By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
Insight With Chris Van Vliet with guest Maven
Host: Chris Van Vliet
Podcast available via Podcasts.Apple.com
On beating The Undertaker to win the Hardcore title: “It’s big for me because it was The Rock. He’s [Undertaker] got me in the dragon sleeper, and you can physically see my eyes looking up the ramp, because I knew that was the spot when The Rock was coming out with the chair. It’s just crazy again, how life works out. A year and a half prior to that, I’m a sixth-grade school teacher with a ‘The Rock says…’ bulletin board in my classroom, and they just a year and a half later, I’m in a match where he’s hitting The Undertaker with his finish to allow me to beat him. How does life work out that way?”
On how loud the pop was for The Rock: “Insane, and you’ve been to shows, tell me if this is incorrect or correct. I remember because I used to go and listen underneath the ramp, back when they would elevate the entrance and the stage. I would go under there and listen to everybody’s entrance. The Rock and [Steve] Austin, theirs was different. The moment you would hear that the place would come [unglued], it was a little bit different. And then even from that, that glass break, just pandemonium.”
On whether he still sees himself as a wrestler: “No. In a grocery store a few months back, and normally somebody comes up to me [and says], ‘You’re that guy who won Tough Enough.’ Yeah, yeah. I had somebody come up to me and say, ‘You’re that guy that talks about wrestling and answers questions on YouTube, aren’t you?’ And I was like, I suppose I am. But I’m fine with that. I’m okay with aging. I’m okay with… I just can’t do what I used to do, and I’m okay with advancing into just the next parts of my life. I’ve watched these guys now. They’re so much more athletic than I was, and obviously am now. Yeah, I’m perfectly fine with not being a wrestler anymore.”
Whether he wants to have another match: “I mean, if the situation was right, of course. And last night, taking 70 bumps proved that physically, I could at least get through it. I don’t think if somebody said, ‘Hey, we got a three-year storyline.’ I don’t know if I could do that, but I definitely would keep it open. As far as in this business, you know, never say never.”
On taking the first televised F5 from Brock Lesnar: “There was no telling me how I’m gonna take it. It’s ‘I’m gonna grab you, put you up on my shoulders.’ ‘What do you need from me Brock?’ ‘Nothing, just lay flat.’ He’s like, ‘I’ll do the rest.’ And he did. I even asked him while we were working on it during the day. I was like, ‘Do you need me to hoist myself up? You need me to boost?’ He laughed at me. He said, ‘No, I got you.’ And then once he grabbed me, I realized I’m a child to him. Literally, the way you probably run and grab and pick your two-year-old up, that’s how he was with me.”
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