*** CJ Otis Exclusive Interview! How CJ Got his Start, Wrestling in Japan, and More! ***

CJ: I started in Coldwater, MI at Michigan Sports Camps ran by Dan “The Beast” Severn. I trained with Jack Thriller, Johnny Dynamo and Noah Lott there. I then went to Scott Da’Amours School in Windsor for about a half year before Sabu took me under his wing and finished up my training.

Do you have any interesting stories from when you were first starting out?

CJ: Yeah I have lots of interesting stories from when I first started out but I think they’ll be saved for the book. Hopefully one day there will be a book anyway. All I can say is that wrestlers travel like clowns. Somehow we can fit 8 guys into a Beretta and do a 14hour round trip drive and make 15bucks to split between everyone. Indy wrestling is great!

Haha! So it IS as glamorous as it seems?

How did you feel about your first match and who was it against?

CJ: I actually really liked my first match. It was against Jack Thriller and I was as good as aspect for my first match.

At the age of 24 you reached a goal that many wrestlers spend their whole career trying to achieve. From December 27th, 2007 until March 27th, 2008 you went on tour with All Japan Pro Wrestling. You spent three months in Japan with one of the top promotions in the country! What was the atmosphere like in comparison to wrestling here in the U.S.? The fans, the backstage environment, the wrestling style?

CJ: AJPW was awesome! Japan was awesome! The training in the dojo was by far the best training I have ever had, conditioning and wrestling wise. I learned to have a hole in aspect of respect for the sport. The Japanese fans are the best in the world, hands down. The wrestling style is a stronger style with lots of amateur wrestling with heavy strikes. Its entertainment but its more wrestling then soap opera talking, the entertainment is the sport….wrestling. I can’t explain it but it was the greatest time thus far in my career and life. I can honestly say if the training was like that here in the United States today we would lose 75% of the independent wrestlers and promotions. Which would be good, that would create more jobs and money in wrestling on the Indy scene. One of the biggest things I really enjoyed was the fact that there was no drama in the locker rooms or crying about whos getting the push and this and that bull crap.

How was training at their dojo different than training in the States?

CJ: I actually answered this in the previous question but I can add a little more. Every day we did anywhere from 500 to 1000 Hindu squats and a couple hundred lunges along with a few hundred push ups and lots of ab work. Then we focused on a lot of stretching and tumbling. Then went into mat wrestling, bumping, strikes, spots, ect. Then in the evening time we would weight train. If we didn’t do the squats or lunges we ran miles, wind sprints, or stairs.

Any stories in particular you'd like to share from that whole 3 month experience?
CJ: Stories no, but the one thing I can share is advice not just for wrestlers but for young adults. Be respectful, grateful and know your place. Don’t worry you’ll have your time to shine just wait, watch and learn from the people above you for now.

Finally, what do you think about the Michigan independent scene right now?
CJ: I think there are way to many promotions and to be honest after they tried making the Midwest title honorable and respectful and used throughout all of MI. I was the guy they started it with and it was working, it was a slow process but it was working. Then they put it on Buff Bagwell? Come on, yeah he worked in WCW but he is no honorable champion. I had battles with the Necro Butcher, N8 Mattson, CK3, Josh Abercrombie, Jimmy Jacobs, no rope barbed wire with the DBA to help the cause of getting the belt over and what do they do with it? Give it to Buff Bagwell who only works for one company in the area. I think the MI scene has lots of talent but as for promotions, to many and to many politics.

Anything else you'd like to add about anything?
CJ: Yeah, Josh Abercrombie has recently stepped down as the head trainer/coach of the Michigan Sports Camps or POG wrestling school and its office has contacted me and we made a deal. I will be taking over as the head coach. I actually started about a week ago or so. I am still learning myself as I believe you are always a student but what I learn I am able to pass on and teach others. I bring a lot of what I learned from Japan to the training especially conditioning related. We do lots of squats, push ups and ab work. Along with stretching and tumbling as well. I bring about 5yrs of my own experience plus everything I learned in Japan, from Scott Da’Amour, Dan Severn and Sabu. I have also attended a few seminars by Dory Funk Jr., Joe E. Legend, 2 Cold Scorpio and Les Thatcher.

So for the aspiring wrestlers, I'd definitely check out Price of Glory's wrestling school if you want to learn from a man who has definitely made his rounds in the wrestling business. From Michigan to Japan, I'm sure there is plenty that you could learn from him.

CJ, thank you again for taking your time out to chat with MWN! Hopefully someday day down the road you'll talk with us again.

That wraps up our first interview on Michigan Wrestling NOW! Thank you to everybody for supporting the site and I hope the first interview for the site was all that you expected and more! Keep checking back for more news and interviews from all around the Michigan independent scene.