A Farewell to Arms - professional wrestler Mike Barton - Interview

Wrestling Digest, August, 2001 by Tim Towe

So the boxing training complicated matters?

MB: It did. At the time I thought it was the best thing I could have done. But after looking back, I would have done a whole lot better if I would have just went with my instincts and fought the way I've always fought. He's an experienced guy. I can't say anything else about it. He's a professional fighter with 40 fights--that's 40 more than I had.

WD: After you were defeated, you disappeared. What happened?

MB: They didn't know what to do with me before Brawl For All, then after the Butterbean loss they really didn't know what to do with me. I got an opportunity to come over to wrestle for All Japan. "Dr. Death" Steve Williams was, and still is, a top star in All Japan, and he helped me get my foot in the door here. That's when I changed my name to Mike Barton and started tagging with Johnny Ace. The rest has pretty much been history.

WRESTLING IN JAPAN

WD: What has it been like wrestling in Japan for the past two-plus years? Jericho and Benoit, who are known for their technical prowess, say the competition is phenomenal.

MB: It's a lot more physical. It's a lot different from the States, especially how they play with the crowd, [In Japan] it is more straight-up wrestling.

Is it a lot more stiff, and does it fit with your brawling style?

MB: Yes, it's very comfortable. When I first got here, I was forced to adapt to the changes. But once I got into the routine, it's great I love it.

WD: Does your family live in Japan, or do you travel back and forth?

MB: I travel back and forth from western Kentucky. They come over several times a year. I have a wife and son at home. Actually, I have three children. Two from a previous marriage, and one with my wife, Chezley, now. It works out really well travel-wise, because I come over here for two or three weeks, then I go home for three, four, or five weeks, and that's a lot of quality time I spend at home. In a relationship with a regular nine-to-five job, you get up at 5:30 a.m., and in the morning you don't have any interaction with your kids or your wife--you just go to work. When you come home there's only two or three hours that you actually spend with your family. Then you take that over the week, and it's only 15 hours. On the weekend you have things to do in my case, when I come home I have four weeks at home, and I have all day to spend with my son and all day to spend with my wife. So it's a good relationship with a lot more quality time.

WD: On a personal level, what do you like most about being an American wrestling in Japan?

MB: The food is great. The people are wonderful. They are very considerate, very nice.

WD: It's said that Japanese people always treat the performers very well. Do you find that to be the case?

MB: It's first class all the way. One of the differences is when you wrestle in the States, you're gone every weekend. You have to rent cars, book hotels, the whole nine yards. But with All Japan, we have a bus that takes us from city to dry. Hotels are prearranged. You just walk in and get a key. And once again, the people are nice. When we go into restaurants, hotels, or on the street, everybody's so polite. They're not pushy. They'll come up to you and ask you for an autograph, please. Or ask "May I take a picture?" instead of, "Hey, come here. Sign this."