Former WWE star Eric Young was interviewed on The Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling podcast. Young was on to talk about his career, his feuds with names like Bobby Roode and Kurt Angle, how his character has changed over the years, his versatility, his future in the wrestling business and much more.
Here are some highlights:
Eric Young stated he is glad to be back with IMPACT Wrestling: “The people that were there before us should be so proud and I thank them for that kind of effort in doing things that are hard and putting Impact in a position to hire people like me, Gallows and Anderson. I’m not going to speak for those guys. I can only speak for myself, but I don’t need to work. I’ve been very smart. I’ve been a very smart person with my money. I live very humbly. I don’t need to be at Impact. I choose to be there. That’s where I want to be. That’s a powerful thing.”
Young talked about playing many different characters in his career: “I think it starts with my love of wrestling. I think it stems from the variety. I don’t like just one kind of wrestler. I like all different kinds. As far as versatility, I like a challenge. Who doesn’t like to prove somebody wrong? I can remember a conversation I had with Mick Foley in TNA Wrestling when I turned heel for the first time. He said he saw that I turned heel, but he didn’t believe I could do it. He said in the back of his mind people were not going to buy it. He felt they would think I am such a good guy and such a strong babyface and a likeable character. Then he watched it and watched me wrestle Bobby Roode and he said I became a different person. That was fun. That’s what draws me to wrestling. Being a different character and being different versions of myself and people wondered if I didn’t like doing the comedy stuff. To be honest, I had never done comedy anywhere in pro wrestling until TNA. I was just a wrestler who worked and had good matches and that’s who I was. They came to me with this opportunity. Dutch Mantell came up with this wild character. I took it and ran with it. I got my own TV show out of it. I met Oprah. I hung out with Morgan Freeman. All of this cool stuff happened because of being a comedy act on TNA wrestling. I believe in the long term as well that a thing it did for me was I didn’t wrestle a whole lot at that point which was good and bad. I missed wrestling, but the truth is, I’m 40 now but I had 10 years off. I have a huge gas tank still left which is very cool. It’s something I pride myself on, my versatility. I would put myself up there with one of, if not, the most versatile wrestler.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling Podcast with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.