Gangrel Discusses Backlash To His Match With Orange Cassidy, Guest Coaching At WWE PC

While Gangrel is still active in the ring, in recent years he's become to transition more into training and he operates his own wrestling school. He talked about it as well as the WWE Performance Center when he spoke to Wrestling Inc. on our WINCLY podcast.

"We're old school and there's a lot of yelling and what not," Gangrel said of his school. "I'm still trying to adjust my training because it's a little different than the days when I trained Rusev and Jacob Fatu. I was hard on them but I'm a little bit easier now.

"At our wrestling school we have two rings ? an 18 [foot] and a 16 and then we have a 60-foot rolling area. When you're trained by me you usually start in the rolling area and you could be trained for up to a month or two weeks. Then you'll graduate to the ring and you'll learn your falls and how to wrestle.
Once you've learned all your moves in a 16-foot ring, you don't touch the ropes as they are forbidden. Once you can wrestle in that ring for 20 minutes and tell a story without wanting to go to the ropes, then you graduate up to the next level ? the 18-foot ring.

"Then you start working in rope drills and bigger things. Then you start putting everything together and before you know it, you're wrestling."

The school is called Gangrel's Wrestling Asylum because, according to the owner, you have to be crazy to wrestle.

WWE will often invite wrestling trainers around the country to be guest coaches at their Performance Center. Gangrel was lucky enough to be a part of that group and he discussed that experience.

"It was awesome to see how things have evolved. I say they're spoiled when they come to my school with the equipment, the AC, having a clean ring. But then you go there and they have fitness coaches and acting coaches. Everything is laid out and all you have to do is show up and become great if they have it in them," stated Gangrel.

He added that he is supposed to go back soon, although nothing is confirmed. Gangrel also said as much as the PC students learn from him, he also gets to learn about how WWE trains their students.

"Now you've got AEW up and running so you've got a whole another option. It's cool and exciting times for wrestling as it is for me having a school," said Gangrel. "But I don't to it for money as I've never heard of anybody getting rich for running a wrestling school. But it's exciting times in pro wrestling."

Gangrel was in the ring recently for a match against Orange Cassidy for GCW/BLP. Cassidy isn't every wrestler's cup of tea but Gangrel said he enjoyed the experience of working with him.

"I didn't know what to think," Gangrel said of meeting Cassidy. "I had gotten a ton of messages from older wrestlers saying, '[My trainer] Boris Malenko would be rolling over in his grave. This guy is a joke.' At the same time I'm thinking what did I do as a vampire [laughs]?"

Gangrel ignored the heat and just wanted to do a good match. He added that Orange Cassidy is a great guy and he has a lot of respect for him.

"If I go and beat him up then it's never gonna get over. I said the only way this is gonna work is if I do a comedy match with him. There was nothing else I could do on that card as there was no other option," Gangrel said before adding that he thought he and Cassidy had a great match and people shouldn't take wrestling so seriously.

"There's so much silly stuff in wrestling ? with Hornswoggle being Vince's son and Kane with the dead body ? how can you be mad at anything? It takes courage to go out there and do something and it works for him. Bless his heart and go make money while you can. Figure out an outlet and which way you're gonna go?Be fun about it and he's a great guy and I wish him the most success.

"I know a lot of people ? you either hate it or you love it ? I don't know if there's any in between."

Gangrel will be appearing at WrestleRex on Thursday, October 24th in Pittsburgh. The show goes down one day after AEW Dynamite's Pittsburgh show. So, if you're in town for AEW... stick around for WrestleRex! Tickets and info can be found here. His full interview with Wrestling Inc aired as part of today's episode of our WINCLY podcast. It can be heard via the embedded audio player at the bottom of this post. Featuring Gangrel discussing his upcoming match with LA Park at WrestleRex in Pittsburgh, working with Sam Adonis, backlash to WWE's Hell In A Cell finish, his brief dabbling in the adult entertainment business, recently guest coaching at the WWE Performance Center, his match with Orange Cassidy and more.

You can check out past episodes of the WINCLY here. Subscribe to Wrestling Inc. Audio on iTunes or Google Play. Listen to the show via Spotify here or through TuneIn here.