AEW backstage producer Chris Hero recently appeared on The Ringer’s Masked Man Show, where he talked about a number of topics including how the things wrestlers do in the business connects with people on a deeper level than just what they see on television.
Hero said, “We get in the wrestling bubble and we only see what’s in front of our face and we only reference what’s in our recent memory and what we remember historically. It’s very easy in pro wrestling to be self-cyclical. It’s not always about the bell-to-bell and the promos. It is larger than that. When I look out into the arena and see these kids with their face painted up like him, these are five, six, seven year old children that are going to grow up and have lives. This is connecting with people on a deeper level.”
Hero also talked about how AEW star Darby Allin is someone who is creative and how his crossover is incredible that affects the wrestling business as a whole.
“Darby, wrestling fans are like, ‘It’s Darby, we’re going to see something crazy, he’s great and creative.’ This dude is in a skit with Tim Robinson. This dude is hanging out with JPEGMAFIA and Tony Hawk. Darby’s crossover is incredible, and it’s not this phony studio-made. These are things that Darby likes and is interested in. You see him and it’s like, ‘I wonder what that dude is about.’ He did Nitro Circus. It’s not even about the pro wrestling, it’s about the butterfly effect of who else he meets in the world. People like Darby, when they crossover to different areas of entertainment, it affects the business as a whole, it’s not just about the rating he gets or the false finish. Some wrestlers are bigger than that and I think Darby is one of them.”
You can check out the complete podcast below.
