By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
Insight With Chris Van Vliet with guest Kit Wilson
Host: Chris Van Vliet
Podcast available via Podcasts.Apple.com
On how much input he had with his entrance music: “So I ended up having a fair amount of input. I was pushing for new music when I kind of found out what the situation was going to be, and maybe I was going to go solo. I started messaging a lot, saying I would love new music. Can I get new music? Then eventually, I got in contact with Neil, I believe, and then he called me. We had little discussion on the phone. He said, ‘What kind of thing are you looking for?’ So I said, ‘Can I send you an email?’ Got off the phone, and I started writing this email, just with all my references, with all the songs I like, with all the ideas I had, lyrics, kind of the theme of it, the vibe of it. So I had so much. There’s a Charli xcx and Billie Eilish song called Guess, and that opens with a phone call. Actually, there’s no phone call, but it opens, and it goes, ‘Hey Billie, are you there?’ That I loved. I really wanted that. So that was my first thing. I wanted a phone call. I wanted to ring, I wanted to pick up. I wanted a ‘Hey Kit, are you there?’ I originally wanted an English voice, and I still would like to have it with an English voice. We’re American for now, but I think we’ll be okay with that. So that was a big one. We got that. Then there was just so many other influences. There’s another Charli xcx song called Speed Drive, which I really liked. JENNIE from BLACKPINK has a song called like JENNI that is very poppy, there’s a lot of girly pop music at the moment that has come out which is just very catchy. It’s very iconic. It’s very chorus, chorus, chorus. Chappel Roan, Femininomenon, very good song. That was a big one I pushed for. There’s also some Harry Styles influence. 1975 was a big band that I liked, and Pretty Deadly actually used their song on the Indies for a theme, Love Me. There’s kind of a guitar riff in that we used to really like, and I feel like I can kind of hear that in this song. Jade, who’s a UK artist, she used to be in the band Little Mix. So there’s just so many references there. I sent them all. I timestamped the bits that I like, the choruses, I’m always trying to give as much as I can, so as much of me is there. And then they came back. Gave me the first draft. It sounded great. Few tweaks, few tweaks, few tweaks, and I felt like we hit it.”
On whether he was nervous about going out on his own: “Oh my goodness, God yeah. So the first day I went to Smackdown without Elton, I felt like I was five years old going to school for the first time. Because, again, we are best friends. We met on the independents. We signed together. We’ve done everything together. When we moved over to America, we live together. We talk every day. I love him, and we viewed each other as one person. We never talked to anyone and tried to talk as individuals. It was always about the team. So to do it on my own, I’ve never been more nervous in my life, but he’s been really supportive. We talk all the time. He’s always saying, ‘What have you got? What you’re doing? You’re gonna smash it.’ He always says, Good job. So it was nice to have his support, but it was so nerve-racking going in, and now I feel like I’m finding my footing and I feel comfortable. It’s kind of fulfilling doing this whole new part of it, but it is scary, and I miss him.”
On how Elton Prince is doing: “He’s doing good. Surgery happened, and it was nice that he could then talk about the surgery, because he’s quite a private person. He wasn’t really putting anything out there. People didn’t really know. Some people thought it was just this. Some people thought it was just that. So it was nice for people to get clarity and understand what was going on. The surgery went well, and so far, it’s been like a week and a half, maybe two weeks. Everything’s on track and good, but it’s just a touch-and-go situation. It’s the neck. So it’s such a specialist area that I think we’re just kind of taking it day by day. But he is doing good, which is fantastic. It’s just a scary thing, yeah, and I want to talk about him, but I don’t want to get too sentimental, because I’ll start going.”
On working with Matt Cardona, who told Van Vliet that he laid it in extra hard to make his stuff look good: “Yeah. You know, you think being good friends with the very slay Chelsea Green, that maybe there would be some kind of friendship there. But I didn’t know who my opponent was. I’d asked Nick for the opportunity, Nick Aldis, shout out to the fellow Englishman. I didn’t know who it was going to be. And then, you know, Matt Cardona comes out. Fantastic. I’m very excited. Messed my nose up. I don’t know if you can see I got a makeup here. This was a mess for two weeks. I had two big boot marks here [on my chest], which are still faintly there. I’ve chipped my tooth. I went to the dentist.”
On “Pretty Deadly: The Musical, or we riot” fan sign: “Hey, the musical was big, and we had some big plans for that musical, and it’s still coming. Yeah, I don’t want people to riot. So it is coming, I just don’t know when. I’ll say that.”
On whether the musical is a real thing: “The musical is a real thing. We have ten Songs. We had lyrics. We were learning them. We were trying to do it properly and do a proper, good job of it. We wanted to go full force with it, the celebration we did with Nia (Jax). I think, as characters, we were trying to find the line of being bad in a funny way, if that makes sense. We were trying to be annoying, obnoxious characters, but thought they were good at this kind of performance and celebrating our wonderful queen, Nia. But that was that. But behind the scenes, yeah, we were prepping. We were preparing with a few more of the guys backstage. We had songs written. We had lyrics written. We had a story. We were looking to find a place to perform it. If you have ever seen Always Sunny in Philadelphia and the musical episode, we’ve kind of based it around that. So we had a lot in place. So, you know, it still might happen. We never know, if this career goes well, I think there’s a good excuse to hit it.”
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