By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
Insight With Chris Van Vliet and guest Ace Austin
Host: Chris Van Vliet
Interview available at Chris Van Vliet’s YouTube Page
On winning the X Division Championship for a second time: “It definitely does feel different. I’ve been telling this full circle story about that match at Sacrifice. It was a total coming around of my Impact Wrestling career, and I’m seeing it as that next launching point into making up for what I consider my greatest failure, which is back then. In the beginning of my career, I was undefeated for four months. TJP re-debuts and just smokes me. We have a rematch a week later, it’s very competitive, but he taps me out in the end. So TJP just really upset me in the beginning. We never came back around to that match. Four months later, Bound for Glory happens and I win the X Division Championship. My career takes off, I dye my hair purple, and everything went great from there. I had an incredible run as X Division Champion, as soon as that ended I went into the World Title picture. Slammiversary main event, huge deal. That moment was my greatest career failure. When that didn’t happen, I went into the Tag Team division, and that rolled into Bound for Glory. After that, stalemate for a while, I wasn’t sure what was going to happen. All of a sudden it came full circle, I beat TJP for the X Division title.”
His future goals in Impact Wrestling: “I haven’t taken my eyes off of the World Title since Slammiversary. When I ended up back in the X Division picture, I have option C. I knew that becoming X Division Champion meant that there was a surefire way I could get a title shot. After Rebellion, who knows what that might mean?”
On meeting AJ Styles at a meet and greet before becoming a wrestler: “For twenty dollars, I got a photo of me and AJ Styles in the ring when I went to an Impact show in 2014. I had never been in a ring before that. As soon as I stepped on the canvas, it was like nothing I stepped on before. I lost my balance, total fail. That was January 2014, May I started training, and in September The Wild Samoans were doing ring crew for a TNA show in Bethlehem, PA. I went as a student, I did ring crew, saw the backstage set, it was crazy to see. I was helping take tables from under the ring and saw Jeff and Matt Hardy show up. I said hello and asked for some advice on what to wear on my ears when I wrestle. That year was such a fast track. April 2015 was when I debuted. In Pennsylvania, I couldn’t perform until I was 18, so I didn’t have a choice. I was told I was ready for matches in four months, so I was just doing training matches every week until I turned 18. After that, I was doing a lot of stuff.”
On who he would like to face in AEW: “I know the Twitter-verse wants to see me and Sammy Guevara. That’s a match that has never happened one-on-one. We did have a triple threat once for XWA with Anthony Henry. A lot of people want to see me and Darby [Allin] too. Pac also for sure, we are both ultimate athletes. But Kenny Omega, that is inevitable.”
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