Rodney Mack On Unbooked Road Trips, Jazz And OVW

Rodney Mack remembers driving 15 hours without knowing whether he’d have a match waiting for him. Speaking on Developmentally Speaking with Bryan Asbury, he explained how showing up with his gear helped him earn opportunities, and how Jazz later brought him to OVW.

“I loved it, man, because you had to learn to network with the guys that you met on the card, find out where they were booked at. And back then, I didn’t know to contact the promoter or whatever. And even if I did, he didn’t know who the hell I was because there’s no social media. So our thing was, man, just load up and go.”

“I’d go to every show. And I’m not joking. From Louisiana to Dallas. And from there I leave and go to places, man. I’m talking Nebraska … and Billings, Montana. And I’m not booked, but I show up there with my gear.”

“Because I put so much effort in my look and whatnot, they were willing to adjust the card 99% of the times and give me a chance. And then when I showed them what I had, then it was almost, ‘Okay, kid, you’re on the next time.’ And then on the way home, you stopped to whatever you found and did the same thing. You know what I mean? So it was a process, but I love it. I wouldn’t take it any other way.”

The drives also became time to think through matches he might never get booked to have. Mack said he spent those hours imagining opponents instead of listening to the radio.

“I wouldn’t listen to the radio or anything, man. I’d just go on and just imagine having another match with just anybody because I didn’t know who I was going to have a match with or if I was going to have a match. But by the time I went 15 hours down the road and find a spot, I knew what I was going to do if I was wrestling a blind man.”

Mack credited Rod Price with connecting him and Jazz to an ECW tryout before their eventual move into WWE’s developmental system. Asked about contact from other promotions as ECW closed, he explained that Jazz’s arrival in OVW opened the next door for him.

“No, no. We stayed loyal, Jazz and I both, to that, and just kind of waited. And then one day a phone call happened to Jazz, and she got invited to OVW and the whole nine. And then she went there and gave me a phone call and insisted that I should bring my butt up there.”

“And then so one thing led to another and I did, and again that’s where the big break came.”

Source: Developmentally Speaking with Bryan Asbury.

Photo: F2 Imagery / River City Wrestling (original photo); Commons attribution: Brandon Oliver. Licensed under CC BY 2.0. Flickr-resized rendition; no crop.