Inner Circle Talk Taryn Terrell's Husband Being Stunt Coordinator For Stadium Stampede
On a recent episode of Talk Is Jericho, the Inner Circle came together to discuss all the behind the scenes details of Stadium Stampede 2 at Double or Nothing. The match was made after MJF challenged the Inner Circle after Blood and Guts, but Chris Jericho revealed what the original plan was.
"So going back to when the idea was proposed, because we had thought about doing this long angle that would lead to Blood and Guts at the pay per view, then Tony [Khan] wanted to do it on TV," Jericho revealed. "So Stadium Stampede was the retort for that, and it really was kind of on our shoulders because we've been through the first one. It was in the middle of this pandemic, no one really knew what to expect. We just wanted to put on a fun diversion for people, which we did.
"I mean, it was violent at times, but there was so many gags, and then of course, Jake and Hangman's fight scene was completely serious. You guys up in the pool was completely not. Us on the field was ridiculous but then ends with Sammy taking this ridiculous, crazy bump. So then, when the idea was Stadium Stampede, I remember there was a lot of people saying, 'Well, what are you guys gonna do? How can you make it better than the first?' And I was saying, 'Well, I'm sure we thought that after the first Elimination Chamber, or after the first Royal Rumble, or the first Hell in a Cell or the first ladder match. How can you top this?'
"We just have to figure it out, but I feel that it started with us because we had been in the first. What do we do to make it different in the second? And because of the the story that we were telling, we wanted it to be more violent, and one of the things we wanted to do is make it more like an action movie. We should try and hire a stunt coordinator or something along those lines, and then just behold, Jake knows a guy."
Hager revealed who the stunt coordinator was that helped them through the production of Stadium Stampede. The stunt coordinator they worked with has worked on many Hollywood productions like John Wick, Logan and Spider-Man: Homecoming.
"His name is Joe Dryden. He's the husband of Taryn Terrell, and he's worked on a lot of big movies, a lot of big TV shows," Hager noted. "And he was the biggest fan. He came in here with a great attitude and not only helped us with what we wanted to do but also helped the camera guys make it look a certain way. He always said, 'Add energy to the shot,' but it was so cool. He climbed up to the top of the scoreboard with us and then climbed back down."
Sammy Guevara, Santana and Ortiz discussed how Dryden helped out with their scenes.
"Yeah, just with the chair thing in the beginning, it was sort of like a ninja fight, and we're like, well, we're in a chair room, maybe there's some stuff we can do there," Guevara recalled. "And so he kind of helped us with that going back and forth like a movie. We had the wall flip. Spears is like, 'Is there something you could do with the the wall?' And then the guy's like, 'Are you athletic?' I can definitely do some backflips.
"He definitely helped us a lot to in our scene," Santana added. "The vision we had for that was a mix of Road House with another movie called Belly. We had so many ideas. We had Rumble in the Bronx we were referencing too. That was our whole vision and mindset was that we wanted to make it look like an action movie, and we're just whipping a bunch of guys' asses, and then we get to the point where we have a moment in the middle and then we just fight. They were super awesome with making sure everyone was in place.
"To go off of the Santana's point, he actually brought a really good idea of fighting in layers so the scene looks more dynamic," Ortiz said. "So when Santana attacks someone, I step in front of him. I attack someone, just so it adds a different energy to the scene, and it kind of keeps it moving. He was really telling us when you do stuff too much too fast, it can kind of get jumbled up. There has to be a pacing just like there is with wrestling."
Jericho revealed how quickly things were shot. He also revealed other details about how some of his scenes were enhanced due to the production behind it.
"He told me this fight scene you guys did in 12 hours would take three weeks in the movies," Jericho revealed. "I was like, 'Well, it's like guerilla filmmaking man' because the thing that I really felt about is we think like wrestlers. We fight the way wrestlers would fight. So when we're doing bar scenes or whatever, there's a wrestling element, but what I liked with him was he put the stunt fighting, the Hollywood into it.
"There was a couple times with Max and I with the two best punches of the night where you film from behind and you throw movie magic, and we missed by three feet, but from behind, it looks like I clocked him. Wrestling punches stop, these ones go right through, and it's like a Schwarzenegger thing. And I was like, why don't we do this all the time, but of course, you'd have to be completely locked in with the camera, and then he came over the idea where I hit Max where he sat in the chair and took him and run him into something.
"The other cool idea was his other buddy, Corey, we go into the office, and he goes, I just did this video and it's a fight scene where the camera is on one side of a window and the guys are fighting on the other side of the window. So we did a fight exactly like that. I was like, did you just happen to have this on you because they didn't really know. They weren't really scouting out the place because he was supposed to come when we did our rehearsal a couple of weeks ago and couldn't make it. So I was like, how do you just happen to have this stuff, but that's what they brought to the table, which I thought was just great."
If you use any quotes from this article, please credit Talk Is Jericho with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.