Pat Buck is a gambler.
No, you won’t find him in a backroom poker game like he’s Matt Damon in Rounders, or shooting craps with large stacks of cash in front of him like Danny Ocean. Buck’s gambling happens in the world of pro wrestling.
From the very start of his career he’s rolled the dice. From moving himself down to Louisville, Kentucky to earn a spot in WWE developmental, to starting his own wrestling promotions and schools, to running a show in Alaska in April — Buck’s always been willing to bet on himself to blaze his own path in pro wrestling.
Now, at age 35, Buck is rolling the dice again. He’s reinvented himself as “The Buzz Killer” a character bitter at the current stars of the independents who will stop at nothing to send their star crashing into the ground. This new character is Buck’s gateway from predominantly working behind the scenes back into the world of working the independents as a performer on a regular basis. The work he’s done is paying off as he’ll be debuting a part of Impact Wrestling’s big United Stand Show on Thursday as a part of the marquee Ultimate X match.
Recently, we sat down with Buck to talk about his decision to run an all comedy show on a Wednesday night of Mania week, his inspiration to go back in the ring, running a show in Alaska, and his thoughts on the future of pro wrestling.
You’ve had a long eventful career — wrestling in OVW with WWE developmental, starting Pro Wrestling Syndicate then WrestlePro, opening the Create-A-Pro training schools — but recently you dropped something that piqued my interest. It was a YouTube video for a new version of Pat Buck, ‘The Buzz Killer.’ To me that video suggests you’re going back to the indies on a more full-time basis. What was the impetus to head back to the ring full-time?
I used to perceive wrestling as I wanted to be a wrestler first and foremost. Like any kid that gets into wrestling, we dream about being a pro wrestler and being a big star one day. I went down that path for as long as I possibly could. Then I got to a position where I said, ‘Okay, I can’t get to where I want to be.’ Then I started going, ‘Well let me create my own thing.’ So I started the promotions, the training school.
I think wrestling has changed greatly since then. I like being a promoter. I like being a trainer. But, I think that with in 2019 there’s a new company starting [AEW] and with everything that’s going on I truly believe for the first time wrestling is on a real resurgence.
I believe I started wrestling in the worst time period because WCW and ECW went away right when I was breaking in and there weren’t that many opportunities. But I put my first 10 years in just trying to break into WWE through developmental and it wasn’t happening. So I said, okay, I can be a promoter. I can be a booker, I can wrestle. Then I started seeing how one of my students [MJF] is now signed to All Elite Wrestling. My students are getting NXT tryouts. And I’ve also seen it’s become more difficult as promoter. So, I want to be a part of this. I feel like right now I’m 35 years old …and the love just came back. I want to be a wrestler. I want to work all these great talents. I want to get my name out there and I want to prove how myself.
So, this is a full-time commitment to going on the road on the indies, or more of a concerted effort to get your name out there?
Probably both. I looked at my schedule for April and May and I was shocked because just the in next two months I think I’m wrestling close to 20 times. When I was in developmental it was normal for me to wrestle four times a week. But, at the same time I’ve never gotten out of the ring. When I trained my students, I’m doing everything that they do, so that’s okay for me.
What’s been so cool is that I’m having a different experience now than I did back in the day on the independents. When I started I would show up, I’d do what I was told and you’re hoping to get a spot on the card and have a decent match. Now a lot of independents are aware of what I’ve contributed to wrestling and they’re open to my ideas. They see the Buzz Killer thing. They know about my history and they put me with quality opponents. I feel like for a lot of places I’ve been kind of a player coach lately, which has been awesome. I get to take all their cool stuff and mixed it with my cool stuff and give [my opponent] a kind of learning experience. It’s been different. It’s been fun. I’m making these road trips and doing all these things and all these promotions have been open to my ideas.
Even though I’ve been wrestling for 17 years I feel like a kid again because of how really receptive these crowds have been. I’m learning that now wrestling fans who to go to these shows now have a deeper appreciation to someone’s story as opposed to just seeing what they see that night. People know about my history and it’s awesome, man.
You were speaking about the bigger places guys like MJF are going, but you’ll be making a big debut this week at Impact Wrestling’s United We Stand show in Rahway. You’ll be in an Ultimate X match, the signature match for Impact. So you’re being thrown in head first to one of the biggest matches they do. How’d you finally get in there?
I worked for Impact recently behind the scenes for their last New York tapings. I was producer and I timed the show. I ran the “go” position and it’s kind of cool because they came to me and said “Hey, do you want to represent WrestlePro in Ultimate X?
And of course I’m going to jump at it head first. I don’t know what to expect with that match. I mean, I’ll be catching a lot of guys and I’ll be trying to get across those cables. So there’s been a lot of Cross Fit the class lately. It’s very cool because in my first decade in wrestling, I ate a lot of crap. I heard “no” from everybody. I didn’t make a dime for my first 11 years actually in wrestling — I mean starving artists to the upteenth degree. When I started promotion and the school, I started seeing a little more success. Now I’m making a living. I don’t make a great living, and I’m not where I need to be.
But I’ve been full time in wrestling for the last decade or so without anyone’s help. And I’m proud of that. I’m proud that I get to work in all areas and that’s the one that I think I bring to the table. People have had way more success and I’m obviously bitter towards it and as “The Buzz Killer” and I try to take that away. But it’s also kind of cool that I can kind of fit in all the different areas for wrestling — not just be a talent, not just be a producer. I want to do everything because I’m selfish.
You spoke earlier about fans being more knowledgable of your history, and have a deeper appreciation for you. This seems to be a common trend these days for a lot of wrestlers. What do you think caused the change in fans?
NXT. I think that when a lot of independent talents debut on NXT the people that support NXT may or may not have ever seen that person before but they know their story.
Here’s a comparison. I read a lot of Marvel Comics. I know my history and when I see something in a teaser I’m like, ‘Oh, that character’s gonna debut soon. I don’t know much about a character, but I’m aware of them.’ I think NXT has become a place where it’s made people’s stories before WWE, before mainstream, be cool. When you hear someone is debuting — yes they can still create that character from scratch like a Razor Ramon — but now they’re cultivating a character from bigger nets.
I think now that NXT has developed this appreciation for people’s time and effort before they signed. This allows fans to go online and look at their matches, look at clips with them, look at promos, and they will get their story. And that’s why I think is change there. I think that’s actually dictating the success of these guys going to the main roster because people go, ‘Oh, let me look at Aleister Black.’ When you look at Ricochet, these guys were doing it for so long and you appreciate that more as a fan rather than someone that someone that just created in a factory somewhere.
Plus there’s more access to matches from all over the world thanks to YouTube and streaming services.
Yes, and you’re getting to respect the fact that these people have been contributing so much to the wrestling industry for a longer period of time rather than someone that’s just a character. I don’t want to be negative, but I’m going to appreciate the debut of a Ricochet more than I’m going to appreciate someone than No Way Jose. I think the fans are smarter and they see that, and they’re willing to give support to these people who are put in their time and effort on the independence. They’re getting more over and they have more support and love from the fans. And I think NXT is tapping into that and I believe All Elite Wrestling’s going to have that happen to that too.
You’ve got a lot of shows coming up the week. You’re kicking off Wrestlemania week tonight by doing an all-comedy show called “Does Funny Equal Money.” Running a show on a Wednesday night is a bold move. Running an all-comedy show is even bolder. You could’ve run a regular WrestlePro show — why decide to go this direction?
A couple of years ago when I had a different company I ran during Wrestlemania weekend and there was a lot of star power, or let’s just say popular acts from the past. WrestlePro always features our independent guys but we’ll bring in a lot of top independent acts, and lot heavy star power. But this year it’s been different. A lot of talent are locked into contracts, and WWE doesn’t release people like they used to. So it’s limited on how many people from television are available. So looking at that and looking at that and how many shows are running — we knew we had be different.
I’ve always had this appreciation for comedic wrestling. A lot of people say funny does not equal money. And, you know, I’m one of the people that subscribed and still subscribes to the people like Jim Cornette because I came from OVW. But, I’ve been able to kind of take this traditional training and mindset and see what’s out there currently. I see the type of reactions people like Joey Ryan and Colt Cabana and all these wrestlers who rely on theatrical things that are not the norm and be successful with that. So I thought let me do something different because I think there’s a fan base out there and I think it would have set us apart. I’m a huge fan of actual legitimate comedy and I’m a fan of different things in wrestling.
You’re also doing a show with Combat Zone Wrestling on Friday. It seems like we’re a seeing trend where promotions are working together. On Thursday WrestlePro, Impact, MLW, and Lucha Underground are working together. We see AAA and AEW forming alliances. WWE works with Evolve, Progress, and WXW. Do you think all this working together is a sign of things to come, or is this a temporary result of all the craziness in wrestling right now?
It’s interesting question. I’m not really sure to be honest. It’s weird where there are companies that had a lot of strategic alliances up to to a certain point. A lot of the major companies still have talents that are exclusive and that’s become frustrating to deal with as a promoter, to be honest. There’s so many guys I’d like to book and I can’t. I can never book someone from that’s exclusive to Ring of Honor. I wish I could.
I think promotions are smart enough to embrace other places because there has to be some sort of influx of talent from somewhere, there’s no territories. So now there’s the independents. So if someone gets over in one promotion, hey, maybe they could do well here. I’m curious to see how far this is going to go. And if things change 2019 with hopefully more money going into wrestling, I think talents are going to become more and more exclusive and can be harder to get. But for now we’ll just enjoy it and see what happens.
So, you’ve got a show coming in Alaska. How does that even happen?
I’m a gambling person, but only in wrestling. I don’t have a gambling problem, but I everything I’ve done in wrestling has just been a gamble. It’s petrifying and still drives me nuts to this day. I’m dying for a set paycheck in wrestling. It just doesn’t happen.
So what happened was my right hand, my booker is Kevin Matthews (KM in Impact Wrestling). He’s always been one of my best friends growing up and he loves Alaska. We knew that about 15 years ago there was a show up there. That’s it. It did very, very well. KM goes up there maybe once every five years and he kind of gave me the financial breakdown of what it would take to run an Alaska and everything is affordable except for the travel costs. And so, I was like, ‘Hey, I’m willing to roll the dice and let’s just try this out.’
I booked this 8,000 seat arena and I stacked the lineup. I realistically do not expect it to sell out. I would love if that happened, but I just kind of want to test the waters. This may change the course of how I promote. I’m trying to figure out — is it worth doing? I run about 30 events a year. So is it worth maybe doing one show in one market every six months and doing these big blockbuster shows? I don’t know. So it’s literally a roll of the dice.
I don’t think anyone on the show ever worked in Alaska. Mick Foley included. So they’re starving for it up there. Ticket sales are mediocre but I think they’re going to go a little bit better. I’m hoping if it picks up in next couple of weeks, but at the same time like I’m just rolling the dice and hope and it goes, well, I want to run a show in every single state just to do it. Just to be weird. And I’ve never been to Alaska, but yet I’m going to show up there. I am scared to death, but we put in the effort, we put in the marketing, we put in our talent relationships with everything we’ve done, everything we’ve learned so far. So let’s just hope for the best.
And my final question to you is, you talked a lot about nerves, can you talk about the dichotomy of being a promoter, as in putting the whole show together, running the whole show and also having to wrestle on the show.
I’ve seen a lot of promoters that do that. They are putting a show together and I feel like a lot of their performances sometimes are hindered by the fact that they are so busy but they just want to be part of the show. It’s hard for me and I don’t like doing it a whole lot. I want to put everything into my performance. That’s one of the reasons why I love working on these independent shows because I get to show up and all I gotta do is wrestle, which is great.
It’s nerve-racking for me, especially a couple of times at WrestlePro. I don’t like to make myself the focal point, but there have been a couple of times where I have been in the main events. You’ve got to put in a 20 minute match and make sure it delivers because these guys at WrestlePro are brining it. New Jersey is not an easy crowd to satisfy either, so, it’s stressful. It’s gotten better over the years where I’ve learned how to kind of delegate responsibility. For example, this is crazy. I ran WrestlePro on March 9th and I wasn’t even there. I was able to have Kevin and my crew run the show along with my wife while I was wrestling at Limitless in Maine. I would just check in on my phone and seeing how things are going.
A lot of people play the coolest performers. They go, ‘I don’t get nervous.’ I’m nervous for every single thing as a promoter, and as a wrestler. But, I’m going to do the best they can and you know, I can’t change that. So I’m okay with wrestling and promoting and doing all this stuff because I guess I have experience doing it. So far, so good.
Catch Pat Buck during Wrestlemania weekend at the following shows…
4/3: WrestlePro – ‘Does Funny = Money’ at the Rahway Rec Center, click here for tickets.
4/4: Impact Wrestling – ‘United We Stand’ at the Rahway Center Center, Rahway, NJ – Click here for tickets.
4/6: WrestlePro vs. CZW at the Rahway Rec Center – Rahway, NJ – Click here for tickets.
