Erick Stevens Talks About Coming Back For One Last Year As A Wrestler

In an interview with Fightful, Erick Stevens spoke about making a return to wrestling last year, only to retire again after next week. Here are highlights:

On being a part of Black Label Pro: “I look around this locker room and ten months ago I knew nobody here. There is not one person in this locker room that was wrestling during my first run, at least in my circle. So, it’s pretty surreal to be in a locker room with so many young, hungry guys. I’ve had the opportunity to wrestle a lot of great, skilled people. I mean, Josh Alexander, I think, had just started wrestling when I was finishing up. I think he got to PWG around the time I was finishing up. I used to watch him and I was like, “Man, I can’t wait to wrestle that guy.” “I wish I still wrestled so I could wrestle that guy,” and here we are.”

On his TNA appearances fifteen years ago: “I have the distinct pleasure of being squashed by Monty [Brown], not once, but twice. First was one on one, which was a pleasure. I know it sounds funny, but it’s great. I’ve got nothing, but good things to say about Monty. I still don’t know how his career didn’t pan out. I know everybody freaks out when they see those clips, but it was just, probably, the most fun I’ve ever had getting my ass beat. It was awesome. I took two Pounces in the first match and then a single Pounce in the next one. It was a good time. It was a nice experience. It’s a very similar experience. Because one second you’re hitting one of those six sides and then you’re flying. I distinctly remember the first time I took it, not being prepared for the force of the contact, and my head hit the ropes on the other side.”

On making his return after nine years: “I’m a planner. My life is planned out. My wife’s a life coach. So, she’s big on structuring the day, structuring the week, structuring the months, and years to a point. So, the plan all along was to come back and really it was a perfect storm. I’m not gonna bore you guys with the long version, but one night the wife and I went out, we had some margaritas. It was WrestleMania weekend last year. I bought the FiteTV package. I watched a bunch of collective stuff and I was really jacked up because I hadn’t watched IMPACT! wrestling in years. I was really jacked up on independent wrestling and I was drunk, and my wife asked me, ‘cause she’s a life coach, [to look inside]. “Are there any dreams you have that scare you?” I was like, “Yeah.” Like, every year I’ve wanted to come back, but it’s scary as shit. It’s scary. I was scared of failure. She’s like, “Just do it.” I’m like, “Really?” She goes, “Yeah.” So, I tweeted it out, I didn’t even remember it the next day, but I got some interest and I figure, you know what? Take a couple bookings a month and ride it into WrestleMania weekend, finish in Tampa where I cut my teeth, the Ybor. I’ve actually wrestled in the Cuban Club before, not a lot of people that weekend. This coming weekend I’m going to have that distinction like I’ve wrestled there before. I’ve wrestled in a lot of those clubs, a lot of those bars and I just think it’s poetic to go full circle and to finish where I started.”

On how the wrestling business has changed: “Oh, man. (Many is) an understatement. So, its changed for the better in a lot of ways in that there’s so many more opportunities now. Whether it’s in Japan, over seas, Europe, the WWE is just signing more people. There’s not a crab in the bucket mentality. Nobody’s stabbing each other in the back for opportunities for shots anymore because there’s so many opportunities. You can make a living on the independents. There was like six guys that were doing that back in my day and some of them were in TNA, too. So doesn’t really even count. On top of that, Ring of Honor was so good because everybody went out to outdo each other every night, right? Every match was competitive with each other and now the whole indie scene is like that. Everybody’s trying to one up each other and the fans benefit from that. It’s really competitive in a good way, a healthy way.”

On if he’s having second thoughts about retiring again: “The closer the end comes the more I think about it the more melancholy I become about it. Because there’s so much that I’m not going to miss—the travel, being away from my family, all that stuff. That’s the hard part. The physicality? Getting beat up? That’s easy for me. I love that part. That’s the part, the cheers, that’s the part that makes me happy. But, I’m gonna miss a lot of aspects. But, the part that I don’t like, I’m not gonna miss one bit, especially the travel.”