Jason Sensation (@jasonsensationx) is a wrestling impersonator featured in WWE in 1999 and 2000. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet in Toronto, Ontario, Canada to do some of his hilarious impressions of wrestling legends like Ric Flair, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, Owen Hart, Shawn Michaels, Booker T and many others! He also discusses how he was discovered by WWE and got signed during the Attitude Era, being introduced to Vince McMahon after the Montreal Screwjob, impersonating Owen Hart with DX on Raw in a parody of The Nation, impersonating Vader in front of the man himself, how the wrestlers felt about his impressions, why his time with WWE came to an end, and more!
I remember seeing you doing your thing in the height of the Attitude Era in 1999, and I remember being so jealous because you were living every kid’s dream. You’re 20 years old, you’re on Monday Night Raw. I’m watching this, going, Who is this kid? He’s from Toronto. I’m from just outside of Toronto. How did that all happen?
“It was my lifelong dream, just like all of us, to be a part of wrestling. I didn’t know my way in because I wasn’t athletic, so I hadn’t made the connection of my impressions. But when I was very young, I started to do impressions of André-Philippe Gagnon, so he could sing “We Are the World” in all the different voices. So when I started connecting these voices, of course, doing wrestling impressions we all did growing up, Macho Man and Hulk Hogan. Everybody has a Macho. Everybody has a Hulk Hogan, right?”
So you learned you could do these impressions, but how does that get you in with WWE?
“Yeah, so I had this dream growing up. Maybe I could somehow get in as the next Howard Finkel or the next Mean Gene, just somehow find a way because I loved it, I idolized it, I ate, slept, and breathed it. After going to broadcasting school, I was able to get a demo and started sending it in to WWE Canada. But actually, just rewind that a little bit. When I was with my first girlfriend, my first love, Terri, she got me a front-row ringside ticket to the Corel Centre for a wrestling show in Ottawa, and there was a backstage meet-and-greet, and I had a ticket for that as well. Lo and behold, it was two of my favorite wrestlers: the late great Owen Hart and the late great British Bulldog. It was my first time really up close and personal with wrestlers; I just kind of went nuts, like a huge fan. I butted the whole line, started grabbing their belts, freaking out.
I was like, ‘Guys, guys, I could do any voice, any impression!’ I started to do voices, and you could see almost the glare in Owen’s eye, his mind was rolling when he had this mischievous childlike glare in his eye. He was like, ‘Hey, can you do the Bulldog?’ I was like, ‘British Bulldog, I have the power!’ They’re laughing their heads off, and Bulldog was like, ‘Can you do Owen?’ I’m like, ‘I’m a Slammy Award winner, whoa!’ And they were just enjoying it. Owen’s like, ‘I’m gonna bring you in the back tonight. I’m gonna get you to do impressions back here.’ It was like a dream come true to go in the dressing room. Sure enough, he kept his word. We’re walking down the hall of the dressing room, and I remember just being in awe, like Owen, you’re really one of my favorites, and you’re doing something really good for me here. But he wasn’t even looking at me; his mind was just rolling. How was he going to use me to rib the boys at this point? So he brought me backstage, started getting me to do all of the boys’ impressions right to their faces. Most of them were getting a kick out of it. But I guess then when it was time for the matches to go back on, he sent me to George the Animal. He’s like, ‘Jason, you gotta give your best George. You gotta get right into it and show the tongue.’ I’m like, all right. George was an agent then. George the Animal Steele. I went up and started his impression, and he lost it. ‘Who the f*ck is this guy in? Get him out of here!’ He kicked me out of the dressing room. So it was Owen’s rib. I was like Owen! He was gone. But in that in the midst of that, I met Carl De Marco, which was the Canadian president.
I started sending in videos after the National Institute of Broadcasting School, just sending videos all the time, and then when Bret Hart came to the airport when he won the belt, and they had cameras at the airport, and the fans all greeted him during the Attitude Era, the beginning of it when they were doing the Canadian-American feud. Yeah, so I was there. I showed up, and I somehow popped on the camera for Raw as one of the fans doing impressions. I just shot off so many impressions, and I was getting the crowd going. Carl was there, and it was like, oh yeah, I remember you. I got your videos, so to speak. I remember Owen Hart introducing us. So from there, Carl De Marco started bringing me out to do things. The next time was Bret Hart came, and he was signing autographs, and I went out to meet Bret with my brothers, and when Carl De Marco and his assistant saw me, they were like, ‘Jason, take this megaphone, entertain this huge lineup.’ So I was doing impressions, entertaining them, and then got to meet Bret Hart, and I guess Carl was like, hey, I can use this guy?”
Are you doing all this for free at this point in time?
“Yeah, I was just gonna say it was almost like an internship. So then, when they were doing some Home Shopping Network connection in Toronto, where they would bring in guys from the Fed in to sell products from WWE and WWE merchandise, Carl De Marco was like, let’s get Jason on doing these impressions during these things. So that’s when I really started to do stuff with them, and like I owe Carl a lot. He did a lot for me after years of pushing. But once he saw my talent and felt like he could utilize it, he did a lot to help me.”
So Vince goes on Off The Record, and you get tipped off about this.
“That’s right. Carl De Marco called me, and he’s like, ‘If you can get down to CTV, I’ll try to introduce you to Vince.’ So I got down there, luckily, and it was Landsberg was grilling Vince because it was after the Montreal Screwjob. He got him to admit he lied in that interview. He grilled him and grilled him. But they were doing two episodes, so there was a break in between the two episodes, and that’s when Carl introduced me to Vince. It was perfect timing because Vince was under such stress in that interview that it was comic relief now.
Triple H was also filming a segment there that day, so he’s backstage. He’s putting me over to Vince. Carl’s putting me over to Vince. Then they introduced me, and it was like Vince was like, ‘Oh my God, I’ve never heard an Owen Hart impression, come on.’ I was like, ‘Woo! I’m not a Nugget Slammy Award winner!’ Or whatever I was saying at the time. Vince was like, ‘That’s great.’ Carl was like, ‘Do Shawn Michaels for him.’ I was like, ‘I’m The Heartbreak Kid, and Vince was like, ‘Nobody can do Shawn Michaels. We’ve got to get you on air, kid.’ He was true to his word, and I did a bunch of impressions for him. But I just felt like I wanted to talk to him, and I didn’t really get a chance. So when the ending of the second segment, the second show was, Vince was right out of there, right to the limo. So I ran out to his limo, and I was like, ‘Vince, I’m on file with WWE. Please don’t forget me!’ And he’s like, ‘I would find that very difficult, Jason.’ So he was true to his word. He got me on air. It wasn’t much longer than that that Carl De Marco called me, and it was like, ‘Here’s the phone call you’ve been waiting for your whole life. You’re coming to WrestleMania. We’re doing this DX public workout. It’s a one-day gig. We’re flying you in, paying you 500 bucks, and you’re going to be doing impressions with DX. Stay by the phone. Vince Russo is going to call. He’s the head writer.’ So it was like, wow, this is really happening.”
The first time the WWE fans saw you was when you did this segment making fun of Owen Hart with The Nation. Where’d you get that nose?
“They dressed me up backstage, actually, wrapping me in caution tape. I didn’t even know what was going on most of the time, but yeah, this big rubber nose. I don’t even know how it stayed on this whole thing. It was just unbelievable. I’ll never forget. We were kind of hidden, dressing up. We weren’t in front of anybody, and when we came out backstage, everyone was ribbing Owen. He was not enjoying it. It was like this guy opened the door for me, and now it’s his impressions being used against him. But it was what got me hired. It was such an original voice, and everyone loved Owen so much that it was like we’ve got to get him to do Owen right away. It was like a big thing for them.”
Did you come up with the lines you were saying about Owen Hart?
“Some of them, actually. I was backstage with Vince Russo while he was writing this segment; he was writing most of it. It was amazing the way he wrote everything out, and I just remember him writing everything in those days. He was really brilliant in what he did, and he could sit there and just come up with these lines right away, and so yeah, he was writing the segment out, everybody’s lines. But when it came to Owen, because I was there, I was able to throw in some lines with him, and I’ll never forget. He was like, ‘I need one more, bro. I need one more line for Owen. Help me, Jason.'”
There was a rumor that it was originally going to be Chyna playing Owen Hart.
“That’s true. She was not into that. What the segment was going to be was just me as myself. That was going to be my introduction day as Jason Sensation. They were all going to be dressed up, and Chyna was going to be Owen, and I was going to be going to interview them and then taking back the mic and doing an impression of each one. They were just going to have costumes on. I was going to do all the voices, and Chyna was like, ‘Not doing Owen. It doesn’t fit with my character.’ Russo agreed with her, and then perfect. We’ll get Jason to do Owen. This is perfect.”
What’s the conversation with Owen Hart backstage as you’re putting this together?
“So, yeah, he was like, ‘I’m gonna come out there and I’m just gonna push your face.’ I was like, ‘No, Owen, hit me, hit me. Make it look good.’ He’s like, ‘Oh man, don’t be saying that to wrestlers. Don’t be doing that; you’re gonna get yourself in trouble. People will hit you.’ Then he gave me a little blood capsule and he’s like, ‘Take this blood capsule. We’re not allowed to do this, so I want it to look like I really busted you open. So put it in your mouth just before I come out and bite it when I come out there.’ So I bit the capsule, but he did accidentally hit me too hard. He actually cracked my jaw. I couldn’t even eat for like a week and a half. My jaw was right off track. He felt so bad. He really didn’t mean it; he was a big, strong guy, and so he knocked the crap out of me. Then when he threw me in the ring, when he locked on that sharpshooter, I’ll never forget the pain that went through my body. I don’t know if it was like make sure this kid sells, because that was my first time in the ring. I’d never even sold anything before, so he just put a second of pressure on, and in that moment, it felt like my whole body was splitting in half. I sold it the rest of the time how I felt it for that one second because it was just awful. But yeah, he took the pressure right off after.
Backstage beforehand, he was like, ‘You ever took a sharpshooter before?’ I’m like, ‘Yeah.’ He’s like, ‘You played with your friends, right?’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah.’ ‘But you’re never taking a real one?’ ‘No.’ We’re right in the middle of walking through the hall. People are walking all around. He’s like, ‘All right, lie down.’ So I lay down. People everywhere, dirty floor, and yeah, ‘Put your legs up.’ I put my legs up, and he walked away, just laying there like an idiot. Typical Owen.”
Was there ever a point where, at first, they’re laughing at the impressions, but then was there ever a point where it turned into ‘Hey, it’s not so funny anymore’
“Yeah, I felt like that was going. I heard it from the office guys a couple of times, and even Road Dogg came to tell me himself, ‘I come out there and [said] ‘Oh, you didn’t know,’ and you’ve already done it. You’ve already got the big pop out of the crowd. He’s like, ‘This is going to piss the boys off. It’s going to eventually, you’re taking everybody’s gimmick, and you’re using them and with the crowd at first.’ ‘I never found out for sure, but I had a strong feeling I’d heard some rumblings about it that possibly there were guys going up saying he’s hosting the shows at the beginning of events, and he’s using all our gimmicks and taking our pops.”
So when does this start to fall apart for you, and how do you get told that you’re not working for WWE anymore?
“Yeah, so that getting caught at the border without a green card-that was what really pulled the rug out from them using me every week.”
They didn’t give you any sort of work visa?
“No, and I begged for it. They were like, ‘We’ll get that. We’ll get that. We’ll get that. But just keep telling them you’re not working for us yet.’ So I was lying over the border. ‘Oh, my uncle Vince Russo, he’s bringing me here.’ They’re Titan Sports. You could only lie for so long. I was lucky I didn’t get barred from the States.
“The immigration guy. I was almost crying, ‘You’re destroying a lifelong dream right now. I’m supposed to be on Raw tonight.’ He’s like, ‘I’m not destroying anything. Everything’s got to go by the book. Here’s my number. I promise you, you’ll be back on. But I’m doing you a favor. We could have blocked you from coming to the States ever again for doing this. So, get your contract signed, get your green card, and then go from there. You got to go by the book.’ So that pulled the rug out from under me and stopped the on-air every week. I was part of the script every week. That’s what ended it, really.”
What was life like backstage? You’re a fan. You’re now thrown into this world. You’re kind of one of the boys because you work there, but you’re not really one of the boys. So, what’s life like when you’re backstage?
“I guess at first I was kind of a mark, just so happy to be there, didn’t know the rules. I just didn’t even care. I was just so happy going up and asking for pictures, but I sort of had gotten over with the boys in a way that everyone kind of took it easy on me. I’d kind of been accepted, so I didn’t get tipped off to how to be professional backstage until much later when I realized if I want to be a part of this, I got to grow up and act like one of them.”
Were people using you as part of a rib? Did that happen often?
“All the time, all the time they were getting me to rib each other, and oh my gosh, with voices, people would get me to call different guys at night.”
Like who?
“One time I called Billy Gunn as Austin. I think Carl De Marco got me to do it, and I called him as Austin. ‘Hey, you little piece of trash, I got a beef with you, you son bitch.’ I was losing it on Billy, and then Billy Gunn was at the bar. We witnessed him come down and like, ‘Are we cool?’ With Austin. This all broke out where Carl had to go tell him because Austin, yeah, it was so embarrassing.”
Isn’t there a story about you ribbing Vader to his face?
“That’s right. Yeah, I don’t know how the boys [came up with that]. Something happened with Vader, I think he went to wrestler’s court. As punishment, they were all gonna get to rib him. Something along those lines. I think it was The Rock who came to me. He’s like, ‘You got to do Vader to Vader. You come out and you can do him. Scream like him!’ I had to come out and impersonate Vader to Vader in front of everyone. I was like, ‘Fear no man. Fear no pain. Vader time!’ I’m dancing all around there, and he’s just like the sweetest, softest guy, just with his head down. Everybody’s laughing their asses off. Felt bad for that, but you know they put me up to it.”
In 2018, in Toronto, you put out this tweet that you’re going to go to Scotiabank Arena and kill yourself. What were you thinking in this moment?
“Yeah, that’s a tough one, but in hindsight, I just have to accept myself and be honest about where I was at the time. I suffer from mental illness. I have a number of mental health diagnoses for depression and things of that nature.”
So where were you at that time?
“I was very depressed at the time. I was not in a good place, and I mixed that with alcohol. There were some things that happened backstage in WWE that I suppressed and I never really dealt with, and so it would come back and haunt me all the time. So that day, you mix depression with way too much alcohol at once, and I’ve always had this Hayoka spirit where I’ll just say whatever I want to at the time, or I’ll try to get a reaction out of somebody, and you mix all these things together. It was a disaster, really. I was drunk, wasted with my sister, and I had tried to get WWE’s attention before, I guess. It was really a lot of the suppressed hurt feelings coming up to the surface again, and at the same time, there was some truth behind feeling maybe suicidal sometimes, so you mix all those thoughts together. I was so drunk. I had taken like five shots of tequila. I had had beers that day. I was wasted. I didn’t even mostly remember it.”
You weren’t planning to go to Raw, were you?
“No, I was in Newmarket. I was far away from Scotia Bank. I don’t have a gun, but that’s what I said. I had a gun, and I was gonna go. I’m like, this will get their attention. I told my sister, but it’s probably one of the stupidest things you could have ever done. In hindsight, there were a lot of people affected by that, and it was a dangerous thing too because you had families worried, and you had parents worried about their kids, and you had the police- utmost respect to the police for what they do, and they should be outside fighting crime. They should be busy with other things other than running around a building looking for me. The show almost got stopped. I’m really lucky that the police and WWE didn’t hold it against me and a lot. They basically forgave me for my mental illness, I think, and that I was so willing to admit my mistake and take down the tweet. I had to go in handcuffs in front of my family. My niece and nephew saw this. I was still so wasted, and the police had to bring me in to make sure I wasn’t going to kill myself. So I had to go into the psych ward, where they strip you down. It was a really awful experience for me.”
The internet is forever though, even if that tweet gets deleted
“Yeah, and that’s a big thing for me because I’m so impulsive, and I’ll suffer from paranoid thinking sometimes, or thinking people are out to get me, so when these thoughts compound on me, that tweet, as bad as it was, it was me throwing fire on a bridge that was already way burnt a long time ago. If I had realized the power of the internet a decade before that, I might be able to still go back and do impressions on WWE. But that’s something that I’ve had to learn the hard way, and I can be an example for people of what you just said is that it once you put something out there, the power of the internet, you can’t take it back. I burned so many bridges doing therapy and letting out a lot of my pain and anger online when it’s not somewhere to let out publicly, especially if you want to have a public image, you’re just destroying yourself and you’re bridge-burning, and you’re ruining opportunities. I’ve done it with so many people, and it’s too bad. I accept myself for who I am and what I am, I’m learning to love myself and say, “Hey, this is me. I’m dark and light, and I have good and bad in me, and this is the parts of me that I’m not always proud of. I know you can put the nail in the fence, and go back and take the nail out, but the hole stays in the fence. You can’t take back words that you’ve said. But I also look at myself as at least you go back and you try it and you take the nail out. At least you try to make up for what you know you’ve done wrong. So I do try to own my sh*t.”
You know the fans love you. All the comments are about how talented you are
“That’s true. Yeah, and that means so much to me. Thank you for saying that. Yeah, touches my heart, and it really does. It touches my heart. There’s been such an outpouring of really good people hitting me with such positivity, and I’m really grateful for that. I’m grateful for Rene [Dupree] for bringing me out, and it’s even what you’re doing right now too. It’s like people not holding my mistakes against me and still giving me an opportunity. It really means a lot to me because I have alienated people that I really care about. I’ve had to accept that’s sometimes what I’ve done, and sometimes what I might do. I’m not perfect, but I do try to own my sh*t. But it means a lot that people care and they are willing to see through any of the negatives to see my heart and my positives and my talents, the impressions that everyone loves.”
How’s your mental state now?
“I had a big heart surgery, so that was a big double bypass. That was a big wake-up call for me. It helped me mentally, and I don’t know how much time I have left here. The more it was a stress, and I was having stress-induced heart attacks. The more I’m stressing myself within myself, the less time I’m gonna have.”
What do you think has helped to heal you over these last eight years?
“Definitely, healthcare. I’m so grateful we have healthcare in Canada. It’s helped save my life. And all the healthcare practitioners, medication, having that support. They’ve saved my life. I’ve got to give credit and take my hat off and show my gratitude to them. So that’s the main part. But also, I guess it’s a lot of inner work too. Still trying to figure it out at 48 years old, still trying to get it, and blessed knowing wonderful people. I’m really blessed to know a lot of wonderful, loving, forgiving people.”
What is Jason Sensation grateful for?
“For life, this beautiful world we live in, and for love.”
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