Black Market Shoot Interview 1/30/07
Alan J. Wojcik: Let's get some background information on each of you before we get to the good stuff. Where did you grow up and what made you decide to become professional wrestlers?

Joey M@cHetE: I was born in Amityville, New York and I grew up in West Palm Beach, FL. I saw wrestling on T.V. at the early age of 3 and I was hooked. I remember the day I came into my house from outside and saw Dusty Rhodes cutting a promo. I watched it religiously from then on and my parents decided to take me to see it live at the West Palm Beach Auditorium.....I went every Monday night from then on. I saw all the greats.
Shawn Murphy: I was born in the outskirts of Buffalo, New York and raised there the early part of my life. We moved to Florida when I was 6 and have been here ever since. As far as getting into wrestling goes…I was never a fan when I was a kid, if it didn't have helmets and shoulder pads, I didn't watch it too much. When I got back from playing football in college, I kind of missed the constant collision and a buddy of mine was training to become a wrestler and asked me to come out and watch him one day. I did and the rest, as they say, is history.

Alan J. Wojcik: Did anyone in your family, wives and girlfriends at the time included, object to your decisions to get in the ring?

Joey M@cHetE: I've always done what I want, but to answer your question, No. No one objected but even if they would have, it was a passion of mine and you can't stop that.
Shawn Murphy: Nope, my wife was actually fine with it. But she did begin to have some doubts when I came home from training one day and kind of just laid down in the driveway for about 2 hours…I was so sore I didn't want to move.

Alan J. Wojcik: How long had each of you been wrestling when you created the team of DOW JONE$ and NA$DAQ,- The Market Crashers, and why did you choose those names?

Murphy: We didn't create anything, it was given to us. One of our trainers, Cliff Anderson had a very simple view of things. He would look at you and if you looked like Rick Rude and your name was David, he'd say, "I'm gonna call you David Rude…get some tights with hearts on it". Well, he looked at me one day and said, "You look like Big Bubba…I'm gonna call you Hoss…get a suit with a white shirt and suspenders". So I did. What a lot of people don't know is that I'm NOT the original Dow Jone$ of the Market Crashers. One of our other buddies was…and ironically his name was Sean too. Cliff put Sean and Joe together and called them something different every time…"The Stock Market", "The Stock Exchange", "The Market Crashers"…eventually I was put with them in this little stable and Sean ended up quitting, leaving Joe and I in the team. We figured out of the 3 names, "The Market Crashers" sounded the coolest and came up with the names NA$DAQ & DOW JONE$ ourselves…not that it was that hard…but we added dollar signs as our "S"…anybody else who did it after us *cough* Antonio Bank$…MVP *cough*…is infringing on our intellectual property.
Joey M@cHetE: Once we got together it was like peanut butter and jelly, a little messy but damn good! What we lacked in finesse we made up for in believability.

Alan J. Wojcik: You have wrestled all over Florida for several promotions including the defunct IPW Hardcore, FIP, CCW, EWE, NWA Florida, MXPW, NWA Sunray and others. Give a few words about working for each of those promotions and the people who run/ran them.

Joey M@cHetE: IPW was never a home base for us, but we did come in from time to time and were also included on the reunion show, which was nice. We had some real great matches in IPW with The Shane Twins and The New Heavenly Bodies. I wish we could have done more there because those guys are a lot of fun. I always say wrestling is just what we do to get to the after party and everyone knows that IPW's stood behind that philosophy. As far as Ron Niemi goes.....I absolutely think he is the fucking craziest, most hilarious guy in all of wrestling. If you ever get a chance to go and hang with Ron I suggest you drop everything and do so, something legendary is bound to happen. We are looking forward to working with Ron again with the AWA World -1 Promotion in Georgia. We start in February.
Shawn Murphy: Joey and I knew we were in a different world when we walked into the IPW locker room for the first time and saw PLETHORA of alcoholic beverages lining the back wall. And we're not just talking beer, we're talking whiskey, vodka, rum, Tequila..etc. But IPW was fun and the guys that ran it were all about that…having fun, but at the same time, putting on a quality product for the fans

Joey M@cHetE: FIP is the best thing going in Florida right now. Sal (Hamaoui) and Gabe (Sapolsky) are great to work for; we respect them both very much. They show that they are a class act time and time again. Our money is always right, they always take good care of us and we have had a lot of great opportunities there. I am very proud of our accomplishments in FIP, namely drawing their biggest house ever with the CAGE OF PAIN against The Heartbreak Express.
Shawn Murphy: FIP has been a delight to work for since day one. Sal has a vision and knows where he wants to take the company. With the constant influx of national talent and a mix of some of the Florida boys, FIP has been great for the exposure of wrestling in Florida. And to be honest, with Gabe bookings, everything is so easy and makes so much sense; it's almost PAINFUL to watch wrestling on T.V.

Shawn Murphy: CCW was one of our most favorite places to work, I never laughed as much in the back of a show as I would there. A great crew of guys that are REALLY old school in their wrestling mentality. It's a shame things had to end there.
Joey M@cHetE: It was a great place to work, key word being was.

Joey M@cHetE: I am so sad that they(EWE) aren't running anymore. I mean I'm sure there will be a rebirth one day but they are on permanent hiatus as of right now. Steve Madison and Buck Quartermaine are two of my favorite people in the business. I mean I really love these two like family. They are both so talented and just all around cool guys. When the promotion was strong it was a tremendous place to work with great psychology, they listened to suggestions and they planned their booking well. And the talent that was on those shows was tremendous. It's sad to me; I had a lot of fun there.
Shawn Murphy: Joey said it all; Steve and Buck are like family. They both know how to put on a quality show….though sometimes their view would differ and that would be where the REAL fun would start. EWE would and COULD have been a success because these guys were behind it.

Joey M@cHetE: We worked an IPW/NWA FL joint venture which was actually our last match for IPW and our first and last match for NWA FL. We had a really great triple tag team match against The Shane's and The Bodies.
Shawn: Murphy: We really didn't work there. Well, like Joey said, we worked there the one time and it was basically the IPW crew.

Joey M@cHetE: MXPW is a lot of fun to work; they always treat the shows and the wrestlers with the respect they deserve. There are always vets like Chaz, Ron Bass, Billy Gunn and Hack Meyers to learn from. Casey (Thompson) and Andy (Vitale) really do a good job and I don't ever have to worry about pay. Andy and I have become good friends over the last year and Casey is like family to me. MXPW is a great place for guys to be, a lot of knowledge, and a respectable production. Their shows are consistently good.
Shawn Murphy: MXPW is run by one of the guys that trained us, Casey Thompson, and it really feels like working for your brother. We had some bumps in the road, like any family, but in the end Casey treats us good and it's a place where we feel VERY comfortable.

Joey M@cHetE: Sunray. Jeesh, I could write a book here, but I'll just say when I booked the promotion under the ownership of Zilla it was a very fun time for me. We drew consistently man! The promotion was a great learning experience for me as a booker and I really came into my own creatively there. Some of the storylines were still being talked about when they tried to start up again years later so that made me proud. Zilla selling Sunray to a mark was the beginning of the end. As far as commenting on Zilla as an owner, he was always a fan of ours so he treated us great and paid us very well but he turned out to be a despicable human being.
Shawn Murphy: Man, to me, Sunray was fun, but a headache at the same time. Joey was booking for the company and as his partner, I became defacto co-booker. Guys would come up to me and ask about things and I would have to either know the answer or find the answer, and if anybody knows me, the less responsibility I have, the better. But we did really good things there, drawing between 300-500 people. Every time, getting a guy fired, it was cool…plus, Sunray had some KILLER after parties.

Alan J. Wojcik: At some point in the last couple of years, I think during your run in MXPW when it was on Sunshine Network, you dropped NASDAQ and Dow Jones to become Murphy and Machete. Was that your decision or the promotions?

Shawn Murphy: It was all us. We were sick of being asked to cut promo's dealing with the NYSE and falling markets and stocks and shit like that…so we decided to come up with a gimmick that was more close to home and better suited for us. We wanted to be able to let our real selves shine through in ring and on camera.

Alan J. Wojcik: Did working for MXPW and being on Sunshine Network garner you any bookings you might not have received otherwise?

Joey M@cHetE: Of course working on TV got us more bookings. Wrestling is a "What have you done for me lately" type of business so anything to fuel the machine helps you to keep driving. It didn't get us a contract obviously but it did keep our wheels turning enabling us to keep working regularly and honing our craft.

Alan J. Wojcik: In the past year or two you held tag titles in three different promotions (NWA Sunray, MXPW, CCW), talk about that amazing accomplishment.

Joey M@cHetE: For some reason we have always been a championship team. We are very believable in the ring and we bring legitimacy to the championship. We also take the position seriously and respect it; it comes with the old school mentality which was instilled very early on in our training.
Shawn Murphy: To tell the truth, Alan…we've held more titles at one time before. I don't think titles are something we need or want...they just seem to come to us.

Alan J. Wojcik: Sometime during 2005-2006 you went from being called the Market Crashers and became The Black Market. What led to the name change and did you feel an attitude change under the name?

Joey M@cHetE: Again the name change like I said earlier was just a comfort thing and once we were comfortable within our gimmick we really turned up the dial and became a fucking wrecking ball.
Murphy: We were told that changing our name could mean "career suicide", but we decided that if we were going to do this (wrestle), that we wanted it to be us, and not just gimmick that we had NO connection to other than history. Was there an attitude change? Yes, because we felt more comfortable being "us" instead of characters, which I think has become apparent in the ring.

Alan J. Wojcik: I believe the Puerto Rican fans know you as "America's Violence Dealers." For fans that might have never seen a show from the island, describe the Puerto Rico atmosphere.

Shawn Murphy: The best term to describe the atmosphere is "throwback". When you step off the plane in San Juan, you feel like you might have stepped through a time machine back to the late 70's or early 80's. The wrestling is all old school and VIOLENT. There's a lot of blood and a lot of apprehension as to what can happen to you if you piss off the wrong people.
Joey M@cHetE: Puerto Rico is not only the last remaining territory in the world but also the most violent territory in the world. But it's not just blood and guts, it's all about psychology and the fans are the most passionate fans alive. When they love you, they will break bread with you, and when they hate you....they will stab you, throw spark plugs, urine, spit, batteries, whatever. It really is something that we feed off of. We were the most hated two on that island and I relished in it. I mean I really, really loved the danger and realness of it all. It was a rush. Puerto Rico is a big part of our wrestling persona and it changed Shawn and I forever. I know lots of guys that hate it and vow to never go back and I saw a lot of guys pack up early and call it a day, we just soaked in blood and the mud and the beer.....it was great!

Alan J. Wojcik: You guys were part of the first ever Bruiser Brody Memorial Cup event. Talk about the atmosphere that weekend and how it changed your careers.

Joey M@cHetE: It was a great weekend with the most violent crew ever......BLK/MRKT, Sandman, SABU, Abdullah The Butcher, Chicky Starr, Carlos Colon etc.. I wish I could tell you more but we roomed next to Sandman and drank our weight in tequila. Seriously, it was an honor to be apart of the first ever Brody Cup but very eerie at the same time, I mean we showered where Brody was murdered. All in all a very good experience as long as you ignore the obvious.
Shawn Murphy: The atmosphere was WILD…there's something very primal about five thousand people screaming for your blood. I mean, I now know what the gladiators of ancient Rome felt like. As far as changing our careers, I think it was just a natural step in our evolution. You take two legitimately tough guys…put them in a ring with weapons with other legitimate tough guys with weapons; you get chaos, blood, and violence. And that just seemed to fit us PERFECTLY.

Alan J. Wojcik: On that successful trip you worked for Carlos Colon and the WWC. How does he differ from other promoters and do you expect another trip in the near future?

Joey M@cHetE: Carlos is a friend and we go back periodically. When they need us, they call. But you gotta understand Puerto Rico is not for everybody and the territory has changed drastically over the past 5 years. You have to be a cagey veteran to go and work the island or It, the people, the promoters, and everyone in between will work you. There is always something there, always a hurdle always hoops you gotta jump through but I am proud to say we always got our money there. You just gotta understand your surroundings and you gotta have street smarts, which I do.
Shawn Murphy: The main difference in WWC is the use of separate locker rooms. The good guys have a locker room on one side of the stadium/concha the bad guys have another. You don't see, talk, or interact with your opponents till you see them in the ring. You learn a lot about wrestling and yourself in a situation like that. As far as expecting another trip to PR, don't be surprised to see us pop up there in the very near future

Alan J. Wojcik: Instead of asking you about everyone you guys have wrestled, I would like to ask you two specific tag teams, the first is Modern Day Theory (Scott Commodity and Preston James.) In their interview (found on http://alanwojcik.com) they spoke highly of you guys. Your thoughts on this young team if you please.

Joey M@cHetE: MDT is a young up and coming force in tag team wrestling. When we met them they didn't have a clue. They have grown in leaps and bounds over the last few years and I like to think that we had a part in that along with them being students of the game and working very hard at their craft. Tag team wrestling isn't for everyone and they have proven that they can make a go at this. They have earned our respect and the respect of the wrestling community. But when you interviewed them they said "on record" that they feel they owe us and Heartbreak Express a lot of money and I'm still waiting to collect. I guess the checks in the mail.
Shawn Murphy: It's funny, it seems like only yesterday when we were the young guys coming in…hungry and willing to do anything. Now, we seem to be on the other side, watching MDT come in. Watching them mature in the ring is fun; we worked a lot with them early in their careers, which was like throwing them to the lions, but Scotty and Preston stepped up and have become a fun team to watch. It's like a big brother watching his younger brother doing well…we'll help them if they need it, take help if we need it, and point out things they did well or didn't do so well.

Alan J. Wojcik: The other is the Heartbreak Express ("Superstar" Sean and "Fabulous" Phil Davis) who have shed enough blood in the ring with you guys to be considered certifiably insane. Most recently you competed in a Cage of Pain (steel cage wrapped in barb wire and weapons inside) for FIP. Is the HBX feud your Rock N Roll Express/Midnight Express and what is next for the four of you?

Joey M@cHetE: I got all the respect in the world for HBX because they earned it. We beat the ever living shit out of each other this past year and I don't think we are even close to done yet. The matches weren't the prettiest but they weren't meant to be. They were full of emotion and we proved that the audience was emotionally involved by drawing the biggest house in the history of FIP. These guys get it and it's a pleasure working with them.
Shawn Murphy: HBX is exactly that…our R &R Express/Midnight Express. It's been such a breath of fresh air to be able to work with guys that have such a PASSION for the business as they do. I believe both teams are better because of this feud and would like to thank them, FIP, and Gabe for doing it. As far as what's next? I don't know, but I look forward to mixing it up in the ring with them any time.

Alan J. Wojcik: During this feud in FIP you have been managed by the lovely Allison Danger. How did that pairing come to be and how does she differ from other managers/advisors you have had in your careers.

Shawn Murphy: Allison fit's with us because she has the same mentality as we do. She's not the first female manager we've had..but she's the best. She knows the business and has the credentials to prove it.
Joey M@cHetE: We've had a hell of a lot of fun working with Allison. The difference with Allison is she brings out a caring side, a big brother side, a protective side if you will to our characters, which I think allows us to connect further with the audience.

Alan J. Wojcik: If the internet is correct Joey you wrestled the legend known as Jake "the Snake" Roberts this past year and were bitten by his snake.

Joey M@cHetE: Yes, I was bitten by Damian. So I got that going for me.

Alan J. Wojcik: In April 2006 you competed in and won the Lords of the Ring tournament run by MXPW (defeating the Heartbreak Express, the Naturals of TNA Wrestling and the Spanish Announce Team AKA SAT). What was your involvement in the creation of this event and talk about the diversity of the teams involved?

Joey M@cHetE: A few years back I was talking with Casey about doing a tag team tournament naturally because it's in my best interest. No seriously at the time no one did it and just like anything it was kicked around and then Casey and Andy made it happen. As far as the diversity goes, there were strong elements of most every style represented and it was a lot of fun to have that many tags in a building. Nobody realizes what a minority a tag team is and to have all those guys speaking our language was a special thing. This years Lords should be an even bigger and more spectacular event and BLK/MRKT will be there to present this year's winner with the LOTR 2 trophy.
Shawn Murphy: As far as my involvement, I showed up and wrestled. The diversity was GREAT!! I just wish we could have had a crack at some of the other teams as well…Low-Ki and Homicide would have been a hard hitting match, we've mixed it up with the Briscoe's a little in FIP and would love to see them across from us again…but I think it was a nice mix of teams from the North and teams from the South. It was almost like a tag team Civil War, North vs. South…but it was fun.

Alan J. Wojcik: In addition to several tag team title reigns each of you have held singles gold (Shawn was the CCW Heavyweight champion while Joey was the CCW Southeastern champion). Do you ever see Black Market ending and becoming singles competitors?

Joey M@cHetE: Well everything comes to an end Alan, but as far as us both wrestling and parting ways, not a chance. We are brothers and as long as we are wrestling it will be together on the same side. Unless someone pays us a lot of money to feud.
Shawn Murphy: If Black Market ends, so does Shawn Murphy's career. I love wrestling, it's fun and I get to hang out with my best friend, but if Black Market ends, so does Shawn Murphy's career.

Alan J. Wojcik: Like many wrestlers each of you has a myspace account (info at end of interview) plus there is a Black Market group. Do you find it helps get the team out to the fans better than a traditional website which you also have?

Shawn Murphy: Most definitely. I have "friends" from all over the world that have found out about Black Market in one way or the other…MySpace included. And…we have some of the BEST fans any wrestler could ask for.
Joey M@cHetE: Myspace is the evolution of the website. Our fans can get in touch with us there which is a good thing and a bad thing. On one hand the old school side of me thinks that if we are too accessible then why do they need to pay to see us but on the other hand I like to get a feel for what they think and what they like and sometimes they just want to talk to us and show us pictures they took and they deserve that because they support us in every thing we do. As far a new fans go, myspace is a pretty remarkable networking tool that really does get the word out better then the conventional web sites do.

Alan J. Wojcik: This past year you guys have become popular for something other then wrestling, specifically t-shirts you designed. What led to Black Market Industries and the creation of the "Make You Humble", "Kayfabe" and "Violence" t-shirts that seem to be everywhere?

Shawn Murphy: Those shirts are ALL Joey…well, maybe 98% Joey, 2% me…I seem to be a pretty good sounding board for him.
Joey M@cHetE: They did take off locally and a bit around the country and a few overseas but I only made like 400 of them so I'm not quitting my day job or anything. I need to get them out more and push them and make more designs but it was just a fun thing to do and now that I did it I'm dragging my feet on doing it again but I got some other cool things in the works. Keep checking www.blk-mrkt.net It's the website that hasn't been updated in a year, which is also on my list.

Alan J. Wojcik: Past or present, if you could face one wrestler or tag team as your dream opponent who would they be and why?

Joey M@cHetE: I got a million of them, Arn (Anderson) and Tully (Blanchard), I'd bring a sponge to soak up the knowledge. The Rockers to just beat their fucking brains in and hear the fans reaction to their comeback. Brody and Hanson in Japan to say we lived through it. And of course Harley Race just because he's fucking Harley.
Shawn Murphy: I have to go with Arn and Tully also. There isn't a team out there that we respect more. They were geniuses at tag team wresting, and if we could only be HALF as good as they were, I would consider that a success.

Alan J. Wojcik: In the 2005 Pro Wrestling Illustrated 500 issue, you two were listed at 343 and 347. Many wrestlers I have interviewed over the years don't care about the acknowledgement, are you the same way?

Shawn Murphy: To be honest, yeah, it was kind of cool to see our names in the magazine…but it really didn't mean anything. Like all of wrestling, a lot of publicity is about who you know and who is pulling for you. We've seem to have a problem with that…most people have liked us over the years, but we were never anybody's "boys". We've always had to get by on our own steam, which is both gratifying AND frustrating at the same time.
Joey M@cHetE: It really doesn't matter to me one way or another.

Alan J. Wojcik: You have done backstage and security work for TNA wrestling, any chance the Black Market will ever grace the six sided ring?

Shawn Murphy: It would be nice to work for a company that's right in our backyard AND has national exposure. But I guess we're not what they're looking for.
Joey M@cHetE: They don't have a place for wrestlers with psychology. They only want all the time filled with meaningless action. Their show makes my head hurt. We were trained in a way where everything means something and a guy rising to his feet after getting the shit kicked out of him means more than a ka-blew-ey driver off the top rope to the floor. I think they lack the emotional connection with the audience which is so important. TNA is more like a hot dogging motor cross race (X DIVISION = Xtreme Sports) then it is a wrestling product. To me wrestling is more of a performance art then it is Xtreme sports. But hey opinions are like assholes right?

Alan J. Wojcik: In closing what do you hope the future holds for Black Market as a unit and as individuals?

Joey M@cHetE: We have our sights set on Japan and we always are students of the game trying to improve our "work".
Shawn Murphy: I hope the future holds nothing but the best for BOTH of us.