A Canadian actor and professional wrestler, RJ City is best known as the host of Hey! (EW), a weekly digital series produced by AEW where he interviews several AEW wrestlers in a way that allows them to flaunt their creativity and display different sides of their personalities.
While speaking to Stephanie Chase, RJ City revealed how he landed the gig with AEW, his transition from a pro wrestler to comic/interview host, and more.
You can check out some highlights from the interview below:
On how he landed the gig with AEW: “My general understanding is Tony [Khan] is directly the reason I’m in AEW, because he messaged me. He had known my stuff: The stuff I did in WWE, I did a comedy special, he knew that; but he [also] knew all the videos I put online, just stupid videos I was making, which blew me away. Because it’s like ‘Why didn’t you tell me earlier?’ So I think he knew exactly what he was getting. He was also my second guest, which was pretty much the stamp of approval of ‘I tolerate this person’s idiocy.’”
On who his actual boss at AEW is: “I guess my direct boss would be Kevin Sullivan. Not the wrestler, the editor [who] did a bunch of stuff in Impact, did a bunch of ‘Attitude Era’ [WWE] stuff. He did The Rock’s Chef Boyardee commercial, and all those weird Super Soaker commercials, which I ask about constantly.”
On the unexpectedly free rein he’s been given: “My third episode was [with] Eddie Kingston, and I made a horrible, horrible fisting joke at the end. ‘I hope you spin back here and fist me again,’ that’s what I said, okay? Especially when you traffic in those kinds of things, you just have to expect getting a phone call saying, ‘We can’t say that.’ This is my first day on the job, by the way. I didn’t get a call, and I was shocked. I wanted to call them back and say, ‘No one has a problem with this? Are you sure?’”
On working with Sonjay Dutt and others at AEW: “Sonjay has been pulling for me to work at a variety of wrestling promotions for over a decade now, which is so incredibly sweet. And then we’re so happy that when we finally get to work together, it’s this. I don’t want to be like [one of] those ‘everything happens for a reason and blah blah blah [people],’ but this was worth the wait, I think, for all of us. It is weird, both WWE and AEW, I had positions that only seemed to be created for me. Where they’re like, ‘Here you go. Uh, do whatever you want. Whatever weird things you do, knock yourself out.’”