Austin Aries joined VOC Nation’s In the Room podcast this week for a 45-minute in-depth discussion on his career, his view of the world, his departures at both TNA and WWE, and much more. Here are some highlights:
On wrestling and the end of kayfabe:
“Most of us, our love for wrestling gets traced back to our childhood. The wrestling I grew up on was the NWA. I grew up watching the horsemen and Dusty (Rhodes), Tony Schiavone…that for me will always be rasslin’. That for me will always be what captivated my attention…everything changes; when you get in the industry and you start working, you start to view it differently. At least for me, you (had to) change your perspective and no longer look at it and approach it like a fan, you (are supposed to) look at it like someone who is behind the curtain…For me, it was never about trying to fool people (into thinking that) what I did was real; but it was about not giving them the satisfaction of winking at them and telling them it was fake. The magic was in making them believe.”
On his view of the wrestling business:
“I haven’t been disenfranchised. My perspective on pro wrestling has changed. My perspective on where it slots into my life has changed a little bit. I’m 42. I’ve done basically everything in my career that I’ve ever set out to do and more. I’m very content and happy if we close the chapter now with what I’ve accomplished.”
On the world’s problems:
“As this viral event started to unfold and (change) the landscape and you start to look at priorities, and now the escalation of where we’re at in some other areas as well – – the kind of discord that we have; it’s hard for me. Listen, I love to be an entertainer, and my job is to help people forget about problems, but there are some problems that we probably shouldn’t be helping people forget about. We should probably be working together to fix (them)…I really enjoy helping people solve and fix their problems… To have a platform and to have people’s ear, and to not use it to do something other than to just line your pockets, that doesn’t really work for me.”
He also covered AEW and WWE running shows during the shutdown, the state of the country and the world, his work with BioXcellerator, and much more.
