TNA wrestler James Storm talks Beer Money, America’s Most Wanted and Elisabeth Shue

Wrestler James Storm, one-half of the tag-team Beer Money with Robert Roode, comes to Oklahoma City on Thursday Night with TNA Wrestling.  The show begins at 7:30 at the Bricktown Events Center, 429 E. California.

Storm, formerly part of the America’s Most Wanted tag-team with Chris Harris, talked about wrestling, video games, and Elisabeth Shue in an interview with The Oklahoman.

Matt Price: Tell me about your current tag team, Beer Money.

James Storm: Me and Robert started out, I was wrestling Sting and I think he was wrestling Booker T at the time. TNA didn’t really know what to do with us after our feud with those guys. So, they asked us about teaming up. It just happened, me and Robert had wrestled each other a lot, as he was part of Team Canada and I was part of America’s Most Wanted.

But when they asked us to team up, we said, well, we’ll give it a shot. We said, if we’re going to be a team, we need to at least have a tag-team name, and I was just sitting around, and I overheard somebody say they needed some beer money, and it just fit. And I said, ‘That’s our name, right there. Because I drink all the beer, and your character makes all the money.’

And we went to Vince Russo and pitched him the name. He loved it, and off we went.

MP: Did you also come up with the America’s Most Wanted name?

MP: What makes somebody a good tag-team wrestler?

JS: Determination.  When me and Chris split up, I did the singles thing for a while, and then I teamed up. And I was determined to make this tag team as good or even better than America’s Most Wanted.  And I also wanted to make it different. I didn’t want everybody to compare me to what I was when I was in America’s Most Wanted. So if you see the teams, I’m a totally different character for each team.  And that’s what I wanted to do is bring something different to each team.  And so has Robert. And Chris brought something different from Robert.

It’s all about the drive.  You’ve gotta have the drive to be the best that you can, and if that’s in a tag team,

MP: I’ve read that your favorite wrestlers growing up were Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart. What is it you liked about those guys?