Christopher Girard (formerly Biff Busick) spoke with WWE.com about signing with WWE and his move to the Performance Center. Here are some highlights…
On Transitioning to The WWE Performance Center: Oh man, it’s just happened so fast. A month ago I was in Boston, just being an indie wrestler, not making much money, just trying to get by, and now I’m down here in Orlando. It hasn’t really sunk in yet. It’s happening so fast, it’s insane.
On Previous Tryouts With WWE: It’s funny — I had quite a long history with WWE. About three months into my training was the first time I was booked as an extra [in WWE], and I had no idea about anything. I had a couple more runs with WWE, every couple months when they were in town. The one time I lucked out, about nine months into my training, I was chosen to wrestle The Great Khali on SmackDown, and I had no business being in the ring with Khali whatsoever. It was about an 11-second match – which I lost, unfortunately – but it was just a surreal experience. After that moment, I realized I had to get out there and get more experience to be ready for the next time WWE called upon me. From there, I traveled the country to learn from as many people as possible. I went to Lance Storm’s school in Calgary, which was an unbelievable experience. That was three months in the ring with him pretty much every day. Then I moved down to Texas, and I trained with Sho Funaki, who is another guy that has a wealth of knowledge. Training with those two guys really gave me the confidence and experience I needed to do much better. I think WWE started to catch on with me working more high-profile matches in more high-profile promotions, and it just took off from there.
On the Coaches at The Performance Center: All the coaches here are amazing. I’m a fan of each and every one of them. I’m a huge fan of the British style of wrestling, and Robbie Brookside is one guy I followed since I started. Getting to learn from him will be unbelievable. Matt Bloom, I was a huge fan of his in WWE, but also over in Japan, where he was part of a great tag team called Bad Intentions. Norman Smiley — a lot of guys don’t know this, but back in the day he was a wrestler in [Japanese organization] UWF, where he wasn’t so much in the entertainment side but more of a technical grappler. I loved that, though I’m also a huge fan of the” Big Wiggle.” I watched Sara Del Rey on the indies. Her wrestling is amazing. Terry Taylor, I was a fan of The Red Rooster as a kid. There’s something to learn from all the guys here. The coaching staff here is so phenomenal, and they bring so much to the table and so many different aspects of wrestling to learn. I’m overwhelmed by all the knowledge and taking it all in is a lot, but I’m super-excited for it.
On His Altercation With Ronda Rousey at a PWG Show: PWG is such a crazy atmosphere; sometimes when you’re there, you just don’t know what’s going on. I remember I was outside the ring and my opponent, Tommaso Ciampa, opened me up to a fan and unfortunately, I have to admit I did not recognize it was Ronda Rousey at first, because she was kind of incognito. And then I heard somebody say, “That’s Ronda Rousey.” Right as she was rearing back, I realized who it was and I was like, “Oh man, this girl … I hope I don’t get knocked out and totally embarrassed in front of this crowd.” She hit me hard, but fortunately it wasn’t on the chin — it was more of the throat area. I got a little choked up but thankfully she didn’t knock me out. It was insane, man. At that point, I guess I was just an independent wrestler, not too popular, but the exposure that I got from that was overwhelming, which shows the popularity of Ronda Rousey and what she did for me. Getting beaten up made me more popular than anything else I’ve done in my career. It was pretty wild.
