Show: Wrestling Epicenter
Guest: Mike Knox
Date: 08/22/2025
Your Host: James Walsh
Mike Knox has had a heck of a wrestling career. From the first time most of us saw him as the prude spoiling our fun concerning Kelly Kelly’s strip teases on WWE’s imposter ECW brand all the way to terrorizing the Impact Zone as a member of the dastardly Aces & Eights faction only to end up as the son of a circus family a few years later. Knox now is the co-holder of the NWA World Tag Team Championships with Trevor Murdoch and can be seen on the NWA Powerrr broadcasts now airing on Roku! But, before he was an international superstar signed to one of pro wrestling’s biggest companies, he was a wrestler here in Phoenix, Arizona working for Impact Zone Wrestling under his trainer and friend Navajo Warrior. And, as Navajo Warrior reaches the end of the road on his “Last Mile” tour, Knox returns home to Impact Zone Wrestling as the promotion presents Psycho Circus! Welcome to the show!
We discuss all of the above topics as well as the passing of our mutual hero Hulk Hogan, the wonder that was the great Balls Mahoney, and beyond. A fabulous chat witha wonderful guy! Don’t miss it!
Get your tickets from IZW directly! Check out their Facebook page!
Please check out www.WrestlingEpicenter.com for more great interviews just like this. We’ve been going for 23 years and have welcomed nearly 900 wrestlers on for interviews and the entire archive of interviews is available for free on our website! While there, check out all of our other content including RIP tributes, results, news, and more. And, the store! Buy somethin’, will ya? Keep us going free and help us continue to do what we love – Interviews just like this!
YouTube URL: https://youtu.be/mK9vkwN_EDQ
MIKE KNOX:
On teaming with Trevor Murdoch and being NWA World Tag Team Champions:
“Man, I love it. Old school! And, we won the Crockett Cup… What year is this? 2025? Well, it was a couple of years ago. But, we’ve been NWA Tag Team Champions for over a year now and I’m loving it.”
On returning home to Phoenix for IZW Psycho Circus on August 23rd:
“Man, I owe so much to the city of Phoenix, to the Navajo Warrior, and to those 3 numbers at the start of my phone number. I moved out of my house when I was 21 and I went to Phoenix. And, with Navajo, I was able to get in the ring 5 days a week. I owe so much of what I learned… The old school way, to shake everybody’s hands, to doing things the right way… I owe all of that to Navajo Warrior. He was the one that took me from the very, very beginner to backstage at WWE to getting me freakin’ signed… I owe all of that to Navajo Warrior… I love him. He’s like a father figure to me and a brother. I’m proud to call him my trainer.”
On Navajo Warrior deciding to call it a career on his “Last Mile” tour:
“Well, I don’t know how old he is. But, I know how old I am. And, I know I’ve thought about it. Especially with the injuries, which I just suffered this weekend… I think I know what it is but I’m hoping to get confirmation from the doctor tomorrow. But, I’ll be there, in Phoenix, one way or the other.”
On what injury he suffered this weekend:
“Well, we started a very physical tag team match and my arm kind of went numb 20 seconds into it. I’ve had that feeling before and it was a torn bicep. I’m hoping it isn’t that. But, we’ve done some tests and I will have some answers in a couple of days.”
On what it was like to sign with the WWE in the mid 2000’s:
“It was like vindication. It was like all the sacrifices were all worth it. And, it was not lost on me that maybe one in a thousand wrestlers make it this far? When I got that contract, I didn’t even read it. I just signed it. (laughs) Navajo had always brought us backstage whenever WWE was on the west coast. In fact, we were on one of the shows I just recently watched back where we, and all the guys from the Sets (IZW’s home venue back in the day) were judging the Triple H and Scott Steiner pose down. I was like, I want to be on this side and I hope all these guys can come with me. Well, one day, I got a voicemaill from Tommy Dreamer. I listened and it was like, “Hey, this is Tommy Dreamer, blah blah blah” and I hung up. I was like, “No it isn’t. Nope. That was Derek.” Well, then Derek calls me… “What are you doing?” I said, “Nothing.” He said, “Open your door!” I did and there was a big envelope from WWE and Derek asked, “Did Tommy Dreamer try to call you.” I said, “No, that was you.” He said, “No, it wasn’t, idiot!” (laughs) Well, Tommy calls me back and I signed that thing and all I kept saying was, “Oh my God, this is happening. I always hoped it would. This is happening. One thing I’ll say is when I got there, I would always sit on the upper seats and I’d look down and watch the crew build the ring and build the sets. And, I’d always think, “That was me, building the ring, doing this at the Sets. And now, in this big company, they’re building it for me.”
On the late Balls Mahoney who he wrestled in WWE’s ECW:
“Man, he would give you the shirt off his back. Sweetest guy I ever met… Horrible singer, though! (laughs) He did karaoke and did Danzig…. Well, I’ll give you a story. He would always tell us he was a great fisherman. He said he caught a shark once off the shore of Jersey. One year, WrestleMania was in Orlando. There are a lot of lakes here and Drew (Luke Gallows) and his family were going fishing… I don’t fish. I just sit and drink. So there we are at 8 a.m. and who comes to the boat dressed in his cut off Satan T shirt and jeans, it almost looked like his wrestling geer, but Balls. Drew’s dad goes, “What’s your name.” “It’s Balls!” “I’m not calling you Balls. What’s your name? It’s Jon.” (laughs) Well, I’m not saying anything negative. He WAS a great fisherman! He was pulling in bass all day long. About an hour in, Drew got an emergency call to fill in at an autograph session. So, the whole day was me, Balls, and Drew’s dad on the boat fishing. Balls got so freakin’ burnt, he almost had to go home! (laughs) He didn’t wear sleeves, he didn’t wear sun screen. nothing! He was so burnt, did you ever see Summer Rental with John Candy? It was like that! He couldn’t move! (laughs) I can’t remember who he wrestled that weekend but I remember he was chopped a lot. (laughs)”
On the Aces & Eights angle and his experience in TNA as part of that faction:
“Putting the politics and the money aside, it was the most rewarding and gratifying time I ever had in my career. It was because I got to work with Hulk Hogan… When I was growing up, there wasn’t an inch on my bedroom wall that wasn’t covered by Hulk Hogan. Every inch! I was a Hulkamaniac for sure. If it wasn’t Hulk Hogan, it was Sting! And, I got to work with Sting too! Then, I got to work with Jeff Hardy! Then, Austin Aries who was the World Champion at the time and he was at the top of his game but he was running hard because he still felt he had something to prove! He was so good! Oh, I forgot about Kurt Angle! Shit! I was getting to take Germans from Kurt Angle! And, I was traveling with Devon Dudley. I was traveling with Gallows, with Ken Anderson! I’ve known him forever. We were on the road, drinking beer, I was getting to be me. It was like, is this real life? This is great! And then… Well, regime change. They let the Hulkster get out of there. Then when Drew (Luke Gallows) left, then they pushed Devon out…. Man, it was going good but once it started going bad, it got real bad real fast. They stopped paying people, the regime changed. It went bad fast.”
On if he felt TNA could or should have been bigger given the stars and the quality of the show:
“Honestly, I always felt we were fighting just to stay on TV. Like, there were people there that just were not getting paid. The light guys weren’t getting paid. There were even some top guys not getting paid. Sometimes, I wasn’t getting paid and we were hardly getting paid nothing. Me and the boys? We weren’t getting big money. There were times I was surprised they didn’t go out of business. Poor Bob Ryder! Do you have any idea how many times I cursed him out over the phone? And, it wasn’t his fault. But, he was the guy to contact. And, I wasn’t getting paid! Bob Ryder said “the check is in the mail, brother!” It is weird. When the shows started going down on TV and you could tell, things were going down behind the scenes also. I tried to show up, do my job, and leave my issues with the pay and all that behind. But, man, it got bad fast.”
On the death of Hulk Hogan:
“It is sad. They say to never meet your heroes because they will disappoint you. That was never the case with him. I’ve got a lot fo stories but I’ll share one. After TNA, we were doing a spot in Tampa, that is where I live now. I hadn’t wrestled a lot in Tampa so I had like 40 people there that came in for me – That is a lot for me. Well, I see Hulk and he had the bar and restaurant down by the Beach Shop at the time. He said, “Come on down, I’ll take care of your bar tab.” I said, “I have a lot of people here for me tonight.” He said, “I don’t care. Bring ’em.” So, we went down to Hogan’s Beach Shop and had a great time. Close to the end, I went up thinking there was no way he had covered it all. I asked for the bill and they told me, “It is covered.” I don’t know if it came out of Hulk’s pocket…. Probably not. But, he was a man of his word. And, he was under no obligation to do that. None. He didn’t even know any of the people I brought. But, he truly was a man of his word. The last time I saw him was at Brian Knobbs’ 60th Birthday party. He was at the bar and they had the WWE event with Bad Bunny against Damian Priest on. Hell of a match, by the way, brother. He wasn’t drinking. He had gone back to Christ. So, he was sitting at the bar with his water and I was sitting next to him. I said, “You are probably the only person I could ask this to that would know. But, how much do you give a celebrity?” He said, “It depends on the guy. You have to remember, they’re coming in from a whole different world. If they want to do a little, do a little. If they want to do a lot, do a lot. Remember, tonight they’re here, last week they were at the Met. He just had an album drop. He’s about to be in this hit new movie. They’re bringing in new people to see the show. If they like what they see, maybe they will stick around. If they want to do a lot, do a lot. But, be grateful.” I just thought that was such a cool perspective. Because, to me, you’ve got a 6’7 Puerto Rican guy who fights everybody every night against a rapper… Well, I have a friend who runs a gentleman’s club. They showed the WrestleMania where he did some spots and he told me there were more people that showed up to watch the event that were only there to see Bad Bunny than were regular wrestling fans. He said, “I don’t even know who this guy is!” I was like, “Me neither!” (laughs) But, Hulk was right! I know he said some stupid things…. All I can say is the guy I knew wasn’t like that.”
On working IZW Psycho Circus:
“The name of the event makes me think of my final days in TNA as part of the Menagerie… If that isn’t voted the worst stable in wrestling history, it should be! (laughs)”
On what went wrong with The Menagerie:
“Well, I was coming out of Aces & Eights. I thought I’d be back quickly and then I wasn’t. So, when they pitched the idea, I was ready to do just about anything. They said, “Have you ever seen Carnivale?” I said, “Huh?” They said, “It is on HBO.” So, I watched it and I thought, “What the fuck is this?” (laughs) Well, they said they wanted it to be like Carnivale. I would return home and meet up with my old high school girlfriend (Rebel) and the family carnival was going to be run down, flooded out. They wanted to have a guy to play my carnival owning father and I was like, “Huh?” (laughs) I said, “Can’t we just use my dad?” They were like, “No. This guy’s an actor.” Ok, whatever. So, I ask, “What am I supposed to be? I’m not a barker. So, what is my role? What gear should I wear?” They just said, “You just do your thing.” They had nothing for me. Nothing. (laughs) Well, they tell me all of this over the phone and I go and I film these vignettes where I’m at the flooded out carnival and all that, it was really awkward. And, right around this time, TNA hit the shits. We kept changing TV networks, people were not getting paid. I mean, people weren’t getting paid at all for months ad months. It was bad. Well, the guy who pitched the Menagerie to me was moved out and they brought in Big, John Guberick. Well, Big told me they were going to have us on every show. They would have Rob Terry doing the strongman shit, bending bars, they would have Crazy Steve making balloon animals, and they would have Rebel twirling fire, she was a fire dancer… Well, in theory, this could work. So, they were going to do this big reveal. A big crate was going to be there, we were going to bust out, and we would be off in full carnival mode. Well, it came off like a fart. It just didn’t work. Rebel was going to do the fire dance thing and the fire chief determined that wasn’t allowed in the arena. So, she ended up having something like a kids sparkler or something which was stupid. It wasn’t as cool as it should have been. And, they told me, “You can wear your biker gear like you wore before.” I’m like, “Jeans?” (laughs) They said, “Yeah!” I said, “Did anybody think this through?” (laughs) So, I’m going to redebut. They decide they’re going to play my music throughout the whole match… Like New Jack in ECW. My carnival music… So, I look at the sheet and I’m facing Frankie Kazarian. He’s pissed off already because of issues with pay and regime changes and he was feeling like he was being pushed out the door. So, it says 8 minutes. I say, “So, I’m the babyface, right?” They go, “Yes.” I said, “And, I’m supposed to take some heat?” They go, “Yeah…” I say, “You’re going to have the babyface go out and take heat while you play my music for 8 fucking minutes?” (laughs)”
On the other members of the Menagerie:
“Well, this guy walks in, and it is a funny story and I’ll tell it because I just saw him this weekend. This guy walks in to the locker room with these really comedic thick glasses on and he walks over. And, I kind of giggle. And, he takes off the glasses and goes, “Yeah, man. I’m blind as Hell.” I say, “What the fuck are they doing to this?” I’m legally blind in one eye all my life, by the way. Anyway, he goes on to never miss a single spot. Never mistime anything. He is perfect… But, they told him not to wrestle. Don’t do any normal moves. Everything has to be weird and just circus like. Then there was Rob Terry. Rob Terry probably had the best body of anybody ever in the pro wrestling business bar none. I mean, every part of his body was built. He was excited to be part of this because he wanted to show what he learned. He was trying very hard. Well, they put him in the group and then they tell him, “You can’t do one move.” Like, he was trying to show he was learning and getting better and all they wanted to let him do was pose and flex. That was a real gut shot to him.”
On him trying to make it work:
“Well, I was there for a while but I wasn’t getting paid very much. When I started with Aces & Eights, I was under a mask so I wasn’t getting too much and it really was never increased to what I could or should have been getting. Big came over to me and cut me a new deal where I would get paid closer to where I should have probably been all along. But, it was still a per night deal because this place could go out of business any day. So, I decided I was going to give it my all. I was going to do whatever they wanted. If they wanted me to dress up like a clown, I’d do it. Lets make it work! Well, we did a venue and Rebel was allowed to do the fire walk. So, we got that going. Then, they gave me stilt walkers. And, I want to say it was in Dallas, the stilt walkers were late and we were getting ready to go on and these guys on stilts came running down the hall, a regular hall so they’re hunched over running down the hall looking like Spider Man. They go to where they’re supposed to come out and the one guy trips. And, he went down, ba boom boom boom. (laughs) So, they say, no more stilt walkers. So, they take that from us. Then, there was a TV station change. So, they decide, “We’re going to try and get over in New York.” I think it was Hammerstein Ballroom. They booked me in a singles tournament which was surprising. And, that match ended up being one of my very favorite matches in my career. It was against Austin Aries. It was our second time working together so we got each other. I did the whole circus thing. I did the cartwheel, the kip up, and I did the same stuff he did like going up on the ropes. It was great. I was happy with it…. Then, we went back and I was booked working with DJZ and Robbie E. again. They’re both great workers. But, they were kind of character workers at that time because they just didn’t know what to do with them. We just kept working them, working them, working them. I felt bad for them. How long can you pretend to be scared of clowns? How many times can you work with me not selling and running over them. So, it was like, these guys have nothing for us. So, TNA returns back at the Hammerstein. They have nothing for me, I end up in a battle royal and I blow my knee out. So, I go home, got the scrape, and I got the verdict and while it wasn’t great news, it wasn’t as bad as I thought. So, i tape it up and I tell them I’m ready to go. I see that the other guys in the group are booked and I’m not. Well, the next TV taping, I wasn’t on that shit again. So, I’m like, what is going on? So, this is when the TV network had changed. It is whatever was the last one, POP. I want to say it was POP after Destination America. Anyway, I come to find out that they looked at the numbers and Steve was making X, Rob Terry was making X, she was making X…. And, I’m making more of them. “My son only likes the clown. Why do we need him.” Boom! One sentence, just like that, I’m sitting at home again for another year. They wouldn’t be nice and just release me. So, that was that. We had some cool ideas too, man. Give us six months, let us work heel. Steve had some ideas and he could do the It thing with the balloons and blood. It just never really got the chance, man.”
On his run in the NWA:
“I’m loving it. I got a call from Pat Kenny (Simon Diamond) and he was like, “We may have something for you.” I was like, “Shit, I just tore my bicep. I’m going to be out for 6 months” or however long it was. Well, the day I went to the doctor and got the all clear, driving home from the doctor, Pat Kenny calls me again to say he may have something for me. I don’t know if it was freak timing or if he set an alarm or something. I looked over at my wife in the car and I told him I’d have to call him back. When I’m hurt, it is my wife who has to take care of me. When I tore my bicep, she had to help me with every day things like taking a shower. But, I told her I hate regular life. I am a wrestler at heart. And, it could just be for a match or two. So, I hear them out and they tell me they want me to do something with Trevor Murdoch who was the NWA World Heavyweight Champion at the time. I asked, “When do you want to do this?” They were like, “We would start next week!” I was like, ‘Holy Shitty!” I haven’t wrestled in years. So, I called Big Kon (Konnor) Ryan Payne O’Reilly who has a school out here and asked him to help me get in ring shape. I really didn’t even know if my bicep was going to hold up. But, it has! When training, they said, “Ok, in your brain, you’re still 27 and you think you can fly.” So, they let me roll around with a couple of guys and thank God they did because a couple of the things I wanted to do were the shits! (laughs) I am so glad no cameras were on. I would have been so embarrassed. Well, I get there and I talk to Billy Corgan. I say, “Ok, what do you want?” He says, “I want you to just be you. I don’t want you to do any stupid characters. Just wrestle how you want to wrestle.” I was like, “… OK! I don’t think I’ve ever heard that before.” Remember, I have always had things like Kelly Kelly’s boyfriend, the weird guy who attacks people, the guy who knows all the weird body parts, a guy in a biker gang, a circus man… Like, I’ve never been just me except for a few months in WWE and then they made me the beard guy! (laughs) So, he says, “just be you.” Then I went to do promos, which I’ve always had a love hate relationship with. He said again, “Be you.” I said, “Ok, baby! Do you have a cuss word bleeper?” (laughs) But, you go into the NWA locker room and instantly I’m thrown back to how the Impact Zone Wrestling, Phoenix locker rooms were. Everybody wants to help each other to make everyone else better. I mean, it is really how it should always have been. It really is. Now we have this deal with ROKU, I’m really hoping this turns out to be huge for us. It is an old school wrestling style and I think it is special.”
