John Noble

Nationwide Championship Wrestling's John Noble and I sat down a few weeks ago and talked about wrestling. He is one of the nicest guys and gave one of the best interviews I have had the privilege of doing. He was truthful and honest on each question. Find out what caused him to get started, why he loves this business and what looks ahead in his future. As always, take the time to read this interview and check out his web site.

Lekisha Oliver: Would you mind telling your stage and your real name?

John Noble:: My stage name is John Noble and my real name is John Noble. So not much for originality. (laughs)

LO: It works. (laughs)

JN: When I first started, we were wrestling a lot of areas around my hometown and it didn't make much sense to me to go out as "Joe Blow" when everyone knew I was John Noble. So, believability is pretty important.

LO: Yes, you look like you're about my age. I'm 22.

JN: I'm 27.

LO: You don't look it at all.

JN: Thanks. (laughs) It's the hat.

LO: I think it is. (laughs)

JN: (laughs) Yeah.

LO: So you just got started around your hometown?

JN: I've been in the business four years on July 4th.

LO: Congratulations.

JN: Thank you. My partner, Eddie Browning, broke me in. He's from my hometown. I got out of college and we started coaching together and he got me in.

LO: So, what all kinds of sports were you in when you were younger?

JN: Growing up, it was anything that had a ball, basketball, baseball, men's independent league softball, track, cross country.

LO: So, that kinda helped break you in. What about arts or acting or plays?

JN: Um, probably not since church plays since I was about nine or ten years old. This is just something I've loved since I was four-years-old, it was just something I wanted to do.

LO: Who did you watch growing up because everyone had their own federation in the part of the country?

JN: Well, this is actually a funny story.

When I was four-years-old, I was in the hospital with pneumonia and back then the big company around the house was ICW, the Poffo's, Angelo Poffo, Macho Man, those guys. Well, my dad was a huge wrestling fan and here I was at four-years-old a big cartoon fan and my favorite cartoon was on at the same time as ICW every Saturday morning.

Here I am in the hospital wanting to watch my favorite cartoon show, so my dad got the remote and puts it on wrestling, and I can't get the remote. So I was watching and it hooked me.

Ronnie Garvin was my first real favorite wrestler. But I think when I got to watch it on a nation level, I was a Magnificent Muraco fan.

LO: Have you gotten to meet him?

JN: Only through the TV.

LO: You'd be surprised how many people you'd meet through this business.

JN: We've been fortunate to have met a lot of veterans and stuff. It's been nice.

LO: Who's your favorite right now?

JN: The two guys I admire most, just by the way they handle themselves in the ring, are Ric Flair and Shawn Micheals. Micheals's athleticism is just unbelievable, you know when he was in his prime.

And the way Flair would just go out there and make everybody look better. You know he could take this chair in the ring and have a good match with it. It's just something. Now that I know the business a little bit, and I still have a lot to learn obviously you know those are the guys I really look up to.

LO: Have you gotten to meet either of them yet?

JN: Uh, no. The closest would have to be Arn Anderson about three months ago. He was super-nice. He talked with me and Eddie for a few minutes about things. He was really super.

And one of the guys I know went to Shawn Micheals's training school. That's the closest I've come to either of those two.

LO: If you got called up to go right now, who would you want to team with or go against?

JN: It has been my dream for the last few years to get in the ring with Chris Benoit. Even though he would literally kill me. I just think his style would be great to work with, really straightforward, straight-ahead style. I like working that way.

LO: So you like more traditionalism?

JN: Uh-hmm.

LO: So that's what you are?

JN: Well, we like to think of us more of a combination of old school and new school. We can work the old school style and get over that way and still throw in some of the newer high spots, that kind of thing, nothing outrageous or crazy. You know we'll do what's asked of us. I'm not going to dive off a 30-foot balcony, through a flaming table on top of a bed of light bulbs.

One thing we pride ourselves on, in this promotion, is that you can take these companies who go out and kill each other every night and we go out and have just the person you're working with and get over. That's one thing we pride ourselves on.

LO: Scotty Ace was saying that you guys are more classic, Southern traditional and you just don't see that anymore.

JN: I think with the old WCW was the closest thing that was closest thing, on a national level, to the old, classic, Southern style, and I think in a couple years, people will start missing that and it will come back.

LO: I wrote a column a few weeks ago about people going through withdraw about that kind of thing.

JN: You know, I've only been in this business four years, but a lot of the guys we find ourselves with, like in several other promotions, not to say anything bad about any other people out there. We've been fortunate enough to work with guys like the Batten Twins, who you know have been in this business thirty years between them; Tracy Smothers, whose name means a ton in this business; and guys like Bull Pain, who have been around a long time. We've got to work with the Rock N' Roll Express when we first got started and the Bushwackers, that was huge. We really learned a lot. And I'm probably leaving out a ton of people.

You know, they took the time to sit down with us and say that this is how things need to work and do this, it will mean that. It's just something we've been very fortunate when we talk with these other people. It takes time and it doesn't happen overnight. And I think telling a story is a lost art.

LO: That's true.

JN: I mean don't get me wrong, I love the WWF. HIRE ME, VINCE!!!!! (laughs)

LO: (laughs)

JN: Yeah, I think people are going to get tired of the soap opera thing eventually. It's going to go back to good guys and bad guys. That's basically what people want.

LO: One of the ideas about the ratings is that it looks like the stock market, going up and down.

JN: They need Ric Flair and he can at 52 years-old take that chair in a match and mainline WrestleMania. You know just his presence, means so much.

LO: His charisma could fill a room.

JN: The thing with Flair, I was telling someone the other day, it doesn't matter how many people are in the audience or if you go to Madison Square Garden, anytime somebody chops anybody in the corner, what's the first thing you hear?

LO: WOOOO (laughs)

JN: Yeah, exactly. He's got whoever's in the building going "WOOOO!". If that doesn't tell you something about the man's ability in t his business, then nothing will.

LO: Any other comments.

JN: I'm just tickled to death to be here. I've wanted to do this since I was bedridden in the hospital at four-years-old, and even going to stay with my grandfather, who was a huge wrestling fan. To him, it was real. He was eighty-years-old writing me letters saying, "I can't believe so and so beat the Rock N' Roll Express." You know to him it was life or death. And if he ever saw Jim Cornette, except he's passed on now, but if he would have ever seen Jim Cornette, he probably would have killed him.

LO: (laughs)

JN: You know it's just something I'm tickled to death to be doing. It means a lot to me.

LO: Thank you.

JN: Thank you.

I would like to welcome John back anytime and wish him the best of luck. Make sure you check out his web site and the Nationwide Championship Wrestling web site.