On the latest edition of the “AEW Unrestricted” podcast, Preston Vance spoke about how his partnership with RUSH came into being, his bond with Negative 1, and how he was given the name 10.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On how the partnership with RUSH came about: “I was somewhere backstage and Andrade pulled me aside and was like ‘hey, I’m going to Tony. I want you with us. I think you look cool in a suit take off the mask’ and I’m like yeah let’s do it. I was doing the 10 thing, for at that point, three years so I was pretty ready to change. I never liked wearing the mask. I never wore it before AEW. It’s hard to kind of connect with the people when you’re under a mask. There are pros and cons to it. A pro is you never have to worry about facial expressions or anything. But, the con is you literally, I mean, it’s hard to show any sort of enthusiasm. It’s all body language, so I’m pretty glad I’m done with the mask.”
On how he connected with Negative One: “So, it was kind of weird because a lot of people think that me and Brodie were related or I’ve known them my whole life. I didn’t meet Brodie until I came to AEW. He’s actually the one who got me signed technically. So, I did one dark match with Darby Allin in Jacksonville right in the beginning of the pandemic and then we did those six weeks of TV in Georgia at QT’s school and I wasn’t signed, but the first night I was there before working out and Brodie walked in. It was the first time I ever met him and we started talking about hockey and drinking Tito’s. So, it was two things we really connected on and he goes up to QT and Cody at the time and was like ‘hey, does this guy have a tryout with WWE’ or basically what’s wrong with him why isn’t he signed. So, Brodie’s like I want him signed and put with me and take him under my wing on screen and off screen. So, that’s how that happened. When he started getting sick and little Brodie and Amanda would come to the shows I remember walking by them in the hall and I said ‘hi’ whatever he don’t even know who I was and then when I put on the full 10 stuff, Brodie was walking by he goes ‘Mom, that’s Ten’. So, then after that he — I think as a kid you see your dad with someone on TV and then you kind of relate oh that’s like real life his right hand man type of thing. So, in the whole group I think it’s sort of like Brodie sees a piece of his dad in all of us and that’s kind of his creation. So, I think that’s why and also I don’t take anything seriously. So, I’m like a big kid. I think he could connect with me on that. Where he was going through a hard time and I could kind of make him be a kid and forget about stuff.”
On how got the name Ten: “So, Brodie’s whole thing, if you remember, when he came here and doing the Mr. Brodie he was kind of a knock on the other company. How they only look for athletes and they don’t care about if you were a wrestler or whatever. So, he gave me the name 10 because he’s like ‘you’re exactly what the other place looks for the cookie cutter. How you look. How you wrestle. So you’re the perfect 10.’ So then he came up with 10, but before that when I did the dark match with Darby — My real name’s Cody, wasn’t allowed to use that. The Young Bucks actually came up with the name Preston because they said they had a friend in high school who was the jock and also an arrogant prick and they’re like ‘You look like a Preston’. I’ll take it. I don’t care. Then Charlie from props he’s like the number ten is in Preston so you should make that your whole thing. I’m like ‘oh that’s smart’ so then that’s how that came about.”
