Dan Lambert recently appeared as a guest on the Insight with Chris Van Vliet podcast for an in-depth interview covering all things pro wrestling.
During the discussion, the American Top Team founder and AEW performer spoke about his status with AEW, being a heat magnet as a pro wrestling performer, his involvement in the business before joining AEW and more.
Featured below are some of the highlights from the interview where he touches on these topics with his thoughts.
On being involved in wrestling before AEW: “I actually met Jeff Jarrett at a UFC show in Nashville, just happened to be sitting next to him. I hit it off with him, and Bobby Lashley was their champion at the time, he fought and trained with us, super good guy. Jeff reached out to me and said ‘Hey, would you like to bring some of the fighters over and cut some promos.’ I was like yeah, and that was a lot of fun.”
On being a heat magnet: “I got really lucky with the people that they matched me up with. I got to do stuff with Jericho, got to do a short something with Cody, got to do something with Lance Archer against Hangman Page. Some of these guys are so over, getting heat off of Jericho, he does all the work, you can’t get an easier assignment than that. Once you do something with him, everybody knows you from that and the heat just kind of has a residual effect. I guess I just got lucky.”
On wanting to be a wrestler: “I still want to be a wrestler. Who doesn’t want to be a wrestler? [Chris mentions he trained to be a wrester] If you want to be a wrestler you are a dork. [If you want to] Go and do something easy, then go and be a fighter. That’s not an easy way to make a living, those guys take a beating. I don’t think that people appreciate the toll that it takes on those guys.”
On having a match in AEW: “I figured that the heel cowardly manager gets somehow tricked into a match to get his ass kicked. So yeah, I figured I would. I mean Chris Jericho beating me up with a kendo stick in front of 20,000 people on pay-per-view, how cool is that? I can’t tell you how much I was having, it was the coolest thing ever.”
On if Dan Lambert is still working with AEW: “Not now. About 2 months ago we finished up our feud with the Men of the Year, we had Scorpio Sky drop the belt to Wardlow. Sky was going to take a couple of months off because he had a knee injury that needed to heal. Page was being repackaged so he could do what he is doing now with The Firm and with MJF. So I thought that it was a good time to wind down, I thought that I was getting stale. The reactions were still good, but I just grabbed Tony after the show and said that I think this has run its course. I don’t want to go backwards or overstay my welcome. He was like yeah man sure. If you have an idea for something in the future then come back then sure whatever, call me. If Tony called me tomorrow and had a good idea and I liked it then sure, I’ll do it.”
Check out the complete Dan Lambert interview from the Insight with Chris Van Vliet podcast by visiting ChrisVanVliet.com.
