During a recent interview with POST Wrestling’s Andrew Thompson, AEW Superstar John Skyler commented on his experience in AEW, his friendship with Cash Wheeler, and more. You can check out some highlights from the interview below:
On his time in AEW: “That locker room at AEW was fantastic. Tony Khan was very gracious and kind to me when I was out injured, just to make sure that I was brought back on a regular basis, taken care of, even though I couldn’t wrestle. You know, but the locker room was great. It felt like a real team environment and I had a lot of fun matches there too that I really, really enjoyed like wrestling John Silver, wrestling Orange Cassidy which was probably my favorite match that I’ve had in a long time actually and I never thought in 2021, you know, if you would’ve asked me five years ago, I can’t believe I’m saying that right now. But, that match with Orange Cassidy was great. I got to wrestle my buddies, guys like SCU, it was just a lot of fun.”
On being proud of his AEW work: “I hate that a lot of — I was there for almost a year and eight months of that I spent on the shelf injured but, it was just a great experience overall and I think it really showed the world and opened a lot of people’s eyes on just what I’m capable of doing. Whether I have three minutes of TV time or 30 minutes of TV time, I think I kind of showed the world exactly what I’m capable of in terms of being a professional wrestler.”
On recovering from his injuries: “Yes, [I feel like I’m mentally over the injury] just because you know, it does take time to slowly build up the confidence or to build your confidence back but, honestly when I’m out there in the ring, I don’t really think about the knee injury anymore. It just takes me a little bit longer to get warmed up these days. It’s not like it used to be when I was 20, 21 years old. I could just throw my gear on and go straight to the ring. Now I actually have to warm up and stretch and make sure everything’s good because it was a rough eight months and I don’t wanna have to go through it again and I hate anytime somebody else has to go through it.”
On being injures at the same time as Kris Statlander: “Me and Kris Statlander got hurt on the same day, the same tapings. It’s almost the same injury so, you know, and I’ve seen so many others go through the same thing and I just, I know how hard it was for me. You can’t wrestle, you can’t work out, it’s a pandemic, everything’s shut down and you’re injured, aw man. Yeah so, but I’m not going to turn this into a woe is me thing because I’m very happy with what I’ve accomplished, I’m very happy with where I’m at and I think it was a — in the long run, as crazy as it sounds, I think the knee injury is going to be one of the best things that ever happened to me.”
On his friendship with Cash Wheeler: “Cash [Wheeler] is pretty much my best friend in the business so for him to say something like that and Dave too, [Dax] Harwood, for them to — they’ve gotta be the best tag team in the world whether they’re my buddies or not. I’m trying not to be biased here but to have that kind of high praise come from them and then also have a lot of guys that I grew up watching, mentors, legends that you said earlier, guys like Arn Anderson just shoot me a text saying, ‘Hey man, you’re doing all the right things. Just keep it up.’ I’m like, ‘Woah, where did this come from?’ So, but yeah, it’s a good feeling man and I definitely think the best is yet to come and it doesn’t matter where I end up… it doesn’t matter where I end up, I’m gonna make the most of it, I am gonna be a breakout star, wherever I end up.”