By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
Insight With Chris Van Vliet with guest Dragon Lee
Host: Chris Van Vliet
Podcast available via Podcasts.Apple.com
That match at WrestleMania 42, the ladder match for the Intercontinental Championship, that was one of the best matches of the weekend. “I’ve never wrestled in a ladder match. I don’t like it. Because, honestly, I thought that the ladder would be a little bit kind of gimmicked. But I want everyone to know that the ladder was real. I was just trying to try something, what can I do here that’s crazy? I just grabbed the ladder right away, I caught my arm, and I hit my leg, and I was like f— it’s so heavy. And yes, it’s strong, man.”
It’s also so hard to climb the ladder in the ring, right? “It’s weird, you know. I want to tell you this: all my neighbors, they just sent me a text, even my family, ‘Be careful.’ Because at Christmas I fell off the ladder putting up Christmas lights. The ladder just broke, bam! My finger [dislocated], I put it back.”
Is the dream match one day, one on one with Rey Mysterio? “Of course. Definitely, if you want to be the best, you have to wrestle with the best. I want that to happen one day, and I know it will, and I will be ready. I’m ready for that moment.”
I gotta ask you about this photo of you sitting on Undertaker’s motorcycle. What made you think to get on it? “I grew up watching that motorcycle. In the moment, I feel like I gotta get on this motorcycle. I see everyone in the ring, I gotta take the picture. But I was like, should I? Maybe not. I don’t want to get in trouble. I saw CM Punk, ‘Hey, can you take my picture?’ Yeah, okay. If someone tells me anything, he’s gonna cover me for sure. ‘Hey, CM Punk told me.’ Honestly, I didn’t want to take a picture just because CM Punk told me. He told me to get in to take a picture, and I just got there, like my uncle CM Punk, thank you for that. He helped me get that push that I need to go to the motorcycle. I took the picture, it was a nice picture, but this is not the end. I came back to AAA. Undertaker told me, ‘You realize that you scratched my motorcycle?’ I said, ‘What? No! Come on, you have to be kidding me.’ [He said] ‘Yes, you scratched it.’ No, no, no, no, no. I was like [on it for] for one second, I didn’t [scratch it]. Because I just came in, took a photo, no. He was kidding me. It’s like he intimidated me. I was like, damn, my boss, right?”
How did you get paired with AJ Styles? “What a nice story with him. He’s so nice. Being a champion with him is another thing that I want to say, he really pushed me to the next level. I’m very grateful to him, because I learned from him in general. As a man, the way he is as a father, and when we became champions, that moment when we grab the titles. He just grabbed me like this and crossed the title, like wake up, yes, we won. I was like, what a moment.”
The Tag Team Championships, that’s the last championship that AJ Styles won. “I feel honored to be part of his last matches, and even John Cena’s last match, I was part of that [show] too. So many things that I’m proud of myself, you know, because if you’re not, if you don’t recognize yourself, who else will? You just look at the mirror and say, ‘You’re doing well, keep working. I’m proud of you, brother. Keep working.’ My family, that’s it, that’s all the energy I need.”
Did you hear this name that people gave your tag team with AJ Styles? “Yeah, AJ Lee, right? Yeah, it was fun. We didn’t have enough time to create a name, but I pitched this name, and I think it would have been so great: the Phenomenal Dragons. I feel like that name would be so great: Phenomenal Dragons. AJ Styles has his logo. I said this logo becomes kind of like a dragon around it, something we can do. But I didn’t realize that he wouldn’t have enough time, he would be retired, nobody expected it. The day we lost the titles, he told me, and I had to keep that secret.”
Be the first to comment