Jordan Oliver Opens Up About His Rough Childhood, How He Caught MLW's Eye At 20-Years-Old
Jordan Oliver is one of the fresh, new faces in wrestling and the 20-year-old joined MLW last year. He was asked how he would describe himself to a new fan when he spoke to Wrestling Inc. on our WINCLY podcast.
"I don't know, just reckless and wild. I think the best way to describe me as a wrestler is something you'd see from the independents from 2003-2005," said Oliver who then talked about breaking into the wrestling business as a teen.
"I actually broke in like Joey Janela at 15 and weaseled my way onto a few shows and then I got trained after that. One of the wrestlers I backyard wrestled with at the time was like, 'Oh this kid is pretty good.' I wrestled one match against Sonny Kiss and then I wrestled Koko B. Ware in my second match. Then I got trained after that."
He added that he feels like a natural in pro wrestling so no one noticed he wasn't trained. Koko said he enjoyed their match but Oliver admits he was very scared.
Oliver then talked about who helped train him after having his initial two matches.
"The Koko match was me and TJ Blade vs. Koko B. Ware and a guy named Jersey Kid. After the match Jersey Kid was asking me a bunch of questions about my training and he was a guy who had been to Mexico but was a Jersey guy," stated Oliver. "I actually moved in with him for a year and he took me to all of these schools in the NYC area. He took me under his wing for a year and taught me how the business works properly."
Oliver clearly didn't have the typical childhood that most teenagers have. He talked about his upbringing and how similar his wrestling character is to who he really is.
"I don't really have a wrestling character. What I am is what you see. I grew up in the murder capital of New York and I mostly hung out on the streets," revealed Oliver. "I backyard wrestled and did a lot of hood rat stuff ? smoking and drinking on the bus ? things you shouldn't be doing in 5th grade. My parents didn't have a lot of time for me because my sister had a kid at 16. They couldn't pay attention to me a lot so I was raising myself."
Oliver said he always wanted to be a pro wrestler and that he did amateur wrestling and boxing while growing up.
"What really helped me get my stuff together was my grandfather. He really raised me like a second father," said Oliver.
He then talked about the match and the specific spot that got him on MLW's radar.
"I wrestled for CZW and I had a match with Andrew Everett for the title. He did a shooting star press onto one of my stable mates and while he was doing that, I springboarded to the top of the rope across the ring and caught him in a RKO in mid-air. That blew up a bit because it was super crazy and [MLW owner] Court [Bauer] emailed me from there," recalled Oliver.
With MLW, Oliver is part of a stable called Injustice who feel like they've been wronged by the company they work for and others. He went into more detail about the premise of the group.
"I don't feel like we've been given the opportunity to showcase our true talents," Oliver said before adding he was surprised MLW reached out to him to do this interview because it shows they are finally giving him the ball. "I really don't understand what they don't like about us. It is what it is, I guess. I'll keep going out there and keep creating a buzz for myself."
Jordan Oliver will represent Injustice in tag team action at MLW's Zero Hour this Saturday night in Dallas, TX. For tickets and info about MLW's Zero Hour please visit MLWDallas.com.
Oliver's full interview with Wrestling Inc aired as part a recent episode of our WINCLY podcast. It can be heard via the embedded audio player at the bottom of this post. In the full interview Oliver discusses his rough childhood, starting to wrestle at 15, being signed by MLW when he was 19, the debate around his in-ring style, the story behind his MLW stable Injustice, recently working with ACH in MLW, MLW signing King Mo, Injustice's big tag match at MLW Zero Hour 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.