Billy Gunn made an appearance on Oh…You Didn’t Know to discuss a wide range of topics.
During it, he talked about working with his sons, Colten and Austin, and the process of getting them into the wrestling business.
“The thing with the boys was, ‘You have to graduate college and then you can do what you want. I’ll help you do whatever you want.’ Yes, that’s very contradictory of me because I didn’t finish college, but times are different. I need them to be able, if they do this job, to have something to fall back on and not rely on it. Nowadays, I just don’t feel people are going to have 30-year careers. They’re just doing too much crazy stuff,” Billy said.
“Austin was the first one. He literally went from like the Head Dean handing him his diploma, went to the stands and handed it to me, and said, ‘I’m good.’ I’ve been hands on with both of the boys. Austin was the first. He did a stint in ROH just because he wanted to do something on his own. It didn’t work out. I happened to be one of the first ones to get hired by AEW as head coach and talent if they needed me. Austin said, ‘No. I don’t want your help. I’m going to ask Tony’, and Cody was still head of it, if he could have a tryout and have a look. He came in and did a tryout. They hired him and they liked him. If you could build a wrestling person on your computer, you would build Austin because he is athletic, has personality, charisma, and energy,” Gunn continued.
“Then, Colten was living out in California. He went to Rikishi’s school because he didn’t want to look back and say, ‘I should have tried this.’ I don’t think it was just because me and Austin were doing this, but he didn’t want to look back and say, ‘I should have tried this.’ He went to Rikishi’s school without asking or anything,” Billy shared.
“Rikishi of course was open armed. He went in there, messed around a little bit, and said, ‘Hey, I want to try this.’ I said, ‘Well, if you do this, you have to come home. I’m not going to do anything different with you than I did with Austin.’ He moved back to Florida. He went to Tyler Breeze and Shawn Spears school. I would go and watch. Although he’s very much an analyst when it comes to wrestling and wants to know and figure everything out, he’s just different, but that’s what makes him so good.”
H/T to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription