Dan Lambert was on Chris Van Vliet’s podcast this week to talk about his AEW run, working with Chris Jericho, why he loved working as a heel, American Top Team, and several other topics. Here are some highlights:
Lambert talked about his approach to giving interviews on AEW TV:
“Every time I went out, my goal was to make them hate me as much as I hate them.”
On Chris Jericho:
“He is so good. He said, ‘Ok, you are going to cut my song off at this point and people are going to lose their minds but keep singing the song.’ I’m like, ok, and whatever he said happened, it happened.”
On how he started in AEW:
“Tony Khan is an MMA fan. He just happened to be down in Miami meeting with Jorge Masvidal and his agent. They were talking about doing something together when Jorge was so hot after the whole flying knee thing. His agent gives me a call and says, ‘Hey, what are you doing?’ I’m like, ‘Well, I just sat down for dinner with some friends that came to town.’ He said, ‘Well tell them to piss off. I am down in Miami sitting with Tony Khan. You guys are like brothers from another life. You have got to come meet this guy.’ I’m like, really? Okay. I told my friend ‘See ya, nice seeing you, I’m out of here.’
“I went to meet him and just totally hit it off and became friends. He is a total wrestling nerd. I’m a wrestling nerd. Obviously, he is a big football guy and football is the greatest thing in the world to me. We just totally hit if off and became friends and stayed in contact.”
“When he came down to do a Miami show, it was actually the first show they did there after the pandemic was over in front of a live crowd. He reached out to me and said, ‘Hey, do you want to come to the show? Maybe bring some of the guys down, grab a mic, and cut a promo on people just for fun.’ Yeah, why not? So I did it and it was a blast and I thought that was it. But then I get a text two weeks later saying, ‘Hey, what are you doing? Do you want to come to Jacksonville and do a show?’ Yea, why not, and it just kept going.”
On if he’s still working with AEW:
“Not now. About two 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 it 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,’Yea man, sure. If you have an idea for something in the future, then come back. Call me.’ If Tony called me tomorrow and had a good idea and I liked it, then sure, I’ll do it.”
Click below to hear the entire interview.
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit Chris Van Vliet with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription. Also, be sure to subscribe to “Insight with Chris Van Vliet” on your mobile device by clicking here if you have an iOS device or here on your Android device.
