A talk with Showtime Eric Young about his new show ‘Off the Hook: Extreme Catches’

Showtime Eric Young, the professional wrestler who has body-slammed his way to the top, has taken an unexpected career turn. Although he continues to administer pain for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, the Canadian native has teamed with Animal Planet for a new reality show about extreme fishing.

Off the Hook: Extreme Catches, which airs Sunday nights at 9 p.m., follows Young around the United States on his hunt for crazy anglers and impressive fish stories.

The series has given the wrestler a chance to experience some wild moments in the waters of America. From shark fishing on a paddleboard to scoping out flounders in North Carolina, this isn’t your traditional pole fishing.

Recently, Hollywood Soapbox talked with Young about his wrestling career and the new series. Questions and answers have been slightly edited.

Are you excited to have the new show premiere?

Yeah, it’s starting to get real now.

How did the show come about?

A friend of mine had been doing some work with the production company and Animal Planet. And she saw the thing come across the wire, kind of saying looking for a new host, a fishing show, you know comfortable in front of the camera, funny and whatever. And she said, ‘I read it, and I literally thought of you as soon as I read it.’ So she had sent them a link of a clip from me on YouTube. The people in the production company loved it, and then they sent it to Animal Planet. Then they liked it. And then now I have my own show.

How do you find some of these fishermen?

The production company, part 2, they find them. Basically they just type in extreme fishing. It’s just kind of like following links and reading on blogs and YouTube videos. It’s surprising how much footage there is of fishing and people recording their fishing adventures and putting them up on YouTube and stuff. It’s all out there, you just got to dig.

How was it having the cameras with you when fishing?

It’s a pretty good relationship. I’m used to it. Sometimes it can slow the process, and I can tell you that the fish waits for no one. You got to kind of be ready. When it happens, it happens. And everyone’s got to be on their A game. It’s a great crew and the show has been amazing so far.

Can you preview the upcoming season?

The thing I’d like to say most about is, first and foremost, it’s just a good TV show. … Even if you don’t know anything about fishing or even like fishing or have ever been fishing, you can watch the show and like it. It’s the characters, and I’m not right mentally. I get myself into some pretty crazy situations. Traveling around the country meeting inventive and ingenious people that have come up with some of the most crazy, dangerous, elaborate, quirky ways of catching all kinds of different fish, from bass to sharks to grouper to mahi mahi. You name the kind of fish, we caught it this season.

Are you sticking mostly to saltwater?

It’s been a pretty good mix. A lot of it is saltwater, because that’s where a lot of the crazy styles and the danger and the bigger fish are. But we’ve done some freshwater as well. Catfish. We did kayaking the Devil’s River to catch bass, and a few other things. But mostly it’s been saltwater.

How long have you been interested in fishing?

For the record, I’m a novice fisherman at best. My fishing experience, most of it happened when I was a kid and through high school and stuff. And then I started to train and get into professional wrestling. And that consumed my life. All my time, all my money, and all my resources and all my effort was put into pro wrestling and trying to make it in that business. And I did, and I’ve been doing that for a living for eight years on TV for TNA Wrestling. I’ve fished here and there, went out on a couple of charter boats, fished in a couple rivers, but not a lot. But I’ve always been interested in it. I’ve always loved the outdoors. I’ve always just loved meeting interesting people. So this show is perfect.

How long does it take to film an episode?

It’s usually takes anywhere from five to seven days to film it.

Are you still working on the first season?

Yeah, we have three episodes left. I leave (July 27) to go to Peoria, and then I go home for a day. Then I go to San Francisco for a week, and then I go home for two days. Then I got to Cape Cod to finish up the season.

Have you had to put wrestling on the back burner while filming?

Yeah, originally it wasn’t the plan. I was supposed to still be on the television show. But they switched the schedule where they went live for the summer to make it kind of a big deal for the summer. Impact Wrestling went live. So that’s on Thursdays. My Thursdays were spoken for. I’ve appeared on three or four of the episodes this summer. I’ll go back to wrestling full time mid-August.

Have you ever thought about hanging up the tights and boots and going in a different direction? You can’t do it forever.

Absolutely. Like you said, you can’t do this forever. I’m lucky. Nobody was built to be a pro wrestler. It’s a very physical thing, and to travel, and the bumps and bruises, and long hours and stuff. I’m a really durable person. My body is built to get beat up, to be honest. But you can’t do it forever. Just being in entertainment is something I’ve always wanted to do. This is going to help transition into that. But I hope to wrestle as long as I can. Until they kick me out, I’m going to do it.

For Off the Hook, are you trying to add comedy to the fishing?

A lot of it takes care of itself. I’m a fish out of water. Even people that are avid fisherman would be fish out of water on a lot of this stuff. Because it’s crazy, like catching sharks from a paddleboard and SCUBA spear-fishing under an oil rig and free dive spear-fishing. This is some crazy stuff that regular people either haven’t heard of or haven’t tried. So a lot of the funny stuff is me basically making fun of myself and kind of stumbling through it and meeting these crazy characters, these maniac guys that fish 20 hours straight and no sleep and have come up with really crazy ways to catch the fish. The comedy all kind of happens natural. So that’s cool.

Have there been times when you were too scared to do something?

I’ll try anything once, and I’ve always kind of lived by that. … Because to me, life is about experiences and as many of them as you possibly can. To die with the least amount of ‘what ifs’ as possible. And this show has kind of filled up a lot of them. I was SCUBA diving in Louisiana under an oil rig and there were sharks in the water last week. I can say I did that. I caught a shark on a paddleboard. I speared a giant flounder in North Carolina. I rode a jet ski 30 miles off shore. I don’t ever get scared, because I think that’s when you mess up. So I try not to think about it too much, and keep it out of my head, and just try to have a good time with it and live in the moment.

Would you be open to more episodes in a second season?

Absolutely. It looks really good now. And Discovery made the move to air the premiere on Discovery, which is a huge thing. In the history of Animal Planet that’s never happened. So that’s a big kind of tip of the cap to us and the hard work that we’ve been doing out in the field.

The first three episodes will air on Discovery as well as Animal Planet. I got a good feeling about it. And I think I’ll be continuing my fishing adventures. Who knows? Maybe season three will go worldwide and go overseas.

By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com

• Off the Hook: Extreme Catches airs Sunday nights at 9 p.m. on Animal Planet. Click here for more information.