By Sean Radican, Torch columnist

RADICAN’S ROH REVIEW SERIES
“A LETHAL DOSE: THE JAY LETHAL STORY”
RELEASED BY ROH IN 2015
BY SEAN RADICAN, TORCH COLUMNIST

“A Lethal Dose” covers much of Jay Lethal’s career in ROH and TNA. Lethal is the perfect subject for a new compilation release from ROH this year. In 2014, Lethal broke out and had a career year after turning heel and capturing the ROH World TV Championship for the second time from Tommaso Ciampa at “Supercard of Honor of Honor VIII” in April of 2014 during WrestleMania weekend.

Lethal started wrestling at the age of 16, but he had been a fan of wrestling for most of his life, as he grew up watching wrestling with his brothers. It’s clear listening to Lethal that he’s a huge fan of wrestling and has evolved his passion for wrestling into a career. Lethal comes across well during the entire interview. He’s intelligent, gives well-thought out answers, and is clearly a cornerstone performer for Ring of Honor at this stage of his career.

It has been a long road for Lethal to get to the point he is now. When Lethal broke away from the Special K gimmick in ROH and took a more serious edge, it was clear that he had the potential to be really good in the ring, but something was missing.

Lethal tells some good stories about how he accidentally got put into the Special K gimmick during his first run in ROH and why he didn’t fit the gimmick because he wasn’t into the party scene. Lethal says that he never partied and instead was at home watching wrestling during his down time during this period.

Lethal says the booker used Samoa Joe to break him out because he saw them interacting in the locker room. Lethal says they would play a game in the locker room where he would try to get Joe to tap out and he never was able to do it when Joe would give himself up for a hold. Lethal says the booker used real life to influence the booking, but doesn’t mention former ROH booker Gabe Sapolsky by name during this segment of the interview. Lethal discusses how Joe was a big influence on him and taught him how to be a professional both in and outside the ring.

Lethal debuted against Samoa Joe in TNA in 2005 when Joe was on a hot streak. Although they had recently had a long, competitive match in ROH, this match was much different and Joe was supposed to plow through him, although he did give Lethal more offense than he was supposed to. Lethal credits Joe with getting him a job in TNA.


It’s no secret that Lethal is best known for his time in TNA doing the Black Machismo gimmick where he dressed up, acted like, and wrestled like Randy Savage. Lethal also had a program with Ric Flair after TNA officials became aware he could do a great Flair impersonation as well. Lethal talks extensively about how doing the Black Machismo gimmick helped break him out of his shell as a performer. Although Lethal hadn’t shown much personality in ROH or TNA before doing the Black Machismo gimmick, Lethal was really good at it and showed a whole different side of himself as a performer.

Doing the Ric Flair and Randy Savage impersonations backstage led directly to Lethal doing them on TV. Lethal talks extensively about finding out that Randy Savage watched him doing the Black Machismo gimmick on YouTube because he didn’t watch wrestling on TV.

Lethal got Savage’s number, but at first he thought the promoter that gave him Savage’s number was ribbing him. Lethal eventually connected with Savage on the telephone on a couple of occasions. It’s clear that Lethal wanted to have longer conversations with Savage, but they got cut short each time and Lethal eventually gave up calling him when Savage stopped answering his calls even though he had urged Lethal to try to reach him at another time when he wasn’t busy. “I kind of felt like I missed my chance to ask him everything that was on my mind about everything he’s ever done,” said Lethal.

Lethal also talks about how much it met to him to wrestle Ric Flair and goes into detail about his interactions with Flair backstage when he signed with TNA. “It’s not that bad to be the funny guy and get laughed at,” said Lethal. Lethal is right to an extent in that doing impersonations of Savage and Flair helped him break out of his shell, but doing those impersonations also hindered him in some ways when he came back to Ring of Honor in 2011 after being released by TNA.

It was hard to take Lethal seriously in the ROH environment after he had done a comedy gimmick on TV for so long. Lethal was having good matches, but didn’t show a lot of charisma as a babyface upon returning to ROH. Lethal had the best year of his career in 2014, but the seeds were planted for him breaking out of his shell as a serious character when he won “Survival of the Fittest 2012.”

Lethal comes across really well speaking about his return to ROH and wanting to prove he could wrestle in matches that were longer and more physical than the ones he had been doing in TNA for a long period of time. Lethal talks in-depth about how he used his match against Davey Richards during the final elimination of “SOTF 2012” and his subsequent ROH World Title shot against Kevin Steen at “Killer Instinct” as a measuring stick for himself because of how well-respected they were by the fans. At this time, Lethal says he wanted to see how the fans would react when he was in the ring with them.

A big catalyst for Jay Lethal was his match against Kevin Steen at “Killer Instinct” where he showed a new side and wrestled with more of an edge going forward. This is one area where it would have been interesting to listen to Lethal talk in-depth about his match against Steen on that show and how it impacted him moving forward, as it is clear that the end result was the Lethal that took ROH by storm in 2014. After his first ROH title shot against Steen, Lethal began wrestling with more of an edge and had better matches. His matches against Davey Richards at “Glory By Honor XI,” Kevin Steen at “11th Anniversary,” and Michael Elgin at “Supercard of Honor VII” are included on this release and it’s clear that Lethal is performing at a different level in these matches and how wrestling with an edge made him a much better character that fans could get behind in ROH.

Lethal turned heel at “Supercard of Honor VIII” in April of 2014 and since that time he has become one of the best performers in ROH. Lethal turned heel and captured the ROH World TV Championship from Tommaso Ciampa with the help of Truth Martini. Lethal went on to have some of the best matches in Ring of Honor last year against the likes of ACH and Matt Taven while never losing the ROH World TV Championship, which he still holds to this day.

Lethal talks about his heel turn and joining Truth Martini in 2014 was something that he begged for. “I’ve always wanted to be the bad guy,” said Lethal. Having grown up watching Flair and Savage play the bad guy, Lethal broke out with Truth Martini by his side. It’s interesting to listen to Lethal talk about how he pushed for a heel turn and knew that he wanted Martini by his side. “I thought being the bad guy would be the perfect change of pace for me and I gotta tell you I’m loving every second of it.” Lethal doesn’t say it, but for the first time in his career, Lethal has been put in a position to be a top attraction for ROH because he is playing a heel role that naturally suits him.

Overall thoughts: (8.5) – This interview leaves you with wanting to hear more from Lethal. He is well-spoken and comes across as very intelligent in terms of how he approaches his wrestling career. It’s a smart move to have the interview and match selection include on this two DVD end with his heel turn at “Supercard of Honor” VIII, as Lethal has done his best work since that time.

Lethal gave really good in-depth answers to all of the questions asked about his career. The interview lasts a little over an hour and there were only a couple of sections where follow-up questions regarding his first run with ROH would have helped flush things out more from that period, although he does talk a lot about Samoa Joe helping him break away from the Special K gimmick. Overall, the interviewer did a good job of asking the right questions. Lethal’s response to being asked about training A.J. Lee is interesting to say the least.

The interview has good production, although it would be a welcome change if the interviewer were shown in the picture instead of the standard shoot interview camera angles that are stale in this day and age given the work Kayfabe Commentaries and Highspots have done in recent years to revolutionize wrestling interviews. One of the cool production aspects of this interview is that match footage is spliced in as Lethal is talking about certain topics to enhance them.

I highly recommend purchasing this release. Lethal has shown an ability to steadily improve and reinvent himself over the years. He has held the ROH World Championship for over a year and has brought a tremendous amount of credibility to it. At the rate Lethal is improving, it won’t be long before he is rightfully recognized as the best performer in Ring of Honor. The interview is very good and the match selection on this release features a fantastic selection of matches, including Lethal’s excellent matches against the likes of Kevin Steen, Davey Richards, and Michael Elgin.

You can purchase “A Lethal Dose: The Jay Lethal Story” on DVD by clicking HERE or by visiting ROHWrestling.com. For more information on Ring of Honor visit ROHWrestling.com

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