Vance Desmond
Posted by Douglas Nunnally
on 09/06/2004
Interviewer's Note:
Welcome to another edition of "Wasting The Time Of..." and in this edition, I have another bright star of the NWA circuit, Vance Desmond!
Vance Desmond is the wrestler everyone wants to be and every promoter wants to book. Dedicated. Promising. Open minded. And always a student. Whether it be telling his family he would rather be handicapped than not wrestling or taking classes in college just to help his ability, Vance Desmond does everything for the business. Waking up, he absorbs it. Eating, he feels it. Sleeping, he dreams it. For everyone who has watched him, it shows. From his Six Star Frog Splash to his Ego Driver, everything he does in the ring is simply amazing and entertains fans to a level that others wish they could do.
As the statement goes, everyone wants VD, and it is true. Whether it be watching him, talking to him, or absorbing his presence, Vance Desmond makes the world around him seem like it belongs to him, and there is no shock to this interviewer as to why. Just wait until you have "a touch of violence."
Douglas Nunnally: First off, thank you for joining me here today, Vance.
Vance Desmond: Not a problem.
Douglas Nunnally: So, you made your debut as your current "persona" in the 2003 King Of VA tournament for NWA Virginia. What exactly was going through your mind that night?
Vance Desmond: I was a bit worried because I had been known as The Kid Inferno for a while, and I was trying a new name in a place where no one knew me in the first place.
Douglas Nunnally: When did the worry seem to go away?
Vance Desmond: After the lock up. You always worry until the first lock up; then all you can do is concentrate on the task at hand, which leaves little time to worry.
Douglas Nunnally: So where did you wrestle before NWA-VA?
Vance Desmond: I started in NWA Tri-State as the Kid Inferno about a year before the debut of "Violent" Vance Desmond in NWA-VA.
Douglas Nunnally: So what prompted the name change?
Vance Desmond: I was not a big fan of the name it was just kind of generic. Plus there was an Inferno Kid already. I thought I need a name that was more me. The best "gimmicks" are extensions of yourself just turned up a few notches.
Douglas Nunnally: So how exactly is this current gimmick an extension of yourself?
Vance Desmond: I play a cocky asshole, and in real life I would be if my personality was turned up, and the laws of the real world worked like the laws of wrestling.
Douglas Nunnally: Would you like it if life worked like that?
Vance Desmond: Well, of course. I get to go in and use any rules I want and still get away with it, and maybe even get a big, gold belt. Sign me up!
Douglas Nunnally: Is there anyway reason you shroud the year before your debut as Vance Desmond to the fans?
Vance Desmond: I think I wasn't ready. I didn't really "get" the business. I just went in the ring and flipped around, and didn't really make sense of what I did or why I did it.
Douglas Nunnally: So you were basically a "spot monkey" earlier on, as some may put it?
Vance Desmond: Oh yeah. I would just think I want to do this and this and this and this. Then I would just go hit all the spots and call it a match. I think I learned a lot from getting in there and working people and watching the crowds' reactions.
Douglas Nunnally: So you work more psychology nowadays?
Vance Desmond: You have to or it's really not wrestling. Take a guy like Teddy Hart. The guy can do more things than I could ever imagine. But it is not wrestling. He does enough stuff in one match to make 10 matches.
Douglas Nunnally: So obviously you join the other 99.9% of the wrestling world who hate Teddy Hart's wrestling, huh?
Vance Desmond: I don't hate him because I don't know him, so "hate" would not be fair. He is an amazing athlete; I just don't know what sport he is playing because it doesn't look like wrestling.
Douglas Nunnally: Have you heard about Twisted Youth's comments on you?
Vance Desmond: Yeah, it's all in good fun. Youth is good guy. I have known him since before I even got in the business; actually he inspired me. I went to a NWA Tri-State show and he had just started, and he was in a really, really bad "hardcore match." I just remember thinking, "If this guy can do it, I know I can." I had wanted to do it for as long as I can remember, but it is always scary to take that first step, and maybe he helped me a little with that.
Douglas Nunnally: So you're basically in a game of "one up-man-ship" with him?
Vance Desmond: Yeah, kind of. It helps us both keep on our toes, I guess.
Douglas Nunnally: So what are you going to do now that he is injured? Break your neck?
Vance Desmond: I have to outdo him, so if it comes down to that, I will do what it takes. I have come close before; might as well go all the way.
Douglas Nunnally: What do you feel about his injury?
Vance Desmond: I think it is horrible since we were doing pretty well as of late. I am just coming back from an injury, and now he is out with one, so it is at a bad time. I know Youth though; he will come back before he is supposed to. He is a lot like me. You can't keep us down for too long.
Douglas Nunnally: Speaking of injuries, you have been wrestling under a year and have more injuries than veterans of 3 years. What is up with that?
Vance Desmond: Well, I do stupid stuff sometimes, and sometimes accidents happen. I have been fighting this knee to keep it good for a while now.
Douglas Nunnally: How did you injure the knee, or is it a combination of a lot of things?
Vance Desmond: The first time it went on me was a tag match in Welston, Ohio close to two years ago. I missed a frog splash off the top and something went in my knee. It was my MCL. I recovered, but now it is giving me a problem again as of late.
Douglas Nunnally: You mention your frog splash, and I just got to ask. How do you execute a 5 Star Frog Splash well enough to add an extra star to it?
Vance Desmond: Well, I am Vance Desmond, and every move I do is going to be better than anyone else who has tried it, so naturally mine would be at least one more star than everyone else who does it.
Douglas Nunnally: Egotistical are we?
Vance Desmond: Well, yeah. I am Vance Desmond. One of my moves is even called "The Ego Driver."
Douglas Nunnally: Wow. Just wow.
Vance Desmond: I am egotistical. I will not try to hide it; but if you're the best, are you really being egotistical?
Douglas Nunnally: Ok, I kind of see your point. Anyway, it has been said that you received 4 staples to the head because of a Rana to the outside. What do you mean by staples exactly?
Vance Desmond: They had to put four metal staples in my head to hold it together. It was basically a big gash and stitches wouldn't hold it that well.
Douglas Nunnally: Jeez, how much pain were you in then?
Vance Desmond: Not a lot really. When it hit, I got knocked out so I didn't feel a thing. When I woke up, a bunch of people were all around me talking to me and I couldn't move because I got a stinger from the impact. I wasn't hurting when I woke up, just sick to my stomach and covered in blood. The next week or so it hurt like a bastard, and taking the staples out hurt a bit to say the least.
Douglas Nunnally: Ouch. So maybe you have outdone Twisted Youth then. At least he got morphine.
Vance Desmond: Yeah, I got Aspirin.
Douglas Nunnally: I understand that you will receive a tryout match with CZW when you are "ready." How exactly did this come about?
Vance Desmond: I had talked to a couple wrestlers from CZW and they gave me Zandig's number so I called him up and talked to him a few times, and he invited me down. I went to the show, and the complaints he had about me were that I need to gain weight, and he thought I would look better with longer hair; so when I feel I gained enough weight, I am heading back up.
Douglas Nunnally: What do you basically feel about his comments toward you?
Vance Desmond: Oh, completely true. I have grown the long hair and I like it in the ring better and I am working to gain more weight. I am only about 173, but I am at like 7 or 8 percent body fat. I need to gain a lot to be a main contender. When you're out there with like 6'4, 300 lbs. monsters, you have to be a monster yourself. Working out is the only thing I really love besides wrestling, so it works out well.
Douglas Nunnally: What is your ideal weight?
Vance Desmond: This is about crazy, but about 235 or 240. I want to be huge. If I shoot high and only get 220, I will still be pretty huge.
Douglas Nunnally: What are your thoughts on the whole "Faith No More" run with Twisted?
Vance Desmond: I liked it. We weren't the most winning team around, but our teamwork in the ring wasn't matched by any team around, and we didn't even hit our prime as a team.
Douglas Nunnally: So what are your plans now that that is over?
Vance Desmond: To win some titles and get my weight up so I can go to CZW and to TNA and be seen.
Douglas Nunnally: How did your match with Fabulous go?
Vance Desmond: Plain and simple, I won. It was a last man standing, which I had not done before. But I liked the match, and it was fun to work with Fabulous.
Douglas Nunnally: What kind of expectations did you have going into that match with such a stipulation?
Vance Desmond: I was not sure what would happen. I just knew it would take something big to keep someone down for a 10 count when usually a 3 count will get you a win.
Douglas Nunnally: So what did you do to keep him down?
Vance Desmond: Keep this between me and you, but the old brass knuckles in the boot keeps them down every time. You just got to be careful because the ref is not a big fan of them.
Douglas Nunnally: Sure, between you and me...moving on. You seem to do most of your work with the branches of NWA. Is there any chance for you to show up in TNA soon?
Vance Desmond: There is a chance of that happening. Once again it was brought up that I could go down, but I need a little bit more weight, but look for it in a few months, I hope.
Douglas Nunnally: So TNA and CZW all might be open for you soon. Anywhere else?
Vance Desmond: I like ROH, but I have no contacts or anything with them so it might be harder to get in there. I am going to Japan in the summer and hopefully will be doing a show or 2 over there while I am there.
Douglas Nunnally: Anyone or place in particular in the Orient you wish to work with?
Vance Desmond: Once again the NWA tie comes up. I am going to try and get on Zero One over there.
Douglas Nunnally: Jeez, so Zero One, TNA, and CZW. Any other plans or news you plan to tell us about?
Vance Desmond: I want to wrestle everywhere, and I want to work a ton of people so that is what I am working on and maybe I can make some money doing what I love in the process.
Douglas Nunnally: Who might be included in "a ton of people?"
Vance Desmond: AJ Styles (got to mat wrestle him but still), Trent Acid, Red, Spanky, Angle, and of course, HHH.
Douglas Nunnally: So I guess you don't buy the talk that Styles, Angle, and Red are all overrated?
Vance Desmond: Red maybe, but I like the guy. Angle and Styles are two of the best. I have talked to both for long periods of time and they are so smart when it comes to wrestling, so I don't think they can be overrated.
Douglas Nunnally: What did you learn from Angle and Styles?
Vance Desmond: With Angle, I just talked to him for an hour or so a few months back. Styles came to Tri-State and wrestled, and I trained with him for a few days while he was there.
Douglas Nunnally: What kind of advice and lessons did they give?
Vance Desmond: Angle said the most important thing is to just work in the ring. Don't worry about hitting big moves and stuff. Just work and tell a story with what you do. Styles gave more of a physical lesson just in actions in the ring and just how to put things together and make a match look good.
Douglas Nunnally: Would you say that those are the best lessons anyone has given you?
Vance Desmond: No, Les Thatcher for HWA once told me it comes down to one thing: "How bad do you want it?" In my opinion, that is the best thing anyone ever said to me, and I believe it 100 percent. Everyone who talks to me asks me, "Do you think I could be a wrestler?" I always ask them, "How bad do you want it?" When I got hurt from landing on my head on the floor, my family said, "If you keep doing this, you're not going to be able to walk." My response was, "If I can't wrestle, I don't want to walk," and that is 100 percent true.
Douglas Nunnally: Dedication mean anything to you?
Vance Desmond: Absolutely. That is what I mean by that. I dedicate my life to this business. Everything I do is to try and make myself a better wrestler.
Douglas Nunnally: So, you wake up and your first thought is wrestling?
Vance Desmond: Exactly. I am going to school for a sports med degree just so I can know what's going on in my body and how to treat injuries along the way.
Douglas Nunnally: How do you feel school will change your career?
Vance Desmond: It won't except for the better. All I do here at school is eat, workout, and go to my classes, and I even got all Fridays off in case I have a Friday show, and I have all weekends off.
Douglas Nunnally: So you aren't one to feel education is first?
Vance Desmond: Hell no. [Laughs] This is what I want to do.
Douglas Nunnally: There is no contingency plan?
Vance Desmond: That makes you plan to fail, and why would I want to do that? I am sure I could do something with my degree if I have to, but hopefully it does not come to that.
Douglas Nunnally: Well let's say if you get injured. Would you fall out of the wrestling world, or stay in?
Vance Desmond: Stay in. I am sure someone needs a trainer with a sports med degree, and at least I will still be around the business.
Douglas Nunnally: Could you imagine life without this?
Vance Desmond: No. I don't even know how people live their lives without wrestling. Must be something wrong with them, or me I guess.
Douglas Nunnally: No, I hear you. We aren't messed up, they are. Am I right?
Vance Desmond: Absolutely correct.
Douglas Nunnally: So you have been in this for 5 years. Any regrets so far besides teaming with Twisted?
Vance Desmond: [Laughs] Wow. That is a tough question. I guess I would keep it all the same because I have enjoyed every minute.
Douglas Nunnally: So you haven't run into any political bullshit or stuff that sucked the fun out of it?
Vance Desmond: Everyone runs into it. I just try to run the other way. Sometimes you have to deal with it and just try to remember the pay off is getting out there and wrestling.
Douglas Nunnally: What has to be your best memory so far?
Vance Desmond: Wrestling Rocky Reynolds in a Mad Mar main event, and not because it was a great match. Just that someone had that much faith in my abilities to put me in that spot and just how well everything in the ring went and how into it the crowd was.
Douglas Nunnally: What other kinds of faith have you gotten from promoters that amaze you?
Vance Desmond: Rich surprises me sometimes out of the blue. I am going to Canada to represent Tri-State for the Anniversary show this year. Rocky has also always been awesome to me.
Douglas Nunnally: So there is no feeling of being shafted in your 3 year career?
Vance Desmond: Sometimes you get that feeling, but things go up and down. It will always come back up if you just pay your dues and work through it.
Douglas Nunnally: So do you feel like you have paid your dues?
Vance Desmond: I think you are never done paying your dues. I just think it changes. When you're young, you have to prove yourself to be taken serious. When you're old, you have to get the next generation ready to take your place.
Douglas Nunnally: All right, well what do you feel about the site, thewrestlingvoice.com?
Vance Desmond: I think it is a very well done site and is not just a site spreading rumors. It actually talks to the wrestlers and gets their view on things and has some fun stuff to play around with on there.
Douglas Nunnally: I have to ask. How fun is it to kick Twisted's ass?
Vance Desmond: Oh, it is awesome. You should try it sometime. Just think behind that mask is everyone who has ever pissed you off, plus it is pretty damn easy too.
Douglas Nunnally: Ha! Is there anything else you want to say to the fans and readers out there?
Vance Desmond: Go to Indy shows and help keep this thing we got going on alive. Plus if no one is left, WWE can make us watch anything. Oh, and remember everyone wants VD…Vance Desmond that is!
Douglas Nunnally: Thanks again, Vance.
Vance Desmond: No problem.
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