New Horizons in the US: Percy T and Kabel interview

April 2011 saw several of the NHPW roster head to the US to wrestle and train. The WA contingent of Percy T and Kabel got to compete in one the the Indy Wrestling world's biggest tournament's CHIKARA's King of Trios. Tez spoke to the pair recently to get their thoughts on the tour and more!

Thanks to: Percy T

WPW: You are the first two WA based wrestlers to work for CHIKARA. How does that feel and what was the experience like?
PERCY: Was amazing to work with such a great company in what I think is like the Holy land of Indy wrestling the old ECW Arena.

KABEL: Considering some of the talent in WA, being able to say that we were the first in CHIKARA is pretty cool. But more than that, just being invited to be part King of Trios was huge for us. To say that we wrestled at the old ECW arena on the same card as guys like El Genericho, Sean Waltman, Amazing Red, Manami Toyota, Dick Togo, Great Sasuke and Jinsei Shinzaki is awesome.

WPW: Apart from working shows, you did some training with various feds in the area. Which promotions and who were some of the names you trained with?
PERCY: Chikara - Mike Quackenbush, Green Ant and Madison Eagles. WXW C-4 - Supreme Lee Great and Samu.

KABEL: I was lucky enough to train with WXW in Allentown with Samu and also a guy called Jon Trosky who was a bit of a handful but just knew so much was just an incredible teacher. Also I Got the opportunity to train at CZW in Philly and of course CHIKARA with Mike Quakenbush who I’m pretty sure has more information about wrestling in his head than anyone I’ve ever met. Training in each of those places was great as they’re all such different styles of wrestling and I learned so much it was a bit mind boggling.

WPW: What was your favorite match while on the tour?
PERCY: Both the Kings of Trios match for many reasons and my match with Homicide.

KABEL: Trios match against F.I.S.T.. The whole experience from when we walked down that ramp until we walk back up again is something I’m never going to forget and will always be a career highlight for me. F.I.S.T. were excellent to work with. I Also had a match in New Jersey for NHPW-America with Damian Dragon that evolved into a tag against the Incredibles. That was a pretty good match. I really enjoyed that one.

WPW: How did the crowds take to your characters?
PERCY: Wasn't really the usual Percy T gimmick, was more Generic Australian to be honest.

KABEL: I'm lucky with Kabel because people seem to always dig the character. The size, the mask the big moves. As far as the character goes the only thing I heard that was slightly negative was somebody called me a mix between Kane, Abyss and a S&M serial rapist. It was pretty funny, but I’m not a big fan of being likened to a rapist.

WPW: Being your first experience in America, what were some of things you got up to outside the ring?
PERCY: What happens on tour stays on tour haha (Thank God!)

KABEL: Hookers and Blow. Every day… Not really, we just did a bit of the tourist thing in Philly. Trying all the different fast food was cool, I enjoyed that. NBA game. Strip clubs. Lying to Americans about Australia. The usual.

Photo: Karene Ferguson

WPW: Are there any plans of making another tour in the near future?
PERCY: Yes definitely, I will be back next year.

KABEL: Absolutely. We have a lot of invitations from a lot of feds I’ve mentioned earlier to work over there whenever we can manage to get back.

WPW: Have you had any interest from Eastern States promotions in regards to bookings since the tour?
PERCY: Yes, I've had a couple of emails but I have a pretty good working releationship with a couple of eastern state feds any way.

KABEL: Yes. Ive been contacted by and have been talking to a few Promotions from almost every state and I’m lining up quite a few dates later in the year.

WPW: Supanova is coming up very soon. Do you enjoy working these shows in front of a very different audience?
PERCY: Supernova is one of my favorite shows of the year SO much fun and I get to work more of a comedy style which I love.

KABEL: Supernova is great fun. The crowds aren’t usually wrestling fans so they don’t really react the way you’re used to. But seeing as they’re mostly comic book fans and sci/fi–fantasy types they generally react well to the Kabel character.

WPW: NHPW recently held an open day at the Slaughterhouse training facility for people interested in getting into the business. How did that go?
PERCY: From all reports it went well.

KABEL: It went really well. Better than we expected. We had people come in who were interested in just about every aspect of the show. Not just people who wanted to learn to wrestle but people who wanted to get involved with production, promotions and investors.

WPW: What do you have planned for the rest of 2011?
PERCY: Would like to pick up a few more local bookings and just wrestle as much as I can so I cannot lose what I learned in the states and just share my craft.

KABEL: I’m Just trying to get as much work as possible around the place. And of course keeping NHPW moving along and getting stronger and more respected in Australia.

WPW: Thank you guys.
PERCY: Thank you Tez for taking the time out to interview us.