Erick Redbeard gives his thoughts on AEW.
Redbeard, who worked in WWE as Erick Rowan and wrestled several matches in AEW, spoke on this topic during a recent interview with Chris Van Vilet. The former multi-time tag champion explains why he enjoys there being alternatives in wrestling.
I mean, I think there was always something about like, possibly in the future. And it’s always that possibly in the future thing that I always hear. It’s like if it’s the right time, it’s the right time. If it’s the right thing, it’s the right thing. What I loved about wrestling was always surprises. And guys would come out and it’d be like holy crap, this guy just came out. Oh, now he’s got this storyline, this feud, and now he’s a hot commodity. Instead of like, Oh, this guy just came out, where is he now? He hasn’t been on TV for like three weeks. That’s not exciting to me. Like what was exciting to me was these guys like I remember when Nash, Hall and Hogan came. And this was during No Way Out With WWE and it was like, Holy crap. These guys are here now and like then they got stuck in all these top feuds with like The Rock, and it was like, it was exciting because it was like something different to watch. And you are instantly. Hey, this is who I am and this is what I’m going to do and here’s why I’m doing it. Like, and I don’t think there’s a lot of that happening right now.
Redbeard would later be asked if there was ever a plan for him to join the Dark Order since the group was run by his now departed friend, Mr. Brodie Lee.
So we talked a lot when he [Brodie Lee] was doing it because I was always like, I’m so happy for you, you look you’re having a blast. He’s like, he never was given much promo time in WWE. So like watching them do even the BTE episodes, I would watch that just to watch his segments because he’s having fun. He’s speaking, he is being this character he wanted to be. And he was a fan of mobster movies and stuff like that. So here I’m watching this giant man doing a Joe Pesci like, it’s crazy, like just is drawing papers that people and you can tell, he’s just having a blast. And I was on the phone with them talking about how happy I was for him. And like he had this like, spark under him about how much fun he was having. And at the same time, I think I had started doing some films, and he was throwing back the same things to me and how excited he was for me, and like what was gonna happen for me in the future. So it was that kind of mutual thing. And then there was never any talk of it. I mean, we talked about maybe doing some signings together, or maybe like doing a couple, you know, like, shows, maybe in Japan or something, but like, we had never talked about doing anything there because he was building something for him. And we had fought so hard to like, get out of each other’s shadows for so long, because we were always connected. And we wanted something for ourselves. And to see him start to get something for himself and for me to be able to branch off and do stuff for myself. Like, those were great conversations to have, you know, and as far as like, after he passes, like, I wouldn’t want anything to do with Dark Order, ever. And it’s not because I don’t think those guys are cool. It’s because that was his legacy. He created that in such a short amount of time, he made them something very special. And nobody should try to replace that. And those guys do good by honouring him, but I don’t see them ever being as big as they were with him.
Elsewhere in the interview, Redbeard looked back on his loss to The Rock at WrestleMania 32 when he worked as Erick Rowan in the Wyatt Family. You can read about that here.