Jake Crist Talks About Being Typecast As A Tag Team Wrestler

In an interview with Spencer Love of Love Wrestling, Jake Crist spoke about getting typecast as a tag team wrestler, his current status as a free agent and more. We were sent the following highlights:

On establishing himself as a singles wrestler: “Yeah. I’m excited. I’ve been a part of a group my whole entire 18 years of being a wrestler. So it’s like either tag team or in a group. I loved it. Don’t get me wrong, I mean, I love my experience, but now it’s time to bet on myself. It’s time to see what I have to offer. Not only to
myself but to my fans as well. I want to prove to everybody that I am a singles star.”

On being typecast as a tag wrestler: “That’s exactly why we changed it. But anyway, yeah, we were actually singles, but HWA, they threw us together as a team. They loved the fact that we’re brothers. And, you know, I think
everyone actually loved the fact. [It’s] like the Hardy Boys being real brothers. There’s not really, you know, there’s some, The Young Bucks, but like there’s not that many actual siblings – The Briscoes – but there’s not too many other teams that I can really think of that are actually brothers.”

On his time in Impact: “Oh, no. I loved my time in IMPACT Wrestling. You won’t get a bad word out of my mouth about IMPACT, to be honest. It made me hone myself as a character. They taught me a lot about the business that I didn’t know, and they made me the person that I am today. With the X Division Championship run, I don’t necessarily – I put myself as like a utility player. Whatever position you need me to go out there and play, I’ll be able to go out there and do it. So it was like, if you need me to go out there and be in a group, [I’ll] go out there and be in a group. If you need me to go out there and scale across the wires in an Ultimate X Match, or if you need me to wrap myself in barbed wire – as you could tell, I love deathmatch and deathmatches. I don’t know if it was – I don’t know. The very next night, I wrestled Aiden Prince. But it was actually, you know, it was being taped or whatever. But, the next time you got to see the exhibition X-Division Championship on the line was it was me vs Aiden Prince, and I thought that was an amazing match. Two of my favorite matches at IMPACT Wrestling is Rich Swann and Aiden Prince. I really feel like as a champion if you remember who you beat for and who beat you for it, you did a good job. Ace Austin beat me for and you know-“

On his goals as a free agent: “Wherever the wind blows is where I’ll go. Like I said, there’s really – I know you’re supposed to have goals and you should probably sit down and, you know, work towards something. But right now, being a free agent, I’m just gonna live this up and I’m just – I actually love being an independent wrestler, you know what I mean? I could do or say whatever I want, whenever I want. I don’t have to ask like, ‘hey, is it cool if I go and do this podcast? Hey, is it cool if this happens? Hey, can I wear this in my interview?’ Which is rightfully so. You have to have that direction once you get contracted and you’re on TV, and you’re rocking and you’re rolling. But as far as you know, being the Modern Man in Black, doing the thing that I’m doing
where I’m just striving to be the best singles guy that I can be. That’s just all I’m looking forward to. If I can do that in any big promotion, let’s do it!”