By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
Insight With Chris Van Vliet with guest Moose
Host: Chris Van Vliet
Podcast available via Podcasts.Apple.com
On the return of TNA: “[It feels] great. It is something that within the boys that we’ve always talked about and we’ve always said to each other, like, what if TNA came back and we weren’t Impact Wrestling anymore, and we were just TNA? I didn’t know personally, they never told me anything. I’m the last person that finds out about anything that’s going on. And I remember the night. I think Josh [Alexander] was in the main event. And everybody was like, make sure you watch the monitors after the match. In my head, I was like, what’s going on? Is CM Punk coming in? Because he was a free agent. Is CM Punk coming in? No way like, well, I’m going to watch the monitor and then the match is over and the reveal happens and there was a reaction video and you can see me jump up, get on the chair and start chanting, TNA, TNA, TNA like with the rest of the boys. I think that was probably the most epic part of the last year for us.”
On re-signing with TNA: “It was a few things. Number one, I’m a very loyal person. And my relationship with Scott D’Amore, honestly, I wouldn’t be in the position I am today if I never met Scott 10-plus years ago. So it’s hard for me to ever say no to him when we’re discussing numbers and what my future would be. Because I feel like in this business, first of all, I played in the NFL for seven-plus years. I’ve made a tonne of money doing that. So money was never something precious to me. I was good with my money. You hear you hear bad stories. Luckily for me, fortunately for me, I did good. I saved a good bit. So money has never been something that rained heavy over my head like, oh, I need money. I’ll stick to Scott for right now for the first reason. My relationship with Scott, playing in the NFL for so long and knowing that that business can be so cutthroat they can really let you go in any second. But my relationship with Scott is, it’s more than just a boss-talent relationship is almost like a big brother little brother. So he’s had to be my coach, be my friend and be my boss. So now I had to think about that.
“If I go to AEW, I don’t have a relationship with Tony (Khan). So he’s literally just my boss. If I go to WWE, I don’t have a relationship with Hunter (Paul Levesque). He’s really just my boss. So some of the things that some of the situations I could potentially be in are just a boss talent conversation. Where here in TNA is a friend first, a friend-friend conversation, a big brother little brother with compensation, and then there’s a boss talent compensation. So I had to throw that in, that was a big decision making for me. Number two, because I’ve made money playing over seven years in the NFL money wasn’t a huge burden for me. So going to AEW or going to WWE the money wasn’t attractive. And for me, the guys who know me will tell you everybody loves me, because that’s my goal is to make everybody love me. But some people hate dealing with me, because my greatest gift is also my greatest curse. I take wrestling so seriously, that if I’m gonna go somewhere, I know how good I am as a wrestler.
“I know that In my humble opinion, I’m one of a kind. I know what I could do in the ring. I know how I look physically. I know that I could talk on the mic. So if I’m not in a spot that I deserve, I should be. Money is not attractive to me to get me to be happy with where I’m at. I want to play, I don’t want this much money to be on the bench. I want to be on the field. So I had to think about that. And at that point, I don’t know if I was confidence confident enough to make that jump and be the starter. I don’t know that wrestling is one of those things that it doesn’t matter how talented you are. It matters how somebody perceives you. So your control is out of your hands.”
On his TNA Mount Rushmore: “That’s easy, that’s very easy. AJ Styles Jeff Jarrett, Abyss, and Kurt Angle.”
On using the flip spear as a finisher: “So funny story about the spear. And it’s so annoying, because sometimes, the few times, I will go on Twitter. And I will see some areas like oh, you stole Bobby Lashley’s move. And it was like first of all, Bobby’s a great friend of mine. Great individual. So happy for success. But if you look at the footage of when I started doing the spear, the flipping spear I started that in Ring of Honor in 2014 and Bobby just doing a regular spear. So yeah, I didn’t make the spear up. Everything is stolen in wrestling from somebody. So I remember training in wrestling in 2012 and Curtis Hughes had an indie show that he just did. And was watching some of the matches in the show. And there was some guy and I can’t even tell you what his name is. He did a spear and he actually flipped in it. And I was like, oh my God that is so cool. I was like can you rewind that? And he rewound it and I saw it again. I was like, I think I want that to be my finish. It makes sense. I’m a football player, right? Now, can I flip when I spear somebody? And I did it, it was so easy. It didn’t hurt my opponent. And I was like, well, that’s my finisher.”
Be the first to comment