Excalibur spoke with Chris Van Vliet about a wide range of topics.
During the interview, he talked about initially being uncertain about AEW until he met with Tony Khan. Here is what he had to say:
“And then a couple — maybe a month or so later, Matt texted me and he was like, ‘Hey, there’s something coming. And we’ll let you know that there’s something coming.’ And so you know, she and I talked. Because I had a job away from wrestling, I had a day job and everything. And there was a lot of, you know, because the details about AEW at that point — even after it was announced, all we had was the PPV. The TV deal and everything wasn’t around … It was six months. And then the TV deal wasn’t even announced until I think, right before the PPV? It was at the upfronts, right? So maybe in June.
“But anyway, you know, I was saying to her, ‘Can I make a career out of this? Is this possible?’ And she’s like, ‘I don’t know.’ It wasn’t that she [wasn’t] supportive, but she was trying to be realistic. And I was trying to be realistic too, because there’s been so many failed pro wrestling promotions. And so it’s like, obviously I knew to have a healthy dose of skepticism. But once I met Tony, Tony Khan and talked with him, saw the infrastructure that they had set up from January 1st to May 25th and all this stuff. And all these people that were taking a chance on AEW, both she and I agreed that yeah, this was something that — it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity and I couldn’t pass it up.”
H/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.
