WWE NXT UK Champion WALTER was recently interviewed by Sport 1 to talk about several professional wrestling topics.
Here are the highlights:
Dave Meltzer praising his work:
A critic always expresses his own opinion. Dave Meltzer has been doing this for many years, his opinion is highly valued by many people. It’s nice that he thinks that way. When I received a 5-star rating from him for the first time (in the match against Zack Saber Jr. 2017, editor’s note), it helped me in the independent area because many promoters became aware of me. In that sense it’s a good thing, personally it’s not that important to me.
He is not a professional and has not stood in the ring himself for years, which gives you a different perspective on wrestling. He reflects his opinion, but he cannot give a professional analysis. When it comes to criticism and feedback, I draw my conclusions from conversations with wrestlers who do it for a long time and whom I respect myself. I appreciate their opinion and attitude to work, but of course I’m happy when people appreciate my work and give me such a rating.”
Who inspired him:
As a wrestler, I always liked the hard workers. The big stars that were the focus were never my favorites. They entertained me, but I often liked the midcard matches better than the big main events. For me, craftsmanship was always the focus of wrestling. When I started sport, I distanced myself from WWE and American wrestling. I actually always looked up to Japanese wrestlers. Daniel Bryan and Samoa Joe were people I thought were fantastic even before their WWE days. These people have inspired me more than the classic great superstars.
What type of match he hates:
I’m generally not a fan of these strange stipulations. For example, I hate triple threat matches. When an organizer told me I had to do a triple threat match, I tried to get around it. It doesn’t make sense to me. For me, a competition is an athlete against an athlete, preferably in a tag team.
In the Survivor Series there were 15 people in three teams, in the ring there were always three people at the same time. That will degenerate a bit into the action show. I imagine something else under wrestling. For me, craftsmanship and competition are paramount. Human chess with my own body and skills is my priority. I could have drawn my conclusions from that before, of course, but overall I think I didn’t fit in there.
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