The E&C Podcast of Awesomeness recently interviewed NXT Superstar Eric Young, and he discussed his meetings and discussions with Triple H when he joined WWE/NXT. Below are some highlights.
Eric Young on how his raspy voice is caused by papillomas and how he’s had a number of surgeries to remove the growths: “Four months ago, I had surgery number 18 since 2004. Brian Pillman, actually, had the same thing. The easiest way [to explain it], it’s warts, basically, that grow on your vocal chords. And then, you have to have them removed. And then, they come back.” Young continued, “I hid it from everyone. The only person that knew was Bobby Roode and he was the only one. And I was losing my voice and I went and they were like, ‘you have to have this surgery’ and I was like, ‘oh my God, how long am I out?’ and they were like, ‘just a day’. You go in [and] the surgery is only about 40 minutes, but it takes two hours for them to prep you and put you asleep.”
Young on feeling a lot better at 37: “I had a conversation with Hunter and I’m 37, but in the ring, I’m like 30 because I had like an eight year vacation. I barely ever wrestled. There [were] six to eight years where I’d show up and do a cartwheel, lock up with the ring announcer, fall down and pretend I was scared of my pyro, and that was it. And it was awesome. It opened stuff up for me and allowed me to get my own TV show and stuff like that, but wrestling is always what I’ve loved, so it’s cool. I’m definitely the old guy now.”
On his conversations with Triple H: “I had this conversation with Hunter when I was first talking to him. I said, ‘I’m not the biggest guy. I’m not really great at any one thing. But I kind of have this proof of being a guy that can do all of it and do all of it at a high level.’” Young said, “I said, ‘anything that you want me to do, I can do it and I can probably do it better than you think I can.’”
Young on his stable SAnitY in NXT: “It has been awesome so far. The new thing is they’ve got me in this group, SAni†Y, and I’m the leader. You know, maniac group and it feels really good. The other three, Nikki [Cross], [Alexander] Wolfe, and [Big] Damo [aka Killian Dain], they’re new to TV, but they’re all people who’ve kind of wrestled all over the place, so they’re experienced that way, but they’re learning that wrestling on TV is completely different than wrestling independently. Yeah, it’s a completely different thing, so I’m there to kind of like help that along and that’s kind of a cool position for me to be in. Like the fact that the respect me and my knowledge enough to put me [in that spot]. I guess it’s an idea Hunter has had for a long time.”
His thoughts on the group’s potential: “The group, for me, doesn’t feel like there’s a ceiling and that’s new to me, the vastness, the machine that WWE/NXT is. It’s an army of people and basically anything that you can think up in your head, like, it happens. It can happen. They can make it happen and that’s new to me. And it’s exciting, man. And I know it’s cliche, but we’re just scratching the surface of what it can be and I don’t think anyone knows what it is yet, which is cool. We’re kind of figuring it out as we go and the opportunity of it is endless, and the imagery of it is cool, the music is cool. And I don’t think I ever had that. And another thing that’s cool is I’m in the best shape in the group and I don’t think I’ve ever had that before either, like, I’ve never been.”
