During a recent appearance on “Busted Open Radio”, Impact Wrestling Superstar Ace Austin commented on signing with Impact despite working for WWE and MLW in 2018. You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On inspiration from AJ Styles: “I’ve been able to really kind of expand as I’ve grown inside of wrestling and learn a lot about guys I didn’t get to watch when I was growing up. AJ Styles was one of the guys that I kind of model my career after. He’s somebody that just really went after it and did so much, did everything that he could basically before he ended up in that WWE realm. So that’s kind of where my goals have changed and grown since I’ve started training. There’s so much more out there in wrestling that you can really do.”
On receiving offers from MLW and WWE in 2018: “2018 was such as good year for me because that’s when I got to do 205 Live and that’s when MLW first booked me and when Impact first used me, so in a span of like three months, I had worked for the three major television companies at the time. They were all interested. I had interest from all sides, but I really felt a connection with Impact. A lot was having to do with the roster because so many of them were guys that I had been working with on the indies and they were mentoring me. So, it was an environment that I thought I would be most comfortable in. But also, after having spent a little bit of time in every environment, I felt the most at home in the Impact locker room, so that just seemed like the right way to go. And it seemed like such a good way to build my foundation and learn how to work on television. Especially going to WWE in 2018, when I was 20 years old, I was way too young and the system wouldn’t have been good for me then, I think. So when stuff blew up in 2018, I had a lot of fun doing all that, but ultimately, Impact felt like the right move and that’s where I landed.”
On wrestlers he grew up watching: “My family were wrestling fans. They were WWE fans, I guess I should say specifically because, in my area, nothing else was really prevalent. So, WWE was the main thing. When I was watching, I had my brother’s influences kind of help me learn a little bit about what I had missed. I was always a big fan of Shawn Michaels, obviously. I was actually a real big fan of Kofi Kingston, he was somebody I looked up to a lot when I started watching early on. The Ultimate Warrior was one of my favorites. Jeff Hardy is probably my biggest influence overall. Jeff Hardy was the one that, when I saw him, he made me think it was possible for me, so that’s how I kind of connected with it.”
(h/t – Wrestling Inc)
