John Cena on the Future of Southpaw Regional Wrestling

Please say it’s so. If you somehow haven’t seen it, stop reading this right now and go check out Southpaw Regional Wrestling on WWE’s YouTube page. In case you don’t follow suggestions very well, SRW is a parody idea WWE put together of a local, regional wrestling promotion from the late 1980s. Only about twenty five minutes of content was produced but the reaction was so strong that it seems we’ll be getting more of it.

John Cena (who plays lead commentator Lance Catamaran) recently spoke with the Variety “Playback” podcast on a host of topics, including his movie career. However, the subject of SRW came up as well with Cena giving his thoughts on both content for YouTube and the promotion in general. Here are some highlights with transcription courtesy of 411mania.com:

On Playing Lance Catamaran

“I, like you, was a fan of Gordon Solie. Lance Russel came to mind, and I tried to get a commentary name that sounded like Lance Russel, but not like Lance Russel; almost sounding like Ron Burgandy. I remember passing the Catamaran Hotel in San Diego, and going Lance Catamaran. Holy s— that’s it, it’s Lance Catamaran. It sounds like a sailboat, it’s distinguished – he’s Lance Catamaran! And the reason I chose Utica is because Ithaca College has a wonderful broadcast program. And nobody tells you this, but once again, you get out of it what you put into it.”

And on the Future of SRW

“That is what’s fun about the creative environment. It was a hit, and there’s a great core audience in the WWE that looks for stuff like that. Yes they like to see heated rivalries, and they love that good versus evil story, but they also have a sense of humor. And we’re essentially laughing at the industry – we’re parodying the industry the way it was. People enjoy it, and here we are thirty years from that era or more, and we can look back and laugh at the way things were done. It was really fun, and there’s more on the way. I have seen Tex Ferguson unleashed – be on the lookout for more Tex Ferguson.”

You can listen to the full podcast here.

Opinion: I loved this idea when I first saw it and I’d love to see it back again. The people doing this are clearly big fans of the old school wrestling style and there’s a host of people in WWE who know this stuff like the back of their hands (Jerry Lawler would be a gold mine of information and ideas). I’m really looking forward to more of this and hopefully it grows beyond what we’ve gotten so far.