Talk is Jericho
Release Date: 05/30/2018
Recap by: Caitlin Lavelle
Timestamps
0:00- Intro (starts at 0:33)
3:33- Interview starts
4:30- Paul on his wrestling career
13:40- Paul on competing in MMA
21:45- Paul on working with Stone Cold Steve Austin
26:30- Ad
28:30- Interview resumes
32:05- Paul on teaching Vin Diesel to take a suplex
34:15- Paul on working with Steven Seagal
37:00- Paul on his books, When We Were Bouncers, Volumes 1 & 2
49:20- Paul on CM Punk
1:02:50 Outro
0:00- Intro (starts at 0:33)
Today Chris Jericho is interview Paul Lazenby. Paul is a former Pro-Wrestler & MMA fighter, as well as a stuntman, author and new cohost of “Killing the Town” with Don Callis.
3:33- Interview starts
4:30- Paul on his wrestling career
Paul explains that he and Chris have known each other for over 25 years. Paul elaborates that the two met in 1991, when Paul was in the class behind Jericho at the Hart Brothers Wrestling School, where he was actually trained by Lance Storm and Chris Jericho.
13:40- Paul on competing in MMA
Paul says he wrestled on and off until 2001. Around that time Paul was working for Insane Championship Wrestling in Detroit when he spotted Phyllis Lee in the crowd. Phyllis was well known in the MMA community, was friends with Dean Malenko and Sean Waltman, and managed Dan Severn.
Paul introduced himself to Phyllis and asked if she was booking wrestlers. Phyllis said no, and explained that she was booking fighters for the Japanese MMA promotion Pancrase. Paul, who had no fighting experience, lied and said that he was a fighter, filled a resume with made up credentials, and sent it over to Phyllis.
Paul became the first Canadian to fight in Pancrase. Paul says his first ever MMA fight was “in front of 10,000 people at Tokyo Bay NK Hall against the #3 ranked guy in the world (Ryushi Yanagisawa)”.
21:45- Paul on working with Stone Cold Steve Austin
Paul says he’s stunt doubled for Stone Cold Steve Austin on six movies. He says the first movie he worked with Steve on was Damage, where he worked as an opponent against Steve.
Paul says that Steve was working with a different stuntman throughout the day, and that the stuntman kept flinching away from Steve’s punches. Paul says Steve got in the habit of leaning towards his opponent to close the distance between his fist and his opponent. Paul says that when he took over and began fighting Steve, Steve was still leaning in and threw a punch that connected with and broke Paul’s nose.
Paul says that Steve felt horrible. Paul says, “Steve called me the next day. We went out for a beer that night. We’ve become friends since. He must have apologized to me seven or eight times. Finally I had to tell him to stop apologizing.”
26:30- Ad
28:30- Interview resumes
32:05- Paul on teaching Vin Diesel to take a suplex
Paul says that he worked on the stunt team for the movie The Chronicles of Riddick. He says that, while going over fight scenes, he proposed a suplex, and it was eventually decided that Vin Diesel would begin to take a suplex, reverse it and throw his opponent into a rock. Paul says he got to teach Vin Diesel how to take a suplex and says Vin did very well.
34:15- Paul on working with Steven Seagal
Paul says, “Personally, I’ve never had a bad experience with Steven Seagal trying to hurt me, but you’re not going to find a lot of stunt guys who can say that. I can’t believe that he doesn’t have the skill to control himself. His hand speed is very good. His hand-eye coordination is good.
“He likes to change things at the last second. They’re going ‘1, 2, 3’, and they’re just about to say, ‘Go’, and he goes, ‘Yeah, I don’t know what I’m going to do, just follow me’.
“There’s no way I’m going to let this guy do what he wants. As soon as he touches me, I just launched myself into the wall. He touched me again, and I launched myself over this furniture. He loved it because it made him look good.
“At the end of the fight scene, he’s got me up against a table and he’s leaning behind me in an inappropriate position. He’s handcuffing my hands behind my back, and the camera is on us from the waist up. He’s doing this compliance move where he stands on the side of my ankle. It’s really painful. At this point I’m like, okay, I’ve been holding in this fart for the entire fight scene, and his leg in pressed right against the crack of my ass. I guarantee he felt the heat.”
37:00- Paul on his books, When We Were Bouncers, Volumes 1 & 2
Paul talks about his books, When We Were Bouncers, Volumes 1 & 2, which are available on Amazon. In these books, Paul complies stories from famous former bouncers, including Chris Jericho, Lance Storm, Samoa Joe and MVP.
Paul says only one person who he contacted was not on board to participate. Chris asks who that was, and Paul says, “Barry Darsow (Smash from Demolition). I sent him an email about the project. He didn’t really say no, but I got a two-word response- ‘How much?’
“I said, ‘I don’t really have a budget for interviews. I understand your time is money. Thank you very much.”
49:20- Paul on CM Punk
Paul says, “We talk a lot online. I flew out to Cleveland to watch his UFC fight. He’s a really good guy. I think because we have a lot of mutual friends we just started talking on Twitter and started following each other and struck up a friendship that way. I asked him if he wanted a copy of the book, he read it and took it upon himself to really pump it up. He’s been supportive of Volume 2 as well.
“He’s an honest guy. I like bouncing ideas off of people who aren’t going to spare my feelings. Hearing good feedback from a guy like that encourages me that I’m onto something.
1:02:50 Outro
Rating 5/10
I was only peripherally aware of Paul Lazenby prior to this interview. I’d heard his name in Jericho’s books and on podcasts, but I didn’t know much about him. He seems like a cool guy who is definitely a fan of today’s wrestling, which is encouraging if you like listening to the Killing the Town podcast.
Writer Bio
Caitlin is a wrestling fan who hopes to one day discover that she is the illegitimate daughter of Vincent Kennedy McMahon and the rightful Anonymous RAW General Manager. Until then, she’ll keep on living in Orlando, Florida with her husband and son.
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