WRESTLING: One-on-one with 'Heavenly Bodies' Jimmy Del Ray

By Shannon Rose eWrestling.com Featured Writer

He was a member of the famous Heavenly Bodies tag team. This man has pretty much done it all in his career. I'm talking about the one and only Jimmy Del Ray. Lately, he has been out of the public eye. Where has he been? Jimmy will tell you in this interview that I conducted with him recently.

Shannon Rose: I am now joined with the legendary Jimmy Del Ray, Jimmy Backlund. How are you doing?

Jimmy Del Ray: Good Shannon. How are you?

Shannon: Doing pretty good. What's the status? What have you been doing lately? Are you still in the business in any aspect? What have you been up to?

Jimmy: A little advisory here and there with younger students. That about sums it up right there Shannon. No longer can wrestle due to a knee injury, so I try to advise younger guys. Psychology of wrestling and such things as that.

Shannon: Do you miss being in the business?

Jimmy: Very much so Shannon. I mean it was a part of my life for 18 years. Why wouldn't you miss it?

Shannon: You were with some of the greats. You had a great tag team with Tom Pritchard as The Heavenly Bodies. It was a legendary tag team. Tom went on to the WWF. Do you feel that if you were still in wrestling that that tag team would still be alive?

Jimmy: This day and age its hard to say because the guys are coming up younger, bigger, stronger, faster. Who knows? Nobody knows.

Shannon: You date back to the Florida Championship Wrestling days. The old sportatorium, the armory. You wrestled as Jumo Kenya, you wrestled as Jimmy Backlund. You had a great career. What do you feel was the greatest part of your career in the old Florida days?

Jimmy: Just being a part of it. Just being a part of history.

Shannon: What do you feel was the downfall of Florida? Do you feel Florida could be to this point as it was in the past?

Jimmy: I feel the downfall of wrestling here in the state of Florida was as it was in all the other small territories all over the United States was when the wrestling business was monopolized and put on TV so much.

Shannon: You worked with people like Vince McMahon, who was very high on you. You at one time worked for WCW. What happened with WCW?

Jimmy: That's where I injured my knee and that's where my career ended by injuring my right knee.

Shannon: What gimmick were you using at that point?

Jimmy: At the time I believe I was doing Jimmy Graffiti.

Shannon: What is your future basically? Are we ever going to see you on a national level or even local level anytime soon?

Jimmy: The only one that knows that is the good Lord above. Wherever he leads me is where I follow.

Shannon: To close on this, where do you see the business going in the future. Do you like the business? Do you feel it's going to be moving up higher everyday?

Jimmy: The wrestling profession has its ups and downs. It will have a low, but it'll return to a high. With the talent that's out there now there's no stopping the wrestling business.

Special thanks to "The IKON" Brian Thompson for transcribing this interview. Catch me next Monday for another View from Ringside.

Shannon Rose is the ring announcer for IPW Hardcore Wrestling. He has worked in the wrestling business for over 14 years and has interviewed everyone from "The Rock" to RVD. Rose also has wrestled WWF announcer Kevin Kelly in his pre-WWF days.

Article courtesy of eWrestling.com