– Rochester First recently interviewed WWE Superstar and Smackdown tag team champion Luke Harper. Below are some highlights and a video from the interview.

Harper on getting his big break in CHIKARA: “That’s how I got my break. There’s a place in Pennsylvania called Chikara where a guy didn’t show up and I was the only guy there who was a wrestler.”

Luke Harper on getting the call from WWE: “My wife told me she was pregnant and I lost my job, I was a librarian at Frederick Douglas Middle School and so I thought the world was over and they called and said, ‘Hey, can you come for a trial and I said, ‘No, I have a broken leg.’ My wife was 8 months pregnant and I was just coming back from Japan and I said, ‘Honey, I’m done, this is it, I’m just going to go get another real job and we’ll make do here,’ and that’s the day (WWE called saying), ‘Hey, can you come for a tryout?'”

Harper on how his wildness of his character is drawn out: “I think it’s just in there. I don’t know. If you ask my wife, she’ll tell you when I lose my keys, I look like the red light’s on so, I think it’s just in there somewhere and just has to be drawn out.”

Luke Harper on why Rochester is special to him: “Rochester is a very special place for me, I love it here. Red Hots are my favorite thing in the world, garbage plates are wonderful, I have to be careful with them though. To me, Rochester just has a different feel and you could go to Buffalo or Syracuse and it doesn’t feel the same as it does here … I’ve been here my whole life except for the 2 years we went to Florida and much to my wife’s chagrin I’m going to stay here as long as I can.”

Luke Harper on living his dream because of his late father: “My dad told me when I was 20, he had leukemia and was dying and it was a real rough time and he kind of discovered what life was about in that time that he was sick and he told me, ‘Man, you’ve gotta go out and do what you gotta do, like, if you love it, go do it.'”