Shotgun Wrestling Radio: Roderick Strong
Hosts: Zach Takes and Zach Grigg
Audio available at http://recordings.talkshoe.com/TC-91993/TS-664085.mp3.

How Strong got his start: My story is different that I got into wrestling, that my dad was a single dad and his buddy called him and asked him to be a pro wrestler. He said sure why not and they needed three students. He would take me over three times a week and it ended up being at Jim Neidhart's house. Eventually, I just kept doing it and it was something to do in the off season when I wasn't doing football. When the time came I decided to do this full time, I went to IPW to continue my training and work for them for the time being.

Who inspired Strong to get into wrestling: I was a huge Bret Hart fan but I'd say my dad since I would watch him do it. And loving wrestling just in general since I was a kid, mostly the athleticism and the somewhat competitive part of that really attached me to it when I saw how hard these guys were working.

How Strong got involved with ROH: IPW had a connection with Jersey All Pro and they would use each other's talent every once in awhile and one day they asked me if i wanted to work for Jersey All Pro. We said sure why not. Through that I ended up meeting Dan Moff and he had worked for MLW. He told me he thought my style would fit well in ROH and he said he'd talk to Gabe (Sapolsky) for me. One day he said if I could get myself to Philly I could get a shot.

Working with C.M. Punk: Punk is awesome. He really taught me a lot. He was someone that we had a couple matches and I learned a lot. He taught me a lot and he really encouraged me to be the best that I can be. I think it's funny people will say what they want to about him but he's really passionate about wrestling, and that was one of the coolest things about being able to work with him.

Thoughts on Sinclair buying ROH: I was excited, that's the reason I've been with ROH as long as I have. It opens a lot of doors for us and that's super excited, it's moving forward. I think they are learning how to be owners of a pro wrestling company while still being the best they can.

Other topics include: Working with Daniel Bryan, Tyler Black, Austin Aries, working in TNA, and much more.

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