Erick Redbeard recently spoke with Joseph Galizia of WrestlingHeadlines for an in-depth interview covering all things pro wrestling. Here are the highlights:
His favorite match of 2023:
“I love those big guys beating the crap out each other. My favorite match of the year was, was Drew Sheamus and Gunther.”
On Tony Khan bringing him in for Revolution 2022, when he heard about being used, and Tony Khan paying for his travel so he could still make The Big Event:
I heard about it like a few days before I came up for the, I think it was a live Rampage, and they gave me the gist. I said to Tony, I was like, ‘Hey, I’m not wanting to cancel things. I was gonna go to the Big Event on Saturday.’ He was kind enough to pay for the flight back out there and back. So like, I was like, I can’t say no to this. This guy is paying money for me to still make my money. So yeah. But yeah, it was, it was last minute. But like, you know, like guys like Aleister, and Buddy and you know Neville/PAC. I love those guys. So any chance to get in the ring with ’em, I’m all for it.
Says he had a conversation with Jon Huber (Brodie Lee) about being paired with Daniel Bryan in 2019:
I remember coming into work, I was like, okay, I’m going there to get cleared and cause I hurt my right bicep, tore it during the SummerSlam match with the Bludgeon Brothers. And two days later we had, I had to work through that injury for a really fun match with, we had a no DQ match with New day. I remember coming in…they weren’t using Jon at all. I was fully, fully expecting to not do anything but just reunite. And I was told there, ‘Hey, do you got a flannel shirt? Here’s what we want you to do.’ So I get on the phone with Jon right away cuz if you’re tag partners with somebody, you don’t just say, ‘Yeah sure I’m gonna do this solo run or I’m gonna do this.’ Like, you, you have a conversation. And so I told him this was not my idea. Are you cool with this? I’m not gonna do it if you’re not. And you know, he’d want it, what’s best for me. So as far as expectations from what people think or whatever…you guys are watching a show and the show’s supposed to be filled with unexpected things and friendships and all sorts of things, you know? So a chance to be able to do this odd couple thing.I was all for it.
How he barely took any pinfalls during that run and how most of that was thanks to Bryan going to bat for him:
And as far as expectations anytime that, that I was told not to take the pinfall…that was not the office, that was Bryan. Bryan wanted me to look strong, to look dominant because it only helped him with his heel character. And you know, I’ll be thankful for him for that rub for a while. But, you know, believe it or not, they didn’t want me to be that dominant. It was and to, to his credit and his mind in the business. Like he was smart enough to, you know, pitch for me for things. So I appreciate that.
On the differences he felt competing for a WWE crowd vs. an AEW crowd:
“You know it’s weird because to me I was pretty much constant besides being hurt with WWE for so long and that grind goes a long time and the atmosphere at times the morale is down, but that’s everywhere. And sometimes you have this quote unquote push and you have this revitalized outlook and like, ‘oh, they’re giving me promo time.’ This is like pumping me up and wants me to, you know, explore new avenues of like how to quote unquote get over. But it’s mostly just developing your character and letting people know who you are and who you wanna be portrayed as, as whatever character you are portraying no matter what storyline you have. And at times you’ll be given a storyline and they say, ‘don’t talk’ and ‘do this thing that makes no sense.’ And it’s not challenging and it obviously doesn’t like give you that adrenaline when you go out in front of the crowd that you should be having.”
“There were times, especially towards the end with the cage gimmick where I’d walk out and I know I have a two minute squash match, which it’s not challenging to me. I was given time with Malakai (Black) for a couple matches and those were fun. Even though I had the gimmick in the cage, it was fun because it was a match and you had time and you could feel the crowd’s energy cuz you could tell the story at least within the confines of the match. So then fast forward to AEW for me it’s, it’s different because like I’d been gone for so long on a big stage to come back and there’s an arena full of people and it’s not just an empty warehouse.”
“And I think that kind of gets you…I don’t know…the workers always talk about that feeling you get when you walk out or the feeling you hear from a crowd and how it amps you up and it does, it amps you up. It gives you energy and gives you a new step and like, you know, that extra gear to, to really wanna push forward and move on. So in that aspect, when I went to AEW it kind of lit a fire under my butt. I still like this. I still like to do this. Whether or not I get opportunities to, to show it, I don’t care. I just know I love the business and I have a certain way of thinking about what I want to show and I don’t think I’ve ever really gotten to show the world what I can do and I would love to.”
You can check out the complete interview below:
