Paul Walter Hauser, who has appeared for AEW in the past, recently spoke with Chris Van Vliet on a number of topics including why he wants to wrestle.
Hauser said, “Part of it is because, I wanted to know what it was like, kind of like when you do research for a role. I learned it because I thought it was interesting and I had never done it and I wanted to. In doing so, I had people like Dallas Page, Sean Waltman, Anthony Ogogo, Paul London, all telling me, ‘You’re actually pretty good and your taking to this pretty quickly.’ Sent footage to people like Nattie Neidhart, she’s saying, ‘You have it, it just needs to be refined.’ From a physique standpoint, they can say what they want about me being a big guy. Some of my favorite wrestlers are Bam Bam Bigelow, Kevin Owens, Vader. These guys are not known for being in shape, they’re known for being agile and strong and having some form of charisma.”
“I look at it like this….there was an interview with Tony Deppen, an Indie wrestler. Somebody mentioned my name to him and he was like, ‘I don’t know who that is, but they’re probably just copying what me and Ron Funches did.’ I’m like, maybe you and Ron Funches copied what Dennis Rodman did before you and maybe Dennis Rodman copied what Lawrence Taylor did. Everybody likes to think, ‘Some actor is coming in to do their 15 seconds of wrestling fame.’ No, I’ve been a student of watching it my entire life and now I’m actually doing it in the ring. To be fair, I don’t know who Tony Deppen is either. So, it’s mutual bud.”
Hauser also talked about how he disagrees with the notion of paying dues in wrestling.
“Disagree. I don’t want to pay my dues, I want to learn the craft. I don’t have to pay dues. You know why? When a guy like Dave Bautista comes into Hollywood and gets Guardians of the Galaxy, I don’t say to him, ‘Woah, get in line. You have to go do a guest star on NCIS before you get to this Marvel film.’ That’s not the way the world works. Wrestling thinks that’s how it works and they try to put people in line.”
“The reality is, a guy like Maxwell Jacob Friedman or Goldberg or Sheamus can have a very quick rise because they’re just good. I can pay respect, which I’ll always do, but pay dues…if somebody asked me to do a WrestleMania match and do the Snooki routine where they’re like, ‘You’re going to be a random celebrity in a tag match,’ I’m doing it. I’m not doing seven years on the Indies until then. I’m just going to do what comes across my plate. In fact, I was talking to somebody from Highspots, they’re doing a show WrestleMania weekend and they’re like, ‘If you came and did a match, who would you like to wrestle?’ I was thinking it over, ‘Maybe we can do a street fight.’ The guy who came to mind immediately was Sami Callihan.”
You can check out Hauser’s comments in the video below.
(H/T to Fightful for transcribing the above quotes)
