Combat Zone Wrestling owner DJ Hyde recently took time out of his schedule to conduct an interview with ProWrestlingPost.com. Hyde discusses an array of topics including the benefits of talent training at a younger age, how the passion is evident in a number of developing stars today, and the investment taken by promotions today with their talent. To read the interview in its entirety click here
On talent developing at a younger age:
…When I was younger I feel like I would have had a better path, I would have had a better position in my life as a person. To start younger is better because you develop those habits and as you become an adult you are able to make decisions based on the fact that you are an adult. Compared to when I was growing up, to how it is now, (and man am I sounding really old. (laughs)) I have been wrestling for almost two decades now. It is one of those things where you are watching guys that started when they were 13 ….
On the passion evident in talent today:
I think now that there is a better opportunity out there. Guys can progress a lot faster now than ever. If you look at the mindset of society, and society has changed and society has dictated a lot of how we do things, and the access to doing the different things than ever. I came up in a generation that would want to show what was next to, nearly impossible. If you got that one tape from a fan or that one tape from a show or of one match from the mid-west, then it was great. Now you have streaming, and guys can get a lot of film from a lot of professional wrestling schools all over the place, or at the least have the ability to get to it.
On the investment taken by talent promotions today:
They can see that there are things that they have done, they have tried to help guys with experience or the younger talent, or talent that are trying to learn their system or whatever. I will reference a thing they did during the Mixed Match Challenge. Mandy Rose, who they see a lot of potential for doesn’t have a lot of experience, and they paired her with Goldust to help her and mentor her.