Austin Aries Says Wrestlers Can Make A Living On The Independent Wrestling Scene

In an interview with The Toronto Sun, Austin Aries spoke about whether or not wrestlers can make a living on the independent wrestling scene. Here are highlights:

On defending against Moose: “We’re two completely different cats. He’s 6-foot-5, 270 pounds, ex-NFL player. He’s four or five years into this, I’m 18 years into this. You can’t substitute for experience. This isn’t my first main event, this isn’t my first pay-per-view main event, this isn’t my first big match. This is the biggest match of his career. He’s really athletic, you don’t play in the NFL for seven years and not be an elite athlete. But that’s only one component of what we do in there. He likes to hang his hat on the fact he can fly around like a cruiserweight, but the fact is that’s not playing to his strength. He’s going to take a risk that’s not going to pay off. I’m going to make him pay for it and I’ll still be the champion at the end of the night.”

On if independent wrestlers can make a living: “Now it’s not just like can you make a living, you can make a good living being an independent pro wrestler — travel the world, take a week off when you want, stay an extra three days in Australia if you want to do it,” said Aries. “It’s cool to have that freedom and control of your life and enjoy what you’re doing and also have the creative output on top of that.”