Joe Hendry turned to some legends of the business in his quest to evolve his character.
Hendry, who rose to prominence in the UK before he competed for IMPACT Wrestling and Ring of Honor, is entering a new chapter of his career. Coming out of the height of the COVOD-19 pandemic, which restricted his ability to perform internationally, Hendry has signed with IMPACT Wrestling, and he’s excited to deliver a new version of himself.
Speaking with Greg Oliver of Slam Wrestling, Hendry described how the lockdown during the early stages of the pandemic motivated him to change his character. He named Psycho Sid, Scott Steiner, and Goldberg as some inspirations.
“I was just really inspired through the lockdown, I was watching 1996 WWF. So like Psycho Sid, I was really inspired by him, I got inspired by Scott Steiner. Even Goldberg. I just started watching wrestlers, just powerful [ones] and thought, there probably needs to be more of this in wrestling today,” Henry said.
He also referenced action figures and video games as part of his mindset, noting that he was at a point where he wouldn’t want to play as himself.
“I thought, ‘I wouldn’t want to play as me,'” Hendry said. “And I was like, ‘What do I need to do to make myself so that I would want to do that?’”
With that in mind, Hendry recalled how he changed his look and altered his moveset. In doing so, he shared his belief that everything started to click.
“Let’s get some cool moves, so I just stole all sorts of moves. And then I dyed my hair blond. And I thought, ‘Right, well, now I look I could be like an action figure, and I’ve got some cool moves. So let’s go.’ And then I think, in the last year is when everything just really clicked into place for me, I feel like I’m really starting to get to where I want to be skill-level wise,” Hendry said.
Henry also discussed his physical transformation and credited Jonathan Gresham for encouraging him to change his approach.
“He was teaching me about his philosophy on wrestling, in that you can have two types. So for me, it was technical and power, and he was suggesting, ‘What if you switched them around, and focused more on power, and had technical moves as a supplement?’ And so I did that and steered more into power moves,” Hendry said.
Fans will be able to see this new and improved version of Henry soon, as it’s only a matter of time before he officially arrives in IMPACT Wrestling.
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