AEW stars Luther and Serpentico, better known as the Chaos Project, were the latest guest on the AEW Unrestricted podcast to discuss how they ended up as a team, with Luther sharing his story of auditioning for the Dark Order’s Exalted One, a role that eventually went to the late Brodie Lee. Highlights from the interview are below.
Serpentico explains how he ended up getting paired with Luther in AEW:
“[Tony Khan] saw us randomly in the back just kind of hanging out together and stuff, and we have a unique look. And he approached [Luther] first. I heard through the grapevine that he might have an idea of putting us together. He gave us a little tryout match to see how we gel, and that was that. He just put us in a match that night.”
Luther talks about auditioning for the role of the Exalted One:
“I get a call from Chris Jericho, and he says that they’re looking maybe for a manager for a new group they’re putting together, Dark Order. He had brought my name up, and they were interested in it. I sent in an audition tape, and they liked it and wanted to see another one. So, I sent another one in. They liked it. So, I sent another one in, and then they brought me in to do a screen test, but then there were some other people also in the running for the same gig. Even just that alone I thought was really cool to be mentioned with all those people, and they said that they liked it. I didn’t know about the group, so I watch some tapes of [Evil] Uno and Stu [Grayson]. I kind of did something to what they were doing at the time, which isn’t anything like what they’re doing now. So, I was teaching at a school in Salem, and so I just had the students kind of be creepers or whatever. I used them for my audition tape. My direction was completely different than the way Brodie [Lee] did or the way anybody else did it. It was kind of I guess more mystical. But when I got brought out, they still liked all the interviews and ended up in Brandi [Rhodes] group.”
Serpentico talks joining AEW:
“That match was right after all the bookings ceased. The indies shut down. Because I’m local, I had at least 10 to 15 bookings on that week alone. Well, there goes my rent because at that time, I was actually living off of independent wrestling. I’m really proud of that, but at the same time, because I was living off independent wrestling, once it shut down, which no one ever thought would happen, now how am I going to pay rent? What am I gonna do? I have some savings, but eventually, it’s going to go away, and I’ve known QT for such a long time. We trained together at Bubba and Devon’s school in Florida. He reached out to me and said, ‘Hey, I know you’re hurting for bookings and stuff, and this might not lead to anything. I can’t promise anything but show up. You want to wrestle me? It’d be cool.’ And I personally thought, this would be a nice way to go out, wrestle one of my friends. Wrestle Dustin and then that’s it because I wasn’t expecting anything to come from it.”
Serpentico says he thought his match with QT Marshall was going to be his last:
“They kept calling me back, and I told QT this months after. My intention was that to be my last match. I like to say I’m a very forward thinker, and I didn’t think I could kickstart my career after a world pandemic to where I was. It’s gonna be really hard. Wrestling was hot. It was great, and then once everything shuts down, it’s like a motor. It has to slowly start turning its gears again, and eventually, it’ll get going again, but as it were, you’re not gonna be able to make a living off of it. So that was my last match, and he kept just calling me back, and here I am now.”
(H/T and transcribed by 411 Mania)