Konnan Talks About Taking Piledriver From FTR, Praises Backstage Atmosphere In AEW

In the most recent episode of his Keeping it 100 podcast (via Fightful), Konnan spoke about his recent appearance for AEW in which he had a battle of words with Tully Blanchard and took a piledriver from FTR. He noted the segment was produced by Chris Jericho. Here are highlights:

On why the segment went the way it did: “You have to look at the end game. If I were able to outsmart Tully, that way in my tenure there, me doing this means I come back.”

On how the San Diego curfew almost prevented the appearance: “I had to text Tony [Khan], ‘I’m embarrassed that I know you already announced me for a live TV thing. But there’s a curfew in San Diego and I’m not gonna make it. He got back to me. He got up really early and he got back to me. He was like, ‘Yeah, I have my guys waiting on it,’ you know, and they found me a flight, and then I had to fly there and then drive from Orlando to Jacksonville, which is two hours. I literally got there 45 minutes before my segment, not knowing anything that I was gonna say or do because they were just, ‘Yeah, you got four minutes and 30 seconds and, you’re taking this piledriver.’ I forgot what it looked like, to tell you the truth until I felt the motherfucker. But, I thought it came out good, I did. I think it could have come out better. But you know, I was happy with it.”

On the backstage atmosphere in AEW: “Being backstage here was one of the greatest experiences of my career because everybody’s very, very happy, and everybody’s very helpful, and everybody’s very professional. Everybody’s just — there’s just one room where Don Callis, Kenny Omega, The Young Bucks, they’re all in there. They’re playing basketball games, they’re watching the NBA. It’s a very fun atmosphere and I thought to myself, ‘Wow, I wish I would have grown up in this type of atmosphere.’ Because everybody’s happy. Like I saw Vickie, I haven’t seen her in 15 years. I hadn’t seen Jerry Lynn in 15 years. I saw Big Show, I hadn’t seen him in like 15 years. Legit, they’re very happy and it’s like, you know, it’s really good. I’m not trying to get a job there or anything like that, bro, it’s just a really cool vibe. Even after the show, they have food for everybody in this big conference room. You could take food to your room, you could eat it right there. Then, they have this other little lounge where everybody is just listening to music, vibing and chilling, you know what I’m saying? It’s a very, very nice, very, very nice atmosphere. I wanted to say that.”