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Chris
Yandek:
Well, the point was that I didn't have to be taken
seriously. Online Radio Network was giving anyone a show.
Anyone could have a show and I wanted to create something on
professional wrestling. Some people did the kind of shows
where they did commentary on things, but I thought the
strongest thing was to start giving interviews. So I just
started sending emails out and explained that I had a show
on this online radio network and some people said, "OK". I
don't think my age was ever really an issue...So many people
want to do something in life but they're waiting for
somebody to tell them to do it when in reality you gotta go
out and do it for yourself.
SplatterTribe:
So you was in school and then doing these interviews?
Chris
Yandek:
Yeah,
sure. You went to school and then you came home and you
interviewed professional wrestlers. In college I did the
same thing. I get my degree here at the University of
Florida this coming august. You interview celebrities around
your schedule, sure I do both at the same time. I run a
popular online celebrity feature outlet and at the same time
I go to school because I need to finish my education. I
think it's important to do that. So yes, I'm like a working
journalist that's still in school. . |
SplatterTribe: I dare say you do not have a lot of peers who can relate to what it is you do.
Chris Yandek:
Yeah. What's funny is....through the 1000 interviews I've done, I've made a few friends, stars in music, television or whatever, I relate most to them actually, more so, than I relate to my peers. A lot of them you know, are still figuring things out for themselves. A lot of them don't really know what they want to do yet. They don't really figure out what it is that they want to do probably till the end of high school, maybe the first or second year of college. They're just trying to get their feet wet.
The point is you really got to personalize yourself. You've really go to live this dream 24/7......I mean you either are a media journalist or you're not a media journalist. You either are a broadcast journalist or you're not a broadcast journalist. There's not any in between. You either are something or your not. You have to find that for yourself. If you're willing to make the breaks then, yes it can happen. If you're not willing to make the breaks then, it's probably not going to happen, because you are going to be left behind. I think so many people like to wait for somebody else to do something for them. As the saying goes, "You have to work the business. You cannot let the business work you." So, to answer your question, I'm not very relatable to any of my peers, definitely not. Most of my friends are older people within the industry. A lot of them (peers) respect me here (college). A lot of them appreciate my efforts. They don't really, truly understand what I do, but they do appreciate my efforts.
SplatterTribe: Going from Professional Wrestling to the Main Stream Media Market, since professional wrestling is not always taken seriously in the Mainstream market, did that ever cause you any problems?
Chris Yandek: Honestly most people don't ask about it, don't know about it, because they just see what they've seen for the last four to five years. (Which has been) mostly Hollywood, or the sports stuff (that's) really in the mainstream press. What's interesting is, if there's an issue with professional wrestling, or if something comes up relating to professional wrestling, most people either know me from.........It's like this, I have two groups of demographics of what I like to call 'fans' or 'followers'. The group that thinks I'm still in professional wrestling full time and the group who knows nothing about that and knows that I just interview famous people. It's kind of funny how that all works out.
Most people, I don't think, really care a bout my trajectory of the past because that stuff was so many years ago. Most of that stuff is just ancient history at this point in time. As you know, in the media industry it's all kind of, "what have you done lately? What are you symbolized for lately?" Looking back on all of that, obviously I credit professional wrestling. People can take this how they want but, I think of it as a stepping stone. I take it as that was my way in to learn how this industry works and then transfer it into greater things.
You know a lot of people give The Rock (Duane Johnson) a lot of criticism for leaving the industry behind, but he went on to bigger and better things. I feel that I have moved on to bigger and better things as well. What more could I have done? I interviewed everybody from Steve Austin, to Mick Foley, to Shawn Michaels. I interviewed every major legend form "Classy" Freddie Blassie to Bruno San Martino.
SplatterTribe:
Did you work directly with the WWE?
Chris Yandek:
I had a working relationship with them as one of the media journalists they actually worked with from time to time. They provided access to their stars for me to do interview with them, while the stars were WWE employees, correct. Triple H and Paul Heyman were actually two of the last interviews I did with the company. Triple H was actually the last interview I did with the WWE back in 2004, 2005, after that I pretty much moved on. That was, pretty much, the end of my professional wrestling career. I think that was the last interview I ever did, with Triple H actually, go figure.
But that's how the industry is and that's how the industry was. There's a lot of great things about that industry, but their so many horrible things that go on in the industry. Speaking about 'The Wrestler', that's a very good profile of the downfall of professional wrestling and how the life isn't so glamorous. Let me say something, and most people don't get this, you know, sports, to a point and Hollywood, to a greater extent are also like professional wrestling as far as how everything is behind the scenes. There are a lot of people who have a lot of money and a lot of glamour, but they work really hard and so much is demanded of them. There's negatives to everything in life.
SplatterTribe: You also are the publicist for Jake 'The Snake' Roberts and I read somewhere where you credited Jake Roberts for being a key in getting your career going, what did you mean by that?
Chris Yandek: Well, I want to say what I mean by that is, besides the interviews I probably did with Trish Stratus, which was probably one of the most popular one I ever did.....Classy Freddie Blassie again...Rey Mesterio Jr, Steve Austin, Shawn Michaels, those are some of the top one I did. I did 3, 4 interviews with Jake "The Snake" Roberts during my wrestling years, more like six probably, but the point was that what really got me the most attention during my professional wrestling career was mostly what happened with Jake "The Snake" Roberts. People really started paying attention to me because, as most people know, Jake does not talk to the media very much.
Over the years we became friends. He trusted me. he knew I was an "on the record" journalist. He knew that I wasn't going take anything out of context. So, with that being said, we hit it off. We became friends. We stayed in contact. A few years ago, recently, I want to say like 2005, 2006, probably about that time, we kind of lost contact. Then over the last 2007, 2008, 2009, we got back in contact, and you know, just over the years I do publicity or spokesperson work for Jake because he was very nice to me in my earlier years and I just do it out of the kindness of my heart and because I have a lot of respect for the guy and that's really what it is. I've done other management work with other clients, here and there, and I've lent my hand to a few things, here and there, in all forms of entertainment. You try to keep yourself well rounded, you know. You have to find the talent first, but I've also done some work behind the scenes as well.
SplatterTribe: So do you want to explore the field of Publicity beyond Jake?
Chris Yandek:
I don't know. My dream, of course, is to continue to be a high level, high interview, multiple media personality journalist. That's really what I want to do at the end of the day. If you told me tomorrow that maybe that career would maybe, not work out and I had other options, and if those other options were to work on the management side of the industry, then yes I definitely would consider that. There are many successful publicists who were journalists first and went on to do wonderful things. So, I'm not ruling that out. What I want to do is I want to inspire with the interviews and stories I do and the work I do because that's really where I should be I think.
SplatterTribe: OK, last year there was an incident where Jake Roberts was very incoherent at a scheduled wrestling event.
No matter what the situation was, whether Jake was at fault or not, what goes through your mind as a publicist in that situation?
Chris Yandek:
All you can do is get the facts out what Jake remembered. We released a press release and after that press release was released,
with all the information and the facts, it pretty much went away. That's really all I can say about that. The matter of hand again is, after the incident happened Jake was getting a bunch of media request and I said, "Well, I might be your spokesperson, but I have a media outlet. Let me just do my regular job as a journalist and we'll put that out there." TMZ, the entertainment media outlet that covers me frequently, picked up the story, ran with it. (TMZ) ran the whole interview and people can make the opinion they want about it. So, from what I know, Jake was drugged and there was a bunch of jealousy in the industry. At the independent, professional, level there's definitely a jealousy. That's really all I can say about that. I really can't say anything else than that.
SplatterTribe:
So give us an update on Jake 'The Snake' Roberts.
Chris Yandek:
Well, what do you want to know? I mean, Jake does independent wrestling, booking from time to time and he lives a quiet life in North Florida. Are there any Earth shattering things? There's always developments. There's always possibilities going on, but nothing to inform the general public about. Just stay tuned. He's got a new website at jakebitesback.com actually and that, actually, takes you over to the MySpace page. That page he updates frequently and keeps you informed with it. He's just doing wrestling bookings for the most part. That's it for the moment. Are there other possibilities coming up? Absolutely, but he just lives the quiet life in North Florida, what can I say?
