Chris Van Vliet did an interview with with Lexis King on Insight With Chris Van Vliet. The following was sent to us:
On leaving AEW to sign with WWE:
“I mean, it wasn’t so much of a decision as it was just a necessary transition. I think my time came up at AEW, and it was a great, great run, a great deal financially, I did very well there. But like I said, just that sort of that self-doubt of not knowing the future, not knowing if I’m going to be used, or if I’m going to do anything? Well, it was pretty apparent when they didn’t re-sign me that I wasn’t going to be doing anything there anymore. So God bless agents and attorneys that picked up the phone that day, my contract was up and got the conversation started. I think I got a paycheck from both companies in the same month. That’s how quickly the ball got rolling. Because you’re so worried it’s like, Oh, my God, like, are they gonna pick me up right away? Am I gonna be able to go there? But now the ball got rolling and the King was crowned pretty quickly.”
On not being Brian Pillman Jr. in WWE:
“I don’t want to get into the details. But like when I first got there, like everything was just Brian Pillman Jr, yada, yada, yada. And then I had some talks, they gave me the whole, you know, we can’t keep your name kind of talk. And I thought, well, I don’t want to make it seem like that’s a bad thing. Honestly, I’ve always sort of fantasised about having my own wrestler name. Because my whole career I’ve had his name. My whole life I’ve had someone else’s name I’ve been I’ve been walking around for 30 years with someone else’s name. Brian Pillman is a name that my father made. He made that name on his own. There’s not much I can add to it.”
On advice from John Cena:
“He actually came in and did a seminar with us at the PC. And I thought, okay, I’ll go and see what see what’s going on. But man, I’m so glad I went. And it was the most enlightening. Like, it wasn’t just like, little questions that people would ask, like, Oh what’s your favourite food? No, we were getting into it, we’re talking about contract negotiations all this different stuff, I’m so glad I went. Yeah, it was amazing, and the amount of questions that we were able to ask and get to answer. And one of the coolest things he said, you can’t control the booking, you can’t control who’s wearing what belt or this, that or the other. He’s like, but you can be the best version of said character. And if you’re the best, like he was the rapper guy, if you’re the best rapper guy on the roster and creative goes, Oh, we want the rapper guy to take on a huge monster. Then they’re gonna pick the best rapper guy they have and put them against the best monster character they have. Then they go, oh what does the match look like?
So it’s like, people say I’ll never pitch an idea again, let’s put it that way. He said, There’s no point in pitching anything. Because if you pitch something and they don’t use it, now you’re disappointed. Now you’re upset. But if you just be the best version of your character. And then they decide to choose you for these things that they created because they’re the writers, they’re going to come up with the ideas. And it’s like, they don’t want you pitching them stuff, they want to come up with it because it’s their job. So I think it’s kind of a contrast from the company I was at before where that was where our success came from because there was not as much of a writing team there. So anytime I would pitch out and I’ve had successful pitches in AEW I pitched Julia Hart to join The Blondes and I pitched the name, so I had Oh, like, my pitch was successful. I must be doing something right. But it’s like, here in WWE, we have people for that. We have creative, we don’t have to pitch ideas. We just have to be the best in-ring performers and on the mic performers. And be the best f*cking rock and roll sleaze ball, conniving, pick me, look at me kind of guy. And then if I’m the best dirtbag that they have, yeah, that dresses like a rock and roll wannabee, then they’re gonna pick me for those roles. You know what I mean? They’re gonna go, you know what, we really want the sleazeball guy to take on our top babyface Carmelo Hayes and then he’ll prove them wrong and prove all the haters wrong, and it’ll be a good story.”
