Mance Warner on MLW, Jimmy Havoc and being real

Mance Warner is back from injury and out for revenge at MLW’s Saturday Night SuperFight on Nov. 2.

Mance Warner: First you gotta get Ol’ Mancer’s intro on here, baby. You got O’l Mancer here. The king of Big Dog style. Lariats and light beers. The Southern Psycho. King of the Trailer Court. Ol’ Mancer.

FanSided: Growing up in Tennessee, when did you start watching wrestling? On Twitter you praise WCW, was that your favorite promotion?

Warner: Oh God, man. I get this question a lot. I watch anything and every damn thing out. WCW, NWA, Four Horseman, Tully Blanchard, Arn Anderson, Ric Flair, Barry Windham, Stinger, the Rock ‘n’ Roll Express, NWA, WCW. I watch old Nitros all the time. I love that s–t, man.

I have to say the Four Horseman. And then, especially when you got Sting and Dusty Rhodes, Magnum TA. Whenever Dusty cut a promo — and you know, there’s two people. There’s people that do promos and there’s people are doing a promo you don’t even realize they’re doing a promo. That was Dusty. Does that make any sense?

Whenever Dusty’s talking and you see that, listen, and it’s like, goddamn, he’s talking to me and I’m ready to go. All that old-school stuff.

Are you a fan of the old Southern territory stuff? SMW? Memphis? Continental?

Smoky Mountain, yeah, especially if you got the [WWE] Network. I don’t think there’s too much Smoky Mountain though. I watched all that already. I could just give you a list of people. I hear men like Terry Funk. I tell people all the time when they ask what they should watch. I say, “well, you got YouTube nowadays. You go to YouTube and watch any damn thing you want.” Watch them promos and watch them beat the hell out of each other. Just watch Terry Funk and Dusty Rhodes and watch them beat the hell out of each other.

Why did you decide to get involved with pro wrestling?

I can give you the answer, where Ol’ Mancer’s been beating the hell outta people since 1985 answer, or I can give the answer that I found a place to train with Billy Rock. I found him through Colt Cabana. I went out there and trained with him and got into the business, man.

How did you meet Colt Cabana?

I saw him at an event and asked the question. He told me where to go and that’s just how it got the ball rolling.

There are a lot of old-school tendencies in your promo ability and the way you carry yourself on TV. Is that coincidence or are you trying to blend old-school Southern personality with modern wrestling?

Yeah. I sit there and I look at everything. It’s the s–t I grew up watching. It’s the stuff I wanna do. I wanna fight. I just wanna go out there and fight people, man. I don’t wanna go out there and shake hands. I wanna go out there and fight. That’s what it is. That’s why people tune in and watch wrestling, to see a damn fight. That’s just my take on it though.

I just wanna go out there and fight people, man. I don’t wanna go out there and shake hands. I wanna go out there and fight.

You seem to be more comfortable in your skin than a lot of wrestlers on TV. You don’t seem to be playing a character. When did it really click for you as far as being comfortable in yourself out there?

For me, it’s always been, “this is who I am.” I’m not gonna go out there and say, “I just do this or I just do that.” I go out there and fight. I like talking. I don’t lie to people. I always look at it as, the fans spend money and come to the wrestling show. So our goal is to put on a classic, something they’ll be happy about spending that money on. I just don’t lie to nobody, man. I am what I am. I don’t change. You ain’t gonna see me out there next week doing some bulls–t. This is what I do. I show up and fight people.

Coming up in IWA Mid-South and CZW, you’ve taken to the death match style. Is this where you see yourself the rest of your career? Like an American Onita or do you want to shift into a more traditional worker.

See, it’s funny, man. As I keep going about my business, there’s a pocket of fans that think, “Well, Ol’ Mancer, he just does death matches.” And there’s some people who only watch my early IWA strong-style stuff and they go, “Oh, he just beats the hell outta people.” Like All Japan, they just beat the hell outta each other. There’s other people that have seen me do technical wrestling. That’s what I wanna do. A little bit of everything. As soon you think I’m just gonna do one thing, I do something else.

What is at about the death match style that appeals to you?

It’s one of those things. The death match fans, those people will never, ever s–t on you. Like I said, I don’t lie to nobody and I don’t bulls–t nobody. I am what I am. Those fans, when they say, “that’s our guy,” those are my people. There’s always that disagreement with fans who say, “death matches aren’t real wrestling.” Then there’s death match fans who watch other stuff and go, “that’s not real wrestling.” I think for a pro wrestler to be a pro wrestler, it’s your choice, but I think you can dabble in a little bit of everything. It’s like going to college, I guess you can say.

I think for a pro wrestler to be a pro wrestler, it’s your choice, but I think you can dabble in a little bit of everything.

How did you get hooked up with Court Bauer in MLW?

I’d like to say they were Ol’ Mancer fans, you know? You know, man, I get in my Chevy truck and I make towns. It’s what I been doing since I started. They seen some stuff and we got into discussions and Ol’ Mancer showed on MLDub. Started beating people’s asses.

Talk about the differences in working with MLW and GCW?

It’s awesome. I been to shows were there’s 10 to 15 people there and then you go to Chicago and there’s three- to four-thousand people or whatever there. Then after the show there’s people that come up to you and go, “Hey man, I saw you at this show with 10 people.” That’s that cool s–t. The people that were there when you were starting up and they’re seeing you kinda climb the ladder.

For me and I can’t speak for everybody, but I don’t really change it up too much. If there’s 15 people in the crowd, if there’s 10,000, they’re gonna get that Ol’ Mancer match. The MLW crowd is rabid. They’re loud the whole time, they go nuts. When you go to a GCW show it’s kinda the same thing. You pull up, they’re outside drinking, having a good time. I can’t tell you a place I went where the crowd ain’t with me.

What happened with the collapsed lung? How is an injury like that rehabilitated?

Jimmy Havoc is a piece of s–t. I ended up in that match, the Bunkhouse Brawl. Some barbed wire got introduced. At some point in the match, they said my lung got punctured. My pain tolerance is a little bit different from most people. So I just felt like I couldn’t breath for a second. I stayed like that for about a day.

Instead of going to the doctor, I tried to make a flight to another show, but it was killing me. My family got me to go to the hospital, they do the X-rays and charge me a whole bunch of damn money for it. The doctor looks at me and looks at the X-ray and says, “how the hell did you walk up in here?” I said, “Well, I did it slow, but I got up in here.”

The doctor looks at me and looks at the X-ray and says, “how the hell did you walk up in here?” I said, “Well, I did it slow, but I got up in here.”

He ended up saying my lung was completely collapsed. Next thing I know, they got me on a table and shove some dye or some s–t up in there, cut you open and there I was, man. They put a tube in there, get the lung back to where it was, get a whole bunch more money outta you. I was in a bed for two days. When I stood up to leave, blood started coming outta there like a damn horror movie. They had to cover it back up and say I can’t do nothing. So I been sitting around here going crazy cause I can’t get in the ring or anything. I’m just stuck. I can’t do nothing til the MLW pay-per-view in Chicago.

Since the summer you’ve been feuding with Salina [de la Renta] and it’s evolved into wars with Sami Callihan and Jimmy Havoc. Tell me about the pay-per-view match with Havoc. What should we expect?

Absolute chaos, man. That son of a b—h hurt me and put me outta work for awhile. I don’t do matches and shake hands. I get paid to fight people. Out there in Chicago, we’re gonna have a Stairway to Hell. That means there’s gonna be a ladder, and at the tippy top you’re gonna find barbed wire. That means we can use it any way you want to, anyway I see fit. At some point, I’m gonna bust him wide open. I’m gonna stick barbed wire in his mouth. I’m gonna stick it on his head. He’s gonna get all kinds o’ cut up.

Ol’ Mancer gonna come back in Chicago, on MLDub, live on PPV, pay-per-view for you dummies out there. That’s just the way it is. Ol’ Mancer’s gonna whip your ass.

Check out Warner at MLW Saturday Night SuperFight on Nov. 2, 2019 streaming live on FITE.tv. Follow Ol’ Mancer on Twitter @ManceWarner and Instagram @Mance_Warner.