Mark Davis Has Enjoyed His AEW National Title Run, Talks Working With Don Callis

Mark Davis is the current AEW National Champion, and he says he’s enjoyed being able to represent AEW all over the place. Davis won the title from Jack Perry at AEW Collision: Fairway to Hell in May, and is set to defend it against his former Don Callis Family stablemate Andrade El Idolo at AEW Redemption this weekend.

Davis spoke with PWInsider’s Mike Johnson for a new interview ahead of tonight’s Dynamite and this weekend’s Redemption. He spoke about his run as champion, working with Don Callis and more. You can check out some highlights below:

On The Difficult Moments He’s Overcome In His Career:

‘Oh, that’s a good little question. Yeah, look, there’s been quite a few. I think with anything, this is a very demanding industry, it’s a very demanding job. You’re gonna get, you’re gonna get injuries, you’re gonna get banged up along the way. I had a few, unfortunately, kind of just very soon after coming into AEW. And they were very gracious in allowing me to take the time to heal, the time that I needed. But I guess for me, there was quite a lot of almost ‘Ah, so close, so close.’ Like nearly winning the AEW Tag Team Championships with Kyle Fletcher, and then I dislocated my wrist mid-match. We fought through, we still lost. And then it’s it’s a difficult thing to just stop. It’s ‘Okay, you gotta take stock of where I am and try and rebuild from here.’ And, so there has been a couple of little ones along the way. I’m just very grateful, I guess that inside of it all, a lot of being able to just work and team regularly with Kyle Fletcher, who’s a little brother to me, and getting the support from Don Callis, getting the support from AEW, being able to work my way back into contention for singles gold and, capture it. It’s a cool feeling, man. It’s pretty good.”

On Talent Hs Studied To Develop His In-Ring Style:

“I’m a pretty big fan of late ’80s, mid ’90s All Japan Professional Wrestling. I’ve watched a lot of Miracle Violence Connection. There’s a lot of of Stan Hansen and Bruiser Brody, and a lot of other I think pieces that I will — I don’t know if it’s take inspiration from or if it’s just in general through the history of watching professional wrestling, that seems to be a style or an era of wrestling that I’ve gravitated towards a lot, through COVID. When the world was kind of shut down, I was stuck in Australia, me and my good friend Chris, who’s a great artist, Chris Things on Insta. We would gather regularly during the week and watch a bunch of All Japan and that was one of the times that I have just stopped and made a time to just watch wrestling when inside of it, it can become cumbersome to try and do that. So… definitely those boys is someone that I draw a lot of inspiration and some people that I really love watching, and I’m always quite flattered by the comparisons. I think it’s pretty cool to hear.”

On Working With Don Callis:

“I don’t think there’s any real worst thing about being around him. I really enjoy doing work with Don, doing work with the Don Callis Family, all the members of it. If anything, I think that he’s got it dialled in, man. He knows what his family’s about, he knows how great his guys are, he’s not afraid to stand up and explain that, and speak that towards people and tell them why they’re wrong if they have differing opinions towards that. He’s very confident and astute in the things that he says. So, for me, it’s a good little guiding path to take, I guess, inside of it all.”

On His National Title Run:

“Yeah I think it’s been great. I’ve really enjoyed it. I think the ability to go out there on maybe even smaller levels as well. I had to do some visa paperwork recently, I had to redo a visa so I was stuck in Europe, and I got the opportunity to defend the championship in RevPro. For me that’s yeah, it is a little bit of a mark of pride to be able to be ‘I’m representing the company, I am the AEW National Champion. If you wanna become the AEW National Champion, I’m the person that you have to beat.’ And it’s a nice feeling. I am proud to be the National Champion, and so if Andrade wants to take it from me, he’s gonna have to work pretty hard come this Sunday.”