WSVN-TV reporter Chris Van Vliet interviewed former WWE Superstar Chris Van Vliet in Orlando, FL and he opened up about his run with Impact Wrestling, the strongest wrestlers he’s worked with, how he used the Masterlock to kick people out of the bar while bouncing, and more.
Check out the highlights below and scroll down to watch the full interview:
Why he asked for his release from Impact Wrestling:
“I like that group and I had a lot of fun there with those guys. It just came down to in the end that it wasn’t really enough money once they started cutting the budget for me to really show up to work. That’s all it was. IÂ like Eli Drake but I didn’t favor the way they had me booked as his cheerleader unless it turned out into something we could do with a program and work with him and it eventually led to him being a babyface and me a heel. If we would have done that, it would have worked out great but I would have also wanted to be paid adequately. It just came down to those facts and obviously I just ended up quitting. I literally just after two days at the taping, booked a flight back to Toronto and just decided I wasn’t coming back. I reached out to them when I landed in Toronto and told them I wouldn’t be coming into work and that was it. It was as simple as that. My 35th birthday came around and something in my head just popped in and I said I’m not going to do anything that doesn’t make me feel good or that I don’t want to do at this point and that was one of the starts.”
He used to use the Masterlock to kick people out of the bar he was a bouncer at:
“I used to use it before I even wrestled. When I was bouncing I would use it. They would encourage us not to beat people up obviously and not to put our fists on somebody so the best thing you can do is restrain them and so the Full Nelson was probably the best tool you possibly had because you lock them up in that and then you just drag them out of the place. So it was a coincidence that it ended up being the move I used.”
Who is the strongest wrestler he’s worked with?
“It might be Bobby Lashley. Jack Swagger is pretty strong too. Those are the only two that are standing out really to me and Cena would be on the list too. Cena is one of the strongest guys I’ve met. Those guys are just mutants, they’re freaks in terms of some of the things they were build with in their genetics. Cena has huge joints and he’s got things that most normal human beings don’t have and he doesn’t sweat. I don’t trust a guy who doesn’t sweat. Bobby Lashley sweats but when you just feel his physical force in the ring, his body feels literally like a stone.”
How often does he watch wrestling now?
“Oh never. I mean I basically get caught up through Instagram essentially seeing the clips of what’s happened. I’ve just watched so much damn wrestling my whole life and I love it still but it’s like how much of one thing can you watch? I have no personal investment to what’s going on, I just like to see what’s going on sometimes with my friends. Because I’m still wrestling, it’s still nice to know what’s going on and not be completely dumb to it so I try to do as little of that as I can just to try to know what’s going on.”
(Thanks to Chris Van Vliet for the transcription)
