Chris Hero Talks Possibly Returning To In-Ring Action
Chris Hero sat down with Andrew Thompson to talk about his hiatus from wrestling since his WWE release last year and his podcast Can Chris Hero Save Wrestling?. The podcast has been on hiatus recently and Hero talked about putting it on hold while he relocated.
"So I just moved a couple months ago from Orlando," Hero revealed. "I now reside in Charlotte, North Carolina. Yeah, so we're just trying to figure out the details of when we pick back up and I've really enjoyed it. I've had a number of shows that I've liked a whole lot and I just really like it."
Hero's most high profile move since his WWE release was working backstage as an agent for Ring of Honor's Best In The World PPV on July 11 from Baltimore. Hero had high praise for Ring of Honor and specifically singled out ROH Champion Bandido and Pure Champion Jonathan Gresham with praise.
"I have a number of friends that work for Ring of Honor behind the scenes, in front of the camera and it was really cool for me to be able to be even just a small part of that," Hero said. "To see them back in front of fans is awesome. Just to interact with people that I hadn't seen for a while, to interact with people because as you know, it's been a crazy year and-a-half but that was the first wrestling show I had been to since everything shut down. So it was great for me to go to a show, to be able to be helpful in certain areas, without the pressure of having to perform myself or having to call a match or having to decide which place I'm gonna take a booking for, whatever, whatever. I didn't have to worry about any of that. I could just help out. I helped agent, produce, whatever. Helped kind of relay information back and forth, got on the headsets, talked to the production team, that kind of stuff and some of that I'm familiar with it, some of it I'm not familiar with so it was also a learning experience for me to try to figure that stuff out and I really enjoyed it.
"I thought they did great and Bandido, he's the future man. He's PWG Champion, he's Ring of Honor Champion. I know y'all haven't seen him without his mask but he's a handsome gentleman as well. He's just fantastic so, I think him being the face of Ring of Honor right now or sorry, the eyes of Ring of Honor right now. I think they have a bright future. Once they start hitting it regularly with fans, I think people are, you know, people kind of slept on Ring of Honor. They're like 'oh, they're doing stuff' but I don't blame 'em. It's hard to watch wrestling without an audience. It is hard, so they just have a crop of talent that's exceptional, from the old school guys like The Briscoes or Homicide or you've got this new talent like Bandido, like I said, Jonathan Gresham with his Pure title. Man, they got some really good things going on and I'm excited for them to get back to it."
Of course a major topic of discussion is when, and where, Hero will be making his return to the ring. He revealed he wouldn't pull the trigger until it's the perfect situation for him, though he is indeed itching to get back into the ring.
"Brother, I am itching all the time, you know?" Hero said. "But I'm also patient enough to realize I've sat out this long, I've waited this long. I'm not gonna pull the trigger until it's the perfect thing. I don't know when that is but I'll know it when it happens and man, I am thirsty. I just wanna get back at it. I see so many people I wanna work with, so many people I just wanna kick the s**t out of. So many people that are previous opponents, new opponents, there's so much I wanna get back at."
When he does make his return, Hero would prefer to have a similar position he had working in NXT as a player/coach. He believes he has tons of knowledge to help a promotion outside of the ring while continuing to contribute inside of it.
"I can't see myself wrestling somewhere and not caring about what else goes on-on the show," Hero revealed. "I can't help it. I'm not gonna completely give unsolicited advice because I know that sucks when you're just like 'dude, I didn't ask your opinion. I don't care if you think it sucked.' But I would like to work with companies in more than just performing. I'd at least like to have a seat at the table when it comes to having conversations about 'oh, we're thinking about doing this or what do you think about this?'
"And I like to use my experience to kind of give my opinion. If they take it, cool. If not, cool, but I think I can be very helpful for a number of companies so it will be exciting to do that. I know people look at me as the older brother, the uncle or whatever that will come in and kind of pass down a little wisdom but, you know, I'm gonna start knocking people on their ass again. I got so much more to do."
Hero was also asked, due to his recent ROH connections, who would be his choices for an ROH Hall of Fame. He named one tag team, three singles wrestlers and one honorary member for a special attraction slot.
"Christopher Daniels, Bryan Danielson and I'm gonna give Samoa Joe the nod over CM Punk," Hero said. "And the only reason I'm gonna give him the nod over Punk is because I was not there for Punk's ROH run. He left and I came in in 2006, so not to demean or diminish anything he had done, I just was not there for it. And then if you gotta have a tag team, you gotta have The Briscoes, right? And if you have to have like an attraction, a special attraction, it's gotta be Kobashi. I say Daniels because I mean he's the O.G. that started it all with them, Danielson, Samoa Joe, Briscoes, Kenta Kobashi."
You can watch the full interview below.