Madison Rayne made an appearance on AEW Unrestricted to discuss a wide range of topics including her decision to sign with AEW. Here are the highlights:
How she came into AEW:
“I saw that AEW was coming to Columbus, which is my hometown. I haven’t wrestled here in, when I say years, like many years, at least not to a capacity where like my friends were there, my family was there. I’ve talked a little bit about my dad who is very, very ill right now with stage four cancer.”
“When I saw that advertised, my only thought was, wrestling’s this weird but awesome world now and even though I had been working for one company, I kind of want to do this, and I’m within the parameters of being allowed to do this and for all of those reasons. I’ve had a lot of career moments, but I felt like that was one that I needed.”
“So I reached out to a couple of people and the response seemed positive, but probably with everything, but definitely in wrestling, it’s like a hurry up and wait, type situation. But then once the hurry up and wait is over, then it’s like, hurry up and get this done and it’s time to do it right now. So it was literally just like perfect timing. I had spoken with some people, and before I knew it, I was talking to Megha and she was kind of outlining the opportunity for me. I was like, ‘I’ve read plenty of wrestling contracts in my life. Just send it to me. I know where to sign. Let’s get this done.’ It literally kind of just happened that quickly and easily.”
“So for my first week at AEW, I was like, okay, when does everything fall apart here? When does Ashton come in and say. ‘Nope, sorry, you’re being punked. This isn’t really happening’, because it was just so seamless and easy. My first day I walked into the most overwhelming, positive response. Everyone was so nice and welcoming. It had been so long since I was like a new kid on a playground, so I was feeling all the new kid on the playground feeling like, not sure what to do with my hands. But everybody was so accommodating and so nice, and it’s been the best month of my career.”
If she is going to be a coach, wrestler, or both with AEW:
“When I had my initial conversations about coming to the company, it was primarily as a coach. Then obviously there were those like, ‘We know you can wrestle. You wrestled for way too long, so there may be times where we have you as an in-ring competitor.’ Great. The wrestler in me still has like a teeny, tiny shred of ego that needs to be filled a little bit like walking out into an arena that thats full with the reaction of the AEW fans is truly like, and I’m not just saying that because I’m new and happy and butterflies, but it’s truly unlike anything that I’ve ever felt. So getting to kind of scratch that itch a little bit was perfect, but I do think going forward, my duty will primarily be as coach, and I think that’s great too because I came in, I did a couple matches for AEW fans or anybody who wasn’t super familiar with who Madison Rayne was. Now I’ve gotten in the ring. I’ve shown you that I kind of know how to do this thing. So hopefully, I will have earned the trust of the people who maybe didn’t know me before I came in. So glad that I got to do that. Always happy to accept the challenge and will continue to accept them if they’re ever put in front of me. But I think for now, as far as I know, today, as we sit here, coaching is going to be kind of my primary role.”
H/T to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription
