NXT star Austin Aries spoke with Fightclub Radio about various topics. Here are the highlights.
On looking forward to working with the wrestlers in NXT:
“Every time Samoa Joe and myself have stepped in the ring, we’ve always created a little bit of magic. I think one of those guys, kind of like Bobby [Roode] that I just kind of clicked with and Joe has always been a guy like that, even with Finn Bálor. We’ve just never crossed paths and I think from a stylistic standpoint, we match up pretty well to be a pretty exciting encounter. There’s so much talent in NXT. There [are] a lot of guys down there, and girls down there, obviously, I’m not going to be wrestling them, but there’s a lot of talent down there that hasn’t even really come to the surface yet because you can only put so many people on television every week, so you’ve got guys like Rich Swann and Chris Girard. I just wrestled Manny Andrade on the house shows, live events, this last week and he’s an amazing talent and he was formerly known as La Sombra down in Mexico and I think you’ll be seeing him very soon.”
On an eventual call-up to the main roster:
“I think it’s always good to have realistic short term goals and then lofty longer term goals. Right now, I’m just really focused on the job that I need to do in NXT. A big reason why they brought me in was to help that brand [and] have some name recognition now that we’re touring outside of Florida. We’re selling out 2,000+ seat arenas every time we go on the road, which is a big accomplishment for that brand. And so right now, my initial focus is I need to make my name in NXT. I need to go from, say, the second match on TakeOver to the main event. I mean, that’s the short term goal. Looking long term, yeah, I’d love to be a part of WrestleMania 33, or 34, or 35. And if being called up to the main roster at some point makes sense and is in the cards, that would be another challenge I’d gladly accept.”
You can listen to the interview here.
