Tyson 'Star' Smith

Some say that this young NWA Junior Heavyweight Champion has the agility and speed of a WWE superstar. Star, from the NWA Main Event, has wrestled in almost every state in the United States and has just became the NWA Junior Heavyweight Champion. In this interview, Star takes a journey from his background in West Virginia to Heavyweight Gold. Make sure to check out Star in the upcoming weeks. Here comes Star!

Lekisha Oliver: Okay, Star, let's go ahead and get your real name.

Star: Tyson Smith from Kenova, West Virginia.

LO: How old are ya?

Star: 21.

LO: And how long have you been working?

Star: Six years, getting ready to turn seven come March.

LO: Congratulations.

Star: Getting old.

LO: You're not old, far from it. Who trained ya?

Star: Me and Jamie Noble. Jamie Gibson or Jamie Howard, he used to be, it was a long time ago in the West Virginia independents. No one really trained us, we just kinda got in there and bumped around until everything fell into place. If there's anyone that can teach ya, it's him. He's got the WWE Light Heavyweight Championship, or Cruiserweight, whatever they call it.

LO: Do you still keep in contact with him?

Star: Yeah. He's doing good. He's got the title still and hopefully he's still going to hold onto it.

LO: Hold onto it until you get up there and get it from him.

Star: Yeah. I'm hoping to hold the NWA title while he's holding the WWE title so we can control both of the world's titles.

LO: Get some pictures together. Lots and lots of pictures.

Star: Hell, yeah. The more the merrier.

LO: That would be the promo picture from hell right there. Did ya'll do backyard or anything like that?

Star: Uh, not really. I did a lot of shoot wrestling. I started out, I was ten years old and did amateur wrestling, won a couple Greco-Roman wrestling tournaments, wrestling when I was about 15 years old and won a sport Jujitsu tournament. I won a World's Submission Grappling Championship. I started professional when I was about 16. I got paid to shoot wrestle in some shoot tournaments all over the US. I've worked all over the US, except for Hawaii and California. Ya'll out there, if ya'll wanna book me, I want to go to those two states and fill up my map.

LO: (laughs) Well, so far, what's been your best match?

Star: I thought me and Jimmy (Rave) had a hell of a match for NWA Main Event, me and Tony Mamaluka, when he was Singi down at CCW, Coastal Championship Wrestling. [He and I] had some good matches. And [Jamie and I] down in Florida. That's probably '97 or '98 that's when we were wrestling for Battlin' Bill Weaver in Melbourne, Florida, at the County Line Club.

LO: Sounds like you have been everywhere. Who's treated you the best so far?

Star: I don't know, I would say that the NWA Main Event has it's head on it's shoulders everything looks promising in the promotion and hopefully the crowd seems to be getting bigger week by week as everything keeps progressing. This Nashville area seems to be the most promising area. Tennessee fans are great. Tennessee has some of the greatest fans in the world.

LO: We've been weaned on it since we were babies.

Star: Yeah, tradition. Long tradition.

LO: Yeah, you grow up watching it and next thing you know, you're hooked. I figured it would be about the same way out in West Virginia.

Star: Nah. West Virginia wrestling is a little different. Promoters out there really don't get out there and push the show as much as around here. It's a total different league of it's own. There's only a few promotions. The NWA is the most promising right now, besides the WWE. But NWA, besides the WWE, is the forerunner. It has the longest tradition, dating back to Frank Gotch and George Hackenschmidt in the 1900s around to Ed "Strangler" Lewis. Then it progressed into many great wrestlers for the NWA, great NWA Heavyweight and Junior Heavyweight Title {holders}, which I'm going for this coming week (and ends up winning) in Columbia, Tennessee, for the NWA Main Event. That's not a cheap promo, just come on out.

LO: What about the NWA TNA? Have you been contacted about working up there?

Star: Yeah, I worked a show when they first got started out making a core group together. I'd love to work for them, they're a good promotion. The pay-per-view deal is really promising. I'm just waiting for a call to work for them anytime. It's about the same everywhere.

LO: Well, lately your matches have been absolutely phenomenal. Of course, they always are.

Star: (smiles) I appreciate it.

LO: You're welcome. Hopefully you'll have that title soon.

Star: I hope so.

LO: I've seen some of your work with rookies, how would you explain it to them on how to make it in this business?

Star: My advice is don't be scared cause you're going to get your ass whooped anyways, so you might as well fight back. That's my advice. You give some, you take some. You know.

LO: Any final comments since we're getting rushed here?

Star: I don't know what to say except I love ya'll (KISS).

LO: Thank you.

Star: No problem.