During a recent interview with Cultaholic, former WWE Superstar Tucker commented on wanting to work for Ring of Honor, his future plans for a new character, and more. You can check out some highlights from the interview below:
On his future plans in wrestling and crafting a new gimmick: “I’ve got a couple of shows booked already. I’ve got one in Indiana, looking at a couple in Georgia right now. I’m looking forward to getting back in the ring and stripping back some of the façade and I’m booking myself as Levi Cooper, who I am. You can look me up you can see that I really kicked people’s asses to pay for my college. I was a top 10 heavyweight in this country three years in a row… So I’m just gonna book myself as Levi Cooper and you’re just gonna kind of see me be an amateur wrestler at the beginning of my indie run. Maybe a little layer on top of that is gonna be ‘Force Of Nature’ has been what I’ve been toying around with. The dichotomy of nature being this serene, peaceful, very tranquil thing at times and a place of complete calm and focus, but then at a moment’s notice when it’s required it can become this very scary, violent, powerful thing. And it goes from one to the other and that’s what I’m going to be looking to be. I’ve been getting pretty deep into stoic philosophy and just sort of understanding that when you want to display emotions you display emotions, but when you don’t want to display emotions you don’t. That’s something that I really want to bring to my wrestling is this guy that on the outside, he appears extremely calm and in complete control but at a moment’s notice when he is in peril, that control can completely go out the window and he can lose himself in moments of extreme violence. I’m sort of just toying around with that. I haven’t got it all the way figured out but that’s where I’m trying to head in my wrestling.”
On wanting to work in Ring of Honor and other potential options: “I think Ring Of Honor would be a place that I would like to work just based on the way they operate. The things I kind of see and the way the matches happen and just the way they tell their stories. I think that might be a place where I could have a lot of growth because it’s quite different from what I’ve done and what I’ve been known [for]. But at the same time, I worked with some guys who came from there and I understand on the face what the differences between ROH and WWE [are]. Those differences will kind of help me to do what I’m looking to do for myself in terms of who I’m trying to build myself into. I like what IMPACT’s doing. Obviously, AEW has been killing the game. Personally, and who knows what opportunities are going to present themselves to me and what I’ll ultimately say yes or no to, outwardly at the moment I feel like I want to be on the indies for a year. Like I said, if there’s an opportunity that presents itself where I think that I could have the opportunity to grow within that then it would be pretty difficult for me to pass it up. But I feel like I have some personal growth that I need to do. I’ve been under contract since the beginning of 2014 and I’ve basically been going to wrestling school for that entire time. So I need to figure that stuff out for a little bit for myself too and fall flat on my face without having the pressure of needing to have a polished thing right away.”