Grado Talks Last-Minute Arrangements For All In

In a recent Cultaholic interview, Grado shared some background details on how his appearance at AEW’s All In was arranged and the discussions that took place around his entrance segment (via Fightful). The wrestler explained that his attempts to get his normal entrance music were unfotunately unsuccessful. You can find a few highlights and listen to the full podcast below.

On when his appearance at All In was finalized: “I got [called] probably Thursday night to be at Wembley. Nothing was ever confirmed. I had people congratulating me after the TalkSPORT spot, ‘Oh my God, you’re wrestling at Wembley, you vs. Jeff Jarrett.’ People were making graphics. I felt so uneasy. I never tweeted anything since the thing with TalkSPORT. ‘I’m staying out of this.’ I didn’t want [to upset anyone]. People were asking ‘why don’t you jump on the hashtag campaign?’ I felt so uneasy.”

On the social media campaign that landed him the spot: “I need to thank everybody that sent a heartwarming and positive Grado tweet in the last seven days because I reckon that had a big part to play in the fact that I ended up being at Wembley. At the end of the day, it’s an AEW show. Those are guys that have worked hard for years to get on a show like that on the AEW roster. I always knew, if it doesn’t happen, I don’t really deserve to be at their show, so I’m going to go with the flow and hope for the best.”

On trying to get his entrance song licensed for the show: “There’s a wrestler who was going to speak on my behalf to secure Like A Prayer. I was like, ‘I’m only here for one night, I’ll speak to him. I don’t care.’ ‘Okay.’ ‘Tony my man! How are you! Thanks for bringing this event to the UK! Big fan of your work.’ We make small talk. Elephant in the room, Like A Prayer. Maybe he wants to see me wrestle, maybe he’s interested in seeing me wrestle. ‘Is there any chance we can get it? Mute the feed, play it through the host. We turn off any audio, send a message to the truck, cut the audio, blast it through the arena, and let’s party.’ He was like, ‘Absolutely not. I’m not [fucking] with Madonna.’ We had ideas if I could sing it walking to the ring. There was the whole rip-off stuff. Even at that point, we were getting lawyers involved. ‘I need this song.’ I didn’t want to piss him off. At the end of the day, he’s got the biggest wrestling show of all time, and he’s worried about some jabroni coming in his office [before the show] pleading, ‘Can I get my music.’ I thought, I’m only here for one night, what’s the harm in asking? I was clutching at straws.”