Leon Slater on his moment with AJ Styles at TNA Slammiversary, hopes for an invasion storyline involving TNA and NXT, his love of horror films

By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)

PWMania interview with guest Leon Slater
Interview conducted by Scott Mitchell
Available at PWMania.com

On AJ Styles: “In the early days of TNA, he put it on his back. I feel like if you ask anyone what their TNA Mount Rushmore is, the first name on there is AJ Styles, without a doubt. To have Mr. TNA pretty much come out there and sing my praises and give me the salute and almost have that passing of the torch moment, even though I don’t think we’re quite there with the passing of the torch moment. I feel like there’s only one way to pass a torch in wrestling that hasn’t happened yet between AJ and me. It’s a huge moment for me, and I’m super grateful. It means the world that not only Mr. TNA, but the first X-Division Champion came out to sing my praises at UBS when I became the youngest X-Division Champion of all time.”

Pitches a WWE NXT–TNA invasion storyline: “As far as the storyline goes, my ideal storyline would be almost like an ‘Invasion’ storyline. That’s how I picture this culminating. There’s been all of this talk on who has the better wrestlers, better this, better that, but I think there’s only one way to see who’s the better brand. We take a team of four or five TNA all-stars and put them against a team of four or five NXT all-stars, and we see which brand is better. For me, that would be an incredible storyline. If that does happen one day, I’d be super eager to be a part of that TNA squad and represent my company.”

On something fans don’t know about him: “I guess if there’s one thing that I assume people wouldn’t guess, it’s that I’m a big fan of horror movies. A lot of people from where I’m from or who look like me are not big fans of horror movies. But I’m a huge horror movie guy. Anything A24, most Blumhouse stuff, I’m a big fan of. Anything retro, like Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street, I’m a big horror movie guy. We’re actually in a really good scene of horror movies right now. Weapons just came out, I’m going to see Together at some point, Bring Her Back was a killer movie. I know magic, too. I know card tricks. I don’t think people would expect that. I’m still perfecting it, but I’m working on my magic.”

Other topics include advice he’s received from Matt Hardy and Jeff Hardy, becoming the youngest X Division Champion in history, more on his moment with AJ Styles, being part of TNA’s resurgence, and more.