Chris Adonis on Moving Away From ‘Body Guy’ Criticisms as Chris Masters, Improving His Work

– Metro UK recently interviewed former WWE Superstar Chris Adonis (formerly known as Chris Masters) ahead of his match with Trevor Murdoch at tonight’s NWA Back for the Attack pay-per-view event. He discussed his early years in WWE as Chris Masters and wanting to move above fan criticisms of just being a “body guy” with an impressive physique and show he can hold his own in the ring. Below are some highlights.

Chris Adonis on trying to develop as a performer and being sick of fan criticisms: “I was sick and tired of all the criticism in terms of just being a ‘body guy’ who couldn’t work, and Lex Luger comparisons – nothing against Lex Luger, by the way. But I was tired of that. And being a lifelong fan and somebody who grew up loving Bret Hart, Curt Hennig, Shawn Michaels, all those really great workers – I started on the [Ultimate] Warrior, but then those guys really caught my eye. So, I didn’t wanna be known as a guy who couldn’t be that type of worker in the ring. So it made me eventually really start analyzing my matches, picking them apart and seeing what I can do better and I just started understanding things better.”

Adonis on the WWE’s mindset for having him use the Full Nelson as the Masterlock: “They wanted to put credibility behind simple things like that, a Full Nelson, rather than guys having to go to the absolute extreme for finishes or even for high spots,. A lot of guys got hurt, and they were learning from that and they just kinda realized they needed to recondition the fans again and make stuff like that mean what they should, essentially. Because they are effective! If you put somebody in a Full Nelson, it’s legit. I used to do that before I even got into wrestling, as a bouncer.”

Adonis on still needing to learn and develop his craft: “I had the best people working with me, I was working with some of the best people in the industry. I was still only three years in and not everybody can be Kurt Angle and pick this up as fast as he did. It’s taken a long time. You would think being a lifelong fan that you would just pick it up that must quicker than everybody else. And I got it from the get go, but I didn’t ‘get it’ get it. I still had to develop a lot of little things, like perfect my selling, my offense, physicality, intensity, all that stuff.”