During a recent interview with Pwinsider, AEW Superstar Wardlow commented on the pressure of facing CM Punk on tonight’s episode of AEW Dynamite, wanting to be an “AEW lifer”, and more. You can check out some highlights from the interview below:
On the pressure of facing CM Punk: “Well, for starters, we’re also off our first week of being on TBS, which we had over a million viewers. So we’re back on TBS this week, week two. Got to get over a million again and I think myself and CM Punk will deliver. As you asked, how does this vary from the other hype pressure situations? And if we could say one thing about my career in AEW is that they love throwing me in high pressure situations. You see me wrestle every few months, and it’s a big one every few months. We had the MMA cage match, as you said. We had Blood and Guts, Cody cage match, Jericho. All things leading up to those matches, the days leading up, I’m usually very intense, very focused. The difference this time with Punk is I seem to be much more calm. And I believe the reason is I simply don’t believe this is happening. It’s CM Punk. Jericho was always a possibility. A lot of names were always a possibility in my mind. But CM Punk was one of those guys who I never expected to step in the ring with. But after tomorrow, he might be back into retirement.
“I don’t think it’s going to be your typical CM Punk match. I know he’s put on a lot of bangers with the AEW roster. This ain’t going to be a five star pretty match. This is going to be absolute mayhem and CM Punk is probably thinking about retiring again.”
On getting advice from veterans: “Shawn Spears, Cash and Dax, FTR, those guys have given me an incredible amount of advice and pointers and what to dos and don’t dos. So I’m very appreciative of those guys in the Pinnacle. As far as the true vets, I’ve had some good conversations with Arn Anderson, Jerry Lynn, very helpful. Jerry Lynn helps so many people backstage. He’s an absolute angel. And I think my biggest go-to is Billy Gunn. He has really taken me under his giant wing and given me a lot of direction. Every week he has something for me to work on, and I’m very, very thankful for Billy Gunn. And then when it comes to like real, real stuff, my go-to person is always Cody. I read somewhere that he was unapproachable and that is so far from the truth. He is the most approachable person there is backstage. And I can go to him for anything, any advice, any questions, concerns.”
On Cody Rhodes’ influence and reputation: “Yeah, it’s wild, man. I’ve been affiliated for two and a half years, almost three years now. And I have never had anything but a pleasurable experience with Cody. I mean, he’s literally the biggest reason I am talking to you today and that I’m in AEW. I have him to thank, extremely. But yeah, man, I don’t know where all that that talk comes from. I don’t know if it’s jealousy, people just hating on him, but I’ve never seen him treat anybody badly and I’ve never had a bad experience with him.”
On wanting to be an AEW lifer: “Yeah, I talked about this last night, actually. In 10 or 20 years, I am going to be so excited and proud to look back and say that I was one of the AEW originals and that means so much to me because my career started, obviously I did some indies, but the world didn’t know me. As far as the world knows my career started with AEW and it’s going to end with AEW, and I look forward to accomplishing and growing as much as humanly possible and reach the stars throughout the next 10 years. AEW made my lifelong wildest dreams come true. Tony Khan gave me that, Cody Rhodes, The Young Bucks, Kenny Omega, they gave me that. The way people are treated there, the schedule, I am so beyond blessed and I don’t think there’s any convincing me that the grass is greener on any other side. Very, very happy with AEW and the way I’m treated and just how the whole company is ran head to toe.”
