9 WWE Questions With Bloc Party's Russell Lissack
The lead guitarist talks wrestling, from Jake Roberts to Roman Reigns, and everything between.
As well as providing the surging guitars behind one of Britain's most dynamic and enduring indie bands, Bloc Party's Russell Lissack is also a huge professional wrestling fan.
Ahead of the quartet's return to the beautiful Manchester Albert Hall following almost two years touring of their fifth album 'Hymns', the band's co-founder sat down with WhatCulture.com to discuss some of his favourite matches and moments from a near-thirty year devotion to the industry.
Russell shared some of his personal highs and lows from his time as a fan, provided analysis on successes and failures in the modern-day product, the possibility of Bloc Party ever collaborating with WWE, and even shared some predictions for Elimination Chamber and beyond.
With WWE on the Road To WrestleMania and Bloc Party preparing for a climax of their own with two huge shows at London's Roundhouse (with very limited tickets still available at http://blocparty.com/), here are 9 WWE Questions with Russell Lissack.
9. Early Memories
From reading some of your WWE tweets, it seems like you've been a dedicated fan for some time. What are your earliest memories of watching wrestling, or can you remember what first hooked you?
"The very first thing I remember about wrestling was from when The Undertaker debuted, around 1990 and 91. I loved seeing him and Hulk Hogan wrestle for the title, and the match at 'This Tuesday in Texas' really sticks out from when I was young.
Another first big memory was Randy Savage's feud with Jake Roberts. The snake biting him the ring is still one of their best ever angles! Everything about Savage, his look, his voice, was brilliant.
And as a kid, I really liked heels. I'm not sure why. I really liked Jake Roberts, and guys at the Intercontinental level like Mr Perfect and Rick Martel. Now I'm older, I can see why I liked the things I did, but it was a bit weird at 7 or 8!
It was massive at school, and everybody would have cards or other things, but not everybody could see it on TV, so I'd always end up going to my friends house to watch any VHS tapes they had. It was often older stuff, but it was still cool to watch.
It was great when my grandparents got Sky TV, because they'd tape it for me every week. But then I'd get bored with that sometimes, because of all the jobber matches. It was cool at first but it got boring every week just seeing people like Barry Horowitz getting beat.
But Taker and Hogan definitely hooked me. The Ultimate Warrior too, but at school you either had to like Hogan or Warrior, you couldn't like both!"