Lance Archer Discusses His Time in TNA Impact Wrestling, NJPW, more
Speaking with Jeffrey Harris for the 411 Interview Podcast, Lance Archer reflected on his run in TNA Wrestling from around 2004 to 2009. Archer discussed his favorite match and moment in TNA, what it was like working with Vince Russo and Dixie Carter, and a lot more. You can check out highlights from that part of the discussion with Lance Archer, as well as the full podcast, below:
Lance Archer on the big takeaway from his time in TNA Wrestling [Now Impact Wrestling]: “I was lucky enough to be a part of TNA at the time when it was growing. I only spent about four years on the independent scene here in Texas before I got my first opportunity here in TNA back in March of 2004. And like I said, when I started with TNA, we were still doing the Wednesday night PPVs, and then we went on to the FOX Sports Network Friday shows, and things started moving along and we joined the Spike Network. And we started doing the traditional three-hour PPVs. And everything was new and a first for the company, and I was there and a part of a lot of that. You know, had three different names while I was there. I started out as Dallas, then I worked as Lance Hoyt for a while, and finished up with teaming up with Jimmy Rave in the Rock ‘N’ Rave Infection as Lance Rock. So, the things that I take away from it are just the learning experience altogether. You know, kind of learning the business on a bigger level, dealing with people who had been in the business for a long time and had ideas of how wrestling should be, and even in 2004 to 2009, it was a business that was changing and growing in its time. The X-Division became a huge deal. The X-Division was kind of the birthplace of the modern wrestling that exists now and so on and so forth. So it was just always a learning experience. Just learning from different.”
Lance Archer on if the TNA locker room was as chaotic as the dirt sheets reported: “As the dirt sheets always are, it’s more exaggerated than it is. There are some things even the dirt sheets don’t know about that happened, and the things that people went through and so on and so forth. But for the most part, a lot of the stuff, whether you love him or hate him, Vince Russo got a lot of credit and bad credit for ideas that weren’t his and some that were. It was one of those things where a lot of things that happened on TV he got blamed for, and they weren’t even his creation. They weren’t even his idea. So, the dirt sheets and the fans that don’t know any better at the time, are blaming somebody that had nothing to do with it. So, it’s one of those things where, any time I read something on the dirt sheets, it one of those things, just like fans, I read ’em and I go, ‘Oh, man. Is this true? Because if so it’s so bad.’ But then again, knowing my time in the business, and knowing what has been true and what’s not been true and what’s been blown out of proportion, most of the time, I just look at it with a grain of salt and realize maybe there’s a grain of truth to that, but there’s maybe a reality that most people don’t even know about.”
Archer on Russo and if he was a person he could deal with: “For me? Yeah. He was very supportive of me. He was a man of me and my work, and he actually gave me several opportunities in different capacities. The one story I tell is he put me with Truth, Ron Truth Killings, because I could dance. He stopped me in the hallway one day, ‘Bro! I heard you can dance!’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, I can dance.’ And he was like, ‘Bro! You gotta dance!’ And I was like, ‘OK.” And he put Truth and I together, and for a while there, I was Dancin’ Lance on TNA TV.”
Lance Archer on Dixie Carter as a boss: “For me, again, I didn’t have a bad relationship with anyone. My relationship with different people ranged in different ways. Dixie was always very nice to me. We never had long, in-depth conversations about anything, but all of our interactions were short, sweet and very cordial. It doesn’t matter who — Dutch Mantell was a very influential person for me, especially very early on in my TNA days. He helped me a lot with the ideas and psychology. And the list goes on and on. Scott D’Amore, who’s still with Impact today, has come and gone a few times, and he’s controlled the book a few different times, was very honest and very blunt with me on certain things, which I appreciated because it helped me understand and focus and move forward in way that a lot of people in today’s society don’t like hearing very blunt and straightforward replies and answers to things because they get their feelings hurt. And you know, I did get my feelings hurt, but to the point where I go, ‘OK. Now I know what I need to do to fix things, and I did that.’ And I appreciate that.”
“So again, it was never a bad situation, and it helped me out tremendously in many, many, many different ways. And that was one of ’em. So, there’s a lot of different relationships with the different people running the company at different times. Dusty Rhodes, who was a big supporter of mine while at TNA, helped me out luckily enough to get to wrestling one time in Nashville, and he helped me get my job at WWE. So, there’s good relationships have helped advance my career as much as anything in this business.”
Archer on his underrated TNA Sacrifice match with Abyss: “If anyone asks me of what my favorite memory or favorite match I had in TNA was, that’s my favorite. Abyss and I always had amazing chemistry. Two extremely large guys that can move very well. We did some really cool and fun stuff. I hit a sprinboard Van Terminator in that match, something that I’ll probably never do again, but the fact that it was there and it happened was really cool. The fans lost their minds when it happened. So, it had a lot of cool and fun elements. It was one of those moments that kind of helped make me in TNA if they had capitalized on it a little more, but they didn’t, and it is what it is.”
In the full interview, Lance Archer discusses his Texas Deathmatch with Jon Moxley at Wrestle Kingdom 14, his successful singles run over 2019, his runs in TNA and WWE, working with Vince Russo, his match with Abyss at TNA Sacrifice 2005, his “Murder Hawk Monster” gimmick, why now is the hottest time in the wrestling industry and more.
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