Effy On The Importance of Wrestlers Adapting Their Matches to TV Length, Talks Goldust’s Gimmick and More

– Effy spoke with Wrestling Inc for a new interview discussing his match with Nick Gage, AEW’s approach to progressive content and more. You can check out some highlights below:

On his match with Nick Gage for the GCW World Title: “My mom was so mad when she saw pictures of that match. She was like, ‘What are you doing with my life?’ I go, ‘Well, I’m still figuring that out.’ I think for people that have watched me for a while, they know me as being the comedy guy or the funny guy. You take a guy like Nick Gage and he is all business and this guy will attempt to kill you. So it was ‘Can this guy hang at that level? Can this guy do these death matches and handle someone like Gage who physically died before, came back and is still trying to kill himself…’ You can come try to kill me and you might succeed. But I’m never gonna be scared of you because a man can only do so much. I didn’t win, but I took it right to the edge of the cliff.”

On how important blood testing is for him: “For me it probably should be more important. For my boyfriend it is very important and he requires that I get tested all the time. But that’s him personally asking me to do it … Mostly it’s pouring outward and not inward. We’re not injecting ourselves with each other’s blood. I think it can seem worse than it is and when everything’s all mixed together it’s probably not the most safe thing on the face of the earth. I take my precautions and make sure I’m tested, but I don’t know for anyone else.”

On taking extra care in terms of blood in the ring: “I’m a guy who wrestles in a lot of states so I have to get blood work testing work done for those anyway. So, between being a homosexual and being a pro wrestler who’s getting licensed, I’m tested a lot. I don’t know that for everyone else.”

On his appreciation of Goldust’s gimmick: “In that Attitude Era it was about pushing buttons. I always joked that Goldust for me is the anti-John Cena because Cena was the guy everybody would like to hang out with but I really couldn’t give a crap when he’s wrestling. Goldust, I loved watching him wrestle, his character, his vignettes.”

On AEW’s progressive approach: “I think it’s fantastic. I watch pro wrestling with my boyfriend; I force him to watch it. We play a game called ‘Cool or Dweeb’ and you’d be surprised at the amount of time that guys who wrestling fans would think are so cool to a casual person are coming across as dweebs … I had this conversation with Sonny [Kiss] a few weeks ago where I said you’re really good at a 7-10-minute TV match. I need you to be really good at an intense six-months feud that ends in a PPV match that you build on weekly TV. I know they’re having this conversation there, but there are a lot of guys really good at a 7-10-minute TV match and now we have to translate that into telling stories so people tune in next week. If people forget that that is such a big factor in television wrestling, then we’re all gonna be lost. But it is the biggest factor – the storytelling.”

On his RISE promo critiquing companies for not booking LGBTQ talent outside of Pride Month: “First and foremost, RISE took a stance after that show to say we’re gonna continue to book all kinds of performers. We’re not gonna base the booking on who they are, what they believe, who they love. We’re gonna base the booking on putting out some of the best matches we can … After I cut that promo, [RISE] was not pumped. I don’t think they understood exactly what I was gonna do. I went out there and dropped names and told truths and said what I had to say. By the time the video had gotten out on Monday, the response was very different. It was, ‘Wow, you actually had some really great points. I guess we did just need to give you some creative license to say what you needed to say.'”