IMPACT star and former world champion Eric Young was a recent guest on the Two Man Power Trip of wrestling to talk about his return to the promotion following his release by WWE back in April. The former Sanity leader also dissects the number of different characters he’s portrayed in the wrestling business over the years. Highlights from the interview can be found below.
How he’s been very smart with his money and doesn’t need to work, but is happy to be back with IMPACT:
“The people that were there before us should be so proud and I thank them for that kind of effort in doing things that are hard and putting Impact in a position to hire people like me, Gallows and Anderson. I’m not going to speak for those guys. I can only speak for myself, but I don’t need to work. I’ve been very smart. I’ve been a very smart person with my money. I live very humbly. I don’t need to be at Impact. I choose to be there. That’s where I want to be. That’s a powerful thing.”
On the many different characters he has played in his career:
“I think it starts with my love of wrestling. I think it stems from the variety. I don’t like just one kind of wrestler. I like all different kinds. As far as versatility, I like a challenge. Who doesn’t like to prove somebody wrong? I can remember a conversation I had with Mick Foley in TNA Wrestling when I turned heel for the first time. He said he saw that I turned heel, but he didn’t believe I could do it. He said in the back of his mind people were not going to buy it. He felt they would think I am such a good guy and such a strong babyface and a likeable character. Then he watched it and watched me wrestle Bobby Roode and he said I became a different person. That was fun. That’s what draws me to wrestling. Being a different character and being different versions of myself and people wondered if I didn’t like doing the comedy stuff. To be honest, I had never done comedy anywhere in pro wrestling until TNA. I was just a wrestler who worked and had good matches and that’s who I was. They came to me with this opportunity. Dutch Mantell came up with this wild character. I took it and ran with it. I got my own TV show out of it. I met Oprah. I hung out with Morgan Freeman. All of this cool stuff happened because of being a comedy act on TNA wrestling. I believe in the long term as well that a thing it did for me was I didn’t wrestle a whole lot at that point which was good and bad. I missed wrestling, but the truth is, I’m 40 now but I had 10 years off. I have a huge gas tank still left which is very cool. It’s something I pride myself on, my versatility. I would put myself up there with one of, if not, the most versatile wrestler.”
Full interview is here. (H/T and transcribed by Wrestling News)
