Christian discusses Cagefighter, not being in the WWE Hall of Fame, Edge & more [Exclusive]
On May 16th, Cagefighter: Worlds Collide premieres on Fite TV, starring All Elite Wrestling's Jon Moxley, UFC legend Chuck Liddell, and WWE legend Christian!
Well, ahead of the release of the movie, I had the opportunity to speak with Christian, AKA Jay Reso, who stars behind the camera and in front of it as he plays Stephen Drake in the movie, as well as being on board as an executive producer!
Reso told me all about how he personally recommended Jon Moxley for the starring role. I also spoke with Christian about why he isn't in the WWE Hall of Fame, and his run in TNA among other things. But I had to ask about the recent return to the ring of his long-term tag team partner and best friend Edge!
Sportskeeda meets Christian!
You can watch the video below or keep reading for the transcript.
So, Jay, there's one place we need to start off, your upcoming movie - Cagefighter.
You're both in front of the camera and behind it in the movie. How did that all come about?
Yeah, so, what happened was I had done an independent movie a couple of years ago in Regina, Saskatchewan in Canada, where we shot this movie as well, called SuperGrid.
One of the producers on that movie knew Shayne Putzlocher, who is a producer on the Cagefighter movie, and they talked about the wrestling aspects of what was going on and he said, "Hey, you should send this script to Jay and have him take a look at it."
So he sent it to me and I made a couple of suggestions, and they asked me to come on as an executive producer from there and, from that, asked if I wanted to do a small but pivotal role in the movie and, of course, I jumped that chance as well so that's kind of how it all came to be.
The movie stars some pretty big names. Obviously yourself, then the likes of Chuck Liddell and one man who I hear you recommended for his part - Jon Moxley. How did that happen?
Yeah, well, it's one of those things where, when I read it, it just seemed like, to me, kind of written for him. When you see it, you'll know. Now that it's done, I don't think that I could see anybody else in that role the way that he did it. I just knew at the time that he was... That it was being cast, that he was going to be a free agent at that time, so, yeah, basically the timing worked out for that.
Obviously, Jon Moxley plays a wrestler entering the world of MMA. You mentioned him being a perfect fit but were any other wrestlers shortlisted?
I think there was never really anybody like, "Hey, this is who we..." There was a couple of names thrown around but, when his name was brought up, everyone was kind of like, "Yeah, that's who should play this."
Next: Reso reveals which other wrestlers could become great actors