EWA AMA #1 - Harry Smith

I’m not sure if “no one” knows it, but one little known fact is that I am a former two time XCW World Champion, yet I never lost the title, or a match during my time in EWA’s rival/sister promotion XCW. Strange times back then.




I’ve been impressed with Bill Goldberg in recent weeks. He looks great, is determined and could be an asset to the company. He certainly looks better than he did a few years ago when he nearly lost his eye! That said, Goldberg is probably going to take some time off after that fairly nasty hand injury this past week. Will he return? I guess you’ll just have to wait and see.




You bring up a good point, Jimmy. Perhaps he should be forced to listen to The Gentrys – Spread It On Thick on repeat?




That happens to a lot of people. Sadly even a lot of my own history is forgotten to modern fans. Plenty of people didn’t see the great things I did, or the people who were around then. Many of the Hall of Famers probably wouldn’t be recognized by a lot of the roster today. That said, a few names that stick out to me as people who were quite impressive during their run but probably aren’t thought of much since are Nunzio, Mike Knox and TARU. They were all quite good, really different and looked like they might become core players in the years ahead. Sadly, it was not to be.




That’s a long and complicated question, but I’ll do my best to explain. Back on July 8, 2011 Shane McMahon, who owned the entirety of the EWA up to that point, sold the majority of his ownership stake to a consortium headed up by my old rival John Bradshaw Layfield. There were a couple of other people involved, including Eric Bischoff and Michael Cole, who took over as GM for a brief period. When Cole was removed from power, JBL approached me about taking over as GM and also buying into some of the company. At the time JBL was acting as “President” of the company, but pretty much dumped the entire EWA operation into my lap. Shane McMahon became somewhat angered over that and bought back a minority stake in the company from JBL, while I and some other investors ended up buying JBL out completely and taking control of the company. As time passed, I purchased the remaining shares and created a power trust to insure not only that I had complete control over the company, but also had a system of checks and balances in place. As to how I was able to do all of that, I had done quite well for myself on a variety of investments in Japan, the music industry and even rival wrestling promotions during my time away from the EWA pre-2011. By no means was a particularly wealthy man, but I was able to leverage enough assets to slowly buy the EWA bit by bit, or as the old Johnny Cash song goes… “One piece at a time”.




My name is Harry Smith, for better or worse. I’ve went by a few different variations of that throughout my career, but no, never Jon.




I would have loved to have seen the Big Bossman, Mr. Perfect, Gino Hernandez and several others of eras bygone in the company. With the upcoming tour of Japan, I’m reminded of how cool it might have been to see Giant Baba in an EWA ring. I think there are a lot of talents out there today who haven’t been in the company yet, that could be great to sign. Michael Elgin, Fenix, Ace Austin or any number of independent talent.




EWA birthed quite a few federations for many years who often served as a farm system to the EWA. EFN once had ROH and TNA under the umbrella and the EWA had working relationships with those promotions. Likewise the aforementioned XCW was a sister federation. They all pretty much ended the same with those companies pulling out of their agreements with the EWA and often even trying to take over this company. That was the case with our brief Starcade partnership, as they tried to absorb us and create their own thing when that failed. Even I worked with PWE and once had all the major champions from rival promotions appear there, myself included. But ultimately the answer to your question is probably, NO. Those partnerships typically turned sour and sometimes it put a strain on the EWA as a result. I think we're better focusing on ourselves and well, the proof is in the pudding. We're still here and none of those other places exist anymore. We would definitely welcome any talent from those companies to join us of course, or from any federation, but I don't imagine we're in a position that we'd want any partnerships, competitive or otherwise.




This was sort of touched on earlier, but no, not specifically. I have had thoughts of toying with a 3 man booth or swapping someone out, but right now Don West and Scott Stanford do a fine job. I think if anything you may see occasional guest announcers, as I have done on several occasions. Booker T joins the team for our pay-per-views and brings something different to the table. Although I have heard rumors that Booker has been offered an endorsement deal of some sort, which I certainly hope won’t take him away from his EWA commitments.




When some wild-eyed, eight-foot-tall maniac grabs your neck, taps the back of your favorite head up against the barroom wall, and he looks you crooked in the eye and he asks you if ya paid your dues, you just stare that big sucker right back in the eye, and you remember what ol' Jack Burton always says at a time like that: "Yessir, the check is in the mail."




I think this year’s RWB has a lot of great matches in the works. While several have not been officially signed, I think we can see a trend that is building towards some potential classics. Right now I think it would be hard not to have a lot of interest in the World Championship match between Marty Scurll and challenger Fit Finlay.




Oh I’m sure I miss her even more than you! What with her constantly being a pain in my ass and trying on several occasions to get me fired. Honestly, while Sable was quite talented between the ropes as a wrestler and an entertaining and controversial personality otherwise, I don’t much miss having to deal with her.




Great question. There is no silver bullet for taking a tough loss, but I think you have to realize that it’s an “occupational hazard” and that not all your momentum is gone just because you lost. In fact, I often look more favorably on someone who has lost a big match or two but kept on chugging, over someone new who may have a better record but is unproven after it loss when it comes time to offering opportunities. So stick in there, hang tough and fight it out. Those who stand firmest, are those who have been knocked down a few times.




I think it’s hard to reinvent the wheel and with EWA’s long history, we’ve had almost every incarnation of championship imaginable. If we were to introduce a new championship, I suspect it would be based off of a title that was used in the past. Although there are a couple of new championship ideas that have crossed my mind and my desk in recent months. So it’s possible it might be something entirely new. But if I was placing bets, I don’t know if I’d bet on any new championships.




Where do you come up with these questions at?! I guess I’d rather eat spaghetti made out of legs. It’s hard to wrestle with spaghetti legs. Not that I’d condone cannibalism.



And on that note, I think we're ending our first official EWA AMA!