Soundsphere sat down with Johnny Swinger to discuss his career and why the 80s is such a beloved period of time to those who work and follow the wrestling business.
Johnny Swinger is a wrestler working for Impact Wrestling who’s also spent time in WWE, ECW and TNA before it’s rebrand. On screen, Johnny is a flamboyant heel – that still somehow manages to be lovable.
The character dresses and acts like a wrestler from the 1980s and that gimmick has been with the character since Johnny broke into the business.
Johnny Swinger recently returned to Impact Wrestling.
We asked Johnny what is it about the 80s that inspires his on-screen persona, and what is it about the decade that seems to lend itself so well to wrestling? Johnny told us:
‘That’s when I was a kid, it’s what I grew up with, so it was always what I was enthralled by. Everything that was the 80s is inside of me. I watched wrestling in the 80s and that’s what I wanted to be.’
‘I came across it on TV like a lot of people at a really young age. Then the next thing I know I’m running around the house with a towel on my head pretending I’m the Iron Sheik. It was like a live cartoon to me. I idolised the wrestlers, they were my super heroes.’
He continued, ‘When I first went to see it in person that’s when it really blew up for me. When I first saw an arena with 17-18 thousand people going nuts for these guys, I just couldn’t believe it. I mean I was the only kid in the eighth grade wearing snakeskin cowboy boots and a belt to match, because that’s what the wrestlers wore at the time.’
‘I think it reminds people of what wrestlers used to look like back then. There was just the way the guys acted, you know, in the over the top, colourful, as The Honky Tonk Man taught me, the razzmatazz and showmanship of being a wrestler.’
‘I just draw upon all that, because when I got into wrestling in the early 90s I was in locker rooms with guys I had watched on TV and idolized, it was surreal. As a kid I imagined myself being in the ring with all these guys, then I was actually in the ring with these guys. I listened to the way they talked. I rode in vans with these guys and just listened to their banter so it’s all in my brain. It’s all inside of me I just let it out.’
Johnny considers Impact his home.
Johnny Swinger – Breaking into the wrestling business
Johnny Swinger has a particularly interesting and unique story about how he broke into the wrestling business. Having fallen in love with the sport at a young age, the stars aligned for Johnny and provided with with an incredible opportunity to pursue his passion. He told us:
‘I wanted to be a wrestler so I started hitting the weights at about twelve years old because these guys were huge, so I wanted to be too. I was raised by a single mother and unbelievably my mother started dating a gentleman who was friends with a wrestler. This turned out to be Tony Parisi. I thought this can’t be real.’
‘And next think you know the gentleman my mother was dating moved in with us and he raised me. He was childhood friends with Tony ‘Cannonball’ Parisi, they grew up in Italy together and both came to Canada. He basically became my uncle Tony.’
‘By thirteen years old I’m helping to set up rings at WWF shows all around Canada. It was like someone waved a wand and made my dream come true. As soon as I graduated high school, I was looking for a training camp. Tony directed me to Gino Brito who was his tag team partner in WWF, he was training wrestlers in Montreal.’
‘But I came across a training school in Toronto run by Sweet Daddy Siki and Ron Hutchison and I thought this was a good opportunity. My uncle Tony knew Siki so I was able to live at home, work my job, and do my wrestling on the weekends and that’s where I broke in.’
‘Today, I’m a husband and a father, that takes up all my time at home. I feel like I lead two separate lives. I get to be this over the top character when I leave the house and a normal person when I come home at the same time.’
