Mr. Hughes Discusses Training Apollo Crews, What He Saw in Young Heath Slater, More

– Mr. Hughes recently appeared on The Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling, here are the highlights…

On Training Apollo Crews: “Anyone that teaches or trains anyone and they see them on television it’s a rush and also to a blessing because I am a believer in all (my) students that have passed through me and they’ve been blessed too. Of course a lot of hard work went into that on his (Crews) part. When he first came to me to be a professional wrestler he knew that everybody does their research and if you are smart and you really want to make it in this business, you have to do the research and try to find the right school and if it is the right place for you to get the things (the tools) you need to go further in the sport that we do and he did that. He came and saw me, he was determined from day one and I already knew he was going to be good because it didn’t take him long to learn. I would show him one time and he’d have it. I like training people like that (especially) big people because I can relate to that since I was a big guy. I like training good athletic people and he is one good athlete there is no doubt about it as you can see on television as he is doing his thing.”

On The Athletic Ability of Apollo Crews: “I was a big man in the wrestling business. I was over 370lbs so on top of all that 370lbs, I was a good athlete. I played football, I ran track and I wrestled in high school so I was a good athlete on top of all that with the wrestling part. He was kind of the same. He was a big guy that was a good athlete. Like I stated earlier, I love training big guys because I used to be a big guy and I can show them stuff that is going to make them stand out as a big person. Normally, you see a big guy who is out there pounding, kicking and stomping because that is about all they can do and just squeeze and squash you. I was pretty much telling him that I’m going to train you the way I do my thing and you put your own twist to it later. The most important things I was teaching him that were impressive to people were the dropkicks and the dropkick is one of my main things, you dropkick a guy in the skull and not in the body.”

On Training People Old School: “I’ve been in wrestling for thirty years and I am old school all the way and I don’t care what they do on television, I am just old school to the dirt and that is the way I teach because old school is where it’s at and you cannot bury old school and think wrestling is going to survive. You’ve got to keep training people the “old school style” of wrestling. With Moose and Nation (Crews) and all my students that are out there and there are thousands of them but when I see my students prospering like Apollo, Moose, Heath Slater, Jonathan Gresham and all these different guys I’ve trained and it is all because they have been taught right and that is the most important thing about professional wrestling.”

On what He Saw in a Young Heath Slater: “Just like any other student, when he came in he was a young, skinny red headed kid that didn’t quite know how his future was going to turn out. He didn’t know if he could cut the mustard as a professional wrestler but I’ll tell you this much; the man was hungry and he was willing to work hard to get where he is today. I can remember when Heath came in and started training and (laughs) when I am looking at these people and putting them in the ring, I don’t look at everybody as being someone who is going to make it because it’s been proven to me time and time again that it doesn’t matter what you look like but if you pick up what I teach you and you are pretty good about it than you have an opportunity. Heath learned pretty fast and he passed his test on the first tryout he had with us after I trained him. I started taking him on the road every time I got booked and I would teach him the ropes and teach him how to deal with promoters and teach him how the road life is and since he was one of those guys that was hungry and really wanted to do it, long story short he was signed to the WWE Developmental called Deep South in Atlanta. They picked him up and he’s been there ever since he left me.”