Independent star Matt Rehwoldt (fka Aiden English in WWE) spoke with Fightful to talk all things pro-wrestling. Highlights can be found below.
How much Norman Smiley helped him in NXT:
“Yes! ‘Aiden English buries Norman Smiley!’ Something no one has ever said in the history of wrestling. No, I’m going to start with him just because he’s set my career on the path it is, right? Whatever he said obviously resonated with someone and he’s the reason I’m here and even after that, continued to be one of the most positive and intelligent and well-spoken and most giving men that I’ve ever had the ability to train under. Guys like Arn Anderson was great. I had a great, great relationship with Billy Gunn when he was at NXT. He had such a great approach to teaching that I think is very, very important. He showed you how to have fun with it all.”
On his love for Terry Taylor:
“I’m gonna say this, almost begrudgingly, and if he sees this he’ll know why. But, I have a love for Terry Taylor, who a lot of people have butted heads with and I did too. ‘Cause he can be very opinionated and he comes from that old school kind of mindset. But, it’s so funny. He’s like your parents because he’s sitting there, he’s raising you as a wrestler, and you’re fighting, ‘No, why can’t I do this? Why is it a bad idea? Why are you telling me it’s not a good idea to do this? That’s crazy. That’s so old. That’s from your generation.’ You grow up, you go and perform on all these stages and you go, ‘I mean, I’m still right, but hot damn, he was right about X, Y and Z. Crap. Some of it you’re not going to learn until you’ve had enough experience where you grow up in those situations. You’re like, ‘Oh, holy crap. They were right.’ So, that was a big eye opening thing for me. So, I do appreciate everything from him.”