By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
Insight With Chris Van Vliet with guest Joe Hendry
Host: Chris Van Vliet
Podcast available via Podcasts.Apple.com
Where are you actually recording these songs, are you recording them in your apartment, your house? “Actually, I could drop an exclusive right here for people. Because this is actually very relevant. So this is an exclusive. I haven’t told anyone anywhere, but I have recorded an album with WWE Music, and it’s going to drop this summer. We recorded most of that in New York at the WWE Studios. So what I’ve done now is the microphones that we have there, I have basically replicated the setup back home now, so I don’t need to fly to New York to do it. I can send stuff in, and we can work on it back and forth. So that’s one of the things that makes these songs work, is because they’re fast and they’re topical, so we can basically, we obviously did the Logan Paul song on TV, but we were able to just get it done that week, because we could send files back and forth. But yes, there is an album coming out.”
Is it an album full of all original songs, or have we heard some of these songs already? “Well, I will say, they are all original songs. I won’t say any more than that; they are all original songs.”
Well, you’ve been the TNA World Champion. You’ve been the NXT Champion. What’s the next one you have your sights set on? “That’s such a tough question to answer, because you have different focuses at different points. I used to be like, I have to sign with WWE. I have to be there by this year, and I have to do that. Actually, when I was on the Indies, that got quite exhausting, that way of thinking, and I shifted my focus. I remember the day it happened. I was wrestling for a company called North Wrestling in Newcastle, England, and I did a parody video of Bon Jovi on Scotty 2 Hotty. I remember the audience just went nuts. There were like 200 people there, but they all went nuts. I thought, You know what? If this is as big as it gets, that’s cool. This is my job. I’m committed. I am a pro wrestler. If it never gets bigger than this, I know I killed it. I know I entertain those fans, and I’m going to give my best to entertain the fans no matter what I’m doing. When I shifted my focus to delivering value for the fans, rather than I want this belt. I want this. I want that. That’s when things really took off. I feel like now I’m in a phase where I feel like if I just commit to entertaining the audience as best as I can, and doing the absolute best job I can, all those things that I want will come to me. That said, Intercontinental Championship, please.”
You made it really clear that you wanted to have a match with John Cena before he retired. How close were you to having that match with John Cena? “I mean, I don’t know. I think the thing is, to me, it’s something either happens, or it doesn’t. Ultimately, I have to put the responsibility on myself. I didn’t wrestle John Cena because I didn’t do enough to make me an obvious choice to wrestle John Cena. So I didn’t do enough somewhere along the way, and that I feel led into the motivation that I needed in NXT, because it made me realize. Because if you think about it, I’m going, ‘I’ll wrestle at the Royal Rumble, I’ll wrestle at WrestleMania…’ and I’m saying this crazy stuff, and it’s happening. So I think that gave me a reminder that you just can’t take progress for granted. You have to work for everything. I was like, All right, okay, I’ve got to take things up another level now, and I think it inspired me to work harder. So again, I have no regrets, because I look back and go, yeah, maybe could have been stronger in this area, this area, this area, but I won’t let that happen again. The next thing I want to put out there, I’ll make sure I get it.”
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