Below are some highlights from the interview:
Four years ago you were competing in front of a global audience at 2012 Olympics in London. What was your mindset then? Will you be following the Games this year in Rio?
The mindset at the time — everything went so fast. I amateur wrestled for 20 years. It culminated at this great moment and how fortunate it was to have all my family there, and my friends were over there as well. It was an incredible milestone and peak in my life — a special time in my life.
My best friend in the world and former training partner Andy Bisek made the Olympic team this year, so I’ll be following closely. I truly think in my heart of hearts he’s going to win a gold medal. He’s one of the best guys in the world — he’s won medals at the world championships the last two years, so I have a very vested interest in it this year. I keep following Greco wrestling and I stay up on it.
Could you describe the dynamic that you and Jason Jordan share as a tag team? What’s your relationship like on- and off-screen?
It’s kind of interesting how lucky we got. He was there (in NXT) a few years before me, grinding away. We didn’t really develop a relationship for a while. He was in more advanced classes than me, and then they came up with this idea to put us together. From moment one, it just clicked. We just got along, and we share the same values and ideas. I think some of it comes from us both sharing backgrounds as amateur wrestlers, being competitive. We just get it — we’re on the same page, no matter what it is.
We try to describe it to people and it’s hard — we finish each other’s thoughts, when we’re on the road together, we’re on the same page — wanting to go work out, go eat, or go to the show. No matter what, we click. As a tag team, it doesn’t get much better than that.
Any bucket-list opponents you guys have? WrestleMania dream matches?
As far as the roster goes, there are so many teams — Gallows & Anderson, the Usos — there are just endless teams we want to wrestle.
With the current landscape, I think the tag-team division is going to blow up… We want to make tag-team wrestling the thing to watch again, and we are going be the ones to do it. Nobody else. We hope that lights a fire under some guys, and if it ruffles a few feathers, we’re okay with that. We want to raise the level of competition. If everyone starts to be competitive with each other and wants to one-up each other every single night, sparks are going to fly and it’s going to be magic before you know it.
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