AEW superstar Miro spoke with Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp ahead of this evening’s Forbidden Door pay-per-view, where the Redeemer explained why he decided to sign with the promotion long-term, and how he gave company President Tony Khan a discount when first signing in 2020. Highlights from the interview are below.
Why he decided to sign a long-term deal with AEW:
“They wanted me to sign a long-term deal for a reason and I signed long-term for a reason. It’s a place where I can be creatively free and now the ball is in my court. My boss, Tony Khan, let me have that and said, ‘Hey, go do you.’ I feel that played a big role into my decision of being here. Everybody watching AEW knows that I am a world champion. I know it. I would be short-changing myself and TK, calling that I’m not that.”
On his mentality of becoming world champion:
“I walk around with that mentality as well. I don’t want to sit around a collect a check. I want to create and evolve and to become world champion. Before that, I’m focusing on the All-Atlantic Championship, which is going to be even bigger than the World Championship. I love this place, Tony Khan believes in me, he lets me do me and doesn’t have to be involved in every single thing. I love that.”
How he loves the challenges of fighting new people:
“I love working with him, I love the company, I loved the stacked roster, the opportunity…like 99% of these people I’m fighting now is for the first time. I love those challenges. I love every single time I step foot in the ring.”
Excelling even when he only has 30 seconds:
“Sometimes I have 30-45 seconds, but I make the most of it every single time. That’s what it’s all about. It’s not just about having great matches or having 20-30 matches that are great. We only have so much television. It’s about what you do with the 30-45 seconds you have. This is where I excel the most.”
Why he gave Tony Khan a discount at first:
“I gave Tony Khan a discount. I gave him a discount and said, ‘Tony, I will sign for this money because it’s the pandemic, but after that year and a half, we’re coming strong.’ I knew that he was signing the wrong guy. He was signing the Twitch guy. He’s basing his opinions on my Twitch and that’s where the whole thing with Kip started. I knew that wasn’t me. That’s just not who I am. I knew once the year and a half was over, I was going to show him who I am and what I’m capable of and we’re going to sit down and talk like men for men’s money. That’s exactly what happened.”