Interview - Henry "Lobo" Jones


I/V: Henry "Lobo" Jones, by Mike Altamura

On The Mike: Interview with Australian superstar Henry ‘Lobo’ Jones

By Mike Altamura

Henry ‘Lobo’ Jones (not to be confused with CZW’s Lobo) has long been considered one of the premier wrestlers on the Australian wrestling circuit. Throughout his 5 ½ years in the wrestling business, he’s earned the respect of his peers and moreover, the fans, through riveting exhibitions of hardcore and pure wrestling. Jones is credited with introducing the ladder match to Australia, and also participating in the first-ever barbed-wire match down under against Mad Dog McCrea at PCW ‘Carnage’ last September. Jones is known for his work ethic and undeniable love for the business, and his dedication to the business has seen him wrestle for countless promotions across the country.

Jones is a seasoned pro and knows the Australian wrestling scene inside out. Recently, the Argentinean born wrestler (now based in Melbourne, Victoria) spoke at length with Mike Altamura about wrestling in Australia, his experiences working with a former ECW performer, the highlights of his wrestling career, the negative media attention that followed the ‘Carnage’ barbed-wire match, politics in the wrestling business, and the toll the sport of professional wrestling has taken on his body.

FACT FILE

Real Name: Henry Jones
DOB: 24/05/1977
Hometown: Melbourne, Victoria
Years wrestling: 5 ½
Height 5’11”
Weight: 202 lbs
Federations he’s wrestled for: HRCW, AWF, PCW, UCW, ACW, UWA, ASW, and
virtually every other Australian promotion over the past five years.

INTERVIEW

Mike Altamura) What inspired you to be a wrestler?

Henry Jones) Well, I always was a fan, no doubt about that, I suppose
most wrestlers are. I don’t think it was one particular thing that inspired
me to do it, but I remember when I used to watch wrestling as a fan and there were people like Ricky Steamboat and Cactus Jack and I used to enjoy their styles and their matches. I always had this funny feeling that if you could somehow incorporate the two styles into one that’d be something people would enjoy and remember. Probably those two boys, amongst other things of course, but mainly Ricky and Cactus were the two that inspired me the most to get into wrestling and give it a go.

MA) Who were some of the other wrestlers you idolized growing up?

HJ) Who else did I enjoy? Sabu I used to enjoy. I used to always like
the cruiserweights, like Jushin Thunder Liger when he first broke into WCW – I still remember him and Pillman at Superbrawl 1, no 2 sorry I think it was – they tore the house down. Classic match. Sting, I was a big mark for Sting. I thought he was the greatest wrestler in the world. I think if you want to watch a type of match where people still believe, Starrcade ’92, Sting vs. Vader in the ‘king of the cable’ tournament in the finals. Those two proved that every now and again you can still make people believe that there is a little bit of magic and realism left in wrestling, and that’s a classic example. I look at matches like that and I still hold onto hope that there are some people out there that still believe in the wrestling.

MA) Who were you trained by and who impact have they had on your career?

HJ) I was trained by probably, in my opinion, the number 1 trainer in Australian wrestling, George ‘The Hitman’ Julio. As for impact he’s had on my career, he was probably the man that taught me, besides the actual fundamentals of wrestling, the respect for the business and taking pride in what you do and doing it well, and also being respectful to other wrestlers and so on and so forth.

So, in many respects, I don’t want to sound corny and say he’s been like a second father figure, but he’s definitely someone I look up to, definitely someone I think very highly of, and that if, god willing, I’ve spoken to him about it before, if and when he decides to retire I’d like it to be his last match against me. I think that’d be a tremendous honor for me.

MA) When was your first match and what do you remember from it?

HJ) My first match, I don’t exactly remember the date or anything, too many hits over the head I think. The opponent was Chucky, I believe people refer to him now as Chuck E. Chaos. What I remember about the match; I think for a first match it actually wasn’t bad, it’s one of those situations where the actual moment itself overshadowed the quality of the action, because for me, I think there was only 20-30 people in the audience, and probably no one remembers except for my girlfriend at the time. It was one of those moments that you can never put a dollar value on, it’s priceless, and in that respect I treasure it very much. In terms of the in-ring action it was very average.

MA) How difficult was it finding work during your early days on the Australian wrestling circuit?

HJ) I was sort of fortunate in the respect that because of George ‘The Hitman’ Julio, the gentleman that trained me, he was so well respected that he got me work with a federation called ACW and I worked for them probably the next two years, and a couple of other feds here or there. It wasn’t hard. It was hard like every young wrestler that you break into the business and you have certain ideas of what you’d like to do and so on and so forth, and it was hard to try and influence, what you would call those with an ‘old school’ mentality, to try and do new and different things. But I fully understood that there’s a time and place for everything and I waited my time and I waited my place. I think sometimes the young wrestlers today don’t understand that you have to earn the right to ask to do the things you want to do; you don’t just walk up and ask. I understood that even then, being young and everything, but no, not a heck of a lot of trouble, I got steady work from ACW, and even till this day to the gentleman that owns the federation and still wrestles every now and then, Super Mario, I say thank you to him. I hold no grudges, a lot of people dislike him or bag him, but I won’t because he gave me my first opportunity so I’ve got to respect
the man and he always treated me well.

MA) In 1999 you wrestled on the ill-fated High Risk Championship Wrestling tour across Australia. How did you get involved with that promotion?

HJ) I believe, once again it was a gentleman named Frank Carpenter – some people may know him as The Mean Machine or The War Dog – he’s been wrestling in Australia for like 25 years or so. He was a gentleman that I think was in the right place at the right time, and a certain thing happened, I believe a wrestler got injured from Canada or something, and they asked him if he knew anybody to go up against a Mexican, and thankfully it was my name that popped into his head, or maybe the 20 other names he thoughts of all decided to die or something (laughs). I don’t know exactly what it was, but I was fortunate enough to end up in that position and I never put myself into believing it would lead into anything, I took it for what it was, and that was a great opportunity to experience something I never had before. And once
again, to Frank Carpenter, he’s another guy a lot of people dislike and bad-mouth, but I have to say to him thank you and that I once again won’t ever forget the fact that he gave me the chance.

MA) What are your memories from your match with Antifaz Del Norte on the HRCW show in Adelaide?

HJ) The Adelaide show was different for me. We didn’t gel that night because I was sort of still new to the game and I didn’t fully understand certain things and I didn’t work the way I should’ve worked, and he was probably rougher on me because he had been in the game for a long time. Rougher on me than he should’ve been. He taught me that one night to have faith in the other wrestler and to put a little bit of trust in him, which I did. So the next night at Festival Hall in Melbourne we wrestled again and it just clicked. I’ve never seen the match on tape or anything, but I’ve spoken to a couple people and they said the match went over very well. To me it seemed like it went over very good and that was for quite a while actually one of the most important matches of my wrestling career.

MA) Did you find it difficult at first to adapt to working with a Mexican?

HJ) Yes. They not only wrestle on the right side, but they’re non-stop from bell to bell. I believe a moonsault is a rest hold for those people (laughs). He was awesome Antifaz, he did some unbelievable things in that ring. I’d never heard of him before the tour, but I found out he’d done ECW and stuff like that so the man definitely had the talent there. Yeah, it was a little difficult, but I think more than anything it was a little difficult to all of a sudden put trust and faith in a man I’d never met before, which is something that I’d never really done. On the second night he didn’t let me down, the match clicked well, and I think from that point onwards I started to learn that given the right opportunities and the right people if you put enough trust in them then the match can turn out exactly how the two boys want.

MA) What was the atmosphere like backstage during the shows you worked for them?

HJ) A little bit, for me, a little bit edgy. Maybe the other boys being bigger names and more experienced and that were probably pretty laid back and so on and so forth. For myself, very nervous, very afraid of
screwing up a tremendous opportunity, but it was a pretty good atmosphere.

The boys that I met, like The Headhunters and The Pitbulls were very approachable men. I never thought that the Pitbulls were the greatest wrestlers in the world, but I actually watched them those 2 nights and
the one thing they did impress me on was their ability to work the crowd. I tried to watch, even like John Kronus, he had a match against The Giant [Primo Carnera III] at Festival Hall and the match was quite average, but the way he worked the crowd was absolutely beautiful. It was something that I watched and I thought to myself, ‘this is the way to work.’ Try to get the crowd into your story so that when you do the big fancy moves you have them even more so because you’ve taken them into the story and it’s emphasized even more, all the crazy stuff you add into the match. And The Headhunters, they were always happy, always joking and laughing and stuff like that, and for those guys, the size they were, they were also unbelievable workers.

MA) How would you describe your style as a wrestler?

HJ) Uh, my style as a wrestler - the best way to describe that is that we as wrestlers have spent the good part of the last 10-15 years telling everybody the secrets to a business that we supposedly love and supposedly want to make a go of and so on and so forth, that it’s gotten to the point now where people don’t watch a match for the story or for the realism, they watch it for the athleticism or for the crazy ‘spot’ or the next big ‘bump.’

When I got into wrestling I believed the only way you could try and get people to believe again was by having your matches as realistic as possible. They needed to put the man who would come with his girlfriend on that night to pick apart wrestling, the matches needed to be where he’d actually say to his girlfriend, ‘I don’t know. That actually looked real,’ and if you can do that then you come a little way to bringing credibility back to wrestling. So my style is very hard hitting, very realistic, my attitude to selling is that there’s no better way to selling than actually being hurt – but I mean hurt in a good way, not a bad way where you can’t get up. In a stiff manner, if that makes any sense. And all-out, I’m old-fashioned, I respect that people have paid their money and made the effort to come out on the night and watch the show, and the least I can do as a wrestler is give them every cent they paid for, and give them their money’s worth. It’s 100% repertoire and style, it’s definitely head down and not worry about the after affects, which sometimes are very bad and very heavy, but I don’t have any regrets, I’ve made all the choices myself in wrestling, and every single thing I ever did I take pride in the fact that the people that have spoken to me and stuff about what they’ve seen from my matches seem to have enjoyed it and got something from it.

So, it’s a long winded answer to your question, but it’s a realistic style, and the best way to associate it with certain wrestlers, say, two gentlemen I spoke about before, Cactus Jack and Ricky Steamboat, a little bit of both I always try to incorporate in my matches to cover all bases.

MA) In the late 1990’s there was word going around that you were a shooter – someone who stiffs his opponents when they didn’t give you anything, and quite a few wrestlers were scared to wrestle you. How did that reputation come about and how much truth is there to it?

HJ) I honestly don’t know where that came from. Maybe it came from the fact that in the locker room I can sometimes be just a little to myself, not that I’m being disrespectful or rude, I shake everyone’s hand when I turn up to a show. I know the way things should be, and I’ve always treated everyone the way I’d like to be treated.

I think that, like I said, that has more to do with the fact that sometimes people misread me. I’ve never been stiff, but on the other side of the coin, when you wrestle me, I believe everyone in Australian wrestling understands that you’re in for a hard-hitting match, you’re in for hopefully the best match of your career; if the guy can tell me that at the end of the night, it means more to me than anything in the world. So yeah, am I a hard-hitting guy? Very much so but give me back as much as I give if not more because that’s the way I like to wrestle, that’s the way I believe it should be, but also the two boys should leave that ring, go to the back, shake hands, give each other a hug and say thank you very much, so it’s everything within reason, but I’ve never heard of anyone actually being afraid to get in the ring with me. To be honest, not to go off on a tangent or anything, I’ve only ever had trouble with two wrestlers in my wrestling career and that’s a pretty good average considering all the different types of guys that I’ve wrestled. So yeah, if I had trouble with wrestlers, they never said it to my face. I’ve always gone out of my way to take care of the boys I work against, and I think I can safely say with the exception of a couple of injuries, like a broken nose that was an accident, no one could say that they never left that ring on their own two feet so that probably is one of the most important things in the world to me.

MA) When and how did you get involved with AWF?

HJ) AWF – I did a show in Adelaide in 2000 – I did a ladder match, first ladder match in Australian wrestling against Matty Rott, who if he’s reading this or listening to this or whatever, I’d like to say ‘hello’, I haven’t seen him in a long time. We did a match for UCW there and it was a good show and everything and I’d been in contact with a guy named Greg Bownds, some people will know him as TNT, and for years we’d been exchanging tapes between us but we’d never met, and that night he happened to be on the show, and I don’t remember who he wrestled against, but it was the first time we actually met.

A tour was being planned later that year and I think he was going to bring over 2 Cold Scorpio, Psychosis, and Blitzkreig, and I must’ve done something that night in that ladder match that he liked and he got in contact with me and that relationship lasted, well sort of till this day, I just don’t get a chance to work there anymore because of other commitments and that, but yeah, I for a long time called Greg a friend, we had a couple of instances where we might not have agreed on certain subjects but I won’t hold that against him because he doesn’t share my opinion or vice-versa. But yeah, that’s the way it pretty much panned out, he must’ve saw something he liked, and he gave me a lot of opportunities and he gave me as they say, opportunities to ‘run with the ball’ and I’d like to think I didn’t let him down. That’s basically it.

MA) When did you start working for PCW?

HJ) PCW was, when was it – 2001. I think the first match was June 2001 against a gentleman called Sabotage.

MA) What have your experiences been like with the promotion so far?

HJ) Um, they’ve been very good. Very good and very positive. I see PCW and see the workers that it has and I say to myself Australian wrestling in finally on the right track. The talent in PCW, I don’t care what anyone says, is second to none. If anyone says any different, they’re just fooling themselves. You have not only talented wrestlers, but you have boys that respect the business, respect each other, and respect the people who have paved the way for themselves and the future of wrestling. They’re a great group of guys, probably the best group of workers I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing.

MA) Besides wrestling, what are some of the other roles you take on within the promotion?

HJ) I don’t have an official role or anything, I’ve always sorta been the in between – in between the wrestlers and so-called management. The wrestlers, probably because I’ve been around and I’ve garnered a certain amount of respect, people come up to me and, you know, say they wanna do certain things and ask me for my input, my ideas, and also to ask management for permission to do stuff. Sometimes a lot of the young boys, they want to try things that they’ve never done before, and they know I’ve done probably everything you could do wrestling in Australia, and they come to me, and I value that very highly. It’s a tremendous honor that I have a lot of people that respect my opinion, and I’ve always done my best to go out of my way to offer what little knowledge I have. I learn myself everyday when it comes to wrestling, and so it’s something I really appreciate very much – the fact that I have a lot of the wrestlers coming up to me and asking for my opinion and out of everything, this is probably what means the most to me.

MA) Over the past 1 ½ years you and Spike Steele have put on some amazing displays of wrestling, both pure and hardcore that have captivated fans across the country. Why do you think your styles gel so well together?

HJ) Hard to say exactly why sometimes you click with a certain guy and other times you don’t. With Spike in particular, you’d probably have to say that taking everything about him, you’d have to admit that he’s probably the most naturally gifted wrestler in Australia at the moment in the respect that he does things which you couldn’t train a person 10 years to do. When you step into the ring with someone that does things naturally, and doesn’t need them to work it but actually they’re just doing it and it comes across that way – you probably find yourself maybe being a little like that and hence the match comes across as realistic, as natural, as not a work, and it’s hard-hitting. The matches with Spike have always been hard-hitting, and I’ve done some things in those matches I’ll probably never do again.They still stand up there as some of the greatest matches I’ve ever had. I have the greatest respect for the guy, and he’s right up there in the top 5 guys I’ve ever wrestled. It’s an honor to have a match with him and always definitely something I look forward to. The matches were always special to me, and I told a few people recently that when we wrestled at PCW Risk [2002], the ladder match, he broke his nose in the first 2-3 minutes, and we went nearly 24-25 minutes, and for someone to do that and not miss a beat in
their match and not complain and not say let’s go home early or whatever, I don’t care who you are, you can’t help but respect that and you can’t help to say that guy’s got it. If anyone in Australia has it, it’s
definitely him.

MA) Which match with Spike would you rate as the finest?

HJ) Probably the best of the 3 that we have done is probably Risk [2002]. Ladder matches just seem to be popular with people because I think they’re spectacles – people will always enjoy spectacles. A ladder match to me, I would liken it to a car accident, everyone complains about it but everyone slows down to get a good look, because to see one live is so different and confronting and that’s probably what’s most memorable to people.

MA) In September 2002 you wrestled against Mad Dog McCrea in the infamous PCW ‘Carnage’ barbed-wire match. Were there any elements of fear going into the encounter?

HJ) Very much so. Scared of a lot of things, and scared most of all is that we advertised the match as being a big deal which it was, and a big crowd turned up to see something they’d never seen before in Australia and possibly will never see again live. So, I think that the biggest fear was letting them down, screwing up and having people once again say, ‘what a letdown Australian wrestling is.’ That was my biggest fear, but I’ll tell you now I was also worried about my safety and that of Mad Dog’s because of the element of danger in the match.

There was a moment just before the match where everything was going on in my mind as to what we were about to do and so on and so forth, and then, all of a sudden, for whatever reason, I just had a moment of well, you might call clarity, and I said to myself ‘fuck it’ and I did, and Mad Dog did very much so. We just let it all hangout and I think it shows on tape, and those types of matches I think are notorious for being violent but still not telling a story, and I think we told a story in the mix of a heavy and violent match, and definitely one of the highlights of my wrestling career. No doubt about that.

MA) What are your thoughts on the outcry and negative media attention that followed the match?

HJ) Well the negative media attention only came from the fact that you had a couple dickheads who went to the media. You know, I don’t remember channel 10 hanging at the front there saying, ‘we gotta catch onto this, this sounds like it’s gonna be crazy’ and that. I think a couple people saw a good opportunity to put their face on TV and put themselves over, and they took it with open arms. And funnily enough some of the people that actually had something negative to say had been part ofso-called barbed-wire angles in the past, but those matches were letdowns, they were disappointments, and the people who had an opinion on it, I don’t respect them so their opinion doesn’t bother me.

The match itself was important to me, it was important to people at PCW, and it was important to Mad Dog. You also can’t forget the fact that 800 or so people turned up because it was important to them. And I take the opinion of 800 people or so that came and watched it and from what I understand were blown away by what they saw.

Was it too violent? Probably yes. If that makes sense. It was supposed to be; there was barbed-wire, there was 40,000 thumbtacks, there was glass, there was a chair set on fire. We pushed the envelope and then some, but if you know me, you know that in any atmosphere I’m going to push the envelope, and in an atmosphere like that if you come and you see something violent, you’re a clown if you complain about it. If anyone knows me, they know that I shine in situations which are on the borderline of insane and stupid maybe, but yeah, those people that spoke about the match didn’t even see it before they actually went on the news and complained about it.Bulldog O’Reilly (Australian wrestler) got on there and said that the wrestlers ‘punctured themselves’ and stuff like that. Once again, a wrestler giving away the business, a business that he clearly doesn’t respect because if he respected it, he would have had the decency to walk away from it when he realized he couldn’t work. And I say that because I actually like the guy, but the guy couldn’t work, and if the best he had to contribute to Australian wrestling was to knock it when two boys put their neck on the line, if that’s the best he’s got, then do us all a favor and never appear on another Australian wrestling show again. People like Mad Dog, Spike, and Rave, they put their necks on the line because they respect and value the business, and the least you can do, if you can’t match it, which he obviously can’t, is shut your mouth.

MA) How much has wrestling taken out of you physically over the years?

HJ) It’s been a huge toll in the respect that I’m 26 and my day job is a pretty heavy lifting job, and I’ve always had those blue-collar type jobs so over the years it’s made it very difficult for me to make a living and so on and so forth. My body is in a broken down state of sorts. I have bad knees, a very bad lower back, amongst other injuries of course. Going back to what I said before though, I have no regrets because everything I ever did I made the choice to do those things, and if I had to do it again not one thing would be changed. It’s taken a huge toll on me and that, but because there is no money in Australian wrestling, because there is no fame or anything, the only thing that is there is the history. The history of your matches, the history of your reputation, and I’d like to think that even though I paid a heavy toll physically, the history of my wrestling career will be a positive one and something that people talk about for a long time to come.

MA) What are the best and worst aspects of professional wrestling?

The best aspects are when you and the other boy are in that ring, the bell goes, and it just clicks, and the crowd that is there that night just clicks with you. They are moments, like I said before, for a few minutes
there, the crowd might actually still believe that it’s all real, that it’s not a work. When those moments happen they are priceless. That is the best aspect of the wresting, basically when you step through those ropes. If it wasn’t for those moments I wouldn’t even be part of the business. They mean the world to me those moments.

As for the negative aspects: egos – how can I say it, uh, inflated heads. People who love to knock but based solely on the fact that they can’t match what they’re knocking, so because they can’t, the best they’ve got is to knock it. In some respect that could be classified as jealousy. There’s a lot of aspect to it that you don’t like. There’s a lot of backstabbing, there’s a lot of, as it’s referred to by a lot of people ‘backstage politics’, and it is a very political game. I’ve never played it and I never intend to. To me it’s a very simple question; when the bell goes can you go, and if you can then do it, and if you can’t then don’t be part of this. Do everyone a favor, including yourself, and walk away with some pride intact. And I wish some people would listen to that, because not that I’m knocking anyone in particular or anything, but there are some people that still wrestle to this day, and you look at them and you think to yourself, “why?,” because it’s not there, it never was there, and by the grace of God it’ll never be there. So yeah, that’s some of the negative aspects of the business.

MA) Is your family supportive of your wrestling career?

HJ) Uh, yes and no. No because of the fact that obviously we hurt ourselves and no family ever enjoys seeing someone else hurt themselves. I don’t think my family ever envisaged I would do as well as I did in the wrestling because I remember saying to them as a young kid I wanted to do it, and they sort of laughed and joked about it. My parents have been there for a lot of matches, even the barbed-wire one, even though my Mum threw a huge fit, and my dad actually got into the ring and everything. But like it or not, it probably added to the atmosphere, it added to the mystique of the match because it was not a work. They’ve always stood by me, but also in some respects there are times in the near future where I’d rather them not there because I don’t want the added pressure of worrying whether they’re upset and so on and so forth. I think in the future what I’ll do is, as much as it might disappoint me, I might just do my time in wrestling pretty much by
myself.

MA) Which match from your career so far would you rate as your best?

HJ) I don’t have one particular. I’ll name names as in the ones I had matches with that mean the world to me. People like Spike, Mad Dog, Rave, Enforcer, Jason Helton of Course, John Simmons, Thug Thomas, Foxx, even a couple matches I had with TNT. Basically those matches against those people, and I’ve wrestled most of them on a number of occasions, those are the wrestlers that stand out in my mind. They’re matches that have made me glad that I chose wrestling as a hobby basically.

MA) Which international wrestlers would you like to work against?

HJ) If it was a dream match, where I could just pick anybody, it’d probably be Cactus Jack or Sabu. The fact is, Cactus Jack probably doesn’t have it anymore, and I say it with the utmost respect for him, and I’d probably have to say the same for Sabu. But if I could somehow go back to their heyday I would’ve loved to wrestle both the boys in their prime. To be honest with you, I’d love to wrestle any international guy because every time you wrestle someone you get the rub and that can mean a lot to a wrestler’s career. As long as it’s a known name, I’ll work against him any day of the week.

MA) What are some of your interests outside of the wrestling business?

HJ) Movies. I’m a huge movie buff. I love all movies, and have for years. I have a huge video collection, as well as my wrestling video collection. Mainly movies, because wrestling takes up probably like 90% of my hobby time and so I don’t have much time for other stuff.

MA) What would you rate as your favorite film?

HJ) Oh Jesus, favorite film. I can never answer that. I have favorite types of films. For instance, I think Paul Newman in The Verdict is the greatest court-room film of all-time. I think a film like Predator is one of the greatest sci-fi thriller films of all-time. I can’t sorta say one particular film that I love; I’ve got a huge number of favorites though. I’ve got two favorite actors: Marlon Brando and George C. Scott. Two guys who definitely knew how to act, and any film involving those two men I definitely consider a favorite.

MA) Time for the “name game”. We’ll be focusing entirely on Australian wrestlers. First one is Mario Milano.

HJ) Legend.

MA) Chuck E. Chaos

HJ) A world of potential; I wish he’d listened to me because he had a lot more ability than people gave him credit for. I still believe he has the potential to be one of the main guys in Australian wrestling; he just needs to grow up a little more. I actually think he has in some respects and I wish him the best, I hope it works out for him.

MA) Mad Dog McCrea

HJ) Probably the craziest guy I’ve ever wrestled against and I mean that in the respect that he’s insane in a good way. He still worries about the quality of a match and the safety of the boys involved, and he reminds me of a younger me, just probably more athletic though. One of the boys that 5 years from now people will be talking about in Australian wrestling as one of the top workers.

MA) Rave

HJ) Actually, even though I said Mad Dog was like a younger version of me, Rave is even more so. He reminds me an awful lot of me in the start of my run in the wrestling business. I have the world of respect for him. He has tremendous potential which I hope he realizes one day –I’m sure he will. I had one of hte greatest matches of my career against him, and also, the same that I said about Mad Dog, one of those people that if he sticks with it and keeps his head on straight and stays out of trouble, he’ll be one of those boys that you see him in the ring, you see him on a show, and you make an effort to go to the card because you know he’s gonna bring the house down.

MA) Enforcer

HJ) Enforcer is the most athletic wrestler I’ve ever been in the ring with possibly. A tremendously gifted performer. The two matches I had against him: the ladder and straight match we had (both in PCW), are right up there as 2 of my greatest matches of all time. A world of respect for him. I can’t say enough about him. He probably should be a lot better than what he is, and probably isn’t based solely on the fact that he doesn’t give himself enough credit. If I can do anything in this business before I leave it, it’s to make him realize he should be a lot further along in this business than what he is. A great, great wrestler.

MA) Foxx

HJ) Foxx is probably in the top 3 Cruiserweights in Australian wrestling at the moment. A tremendous young man, a respect for the business which you just don’t come across with the young guys these days. With what happened to his dad, passing away recently, that affected him and I usually don’t get emotional but it affected me too, because like I said, I think very highly of him. I didn’t know his dad well, but I had met him, and I hope he has a tremendous wrestling career, Foxx, because the guy has the qualities and love you need to succeed in this business, and I wish him the best. I think he’s another one of those boys that 5 years from now everyone pays to see.

MA) Mark Mercedes

HJ) Can’t say a lot about him because I only met him once. Came across as being a little standoffish, but then again, he might say the same about me. But he seemed like a nice guy when I actually got to talk to him a little bit. I saw him work for the first time that night at the [Australian] Supershow [in December 2002], and his offence was very convincing, he seemed to be quite a solid worker, and I have nothing negative to say about him. I have heard that a lot of people think of him as one of the top guys in Australian wrestling and that, and I would need to see more of him before I offer a more detailed opinion on him.

MA) Jason Helton

HJ) Like a brother. Like a brother to me. Probably one of the most giving wrestlers I’ve ever worked against, and two of the greatest matches I’ve ever had in my wrestling career were against that gentleman and I have him to thank for that, for not only working with me but also just being so easy to get along with. I would have to say he’s the most respected man in Australian wrestling and rightfully so. When he retires it’ll be ones of those instances that the entire business will be worse off for it.

MA) Do you ever see Australian wrestling expanding and going mainstream?

HJ) We’ve got a very long way to go before that happens. Sometimes Australian wrestling still falls back into the old mentality of, you know, ‘I’ll go out there, give you a punch, you’ll give me a dropkick, we’ll work the crowd and people will come.’ The wrestling has changed, the whole business has changed, and what people want to see is hard-hitting, realism, over-the-top, and extreme elements of wrestling. It can get there, but everybody, all the boys and girls involved need to realize that they need to put the business first in front of themselves, because it’s a forgotten thing of wrestling that it takes two to make a match. The other thing that people forget about wrestling is that they used to call it professional wrestling, and sometimes people forget the ‘p’ word there. It could get there, but a lot of things need to change, and more important than anything attitudes need to change. If that was to happen, then I could definitely see it going, maybe not mainstream, but it’d definitely be a positive step towards making it a money-making business again.

Ma) What do you wish to accomplish in your wrestling career before you retire?

HJ) I got into wrestling with a set of goals and I’ve achieved almost everything I’ve set out to do. I’ve got a handful of things to do still and I’d like to think over the next 12 months or so that I’ll achieve those
things. More than anything though, when it’s all said and done, I just want people to say that I did everything I could to help the business along, to help the wrestlers, and to make my matches every night as best I could. I never set out in wrestling to work Wrestlemania against Hulk Hogan. I never believed that was the pinnacle; for some people it is and for that, the world of respect to them, but to me I had not smaller goals, but just things that meant a little more to me. I believe I’ve come close to achieving them and when it’s all said and done, I will have achieved those things.

MA) How much longer do you see yourself in the business?

HJ) Well it’s funny you should ask that because I said to some people recently that unless anything drastically changes or anything, probably this’ll be my last year. I’ll take it as I find it in December, see how I feel physically, see how wrestling is, and definitely see how PCW is. If the body is not feeling 100% and a couple other issues, then I think this could be my last year. If that’s the case, it’d be a hard thing to just say, ‘this is all I’ve ever done well’ and just all of a sudden walk away from it. But I’ve always understood that there’s a time and a place for everything, and if that’s the case it might be my time and place to walk away from the business.

MA) Thanks for your time Henry, I wish you the best of luck in the future.

HJ) Thank you very much.

Henry ‘Lobo’ Jones doesn’t have an official website, however for booking/interview purposes and/or fan mail, he can be reached at henrylobojones@hotmail.com

Mike ‘Kryptonite’ Altamura can be contacted via email at icemanalt@aol.com or totalwrestlingma@aol.com

Editors note: Thanks to Mike Altamura for granting us permission to re publish this awesome interview. Greg Tingle.