AEW stars Colten Gunn and Austin Gunn of The Gunn Club recently appeared on Chris Van Vliet’s “INSIGHT” podcast to discuss a number of topics. The sons of WWE Hall of Famer Billy Gunn revealed how Colten quit a big-time job in California to get into pro wrestling.
Vliet sent us quotes on Colten recalling how he made a low-key visit to the KnoxPro wrestling school owned by WWE Hall of Famer Rikishi. He tried to keep it from his father, but word got out and his father wanted to know if he was really all-in. Colten then trained for two weeks at the Flatbacks wrestling school ran by Shawn Spears and Tyler Breeze, and soon after he quit his job to work for AEW.
The conversation went like this:
Austin: “So Colten has been in California when I started.”
Colten: “I was in Santa Monica. Right after college I was ready to move into corporate America. I was moving to LA and was building custom houses out there, like 3 stories with elevators. We had a few Lakers players move in and the CEO of Snapchat. I was doing that, I was in my trailer and on the job site, and for some reason I always, because him and dad were on AEW and doing their thing. So I just kept thinking of promos or moves or names of stuff.”
Austin: “He would just text me out of the blue like ‘This would be cool if you and dad did it. But it would be cooler if we did it.’ He was subtly over time just pushing and pushing.”
Colten: “So I called Rikishi because he has a school out there. I was like ‘Don’t tell my dad and don’t tell your students.’ But I was going to come in one time to see what it was like. Of course when I got there, I am like a clone of my dad, so everyone knew who I was. That didn’t work very well! So after that I called my dad and I said ‘Dad I want to try this, I went to Rikishi’s school…’ And he was like ‘Why didn’t you tell me!’”
Austin: “He was heated. We were driving to some town one day and he says ‘Did Colten tell you he went to Rikishi’s the other day?’ I went ‘Yeah.’ Then he went ‘Well why didn’t you tell me! What does he want? Does he want to be a wrestler?’ He started asking me and I’m like I don’t know.”
Colten: “So I took 2 weeks off from work and went to the Breeze and Spears school, Flatbacks. My dad said ‘Do you really want to do this? 110%, no half ass?’ No pun intended. So I quit my job in LA and drove across the country and started. In November that will be 2 years.”
Austin worked the original All In event, and some dates for ROH before debuting with AEW in January 2020, teaming with his father, who was hired by AEW in January 2019 to work as a coach and wrestler. Colten started accompanying his father and brother to the ring in June 2020, and made his in-ring debut that November.
The Gunn Club continues to find success on AEW Dark and Elevation, with increased TV time on Dynamite and Rampage. They participated in last night’s Dynamite Battle Royal, but last teamed up with Max Caster to defeat John Silver, 10 and Alex Reynolds on Dark this week. Their last Dynamite tag team appearance came on the post-Double Or Nothing show when they teamed with Caster for a loss to AEW World Champion CM Punk and AAA & ROH World Tag Team Champions FTR.
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