AEW’s Varsity Blonds (Griff Garrison and Brian Pillman Jr.) recently spoke to Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful about a number of different topics, with Pillman Jr. making note of how several big names backstage weren’t a fan of his team’s name, as well as how he’s managed people’s expectations of his wrestling career. Highlights are below.
Says he pitched “Varsity Blonds” even though people told him not to:
And even going to pitching The Varsity Blonds, actually I asked two people and I won’t name them. I will not name these people. I asked two people in AEW that are very prominent figures, what they thought about the name Varsity Blonds and they both relatively said the same thing, ‘Oh, that’s stupid. You’re wrestlers, you’re not football players’ and then I said, ‘You know what? F*ck it, I’m pitching it anyways,’ and here we are.
On managing expectations and learning from mistakes:
I definitely think early on, there was a lot of eyes on me. There was YouTube, every match was being posted, MLW hired me like two or three months into my career so, there was a lot of spotlights and a lot of magnification on me early on and I think I made my mistakes and I think I learned from them but I think the way the timing worked out with how I developed and then when I arrived at AEW was just pinpoint. I think at that point, I was meeting all the expectations, I was checking all the boxes, the hair was in shape, I was in good shape. I showed up, I believe it was July of last year, July 1st or 2nd when I came in and had my first extra booking here and then Griff [Garrison] maybe a little before that so we both arrived around the same time and I went out there with Shawn Spears and Brian Cage the following night and there was nothing but praise.
(H/T and transcribed by Post Wrestling)