“He’ll Shake Your Hand, Then Cut Your Throat”: Dan Spivey on Waylon Mercy in WWE

“He’ll Shake Your Hand, Then Cut Your Throat”: Dan Spivey on Waylon Mercy in WWE

There are wrestling books that are basically just lists: matches, belts, towns, a few wild road stories. Dan Spivey’s book, The Dangerous Truth [https://www.waylonmercy.com/] isn’t one of those. From the first few pages, it hits with a very different energy. It’s bleakly funny, self-deprecating and brutally honest about the years lost to drink and drugs, the broken relationships, the chaos of the business. At one point in our chat, he sums up his old lifestyle with a single, savage line: “I probably snorted a couple of Rolls Royces in my day, you know.” He’s not boasting. He’s almost bewildered that he’s still here. Spivey hit rock bottom at 56 (he's 73 now). That, he says, was when everything changed. “I finally hit rock bottom with my drugs and alcohol, I was 56 years old when I had a spiritual awakening, and started a road of sobriety.” The book came later, and it wasn’t about ego or legacy. It was about making that wreckage mean something. “[The] Reason I wrote the book is people wanted me to tell my story and… if this book and my story helps anybody get sober, then it was worth the time and effort of it.” You can feel that purpose running through the pages, but there’s something else threaded through it too, a quieter story that sneaks up on you. For more visit: https://www.soundspheremag.com/

Mr. Anderson talks JCW, Vince McMahon finding him TOO FUNNY and his favourite modern performers

Ken Anderson looks like he’s having the time of his life again – and he’ll tell you straight away, that’s because he is. For a guy who’s lived through the extremes of WWE, carried the top belt in TNA, and now juggles training the next generation with hosting his own Mic Check podcast, that sentence says a lot. It’s not just about being back in the ring – it’s about where and how he’s doing it. https://www.soundspheremag.com/news/ken-anderson-on-finding-his-voice-in-wwe-comedy-and-psychology-in-modern-wrestling/

Stu Grayson shares his favourite Dark Order memories with Brodie Lee, the JOY of Mystery Wrestling

There’s a particular kind of grin that spreads across Stu Grayson’s face when he talks about Mystery Wrestling. It’s not just pride, though there’s plenty of that, it’s something closer to mischief. The kind of mischief that comes from knowing the audience has no idea what’s coming, and that’s exactly the point. For more visit: https://www.soundspheremag.com/news/stu-grayson-on-mystery-wrestling-brodie-lee-the-dark-order-and-his-bond-with-evil-uno/

JCW's Father Bronson comments on Xavier Woods' next move in wrestling, takes over SOUNDSPHERE

On screen, in the world of JCW, we see a towering figure in black, red-tinted sermons to the camera, eerie roll calls and cryptic messages about “Red Love.” It looks, at first glance, like a brilliantly unhinged wrestling gimmick: a cult-adjacent preacher, a strange sidekick in the form of Mr. Wiggles, and an ever-growing list of names who’ve made the Red Roll Call. But sit down with Father Bronson—as we did, somewhat nervously, over a screen from the UK—and the language of “gimmick,” “character work,” and “promos” doesn’t just fall away. It’s rejected, dismantled and thrown back at you. “You’re using words like promo and vignette,” he says, eyes locked forward. “I think you might be under the wrong impression. You might think that this is an act… that red love doesn’t fuel the fibers of my being, because it truly does.” For more visit: https://www.soundspheremag.com/

The Hardys talk favourite bands, The Righteous in the Broken Universe, their next evolution in TNA

For over three decades, the Hardys have been the glitch in pro wrestling’s system – the weird kids from North Carolina who grew up on trampolines, DIY rings and alternative culture, and somehow dragged all of that into the mainstream. They were the ones in fishnets and baggy cargos while everyone else was in trunks, the outcasts who became icons. For more, visit: https://www.soundspheremag.com/