The following highlights were sent to us from the interview that Chris Van Vliet did with Scorpio Sky on Insight With Chris Van Vliet
On his extended time away from AEW:
“That’s been the question. I guess I’ve been in and out over the last couple of years. Some of it has been due to injury, some of it due to bad luck. One thing I will say is there’s a narrative out that I’m just this injury-prone guy, like he’s gone for a long time and he comes back and he gets hurt again. That’s actually not the case. So I’m actually glad, I want to be able to address that. I did get hurt about two years ago but I was okay within like a couple of weeks. But the problem is when you fall out of the rotation, we have so much talent, that it’s hard to get back in the rotation. I always compare it to a Ferris wheel. Right? You’re up at the top at one point. But you’re gonna go down and you’d kind of have to wait your turn to get back up there and that’s a little bit of what happens. So I have had a couple of injuries over the last few years but for the most part, I’ve been healthy for 80% [of the time].”
On the injury that kept him out of action:
“I hurt my knee two years ago when I had the TNT title, somewhere along that [time], I don’t even remember what match it was. But somewhere in there, I think was one of our multi-man matches when we were working against Sammy [Guevara]. I don’t even remember what the exact diagnosis was, but it wasn’t anything too crazy. All I needed was about five or six weeks, I got some PRP and I was good to go after that. But it was just right after that happened Brawl Out happened. Everything kind of turned upside down after that. So I kind of moved to the back burner and there was a lot of things that needed to get worked out not involving me and I understood that.”
On being ready to return to the ring:
“I’m ready. I think we’re just waiting for the right opportunity, for the right situation. Again, there are a lot of guys in the company and people coming in all the time. Obviously, our relationship with other companies like New Japan, that provides us extra talent. So it’s just a little tough sometimes to work your way back into the rotation. It’s not unlike, say basketball or something, right? Like you get injured, you might lose your spot as a starter and maybe somebody else comes in and they kill it in that spot. So you come back and it’s like, hey, we’re winning without you. So you got to figure out a way to get yourself back on the floor.”
On being Chris Jericho’s first AEW loss:
“Sure did, back in 2019 on the early Dynamite days. He was undefeated at the time. He’s a World Champion and then I pinned him and then we did the whole face-to-face interview thing, then I wrestled him for the title. He ended up going off with Moxley after that, which was a good little transition.”
On Chris Jericho:
“I always tell people Chris Jericho legitimized AEW in the early days. Because people looked at us and they knew there was talent and they’re like, Okay, Young Bucks, SCU, Kenny Omega… But when Chris Jericho signs on, that’s when the television networks are like, Oh, okay, they’ve got a guy. I always think it’s similar to when Hulk Hogan went to WCW in the mid-90s. It’s just like, it puts that stamp, okay, we’ve arrived. For him to come in and take young talent like myself, like Jungle Boy, Darby… I just described myself as a younger talent [laughs]. But also, he’s worked with so many guys, and made us all good in some way, shape, or form, whether he won the match or not. He put us up there with him and he doesn’t have to do that. But that just shows he’s a giving guy and that helped me a lot in the very early stages of AEW.”
