The rising star talks to us about his beginnings, taking TNA to Monday nights and the origins of The Black Pope.
by Matt Fowler
One of the fastest rising stars in TNA right now has to be "The Pope" D'Angelo Dinero. The Pope impressed fans all over the world with his in-ring abilities back in the WWE, on the ECW brand, where he held court as the cocky, no-nonsense Elijah Burke. Now in TNA, The Pope has the crowd in the palm of his hands and has managed to climb the star ladder in a very short time and even won himself a TNA World Heavyweight Title Shot by winning three matches in one night at the Against All Odds Pay Per View. IGN TV had a chance to catch up with The Pope and talk about his big tournament victory, going against WWE on Monday night and the transition from ECW's Elijah Burke to TNA's Pope.
IGN TV: What made you want to be a wrestler when you were growing up?
The Pope: You know many years ago, as far back as I can remember really, I used to remember watching wrestling with my dad. It was like a Saturday morning event. You know, after the cartoons went off around 9 or 10 am on Saturday morning, TBS in Georgia had WCW coming on. We'd even get World Class Championship Wrestling there. It became a household event. It was something that happened every week with us, and my Dad was always watching wrestling so ever since I was a kid I've always been hooked. Watching The Horsemen beat up on Dusty or watching The Von Erichs and The Freebirds. All that stuff.
IGN: Who were your favorite guys when you were a kid then?
Pope: Oh, without a doubt, Dusty and Flair.
IGN: How did you go about getting into the business?
Pope: I always had plans, or aspirations. I always wanted to be a wrestler. But stuff like that never happens and I was planning on going down to the Funking Conservatory for a try out because that was the only thing I knew of. That wasn't going to pan out so I was going to go to Atlanta and go to The Power Plant but then that ended up folding. So one day I was booking someone in jail and they were over-crowded so I was waiting and I remember being on a laptop and I saw a banner for the first ever OVW tryouts. And man, when I saw it I was like "this is it." I had no second thoughts about it. Because I knew it was now or never. I was going on five years with the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office and I thought "shoot, I'm going to do it." And I filled it out and I got accepted to come try out and they didn't give me any guarantees but Jim Cornette basically birthed me into this business.
He said, "Look, I know you've got a career down there in law enforcement and you just bought a house and all this other stuff but you don't know a headlock from a wristlock. But while I can't guarantee you a contract, I can almost guarantee you a contract if you decide to come back." So the day before my fifth anniversary with the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office, I went up there to OVW and the rest is kind of history.
IGN: What was it like for you to be in the Main Event and win the tournament at last month's Against All Odds Pay Per View?
Pope: Oh wow. That was wild. That was wild for a number of reasons but it was very gratifying. It was humbling as well. It was unbelievable. You know it was something in itself just to go out there and wrestle three times against three very physical individuals. But to close out that show and to be in the Main Event and have the fans -- after going out there three times -- still with you right until the very last moment... it was overwhelming, man. You know, Pope had to hold it together there because it was one of those moments. It really was. That night alone was probably, emotionally, the second biggest night of my life, in the world of wrestling. The other one would be when I won my first Championship in OVW - when I won the Heavyweight title there. Again, for a number of reasons, it was an emotional roller coaster. And it was under Jim Cornette.
You hear so many stories about how he is but again, Jimmy birthed me into this business so I have nothing but respect for him. I don't know anything about his personal life or his personal likes and dislikes or what race he considers to be superior. I don't care about all of that other stuff. Business-wise he did some good stuff and to birth this little afro-headed kid from Kentucky into the industry and then make him the World Heavyweight Champion, I mean jeez. The OVW Heavyweight Champion? That says a lot. And it just showed me that business is business and if you've got something that's hot you just go with it. I don't care if it's a freakin' Martian. You just freakin' go with it. He didn't stop me or hold me back from getting over. He was like, "Shoot, the people are behind this guy let's just go with it." And so it was a really good moment, man. The place was crazy.
IGN: Was The Pope character something you wanted to do back in the WWE but didn't get a chance to? Sort of the Harlem Street Preacher?
Pope: What's preachin' about Pope? You said Harlem Street Preacher, so I'm asking you what about Pope is a Harlem Street Preacher?
IGN: Well, the entrance music and the cane…
Pope: What cane?
IGN: I thought I saw you with a cane.
Pope: No, I don't. Pope doesn't come out with cane. My point is this, and then I'll tell you why The Pope asked the question to you like he did. A couple years ago, I did a column called The Elijah Experience. And I got so many emails from people around the world who would actually write me about their problems. Or they were writing me and telling me how much I inspired them. Or they'd ask me for advice whether it's marital or it was something else they were going through. And so I started referring to them as my "congregation." And, as I would always write, I would refer to myself as their "guiding light" and their "paragon of virtue" of their "host of hosts." And then, eventually, I started calling myself The Black Pope.
And so The Black Pope was living in the cyber-world and Elijah was going out there and wrestling every week. Things happened and lives kind of got lost in the shuffle, and a lot of people were saying "we're gonna do this" and "we're gonna do that." We thought maybe we could bring Pope out. And that's basically how Pope was born. Fast-forward to now and we all know that Pope didn't come into fruition. You know, he had a couple of dark runs, but it wasn't a top priority and it didn't work out.
So, when I signed on with TNA and they wanted to bring me on as Elijah as well, I told them about Pope and I gave them a little piece of Pope. I wasn't pushing it, but I let them see Pope and lo and behold they told me to do my thing. They didn't know who Pope was or what Pope was. All they knew was that they saw this image of Pope and they saw Pope do his thing and they told me I could be Pope. And after Pope debuted – a lot of people say the word build-up, well I never got a build-up. I got two 15 second vignettes over two weeks and they both just said "The Pope is coming." Jeez. So they didn't know what to expect. So Pope shows up and as you can see, week by week, that he's still evolving little by little. But man, Pope just burst onto the scene. Not one time did I have to tell them who he was. When you get a character that is so self-explanatory, again you may say "Harlem Street Preacher" or what not and I know that they often refer to Pope as a "Harlem Street Preacher."
But when Pope went out there for the very first time in the Impact Zone, for the very first time, and he's got the people are chanting "Pope is Pimpin'", that's a character that's so self-explanatory that you don't even have to have a back-story. After The Pope debuted at Hard Justice, that was it. And you know, I think that's at least what we're going back to. That's what wrestling needs to be. It needs to be so simple that the fans can actually grasp what's going on without overdoing it. So you might say "Harlem Street Preacher" but they say "This guy's a pimp." And that was the whole thing behind Pope. It's somebody who's playing both sides but he's a pimp without saying he's a pimp.
IGN: TNA has a big night coming up. You guys were on a Monday once before but now the move is set for good. What's the atmosphere like in the locker room?
Pope: I think the feeling for a lot of people – and you know a lot of the guys have been there before so they're excited to be going into this era of Monday Nights once again. For a lot of them it's re-visiting what once was. But for a lot of the younger guys it's going into a new territory and we're going to experience something that we never dreamed of. The atmosphere is great though. Being that we were sitting at home, or maybe wrestling on the independent scene, but still watching at home this whole huge war that was going on before. And here we are on the cusp of another one. Where there was World War I and World War II, well this is Monday Night War II. And we're about to be on the front lines in this thing. So everyone's very pumped about this.
IGN: you mentioned that Flair was one of your favorites as a kid. That must have been great to get on the mic with him a few weeks back on Impact.
Pope: It was. You know, for all Flair is and for all Flair has done, he should be very happy that Pope took it easy on him in there. Pope was constrained by time limits and so forth. So he should be very happy in this day and age, because Pope can run circles around him on the mic. Again, I'm in there with a guy who influenced me a great deal. I don't think there's a person in there who can say that they've had no sort of influence ever from watching Flair. And if they do say that then I think it's a great injustice to Flair, to them, to this business and they shouldn't be here. We're talking about the greatest wrestler who ever lived. I've been in the ring with Flair before and I've traded words with him before on ECW when me and Shelton jumped on Flair, but to go out there and as me, aka Pope, in that ring and to say what I want to say to Flair and not be scripted by some 20 year old nerd that's sitting in the back trying to tell me what I should say... Man, there's nothing like it.
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