Mance Warner Discusses His Desire To Take Deathmatch Wrestling Mainstream

As pro wrestling had a resurgence of sorts over the last year, some people think that deathmatch wrestling is one its way to becoming mainstream. One of the foremost deathmatch wrestlers, Mance Warner, discussed that when he spoke to Wrestling Inc. on our WINCLY podcast.

"There are pros and cons to everything. I've talked about this before with some people but everybody that's really good at deathmatch wrestling is really good at pro wrestling in general," stated Warner. "There's some fans that go, 'Oh, they're garbage guys. They just do deathmatch stuff.' But if you watch, they can go 20, 30, 50 minutes. I've gone hour-long matches and can do everything."

He added that he wants to get as much deathmatch stuff on TV as he can just as Mick Foley and Terry Funk brought in that wave of deathmatch wrestling in the 90s.

"There's a whole another generation of fans and they wanna see that too. But the downfall of that is that you've got a lot of guys who go, 'Well sh*t. If I do deathmatch wrestling, then I can get over.' Then you gotta weed some people out because if you've got everybody doing it, then they make us look bad," said Warner.

"If you see a really good deathmatch wrestler, know that that sumb*tch can wrestle, guaranteed."

Some aspiring wrestlers see deathmatch wrestling as the quick and easy way to make a name. Warner said that's the wrong line of thought and he talked about the fraternity of deathmatch wrestlers at the moment.

"The last thing we need is some guys who can't wrestle at all doing deathmatches and hurting people. Then fans think, 'Oh that guy's awesome.' It's like, 'No.' If they don't know what they're doing then they don't need to be doing that sh*t because this is some dangerous sh*t. When you hit someone with glass or a light tube, that's real man," Warner stated before adding that it would be awesome to take part in a C4 2x4 match.

Warner has been feuding with Jimmy Havoc in MLW and some of compared their feud with that of Foley and Funk decades ago. Warner was asked about that comparison.

"I never really thought about it but it kinda makes sense. We've got two crazy people who love beating each other up. We don't mind bleeding and don't mind getting thrown through nothing. I'm trying to get my money, have a good time and fight and Jimmy Havoc is trying to do the same thing," said Warner who then talked about having his Uncle Moon Man involved at times.

"He's my uncle and he's a dumb son of a b*tch sometimes, but you gotta love him, I guess. As you saw in that fight, he was with us and got out of the vehicle at one point. He was gonna take some steps towards Jimmy but he quit moving. He had some Moonshine in his hand that he said he was gonna throw in Jimmy's face. But he got all wrapped up and couldn't get the lid off? He's family but sometimes, good Lord, I'll have to walk him through the day or he'll get lost."

Warner said Uncle Moon Man is old as dirt and while he's family, he is also a fool. However, Warner wouldn't comment on if his uncle is a moonshiner because he doesn't want anyone getting arrested.

He was then asked if we could see Uncle Moon Man at ringside.

"I've gotta be careful because I ain't careful. What that means is I can't have him roaming around because then I've gotta pay attention to him," said Warner. "As soon as I hit that curtain and walk through, I'm crazy. I've got no time to stop and try to help someone out. I'm out there fighting. So for him to be out there, he's just gonna distract me and I don't need him out there."

Mance Warner will take on Jimmy Havoc tonight at MLW's Zero Hour in Dallas, TX. For tickets and more information please visit MLW.com.

Mance'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 Mance discusses his bloody MLW feud with Jimmy Havoc, their upcoming barbed wire match at Zero Hour, their recent Falls Count Anywhere and Prince of Darkness matches, deathmatch wrestling going mainstream, comparisons between he and Steve Austin 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.