411 Interview: D’Lo Brown

D’Lo Brown is a well-travelled and bona fide wrestling superstar, having held titles in WWE and Japan, as well as putting on some quality matches in TNA. Now he performs fairly regularly for Ring of Honor, and before his match Friday night in Toronto I was able to catch up with him.

Having wrestled in the 3 biggest promotions, I asked him what the biggest difference was in working for RoH. “WWE is more theatrical. It’s like a soap opera, the focus is on the stories. RoH is about the wrestling, the fans and the boys in the back expect you to be able to wrestle. It’s not about cutting 35-minute promos. The stories come from the wrestling, the wrestling doesn’t get in the way of stories.” When I asked if he’d consider going back to TNA or WWE, his answer was a little surprising:

“I live in Orlando, but I really don’t want to go to TNA. Or WWE. In RoH you have so much more creative liberty, you get to create art in the ring. Creativity is like a muscle: if you don’t use it, it withers. RoH says to you ‘This is where I want you to go, how you get there is up to you.’ TNA and WWE give you step by step directions. I like what I’m doing now, with the ability to go back to Japan.”

On the topic of Japan, and because he has wrestled for Pro Wrestling NOAH for quite a while, I brought up the issue of Misawa’s passing. “It was a huge blow. When I try and explain to American fans just how much of a loss he was, I say he was like a mixture of late eighties Hulk Hogan and today’s Vince McMahon. I’m a huge fan of Japanese wrestling and Misawa was as big as they come.” When I asked him what he thought was next for NOAH, he wasn’t sure. He did say that Kobashi is still being monitored by doctros after every much, but “…if anyone can defy the odds and come back from this, it’s Kobashi. He’s all heart.” D’Lo also said there was a lot of in-fighting going on right now behind the scenes in NOAH, and nobody is really sure how it will turn out.

We moved on to talking about the Nation, at which point D’Lo mentioned he was a reader of the site and was glad to see that several of the writers ranked the Nation of Domination so highly in the recent Top 5 Stables column. “The Nation was cool. Everyone in that stable did something, used it as a catapult. Even Owen, who had had success before but seemed to be going nowhere at the time. Ron was the teacher, the sensei, he took a step back to help us out. We all won titles after the Nation.” He also tagged Ron Simmons as the single biggest influence on his career, without question. “Ron has been a friend and mentor, and has been involved in every major dcecision in my life, both personal and professional, in the last 10 years.” It was Ron’s encouragement that brought D’Lo to Ring of Honor, a place where he says he is very happy.

D’Lo fought Frankie the Mobster on Friday night, a man with whom he wasn’t familiar, but a Montreal indy guy who had an impressive showing when RoH visited that city in November. I asked him if fighting a local guy required a change in approach. “When you fight a guy you’re not familiar with, it takes a few minutes in the ring to get a feel for him and to figure out if you can trust them. You see how he interacts with guys backstage, if they avoid him you know this a guy you have to be careful with. It takes time to build up the trust. You want to give the local guy a chance to put on some offence too.”

As a fan of Japanese wrestling, D’Lo tried to bring several Japanese moves (like the Burning Hammer and Emerald Fusion) back to WWE with him, but the idea was vetoed. Apparently the rumoured “banned move list” is very real, although it’s not the move that’s banned but the ability to do it safely and consistently. This led to a discussion or RoH alum Matt Sydal, who of course uses the Shooting Star Press in WWE as Evan Bourne. D’Lo told me an interesting story: “I actually used to do the Shooting Star when I weighed 400 pounds. I was in Puerto Rico and I couldn’t exactly get a lot of height or distance. It’s how I lost my front teeth. I was wrestling in a ballpark, outdoors, in like 40 degree weather. I went up top after about a 5 minute match and my legs were gone. I remeber jumping and thinking ‘Oh what lovely stars!’ Then I hit the mat face first and those stars weren’t so pretty.”

D’Lo Brown was very willing to talk and share, and after the show spent a good 45 minutes posing for pictures with fans in the near-empty arena. Tonight he takes part in the first-ever Toronto Gauntlet, facing Sonjay Dutt, The Necro Butcher, Jimmy Rave, Jerry Lynn, and Davey Richards. Tickets for this show will be available on the door at the Ted Reeve Arena on Main and Gerrard in Toronto. For more information, see rohwrestling.com, and of course check back here for updates on tonight’s show!