
since 09’, Terry Taylor helped me get my foot in the door with
me and Murphy and working the security deal. I will definitely
miss the guys that I worked with. I think it goes the same way
and that they will miss me. I talked with a handful of them. I
really think it was best. After six years, there were times
where I felt I was underutilized. Even though I worked with
James Storm and I did the main event with Magnus, even after the
Sam Shaw stuff I was put on the backburner for some odd reason
and didn’t do anything wrong. After six years, I was to the
point where I was stressed out a lot. I’m 33 you know and I
don’t want my youth soaked up. I feel like I have something more
to offer to somebody whether Impact calls me back in a couple
months or WWE or Ring of Honor whoever it is, I know that me as
a person I have a lot to offer. I think it was what was best for
business.
There is no bad blood. It was a mutual agreement and I thank
them for the opportunities of having me in the Impact ring. But
I have bigger and better goals and I think that since I was 5 I
wanted that Wrestlemania moment. Ever since I was a kid I wanted
to compete in the WWE ring and I’m not getting any younger. It’s
still in the back of my mind, hey, I want to compete in a WWE
ring or NXT has an amazing product right now down there. So I
feel like I could wrestle on Impact and I’m looking forward to
the future.
I think it is more of a hearsay rumor (about 30 year old’s not
wanted in the WWE). I think everyone goes through a
developmental tryout now and I think that’s fair. They want
condition. They want a different athlete now. Wrestling is
totally different from what it was back in the 80’s and 90’s
when I was growing up. Its guys are balls to the wall now. So
now you have guys working 15 and 20 minute matches and stuff
like that it’s not just body slams anymore its everything. I
think it’s awesome that wrestling is getting more into the
athletic look. I’m 240(ibs), I’d be happy at 225 if I got a job
with WWE if they said hey, we want you to get ripped. I think 33
is a good age. They are looking for stars and they are building
their own stars which I love. They are taking their young talent
and not taking guys that were formally with another company and
putting them in the spotlight and putting their young talent on
the back burner. I don’t want to drop any names but we know
what’s happening over there. So I look forward to the
opportunity to it as well.
Did you feel there was more opportunities still to be had during
your time in TNA?
Totally, yes. I felt that I was underutilized many times and I
felt like after the James Storm feud. James was already
established. Gunner who just established himself in all these
high caliber matches just got voted for one of the top matches
of 2014. Here is a guy that was finally getting noticed and the
fans were finally getting behind me. He wasn’t just some
security guy anymore. He wasn’t just some guy coming out mad all
the time. They got behind the military thing. They got behind
they got behind the modern day Viking gimmick and I felt like I
was underutilized. For some reason, I don’t know the curtain got
jerked out from under me. There were many times where I felt
very disappointed.
I am thankful that they allow me to leave a couple months off of
TV and doing movies to help build my brand a little better.
Still my heart lies in professional wrestling and I never just
wanted to be the mid-card guy. If that was the case then I would
have been happy. During the time that I was there and I didn’t
do anything, I was just irritated because I want to be a
champion. I want to be somebody that people look up to. I want
to be a locker room leader and I just felt that a lot of the
times opportunities were taken from me a handful of times.
When you left the promotion you were in the midst of a feud with
Samuel Shaw, who has also left the promotion. While it can be
difficult to speak of what someone else is feeling, was there a
commonality as it applies to moral between you too at the time
in TNA?
I think we were both released to be honest it wasn’t my choice.
But I look at it as a blessing. Sam’s maybe 31, 32 maybe and I’m
33 and I think for our sake it what was best. Impact has their
own thing going right now. They’ve got guys that they are
pushing that they didn’t have anything planned for me. So I
think that Sam and I being let go was a good thing for us and I
don’t know what the future is for Impact Wrestling but I have
buddies that work there that I pray it goes well that
Destination America re-signs them but I think that guys like Sam
and I getting released was a blessing in disguise. There is
something better out there for us.
Ring of Honor they have an amazing product. Sam is still young
and very talented to be able to compete in NXT as well. Jeff
(Jarrett) when he left Impact Wrestling it sucked. He has been
there and that’s his company that’s his baby regardless of what
he is doing now his heart lies with Impact. He knows what he’s
doing business wise building characters and everything. I would
love to do some shows with GFW. I think he’s starting small but
doing the right thing. He’s not trying to fill arenas now he’s
just trying to build the brand and I’ve got a pretty good
relationship with Jeff and I think that I can see myself doing
some GFW shows.
What's next for Chad Lail? Where can fans expect to see you
compete and when?
I personally hope to one day in the future compete in the WWE. I
mean like I said a minute ago, that is my ultimate goal since I
was 5. I really feel like even if I go and another huge goal of
mine is acting. I’ve done two movies this year and I do numerous
amounts of auditions every week but I think my heart lies and
still does with having a WWE match and having that Wrestlemania
moment. After that I can probably retire and hopefully build The
Rock’s status and act as much as I can because I love acting.
The beating on my body and wanting to have kids one day and
enjoy them.
If I’m 65 and I never even attempt to try WWE then there will be
a missing and void there. I’m in Kingsport, Tennessee, Kentucky,
Georgia and right outside of Atlanta. So anybody that follows
me, I post independent shows. I’m booked up all the way to
December from Virginia to North Carolina to South Carolina and
I’m working on a UK tour, going to Korea for some Military
appearances. I stay busy, man. (chuckles)
Was there anything you'd like to encourage, share or make fans
aware of?
They could follow me on @Gunner_ChadLail where I use my
wrestling and my wrestling brand name there. I have an amazing
amount of support on twitter almost 132,000 followers it’s crazy
to think about a small town kid having that many followers. Just
don’t give up on me. There is way more in store for Gunner and I
don’t think anyone has given up on me, I think. My fans really
believe in me.
I’m working on some Modern Day Viking shirts finally for some
reason Impact did not like the Modern Day Viking name but it’s
still with me and ProWrestlingTees is going to be doing some
Modern Day Viking merchandise. So expect a lot. 2015 still has 6
months left here and that’s still a lot of time to conquer the
world and I’m still ready to rise and reach the top of the
mountain.
#Post#: 32324--------------------------------------------------
Re: Chat with Former TNA Star Gunner. Talks Faith, TNA &
More
DIR By: tnagirl
Date: August 4, 2015, 8:18 am
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He will not go WWE . They have people like him on the roster
page and he is nothing new to offer WWe..
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