GFW's Low-Ki on the toughest person in Impact, the TNA video game and more

Read part one of our interview here.

Since Low-Ki returned to Impact Wrestling earlier this year, he has very noticeably changed his ring attire. Where he formerly wrestled in leggings, Low-Ki took to the six-sided ring in a suit. When we asked him where the idea for wrestling in a suit came from, we were shocked at his answer, which we went into in depth yesterday.

Part two of our interview continues on from his answer about why he began wrestling in a suit.

RealSport: What are the biggest challenges of wrestling in a suit?

Low-Ki: Whew! *laughing* there’s quite some challenges wrestling in the suit based on mobility. With my style, I need a lot more freedom to move, because I’m a lot more fluid in the ring. Having that mobility is a necessity for me to efficiently perform. Some of the disadvantages were the stitching. I can’t lift my arms after a certain point, and even my legs, for having freedom of my hips, I need to have some stretching ability in the hip area. Originally, I had an outfit altered, and that was for the Tokyo Dome. When I returned to Impact, that was a completely unaltered suit, so that match was done in a normal suit, that wasn’t done in an altered one. The pitfalls of that is you have to figure where the stitching limits you. A lot of the time it’s in the arms, a lot of the time it’s in the leg movements, you can only move your legs to a certain position. It’s just being aware of those limitations, and then figuring out what you can do just within them, because once you hit that limitation, it will alter your performance, and whatever’s altered in there will be seen out here.

RS: What was the experience like providing motion capture for the TNA video game?

Low-Ki: It was incredible. I was recruited as a member of the motion capture team by Sal Divita, who’s the original creator of Mortal Kombat with Ed Boon and his staff. Incredible people. And the beauty of it is Sal was not a guy who, “hey, do this” - Sal suited up with us and got in the ring and explained what he wanted to see from us. It was to the point where we had to stop him, because he was nearly killing himself explaining what he wanted to see from us. I remember him showing us a video of him working with the old WWE, or WWF WrestleMania, the arcade game. He almost killed himself trying to impress the wrestlers. We were in an environment where the guy who was leading us was not directing us, he was in there with us, so that made it much more of a fun atmosphere, because we had trust in Sal and he trusted us. He let us go, and we had the intention of creating the best wrestling video game that had ever existed. The stuff that we put in there, stuff that you still don’t see in games, we were introducing the Ultimate X in the game, so there was new avenues. But we had a group of video game players. Samoa Joe, Sonjay Dutt, Jay Lethal, AJ Styles, me, we all came from the video game generation. Christopher Daniels as well. So we had the intent of creating the best video game possible. Sal gave us that opportunity. And even more so, Sal recruited me to be the voice for the lead character. It was just by chance, I happened to be there, he asked me if I would be interested, we had a conference call where I read the script, and I was hired on the spot for that position. It was a completely positive atmosphere, and such a fun introduction to that realm of video games, I loved doing it.

RS: That lead character was Suicide, who has since been introduced as a persona in Impact. Would you ever want to portray Suicide?

Low-Ki: No. I have no interest in the character whatsoever. I gave it life by giving it the voice, I gave it life by giving it its mannerisms in the ring, and its gameplay. The game didn’t come out the way we had planned because it was rushed into final release. The intention behind all of us contributing to create the best video game possible fell short. We were disappointed in that. But as far as presenting the character that came from the video game, I was never a fan of it to begin with just by the name. You can’t market something like that into something positive in this realm, because you have kids here. If you want to go into comic books, you can get away with it, it’s a different atmosphere. But in this realm, in pro wrestling, that’s the wrong atmosphere. We already have Homicide. We don’t need Suicide. And that’s no disrespect to any of the people who’ve portrayed that character, but to me, it’s just a responsible marketing and responsible presentation. It was fun while it lasted, and we’ve had plenty of real quality performers uphold the presentation, but as far as me being a part of its presentation and its continuance, no, I wouldn’t do that.

RS: Do you hope that there’s a GFW video game on the horizon?

Low-Ki: I do hope there’s a Global Force video game because now there’s a new roster, so that means if it’s possible to create a video game, it would be filled with new players. That’s always fun to have. We have different characters, different people of different abilities. Especially guys like Dezmond Xavier, having him come in is something that raises the bar of performance. He reminds me a lot of the early stages of TNA when we got Red in there, Amazing Red. He’s young, quite fearless at this point because he’s never been hurt, and you can usually tell by the performers. Right now, the world is his oyster. He has everything in front of him so, with having men like him on our roster, it makes things more exciting because the gameplay is going to benefit from stuff like that.

RS: You were a part of Triple X and the Beat Down Clan. What are your fondest memories of those stables?

Low-Ki: With Triple X, with Elix Skipper and Christopher Daniels in the early stages of TNA, it was so much fun. It was more like they were trying to keep me out of trouble, because I’m a much more aggressive and ferocious presentation and personality, and it was so much fun having them alongside of me because we knew what we wanted to do, we wanted to stand out, we wanted to be different to everyone else, but we knew what we were capable of. We knew that, if they just gave us the opportunity, we’d knock it out the park, and that’s what we did. We had great matchups against different teams, different individuals, even at one point we were against Dusty Rhodes and the Road Warriors. We ran the gauntlet of what was available at that time, and we had a blast doing it. As far as the Beat Down Clan, that was probably the most purest form of a collection of wrestlers that you’ll find, as individually, all of us were successful, but collectively, we had all been friends for over 10 years with each other. This wasn’t just a typical grouping of random wrestlers, this was actually a very strong bond that we had formed. It wasn’t based off of just throwing something together and trying it out, this was something we were proud of putting together, we have the street credibility as opposed to the industry credibility, and the street credibility that we could provide is something that is rarely marketed in any company anywhere. We were bringing a new element of street credibility, and by the way that we were performing, we were drawing a lot of attention because we were believable. It wasn’t an act, because we’re not actors, we’re fighters, there’s a big difference. That’s what we had shown. It was a blast while it lasted.

RS: How important do you feel stables are as a story-telling device?

Low-Ki: I don’t think it’s important, because who gets into wrestling? Are you getting into wrestling as a group or are you getting into wrestling as an individual? If you can’t stand on your own two feet, you don’t deserve to be in here in the first place. So, with stables, I can understand alliances being formed, it does look good visually, “oh, this group vs this group, oh man what’s going to happen?” That’s always intriguing from a marketing standpoint. But from a performer’s standpoint, a competitor’s standpoint, you need to be able to stand on your own two feet. That’s why the Beat Down Clan was so impressive, each individual component of that was highly successful on their own. It wasn’t like we needed to be together to be successful. That’s what makes things special. When you can stand on your own two feet and hold your own against anyone on the planet.

RS: Who would you say is the toughest person in the Impact locker room?

Low-Ki: Oof, that’s a tough one. The toughest person in the Impact locker room, we have a handful of guys. I think Crimson [currently performing as Mayweather] is one of them, the military, the former war soldier. He’s a veteran. That’s just a different mindset, a different, just a different attitude, a different level of mental attitude. Homicide, one of my first teachers, he began my training, mental toughness unlike any other that I’ve seen. Even some of the women. Gail [Kim]. Mentally tough. She, she came in with guys, that’s why. She didn’t come in all dainty and being treated like a girl. No, she had to earn hers. There are so many because there are many different experiences there but I think, at the top right now, would be those three. 

Read the final part of the interview here.