You’re fairly unique as far as your nationality goes being Turkish-Canadian – are there many of you in Canada?
Not too many that I know of anyway! We are around.. you just have to find us. We’re like vampires, we only come out at night and need to be invited into a home… but we love garlic!
How did you end up as a Radio and Television presenter?
I did what every aspiring broadcaster does.. I got a degree….. In Mathematics! Yes, on my wall is a Math degree from the University of Waterloo in Canada that is collecting dust – a great experience and a great school.. I never failed a course or anything but I was at the radio station and school newspaper most of my time. I knew then I wanted to give broadcasting a try. From there I volunteered / worked in Community Television for 6 years, hosting every show imaginable and doing commentary for every sport under the sun, just to get experience.
You’re on television after Monday Night RAW & Thursday Night SmackDown, So your job is talking about the top two pro-wrestling shows in the world every week – That had to be pretty surreal when it first began?
I’m basically combining my two biggest passions – WWE and broadcasting. When I was growing up, my life goal was to be like either Howard Finkel or Gene Okerlund. Those were my two idols. Sure I was a Hulkamaniac as much as the next WWE fan but the Fink and Mean Gene had the coolest jobs ever and I wanted to do that. I love what I’m doing with Aftermath – it’s really cool to see a random idea that I pitched become such a big success.
You’ve interviewed some top people from the wacky world of pro-wrestling, what have been your highlights thus far?
I have a few – Howard Finkel has been on the show a few times, that was great. Hulk Hogan was very open and candid on the radio show. Chris Jericho is always a riot. Shawn Michaels has had one of the best careers so it’s great to ask him about different parts of his career.
What does the future hold for Arda Ocal and The Score Network?
I do everything I love right now – between Aftermath, WWE coverage and MMA / theScore Fighting Series, I have everything I could ever want. Maybe I’ll do features where I hit on girls and strike out miserably – that’s really all there is left to do on TV for me!
Thanks to Arda for the interview. Arda will appear time to time as a guest on a upcoming addition coming soon to TheSuplex.com, so stay tuned!
