Ethan Page recently spoke with Chris Van Vliet to discuss a variety of topics, including his departure from AEW. He said,
“It was time [to leave AEW]. I wasn’t getting what I magically got [in NXT], which is the opportunity to show what I bring to the table. This here, to me, is preparation meets opportunity, and the amount of preparation I got is a lot. 17, 18 years of preparation.”
PJ Black says WWE wanted him to become a coach at the WWE Performance Center, but it all “fell away” when the company was bought out by Endeavor.
While appearing on the “Developmentally Speaking” podcast, the former Justin Gabriel commented on a possible return to WWE, whether he’d be interested in coaching in the future, and more.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On a possible return to WWE: “Yeah, there’s been quite a few, and the talks never go anywhere. I’m getting a little bit older now. They recently wanted me to be a coach because I’ve been in this business almost 30 years now, I’ve been wrestling 27. To be a coach, that kind of went nowhere, but that was during the transition stage, where [Endeavor] bought them, they were kind of in the transition, so I didn’t really bother them too much about that. Those talks just kind of fell away, and then I just got a bunch of bookings.”
On working overseas: “I went to go live in Europe for a while, and I’m trying to revive the scene in South Africa, so I kept going there for two, three, four months at a time, just teaching seminars. There’s so many little schools popping up everywhere and great talent, and I feel like that’s my next journey. I want to teach these kids what I’ve learned in the last 30 years. I didn’t have that opportunity to pick people’s brains at the time. So I just want to give back. So I’ve been in and out of the country for a long time. I live in Los Angeles, but I was traveling so much.
“I remember running into Billy Corgan, and he was like, ‘You live in the US?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, let me do some shows.’ I ended up doing some of the NWA shows. It was just a wild time. I’m getting older right now. I can still go, I can still hang with anybody, but I gotta kind of think of the next step. I love teaching seminars. I teach them all over, and I enjoy it. I love it. Seeing how much these kids get out of these seminars, that made me so happy, and I enjoy doing that. So I ended up contacting NXT, and we went though some interview process thing, and then that transition happened, it just kind of faded away. There were talks throughout the years and stuff, like Nexus reunions, but it’s so hard because everyone is scattered all over the place, and people get signed by other companies, so it was kind of hard. So there’s been a lot of talks, but obviously, nothing happened.”
On if he would still be up for a coaching spot: “Yeah, definitely. I love wrestling, I grew up in this business, so I’d love to do something like that, and apparently I’m really good at it.”
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