Marty Scurll appeared on the Sam Roberts Wrestling Podcast for a new interview. The highlights are below:
On switching from his Party Marty to Villain gimmick: “What I’d like to suggest now is my previous character, a fun-loving, good guy, ‘Party’ Marty, was actually the whole plan all along because all good villains start off as a nice person, something happens, and they turn into that evil villain, so I’m actually a genius. My character is like a long thing, like 12 years. I tried to be a good guy. I tried to be the one everyone loved. They turned their backs on me. Society turned on me. And then, I turned out to be an absolute asshole. Are you surprised? These people made this happen.”
On when he thought about changing his look: “There was a very famous quote, well, I’m not sure how famous it is, but a quote either way from Matt Groening who wrote The Simpsons. And he said that all great characters can be recognized from their silhouette. And I thought, ‘Well, that’s an interesting point.’ And I thought, ‘Well, okay, I need to get something to mix this up.’ So yeah, it was a gradual thing. It wasn’t like, ‘This is my character!’ It’s an evolving thing. It still is, even to this day.”
On the importance of having a developed character: “I think originally I just assumed I’d be a really good wrestler and then someone would give me a character and I’d be good enough to play it off. Right, right, they’d be like, ‘You’re going to be Mantaur 2,’ and I’m like, ‘Yes, I love it!’ I could do that. No. But I think you quickly realize to get by and be successful in wrestling purely based on your in-ring ability is…you have to be really remarkable. Guys like ‘Dynamite Kid’ could do it, but I feel like to be a main event player and a character some people can get invested in, that’s the most thing, I think.”
On guys who are great in-ring talents needing good characters: “If you look at the guys who have broke out from Europe, you have Zack [Sabre, Jr.] and you have [Will] Ospreay, who are really, really exceptional in their fields. Zack is the best technical wrestler and Ospreay is the best high flyer, so they don’t have to rely as much on characters, but they will because they are the best in their field, but there will come a point when they’ll have to excel in that character. Wrestling on TV and wrestling on the indies are two different things, so they’ll have to.”
On heel/babyface dynamics: “What the hell is a heel? Who said I was a heel? I’m ‘The Villain’, I didn’t say I was [a heel]. I don’t play by these pro wrestling rules of faces and heels. I just don’t. I don’t care about that. You can live by those wrestling rules. I think outside the box. I’m a villain. I’m an antagonist. I do nasty things. If the people want to cheer or boo it, that’s down to them. It’s says more about them than it does about me.”
