Getting lost in conversation with the Abyss
CHRIS Parks, also known as TNA’s professional wrestler Abyss, recently granted me an interview during a promo visit to Manchester.
To say I was nervous would be an understatement, Abyss is 6ft 8in and weighs 350lbs.
My planning and research was ridiculously extensive as I didn’t want to get a single fact wrong for fear of my life.
Parks sits down, shakes my hand, introduces himself, and immediately puts me at ease; what a nice guy.
This is a man who drops people onto broken glass and drawing pins, this is someone who allowed another man to slice his arm 166 stitches wide open to entertain the people who expected it.
To most, professional wrestling may seem like a very extreme means of earning money, but to them its life, and nothing could be more normal.
He was in town to promote next January TNA 'Maximum iMPACT Tour' and, as you'll see (phew!), couldn't have been better company:
Why did you decide to start wrestling?
I know it’s such a clichéd answer but I’ve always wanted to do it since being a kid. I went to school, I got a masters degree, I got my college education and got a job right out of college, but about a year into it I was just like “this isn’t what I want to do man”. I was stuck on the wrestling thing, so I quit my job and started wrestling at a really reputable school in Cincinnati Ohio.
Was that with Roger Ruffin?
Roger Ruffin, yep, that’s him. You did your research! Yeah, Bone Crushers is the name of his school, I trained there with him and started wrestling in’94.
Where there any wrestlers in particular that had an influence on you?
There’s two. I was probably influenced most by Rowdy Roddy Piper. The first time I saw him on TV when I was a kid and just hearing him talk in interviews with the over the top character, it just drew me right in, I was hooked right away. And the other one, who oddly enough is with us now (TNA roster), is Mick Foley. He definitely had a big influence on me coming up and it’s pretty awesome to have him actually working with us now.
Was Mick Foley's influence one of the reasons why you chose to wear a mask?
I think it kind of just worked out that way, I don’t know if the original idea was directed because Mick had done it, I don’t think so. There’s definitely similarities between us two but at the time I was in Puerto Rico...
With IWA?
Yeah, ha, boy you really did your homework, ha ha. Yeah with IWA and that’s where I actually started to do Abyss, I did him for a whole year there before I came to TNA in 2003.
Have you got any plans to work with Foley?
I would love to do it, I’m sure down the road it’s on the cards somewhere, I know I’d be super honoured and super excited about doing it for sure. Working with him after everything he’s accomplished, would be an honour. And I think people want to see it, I think Abyss and Mick Foley is something that people would be interested to see just how crazy it would get.
What was the reason why you stopped playing American football?
After college man, I was just really tired of football. I mean, I enjoyed it, it paid for my college education and I went to a division 1a school. I played five years of football so they paid for my master’s degree, but I’ll be honest with you, we didn’t have a whole lot of success and by the time I was done with that fifth year I was just exhausted. It ended up working out good though because I took a year and a half, two years off between football and wrestling and I think that really energised my batteries to kinda focus on wrestling.
How easy was it to adjust to a six-sided ring when you moved to TNA?
Good question. You know what, it wasn’t a long adjustment but it was definitely an adjustment. When you’re in there and you have six different ways to go instead of four, it definitely takes some getting used to but not as much as you might think. Most of the TNA performers, myself included took about a month or so to get the feel for it and so forth, but it also opens up different options with different ways to do things. There’s more ways to exit, there’s more ways to get thrown out of it, ha, there’s more ways to get tossed into it, ha, it can be used to your advantage and it can be used to your disadvantage.
Do you prefer the six-sided ring?
I do, I really do man. Number one, TNA’s been using it since shortly after its conception...
Oh right, so you started with a four-sided ring?
Yeah we started with a four sided ring, the six sided ring didn’t come into play until close to year two, maybe even half way through year two, it would have been 2004. From a TNA standpoint I think it separates us from the competition but you hear some of the purists say “well it’s a six-sided ring, it should be a four-sided ring, it’s always been a four-sided ring” but that’s what separates us apart. When you think of TNA you think of the six-sided ring, so it’s done nothing but good things. It makes for a different platform for the performers in the ring and it also, from a marketing identification and branding standpoint, helps the company.
What was it like working with Jeff Hardy?
Awesome man, yeah, it was a great experience, Jeff’s a unique guy. I’ve never met anybody in my life that’s not scared of anything like he is, the guy's not afraid of nothing, there’s no building too tall from him to jump off of and he’s an incredible performer. Again, I think that was one of those match ups the fans really wanted to see because the Abyss character and Jeff Hardy are both kinda crazy and unstable and when you put them together you get some pretty crazy stuff.
It's rumoured Jeff “no showed” the first match of a short lived feud you had in 2003. Can you remember anything about that?
You know what, I don’t remember quite honestly if he did or not, I know there was a time when he was considering his options as far as staying with us or going back there, so I don’t know, that may have been in that time frame, I’m not quite sure. But the two solid years he was there, we probably had three or four really good memorable matches.
My favourite match or yours personally, is the barbed wire match between yourself and Sabu. I was wondering what your reaction is to this match and if there any specific moments you look back on?
It's funny you should say that because that’s one of my most memorable matches. Yeah, I would probably put it as my second favourite match of all time that I’ve ever had.
What’s the first?
The first one would be me and AJ (Styles) at the first Lockdown. It was the first time that either one of us had main evented a pay-per-view for TNA, but back to the barb wire match. The stuff I remember the most was just how brutal it was man, and it was vicious. You can see (he shows me his arm) most of these scars are all from it, that was 166 stitches from there to there.
No way. Was that when he got the…
Yeah the ice pick, yeah he gave me the ice pick round the arm and then, you know, I fell into the barb wire once and that ended up doing me right there (pointing to more scars).
Did you tamper with the barb wire at all?
No, that was real gator wire, we didn’t do anything to that wire, it wasn’t cut and it wasn’t shortened. Both Sabu and myself wanted to make it authentic, we didn’t want to cut any corners at all, he wouldn’t have done it if we did and I wouldn’t have. We wanted it to be as real as it could be and I think that’s why people remember it. I think the thing I’m most proud of about it, was that it was voted 2005 match of the year and that’s a big honour man, I have the plaque in my wrestling room at home. That was one of the nicest feelings to know the fans voted it that, it made me feel really good.
What was it like becoming TNA world champion against Sting at Genesis 2006?
Yeah, that was fantastic, that’s probably my most memorable moment, that was the first and only time I’ve won it and to win it wrestling with Sting made it that much more sweeter. He truly is his moniker, he truly is an icon and I just thoroughly enjoyed working with him and getting to know him as a person. He’s just a fantastic guy who’s had a stellar career and I’m just happy that I got to work with him.
I thought the storyline concerning you shooting your father in the back was very successful and that the acting carried out by yourself, Sting and James Mitchell was very impressive.
Some real good intense stuff, and Mitchell’s really good man, I think he’s one of the best promos in wrestling, the top three or four best in the business. There were some intense confrontations between Sting and Mitchell that I thought worked out really good.
What has it been like working with Stevie Richards?
Awesome man he’s great. I never really knew him before working with him, we’ve never really crossed paths but he’s been just awesome to work with man. He’s a very intense guy and very creative, he’s got a great mind and I’m really looking forward to wrestling him. He’s always had a reputation of being a very creative worker and wrestler, so I believe we’ve got the chance to do something special and have a good match.
Did Stevie Richards approach TNA or vice versa?
I honestly don’t know, I really don’t know the answer to that.
Have you ever been approached by McMahon or any WWE affiliates?
Yeah I’ve been approached and I’m proud to say that each time I’ve been approached by them I chose to stay with TNA. You know, TNA’s done so much for me personally and for the Abyss character. Abyss is TNA, he’s never been anywhere else, he was never part of WCW, never a part of ECW, never a part of WWF or WWE, he’s a home grown piece of TNA talent. They established me after being nowhere else and I’m really really proud of it. Same with AJ Styles, same with Samoa Joe, we’re pieces of talent that never went anywhere else, TNA has built us from the ground up. I have had several opportunities when I’ve been approached to go up there and I could just never imagine myself doing it, I love TNA with all my heart, I couldn’t imagine wrestling anywhere else.
Are the spoken promotional storyline sections of TNA scripted or improvised?
I think the majority of them from my standpoint are improvised, I have a thought of what I want to say, and the point I want to get across and the story I want to tell. For example with me and Stevie, I know what I want to say to him when I get out there. I think that the promos come across a lot better when they’re improvised.
What is your favourite match you have seen as a spectator?
There’s so many good ones, there really are... if I had to pick one …I’ll give you two. The first one is TLC 1. I thought those guys redefined the risk level that people were willing to take.
And the other one, I gotta tell you... let me think about this because there’s so many that rush through my head… I would say the very first meeting of Samoa Joe and Kurt Angle. They had three together in that first year that Kurt was there in 2006, but that very first match they had, I just remember thinking to myself how intense it was. They’re two great athletes and two guys that are really intense, you know, I don’t think there is two guys who are more intense.
Any others?
Going back old school I would go Ricky Steamboat and Randy Savage from Wrestlemania 3, because you know, that was a 40-minute match, you know 35 minute, 40 minute match, it was spectacular. I think if you ask that question to one hundred wrestling fans, 60 or 70 of them are going tell you Steamboat and Savage from Wrestlemania 3.
I was thinking maybe I could get your reaction to a few names I throw at you.
Ok yeah.
Sean Waltman?
Incredible wrestler, crazy, much like Jeff there’s nothing he wouldn’t do. He’s a risk taker and he’s a spectacular wrestler.
Triple H?
I don’t know him, obviously I think he’s an incredible athlete and I think he’s an excellent wrestler.
Paul Heyman?
Again, don’t know him. Would have liked to have known him and picked his brain a little bit, I think he has an incredible mind for wrestling and an incredible mind for the wrestling business. Would have loved to have picked his brain.
Jeff Jarrett?
The boss, he’s the boss man, and I wouldn’t be where I’m at today without him. He’s a great boss to have, he’s not really like a boss at all, personally I love him, and professionally I love him. He’s done an awful lot for the wrestling business, he brought an option around to WWE when there was none, he instituted it and put the plan in action. He’s the reason why TNA is where it’s at.
Jim Cornette?
Awesome. A great wrestling mind, I love picking his brain every chance I get, I go to him for advice all the time, he’s such a smart wrestling mind. I’d put him in the top three wrestling promos of all time, he’s excellent.
Kurt Angle?
A wrestling machine, he’s a warrior, you can’t hurt him, you can’t stop him. He’s an excellent person, he’s a good person, and he’s got a great heart. I’ve had some great matches with him, I thought we had a couple of really good matches; last September at No Surrender was probably the best match he and I have had together. I’ve enjoyed getting to know him and I’ve really enjoyed wrestling him.
Right I think that’s it! Thank you very much Abyss!
It was a pleasure to meet you man, thanks a lot.
Abyss arrives on the 'Maximum iMPACT Tour' on Friday, January 29. “The Boss” Bobby Lashley has now been added to the bill too, which also includes; Kurt Angle, “The Samoan Submission Machine” Samoa Joe, “The Phenomenal” AJ Styles, Awesome Kong, Team 3D, Suicide, British Invasion and Beer Money. £20, £32.50, £45. Call 0844 847 8000.
Published: Mon, 21 September, 2009
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