By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
Good Karma Wrestling with guest Kyle Fletcher
Hosts: ESPN Chicago’s Jonathan Hood, ESPN Milwaukee’s Gabe Neitzel, and ESPN West Palm’s Brian Rowitz
Twitter: @GKW_Wrestling
On AEW building momentum: “I think there is a lot of different things but mainly I think it comes down to the fact that everyone backstage loves this place. Everyone is happy to be there. Everyone is chomping at the bit to get out that curtain and absolutely just go out and crush it. Every person that I have wrestled, every person that I have interacted with has just been like, “I wanna do the absolute best we can, I want to go crazy, I want us to be awesome.
“I think there are enough of those people that energy becomes infectious, and I think its being in the locker room and as soon as people come back from their matches, “its like yeah that was fn sick, that was awesome, you did great. If everyone is doing that for everyone, everyone wants to be at work. Everyone wants to be that guy coming back and getting slaps on the back when they come back. So, I think that is what is going on, everyone loves this place, wants it to succeed and they’re going to do everything they can and bust their own ass to get the company to where it should be.”
On why so many international stars are front and center right now: “Speaking from my experience, being from a country like Australia that is in such a bubble, there is this underlying determination from these people, these trainees, these wrestlers, that it’s like, “if you’re born in America you almost have a step up already. You don’t have to travel, it’s in your backyard already, these massive job opportunities where there are job opportunities everywhere. For someone like me in Australia, if I wanted to work, there was maybe one promotion close to me that drew like 50 people a show once a month. If I wanted to do anything else, then I had to drive like 10 hours just to wrestle in front of a 100 people.
“I think there is this underlying determination with international wrestlers that it’s like, “if I had the opportunities that American wrestlers had, I would blow them out of the water in a heartbeat.” So, when you have a bunch of people like that, that are pushing each other to get better, that know when that opportunity arises, they are going to overdeliver, that is essentially what they do. They are finally giving this opportunity; they finally get seen for the first time by international eyes and people go ‘where has this mother f— been?’. So, I think that’s kind of what it is, I think it’s the same for people from Europe, people from Canada, its when they finally get that big opportunity, that breakthrough moment, they are just so ready for it, that they are just so ready to kill it.”
On reaching “fight forever” status with Will Ospreay: “I think it’s really really cool. It’s my first opportunity in probably all of wrestling where I have been able to delve into a story and delve into how to tell this story the best way. It’s really awarding that people are saying stuff like that. They are saying like: ‘They are wrestling soulmates. They can fight for ten years and I’d still be into it.’
“I think the fact that we have hit that, its rewarding but also at the same time, in the back of my head, I know now that at any point over the next decade, two decades, three decades, Will is only 32 as well, so we have decades left of this shit hopefully. We can revisit this rivalry every year, once a year, twice a year and as soon as that match gets announced, as soon as we are seen in the ring together there is going to be an anticipation purely based off the stuff that we have already done. I think that’s the coolest part. I just know now that, if we are ever struggling for ideas, just chuck Ospreay and me in the ring and we’ll make some magic.”
Other topics include “Speedball” Mike Bailey joining the AEW roster, how talented Konosuke Takeshita is, Skye Blue’s injury rehab.
Building momentum? LOL. Attendance was dropping so much that they had to start going to 4,000 seat buildings and even then they can’t sell them out. He seems to be confused and think that employee morale is the same thing as momentum.