SOURCE: Out of breath over the phone from Toronto, World Wrestling Entertainment superstar Christian was trying to squeeze in an afternoon workout as he called the Times & Transcript for an interview.

Christian, real name Jay Reso, is one of the many WWE Smackdown stars coming to tomorrow’s live event at the Moncton Coliseum.

Between televised and non-televised live events, WWE wrestlers travel the globe, working multiple shows each week and travelling constantly.

Squeezing in a workout whenever possible to stay in top shape is a challenge, Christian says.

“I’m only home a day and a half this week,” he says. “I’m back on the road tomorrow morning.”

While the outcome of pro wrestling matches and cards are planned in advance and wrestlers aren’t out to legitimately hurt one another, “sports entertainment” is still very much an athletic form of entertainment and its stars need to be in top physical shape.

A pro wrestler for over a decade, “Captain Charisma” Christian worked for small independent promotions early in his career, including a stint in New Brunswick with his longtime friend and fellow WWE star Edge (Adam Copeland). The duo worked a summer for longtime Maritime promoter Emile Dupre right here in Moncton in the late 1990s.

The last time Christian appeared before a Moncton crowd was in 2004 when he was also working a WWE Smackdown show. During the show, then-bad guy Christian “cut a promo,” berating the audience on the microphone, saying he’d lived and wrestled in Moncton several years back, hated it, and couldn’t wait to get out of the city.

Now a “face” (good guy) wrestler, it’s likely he’ll cut another live promo when he’s back in Moncton, this time talking about how much he loved it here. That’s just the wacky, carnival-like world of pro wrestling.

The truth, he says, is that he enjoyed his time in the Hub City.

“It was a good summer, I had a good time,” he says. “I was just a young kid getting some experience. I was wrestling up there, and I just spent the summer touring the east coast. It was fun.”

It was all part of Christian’s plan to eventually get to the big leagues — the World Wrestling Federation (now WWE). Eventually, he made it. Christian and Edge won several championships as a team and later broke apart and worked as single wrestlers.

Edge went on to become a headliner with the WWE in recent years, while Christian continued rising up the ladder. In 2005, he left the promotion to join with smaller rival wrestling company Total Nonstop Action. After winning the company’s World heavyweight championship and headlining cards there, he returned to the WWE last year and has been working his way up the ranks once again.

“The day that I left the WWE, I always knew when the time was right that I was going to go back,” he says. “I started on the road when I was 24, and I was on the road for eight years straight without a break. I was physically and mentally a little beat up, and just kind of needed some time away to heal up and have a little time for family and unwind and live like a normal person for a little while.”

Christian held the now-defunct Extreme Championship Wrestling heavyweight title twice before moving on to WWE’s Raw brand. A few weeks ago, he switched gears and moved to the Smackdown brand during the annual WWE draft show.

It was a move the veteran wrestler says he had no idea was coming, but he isn’t upset that his travel and television schedule was changed.

“It means opportunity,” he says. “Anytime in a change of scenery, there’s always an opportunity. When one door closes, another one opens, you know?”

During the draft, many of WWE’s top stars were shuffled to the Raw brand, including Edge, Chris Jericho and John Morrison, opening up opportunities for new stars on Smackdown to shine, including Christian.

In a match that aired last night on WWE’s Smackdown show, Christian lost to Kofi Kingston in an effort to become the WWE Intercontinental champion for the fourth time.

Ultimately, it’s a step toward what Christian says is his ultimate goal — becoming world champion.

“That’s the one thing that’s not in my resume from the WWE,” he says. “That’s what I want, and that’s what I’m going to get.”

Those that aren’t in the wrestling business or aren’t fans may not understand the importance of “winning” a championship when the result is pre-determined, but Christian says being given a championship is “a symbol that you’re recognized as the very best, and that you’re the measuring stick, the flag carrier, for that certain show.”

“You’re the guy, the measuring stick that everybody’s up against. All the pressure is on you to go up there and perform and be the main focus and face of that brand. I think I work best under pressure, and I would love that pressure of being World champion. I think you’d see my best performances if and when that happens.”

Christian says he’s just getting his feet wet on the Smackdown brand, which features a different crew of wrestlers and characters than the Raw brand.

Both the Smackdown and Raw crews recently finished an overseas tour that saw the Raw bunch get stuck in Ireland after an Icelandic volcano blew ash into the atmosphere, grounding international flights for days.

Christian was one of the many grounded WWE stars.

“I wouldn’t say it was bad. It was interesting. The only bad part was not knowing if or when we would be able to fly back. Other than that, the shows were all great. Even when we were stuck in Belfast for those few days, we were treated great. The people in Ireland were unbelievable.

“I’ve been on the road the better part of 10 years, and nothing like that has ever happened. You get a snow delay or a flight cancellation here or there, but never anything like a volcanic eruption. The entire continent was shut down; it was crazy.”

The veteran grappler has bounced back and forth between good guy and bad guy throughout his career. A lot of guys over the years have said they prefer playing the bad guy because they have more freedom to work and don’t need to play nice all the time.

Christian says he has no preference.

“You know what, I just go out there and do my thing, and if the people cheer, they cheer, and if they boo, they boo. I don’t really change much of what I do. There was a time in my career when I didn’t think the people would ever cheer for me, but they have the last couple years, so it’s been cool.”

He promises a fun, entertaining show tomorrow, and explains that compared to other sports and entertainment, in the “WWE universe,” it’s fans are truly a part of the show.

“Our fans really feel like they’re a part of the show, and that’s important to us to make them feel that way.”