The American wrestling legend reveals how he stays in shape as he tells us about his search for a British fighting superstar... Your new show, TNA Wrestling: British Boot Camp, has British wrestlers competing to win a professional wrestling contract in America – can you tell us more about it? "We’re looking for new talent for the TNA (Total Non-Stop Action) wrestling circuit. Not just people who can wrestle: we’re looking for character, the right attitude and skill. My role is kind of like a mentor." Isn’t American wrestling more about showbiz than fighting? "Wrestling in the US has sometimes been like a soap opera or a reality show, there was a lot of talking back in the day. But we’re not interested in making wrestling like it was. We make wrestling how it should be. We step the game up!" So is it really dangerous, not all fixed? "There’s a lot of ignorance, miscommunication and misperception around wrestling. People think the outcome of the fight is predetermined. But it’s a very hard sport, physically. You have to be ready to hurt. If you bodyslam somebody, you may try to protect their body and make sure they don’t land on their neck, put them down perfectly flat in the ring, but it still hurts like hell. Wrestling is very intense and these guys are putting their lives on the line." You were World Heavyweight Champion back in the days of WWF, the 1980s and 90s, and even an action figure! You still look in fighting shape... "I’m 59 years old and I still train six days a week, two hours a day. It’s a lifestyle. You either stay in shape or you look like everybody else." So how did you pick the four finalists to compete in British Bootcamp? "The British guys we have were already established wrestlers – they’d already paid their dues and created a bit of a rumble, so we picked the best of the best and brought them over to the States. We put them through our drill with our TNA talent and they had to be able to keep up, otherwise we were going to send them home. But they were all very talented athletes. They coped better than some of the talent we already had. At the end of the day, I watched them on TV and I was grinning from ear to ear. They totally blew me away." And you’ve got a couple of female wrestlers, twins Hannah and Holly Blossom? "Yes, the girls are great. They were very calm and very polite in the back, very feminine, but they came alive when they got in the ring." The aggression came out? "It’s not aggression, it’s professionalism." The winner gets a professional contract with TNA. Will it be life-changing? "If they get taken on the wrestling circuit, it will have to take priority over family and many other things. It takes total dedication to make it in TNA and a lot of sacrifices. I’ve made a lot of sacrifices in my career." Do you think it will be hard to pick a winner? "Yeah. I don’t really want to choose. I have a very hard time separating my emotions from business." *TNA Wrestling: British Boot Camp the finale screens on Tuesday, January 22 on Challenge TV (Freeview 46, Sky 125 and 164, Virgin Media 13)
