By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
Insight With Chris Van Vliet with guest Cedric Alexander
Host: Chris Van Vliet
Podcast available via Podcasts.Apple.com
On the WWE release: “Everything’s fine. You know, once I got that news I wasn’t even mad. I kind of felt like a pressure was lifted off my shoulders. Oh wow, I’m free to do other things, cool, all right, let’s see what happens.”
On getting the release call: “I was expecting to be angry and frantic. Actually, funny enough they called Friday night. I was in the middle of a leg workout. I’m doing squats and my phone starts ringing. So I put the weight down, because I have a gym in my house, so for me I’m just working out all hours of the day. So I pick up the phone and I received the dreaded 203 number. I’m like, Okay, what’s gonna happen? I don’t remember the guy’s name. I think he said it was Will from TR. I was like yeah, sure. What’s up? He goes, ‘Sorry, we’re gonna release you from your contract.’ My initial reaction was okay, cool. He goes, ‘Yeah, sorry to get this news on a Friday.’ So I had an NXT house show tomorrow, ‘So I don’t have to do that anymore?’ That was my first question, too. He goes, No, you’re all good, just the 90 days and if you need anything let us know. I was like, ‘Okay, cool.'”
If he was expecting the release: “I wasn’t expecting it, but it was the thing of I wasn’t surprised. I guess I kind of saw the writing on the wall after a while.”
On his immediate reaction: “So I immediately thought to myself when I was released, I was like okay, that’s a job. Wrestling is my career. I may be out of a job, but I still have a career. All thanks to [Mustafa] Ali, he’s one of the guys that called me within the hour of me being released and was immediately like, hey dude, it’s all good. Just being super positive as you know Ali is. But yeah man, it sucked because it’s a dream job. It’s one of those jobs that I’m a kid and I’m like oh my God, I’m gonna wrestle for WWE. Then when it ends, it just ends. You just move on.”
On if he is interested in joining The Hurt Syndicate in AEW: “One hundred percent. That’s a big chapter of my career that I really felt was never fully explored and I think it’ll be great to finish that out.”
On the Gary Garbutt angle and match: “I got to work that day not knowing what I was going to do, which is the norm for WWE. I just remember sitting around and then the ref tells me, ‘Hey, we need you ringside.’ I was like cool. Go down the ringside, hang out for a bit, talk to some guys. Nothing happened. Then Shane McMahon comes and gets me and goes, ‘Hey, come with me to the production meeting.’ Oh, cool, all right. Following Shane to production he goes, ‘Wait right here.’ I sit outside the chair of the production meeting for what felt like 10-20 minutes.
“Shane comes back out and in that time they had already got the plan together for Drew and Shane to bully a backstage crew member, a janitor, and then for me to take his place, put his mask on and wrestle. I’m like, ‘Okay, why are we doing this?’ It’s the story with Roman and Shane. All right, cool, fine. That’s good enough reason for me, and that’s all I got. Went out there and did the match. I remember calling the match with Shane and Drew, and I’m calling the spots I’m gonna do. Then I called the back elbow and Shane goes, ‘So you think you can do my moves now?’ Sorry, Shane, this is what I was doing at the moment. What do you want me to do?”
“The weirdest thing from that was then taking the mask off at the end of the match and then having a smile on my face. It was the weirdest thing, because I remember the spot was to take the mask off and reveal it’s me, and I’m like I hadn’t done anything on Raw at this point. I’m just a guy. A guy from 205 Live that most people who watched Raw probably didn’t see the show. So I’m like all right, cool. Gonna take the mask off. I remember taking off and Roman goes, ‘Do it slow.’ All right. I take the mask off and I’m smiling with a busted lip because Drew just kicked me in the face with a Claymore. And I’m like, Yeah it’s me. It’s me, Austin! I’m thinking to myself why the hell am I smiling? I just got kicked in the face. Vince was like, ‘I want you to take it off and smile big like you just got one over on him.'”
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