By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
Insight With Chris Van Vliet with guest Ricochet
Host: Chris Van Vliet
Podcast available via Podcasts.Apple.com
On leaving WWE: “I got to thinking, Okay, what will I be doing? Where will I be in three years? And after that, where will I be? And again, anything can happen. You don’t know the circumstances, but you just kind of have to play from your experiences. Because again, especially in the wrestling industry, everybody has a different experience. Just from my personal experiences and what I feel like Ricochet has been put through, I don’t know, I felt like I had already, not paid my dues or whatever, but I felt like I was able to be on the next level of performers there, I guess. But I still feel like I was starting over again. I felt like I was starting over with the Bron Breakkers and the Iljas and the Carmelos and the new guys just coming in. I feel like Ricochet was with those guys coming back in, it’s like, man I’ve already been here for five or six years, I want to be doing something else. Again, at the end of the day, I wasn’t going to go to the highest bidder, I was just going to go to whoever was going to make me feel good and ignite that spark again, because I felt like that fire that was burning inside of me was still there, but it was just like little embers that needed that gasoline on it to really make it ignite. At the time, I felt like AEW could be the gasoline for my fire. Since being there, I feel like I made the right choice. Just even getting to be in there with the guys that I’ve been in there with Lio and AR Fox and even Nick Wayne, someone I’ve never been in there with, Sammy Guevara, Beast Mortos, people I’ve never worked with that I’ve been excited with, but also people like AR Fox and Lio, who I’ve worked with before years ago, now we’re both different performers. So I really think that had a lot to do with it. But there was no specific moment where something happened and I just flipped the switch and that’s where I’m going. I just think it’s what felt right. Even when I find myself walking around and looking, I know I made the right decision.”
On if he was told to slow things down in WWE: “No, that’s funny, even I see it online, people try to say that, ‘Oh, I’m so glad he got to AEW so he could be unleashed but he’s doing all the same stuff…’ I’ve said from the beginning, I’ve said this before, but I have not changed anything from jump. Even in WWE, I was doing Springboard 450s to the outside onto the announce tables. I was doing 630s, I was doing double jump, shooting stars to the outside. I was doing double Moonsaults off the cages. I was doing double Springboard corkscrew splashes. I gave Logan a Spanish fly off the top through the table because I wanted to. I just think it’s the opportunities in how often I get to be in there. And also I just didn’t win a lot. So I’m personally not going to do the 630 in a match where I’m not going to win. So I think that kind of had a lot to do with it, too. But as far as my move set goes, I have not toned down anything. I think it’s time and place and obviously the opponents that I’m in there with. If I’m in there with a Lio or an Ospreay or Nick Wayne, it’s going to be a lot different match than if I’m in there with a Randy or Drew McIntyre or Sheamus or Bobby Lashley or Samoa Joe or Baron Corbin, because that’s usually who I was in there with. I was in there with Bronson Reed. I’m not going to be able to have the same match with Bronson as I am with Lio. So my move set is going to be different with Bronson Reed than it is with Lio or whomever. So as far as that goes, I really don’t think that I’ve toned down anything, and I didn’t personally come to AEW to be unleashed move-set-wise either, because I don’t feel like I’ve toned down or really done anything differently. I feel like I have tried to evolve. Especially now I’m 36, I’m not 26 and I think my appearance has a lot to do with it as well. So I think that has a lot to it, people think I’m 26. So when all that comes into play, people don’t know what to think, because it’s so much stuff. So I think just that has a lot to do with it, too. So I do feel like I have tried to evolve my style just again for longevity, I’m trying to be my LeBron. I’m trying to be like AJ Styles, look at him, he’s still going. Rey Mysterio, still going, killing it. So I see those guys as the bar, and they’ve changed their style. Rey’s not doing the same stuff, he’s doing some crazy stuff, he’s not doing the same stuff. AJ, he’s not doing the same stuff. He’s still doing crazy stuff. He’s not doing the same stuff. So I feel like I have tried to evolve my style. But as far as toning it down and stuff, I try to do everything that I can still do, other than the double Moonsault, which I just haven’t done.”
On Samantha Irvin leaving WWE: “She’s been talking about that for a while, even before my stuff was up. I think it happened at WrestleMania. I think last year’s WrestleMania [40] was for her, because especially for her announcing was only supposed to be like the way into WWE. Because she, first and foremost, is a fan. Before all of that, she grew up with it. Her dad watched it and her and her brothers grew up with it. So, of course, yes, she’s a performer. So her time performing and traveling the world performing got her to a position to where Mark Henry found her and said, Oh, this girl is amazing. We need her for something. Again, like I was telling you earlier, the pandemic happened. She used to live in Vegas and did Cirque du Soleil, and she did Vegas and she did stage shows. So when the pandemic happened, luckily Mark Henry got a hold of her during that. She actually did the full try-out, because they didn’t know she was going to be a ring announcer. Mark Henry said, we just need this girl for something. She’s so talented, we need her. She’s got pictures where she was hitting the ropes, her tailbone is bruised and her back is bruised, big bruises on her back. She did the whole try-out, taking bumps, body slams, did the whole thing. Then I think she was in NXT as an interviewer. Then I think once Greg Hamilton did his thing she replaced him on SmackDown because she was already interviewing, but they needed somebody. Then they just kind of said, Hey, can you do this? And she was like, Yeah, sure. Because she was already doing 205 Live, and she was doing things like that. But again, I think ring announcing was only supposed to be the way in, she wanted to be a character. That’s what she’s been her whole life. She’s been stage performing her whole life, drama club to stage performing, to traveling the world doing stage performance. So that’s kind of what she hoped, and then I think once WrestleMania happened, I think she was like that’s the highest I’m going to get. Because for her, she’s a performer. It’s funny because it’s hard to explain, when you’re just a performer, I guess announcing, because now she’s getting hate because she said she didn’t enjoy announcing, but she enjoyed making the WWE Universe feel emotions, and she enjoyed using her voice to help promote and help move the company forward, but just literally the act of ‘Coming to the ring and weighing at 230…’ This is just my example, it’s like having Mariah Carey, but she’s just a ring announcer, you don’t get any of the other stuff.”
On Samantha Irvin wanting to do more: “She wants to be a stage performer. It’s hard to say, and it’s funny, because a lot of that stuff she was like, I’m so nervous. I don’t even want to do this because it’s so nerve-wracking, especially the national anthem. Singing the national anthem is the hardest song you can sing. Especially just the pressure of singing the national anthem when you’re on a pay-per-view, or you’re at Allegiant Stadium, and all the fans are watching, it’s the hardest song to sing, and you gotta pick your breaths properly. But again, at the end of the day, she loves and respects the position, and she loves and respects wrestling, but she wanted to be like Paul Heyman, like a manager or something. But at the end of the day, it’s like me for example. I loved WWE, and I loved my time there, and I loved everything that I did. But at the end of the day, it’s a huge production. It’s the biggest production in entertainment, it travels, it’s huge. It’s the biggest show on earth. I think in that production, people kind of have their roles, and this is what I was telling her, I feel like she broke tradition. I think that’s why people are kind of upset. Because, again, how long was Fink doing it? How long did Lillian do it? Justin Roberts still doing it. The fact that she only did for four years and then she found out this isn’t what I was born to do.”
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